Casting faiths : imperialism and the transformation of religion in East and Southeast Asia

How did European imperialism shape the ideas and practices of religion in East and Southeast Asia? Casting Faiths brings together eleven scholars to show how Western law, governance, education and mission shaped the basic understanding of what religion is, and what role it should play in society. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction: The Transformation of Religion in East and Southeast Asia—Paradigmatic Change in Regional Perspective....Pages 1-19 Front Matter....Pages 21-21 From Thathanadaw to Theravāda Buddhism: Constructions of Religion and Religious Identity in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Myanmar....Pages 23-45 Publishing Eastern Buddhism: D. T. Suzuki’s Journey to the West....Pages 46-72 Front Matter....Pages 73-73 The Education of Annie Howe: Missionary Transformations in late Meiji Japan....Pages 75-104 Idols and Art: Missionary Attitudes toward Indigenous Worship and the Material Culture on Nias, Indonesia, 1904–1920....Pages 105-128 The Virgin Heads South: Northern Catholic Refugees and their Clergy in South Vietnam, 1954–1964....Pages 129-151 Front Matter....Pages 153-153 The Making of Islamic Law: Local Elites and Colonial Authority in British Malaya....Pages 155-174 Christian Conversion and Ethnic Identity in East Kalimantan....Pages 175-189 Recasting Religion and Ethnicity: Tourism and Socialism in Northern Sichuan, 1992–2005....Pages 190-214 Front Matter....Pages 215-215 Japanese Print Media and Manchurian Cultural Community: Religion in the Pages of the Shengjing Times, 1906–1944....Pages 217-238 Showing Faith: Exhibiting Ōmoto to Consumers in Early-Twentieth-Century Japan....Pages 239-256 Afterword: Questioning Faiths? Casting Doubts....Pages 257-263 Back Matter....Pages 264-271 "Did European imperialism invent Asian religion? Casting Faiths brings together eleven scholars to show how Western law, governance, education and mission in East and Southeast Asia shaped the basic understanding of what religion is, and what role it should play in society. But as these essays show, Western ideas were not always imposed at gunpoint. In places like Burma or Indonesia, many of these changes were initiated by European imperialism. Yet they also reached places like China, which was never colonized, and Japan, which had an empire of its own. And decades after the empires were dismantled, we can still see their effects in Asian societies today"--Provided by publisher