Religious Transformation in Modern Asia: A Transnational Movement (original) (raw)

Oriental Religion in the Secular West: Globalization, New Age, and the Reenchantment of the World¿

2003

Globalization changes the cultural landscape of our planet in many ways. Barber, for instance, argues that the globalization of western culture gives rise to all sorts of religious and political fundamentalist movements in non-western societies, producing the twins of Jihad and McWorld as characterizing today’s world. 1 In a similar vein, Huntington speculates about a Clash of Civilizations, with secular and democratic western cultures increasingly conflicting with traditionally religious non-western ones. 2 Although there is, of course, no denying that the globalization of western lifestyles and aspirations deeply affects non-western societies, one-way traffic is definitely not all there is. Non-western societies are not simply passively adapting or actively reacting to a global expansion of western culture, but are affecting western societies in many diverse ways, too. This is especially visible in the religious domain, with late-modern western societies characterized by a remarka...

Is Asia a 'Post-Religional' Society? The Post-Religional Paradigm and its Others

HORIZONTE, 2015

This article discusses the relevance and applicability of the 'post-religional paradigm' as proposed by EATWOT (Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians) in the Asian contexts. It also inquires on how the Asian phenomenon and its interpretations relate to the crisis of religions in Western societies. It attempts to answer this problematic through four steps: a summary of the theological proposal and its relationship with the Western sociologies of religion; a search for a viable framework with which to understand religions in post-secular societies; discussion on the "discourses of Asia" and the corresponding view on religion; an elaboration of my preferred framework with some examples from the Asian situation. I argue that a viable theological proposal on post-religional paradigm should start from the analysis of how religious discourses and practices navigate with concrete socio-historical forces on the ground. Consequent to this view is the assertion that there is no universal sociology/theology of religion's development but multiple and complex religious discourses in specific contexts.

CULTURE AWAKENING, RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL REFORMS

The Western Impact. The impact of British rule on Indian society and culture was widely different from what India had known before. Most of the earlier intruders who came to India had settled within her frontiers, were absorbed by her superior culture and had become one of the land and its people. However, British conquest was different. Eighteenth century Europe had experienced novel intellectual currents and created the Age of Enlightenment. A new spirit of rationalism and enquiry had given a new dynamism to European society. The development of science and scientific outlook had affected every aspect of activity-political, military, economic and even religious. In contrast to Europe, which was in the vanguard of civilization in the 18 th century, India presented the picture of a stagnant civilization and a static and decadent society. Thus, for the first time, India encountered an invader who considered himself racially superior and culturally more advanced. For some time it seemed that India was completely bowled over by new Western ideas and western values in life. It seemed that India had lagged behind in the case for civilisation. This produced diverse reactions. Some English –educated Bengali youth (known as Derozions) developed a revusions against Hindu religion and culture, gave up old religious idea and traditions and deliberately adopted practices most offensive to Hindu sentiments, such as drinking wine and eating beef. More mature minds led by Rammohan Roys were certainly stimulated by Western ideas and western values but refused to break away from Hinduism: their approach was to reform Hindu religion and society and they saw the path of progress in an acceptance of the best of the East and the west. Another current was to deny the superiority of Western culture and prevent India from becoming a colour less copy of Europe; they drew inspiration from India " s past heritage and reinterpreted it in the light of modern rationalism. This new-Hinduism preached that European had much to learn from India " s spiritualism.

Religions in Modern History (ca. 1800–1900)

