Routledge Handbook of Religions in Asia (Routledge Handbooks)

The Routledge Handbook of Religions in Asia provides a contemporary and comprehensive overview of religion in contemporary Asia. Compiled and introduced by Bryan S. Turner and Oscar Salemink, the Handbook contains specially written chapters by experts in their respective fields. The wide-ranging introduction discusses issues surrounding Orientalism and the historical development of the discipline of Religious Studies. It conveys how there have been many centuries of interaction between different religious traditions in Asia and discusses the problem of world religions and the range of concepts, such as high and low traditions, folk and formal religions, popular and orthodox developments. Individual chapters are presented in the following five sections: * Asian Origins: religious formations * Missions, States and Religious Competition * Reform Movements and Modernity * Popular Religions * Religion and Globalization: social dimensions Striking a balance between offering basic information about religious cultures in Asia and addressing the complexity of employing a western terminology in societies with radically different traditions, this advanced level reference work will be essential reading for students, researchers and scholars of Asian Religions, Sociology, Anthropology, Asian Studies and Religious Studies. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Illustrations Notes on contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: constructing religion and religions in Asia Asian origins: religious formations 1 The invention of religions in East Asia 2 Revealing the Vedas in 'Hinduism': foundations and issues of interpretations of religion in South Asian Hindu traditions 3 Dual belief in Heaven and spirits: the metaphysical foundation of Confucian morality 4 Sikhism and its changing social structure Missions, states and religious competition 5 Catholicism in India. 6 The localization of Roman Catholicism: radical transcendence and social empathy in a Philippine town7 The spread of Islam in Asia through trade and Sufism (ninth-nineteenth centuries) Reform movements and modernity 8 Shinto's modern transformations: from imperial cult to nature worship 9 Islamic reform in Asia 10 Engaged Buddhism in 1920s Japan: the Young East mission for social reform, global Buddhism and world peace 11 Conversion in post-Mao China: from 'rice Christians' to 'cultural Christians' Popular religions. 12 Shamanism in Eurasia: a Mongolian case study in a comparative light13 Chinese folk festivals 14 Popular Buddhism: monks, magic and amulets 15 Spirit worship and possession in Vietnam and beyond 16 Popular Qigong and transnational Falun Gong inside and outside post-Mao China 17 Shrines, religious healing, and pilgrimage in South Asia 18 Revitalised Sufism and the new piety movements in Islamic Southeast Asia Religion and globalization: social dimensions 19 Reading gender and religion in East Asia: family formations and cultural transformations. 20 Confucian values and East Asian capitalism: a variable Weberian trajectory21 Religion and Asia's middle classes 22 Buddhism: modernization or globalization? 23 Hinduism and globalization: gurus, yoga and migration in northern Europe 24 Internet and religion in Asia 25 Globalising the Asian Muslim Umma: alternating movements East-West of spirituality, reform and militant jihad 26 Asian Pentecostalism: revivals, mega-churches, and social engagement Conclusion 27 Religion, religions and modernization Index. "The Routledge Handbook of Religions in Asia provides a contemporary and comprehensive overview of religion in contemporary Asia. Compiled and introduced by Bryan S. Turner and Oscar Salemink, the Handbook contains specially written chapters by experts in their respective fields. The wide-ranging introduction discusses issues surrounding Orientalism and the historical development of the discipline of Religious Studies. It conveys how there has been many centuries of interaction between different religious traditions in Asia and discusses the problem of world religions and the range of concepts, such as high and low traditions, folk and formal religions, popular and orthodox developments. Individual chapters are presented in the following five sections: Asian Origins: religious formations Missions, States and Religious Competition Reform Movements and Modernity Popular Religions Religion and Globalization: social dimensions Striking a balance between offering basic information about religious cultures in Asia and addressing the complexity of employing a western terminology in societies with radically different traditions, this advanced level reference work will be essential reading for students, researchers and scholars of Asian Religions, Sociology, Anthropology, Asian Studies and Religious Studies"-- Provided by publisher "The Routledge Handbook of Religions in Asia provides a contemporary and comprehensive overview of religion in contemporary Asia. Compiled and introduced by Bryan S. Turner and Oscar Salemink, the Handbook contains specially written chapters by experts in their respective fields. The wide-ranging introduction discusses issues surrounding Orientalism and the historical development of the discipline of Religious Studies. It conveys how there has been many centuries of interaction between different religious traditions in Asia and discusses the problem of world religions and the range of concepts, such as high and low traditions, folk and formal religions, popular and orthodox developments. Individual chapters are presented in the following five sections: Asian Origins: religious formations Missions, States and Religious Competition Reform Movements and Modernity Popular Religions Religion and Globalization: social dimensions Striking a balance between offering basic information about religious cultures in Asia and addressing the complexity of employing a western terminology in societies with radically different traditions, this advanced level reference work will be essential reading for students, researchers and scholars of Asian Religions, Sociology, Anthropology, Asian Studies and Religious Studies"--Résumé de l'éditeur Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Illustrations; Notes on contributors; Acknowledgements; Introduction: constructing religion and religions in Asia; Asian origins: religious formations; 1 The invention of religions in East Asia; 2 Revealing the Vedas in 'Hinduism': foundations and issues of interpretations of religion in South Asian Hindu traditions; 3 Dual belief in Heaven and spirits: the metaphysical foundation of Confucian morality; 4 Sikhism and its changing social structure; Missions, states and religious competition; 5 Catholicism in India.;The Routledge Handbook of Religions in Asia provides a contemporary and comprehensive overview of religion in contemporary Asia. Compiled and introduced by Bryan S. Turner and Oscar Salemink, the Handbook contains specially written chapters by experts in their respective fields. The wide-ranging introduction discusses issues surrounding Orientalism and the historical development of the discipline of Religious Studies. It conveys how there have been many centuries of interaction between different religious traditions in Asia and discusses the problem of world religions and the range of concepts.