The European Experience: A Multi-Perspective History of Modern Europe, 2023

The French Revolution and its exportation had a profound effect on the religious history of Europe in the nineteenth century. From the emancipation of the Jews and Protestants to the attempt to create a civic religion, or from the abolition of Catholicism as a state religion to the schism between the constitutional clergy and the refractory (non-swearing) clergy, this revolutionary episode encapsulates the upheavals in European religious practice throughout the nineteenth century. But this century was first and foremost the century of industrialisation and the affirmation of science. The affirmation of a rationalist stance on these developments was thus decisive in the evolution of religious thought and practice. On the one hand, the progress of science favoured a scientistic reading of the world, one of the major points of which was the theory of evolution, which denied divine creationism. However, the expansion of knowledge was only one of the factors in the decline of religious practice. The progress of industrialisation, increasing urbanisation, and the widening gap between the working classes and the churches are certainly more decisive factors. In return, the fragmentation of religious practice gave birth to new religious movements and favoured the rise of new forms of piety. Thus, the nineteenth century was marked by an intense philosophical, artistic, and scientific effervescence alongside debates on dogmas and religious institutions. The affirmation of modernity and the aspiration to freedom born of the French Revolution forced governments and religious authorities to redefine their respective positions within a changing society and to compete for control over education, thus laying the foundations of contemporary Europe. Analysing religions in Europe in the nineteenth century therefore raises two series of questions. First, from an institutional point of view, how did churches adapt to modern states and how did they maintain religious control over secularised populations? The second question is situated at a more personal level: what did it mean to be religious in modern times? How are faiths challenged and reconfigured by modernity, in its scientific, industrial, political, and social forms?

(2011) Religion and the Making of Modern East Asia (contents and excerpt)

2011

Cambridge University Press, 2011 Frontmatter, pp i-vi Contents pp, vii-viii List of Boxes, Figures, and Maps, pp ix-x Preface pp, xi-xii 1 - In the beginning: Religion and history, pp 1-14 2 - Ming China: The fourteenth century's new world order, pp 15-52 3 - The Buddha and the shōgun in sixteenth-century Japan, pp 53-71 4 - Opportunities lost: The failure of Christianity, 1550–1750, pp 72-93 5 - Buddhism: Incarnations and reincarnations, pp 94-122 6 - Apocalypse now, pp 123-141 7 - Out of the twilight: Religion and the late nineteenth century, pp 142-160 8 - Into the abyss: Religion and the road to disaster during the early twentieth century, pp 161-193 9 - Brave new world: Religion in the reinvention of postwar Asia, pp 194-223 10 - The globalization of Asian religion, pp 224-230 Glossary pp, 231-236 Timeline of dynasties and major events, pp 237-238 Suggestions for further reading, pp 239-244 Index, pp 245-259

Major essay s3410129 Modern Asia (1)

During 18th century, thanks to industrialized revolution, many countries in the West became superior in military powers and economic development. At the same time, some countries such as Asia, Africa, and Latin America still had to suffer from a deepening poverty and increasing unrest as being colonizing and stereotyped from the West. This connects to the point made by Zakaria (2008) that for hundred years after fifteen century when the West achieved the stage of industrialization, urbanization and modernization, the rests were still sunk into poverty and backward farming and rural style. Moreover, according to Said 1994, the West portrayed the Eastern countries as exoticness but backward civilization. Under shadow of the Western countries, several independent countries decided to follow and learn from their path to develop sufficient and well-being lives for their citizens. When it comes to the real life, Schramm, Lerner, Pye, Ithiel De Sola Pool and Rostow argued that the development process involves the unidirectional transformation from traditionalism to modernization and finally reaches Wetern status. However, in my opinion, there are three solid reasons to support that we do not need to adopt all Western values to become “Modern.” Therefore I think that modernization is not synonymous westernization by analyzing the case study of Japan and other cultural text of other Asian countries.

Introduction: Religion, Tradition and the Popular in Asia and Europe

transcript Verlag eBooks, 2014

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Asia in the Making of Christianity: Conversion, Agency, and Indigeneity, 1600s to the Present

2013

Edited by Richard Fox Young, Princeton Theological Seminary and Jonathan A. Seitz, Taiwan Theological Seminary Drawing on first person accounts, Asia in the Making of Christianity studies conversion in the lives of Christians throughout Asia, past and present. Fifteen contributors treat perennial questions about conversion: continuity and discontinuity, conversion and communal conflict, and the politics of conversion. Some study individuals (An Chunggŭn of Korea, Liang Fa of China, Nehemiah Goreh of India), while others treat ethnolinguistic groups or large-scale movements. Converts sometimes appear as proto-nationalists, while others are suspected of cultural treason. Some transition effortlessly from leadership in one religious community into Christian ministry, while others re-convert to new forms of Christianity. The accounts collected here underscore the complexity of conversion, balancing individual agency with broader social trends and combining micro- with macrocontextual approaches.