25 research outputs found
Text and Context: Redemptive Societies in the History of Religions of Modern and Contemporary China
In recent years, scholars of modern and contemporary Chinese religion have turned their
attention to the subject of âredemptive societiesâ, a term coined by Prasenjit Duara in 2001
to refer to groups such as the Yiguandao, the Daoyuan, the Tongshanshe , the Wushanshe,
and others which had a major socio-religious impact during the Republican period.
Spiritually authoritative or sacred texts play a number of crucial roles within redemptive
societies. First and foremost, of course, they record and codify a redemptive societyâs
beliefs and rituals and are thus key sources for the analysis of these aspects of a specific
religious system. As obvious as this may appear, such analyses have not been carried out
for many of these texts, which more commonly serve as quarries in which to collect data
on the organizational structure or social and political history of a particular group. Research
that takes the doctrinal systems encoded in modern redemptive societiesâ sacred
texts seriously has been fairly rare.
We have therefore put together an international team of scholars from Europe, Taiwan,
Canada, China, Hong Kong, and Japan to focus on the textual and contextual histories of
redemptive societies, with an eye toward giving their past â and their future â the attention
they deserve
Migrating Buddhas and Global Confucianism: The Transnational Space-Making of Taiwanese Religious Organizations
This project explores the global spread of the two Taiwanese religious organizations Foguangshan (äœć
ć±±,
âBuddhaâs Light Mountainâ) and Yiguandao (äžèČ«é, âWay of Pervading Unityâ) by applying the theoretical
framework of transnational social spaces. Particularly since the gradual relaxation of political restraints in
1980s Taiwan, both religious organizations have started to spread their religious and cultural traditions on a
global scale. Their endeavours connect, cross, and inhabit countries affected by Chinese migration as well
as facilitate border-crossing spatial arrangements such as transnational communities (including Chinese
diaspora / Chinese cultural sphere / Buddhism)
Text and Context: Redemptive Societies in the History of Religions of Modern and Contemporary China
In recent years, scholars of modern and contemporary Chinese religion have turned their
attention to the subject of âredemptive societiesâ, a term coined by Prasenjit Duara in 2001
to refer to groups such as the Yiguandao, the Daoyuan, the Tongshanshe , the Wushanshe,
and others which had a major socio-religious impact during the Republican period.
Spiritually authoritative or sacred texts play a number of crucial roles within redemptive
societies. First and foremost, of course, they record and codify a redemptive societyâs
beliefs and rituals and are thus key sources for the analysis of these aspects of a specific
religious system. As obvious as this may appear, such analyses have not been carried out
for many of these texts, which more commonly serve as quarries in which to collect data
on the organizational structure or social and political history of a particular group. Research
that takes the doctrinal systems encoded in modern redemptive societiesâ sacred
texts seriously has been fairly rare.
We have therefore put together an international team of scholars from Europe, Taiwan,
Canada, China, Hong Kong, and Japan to focus on the textual and contextual histories of
redemptive societies, with an eye toward giving their past â and their future â the attention
they deserve
Vincent Durand-DastĂšs: La Conversion de l'Orient: une pĂ©rĂ©grination didactique de Bodhidharma. (MĂ©langes chinois et bouddhiques XXIX.) ix, 437 pp. Brussels: Institut Belge des Hautes Ătudes Chinoises, 2008. ISBN 978 2 9600076 1 9.
The Haunting Fetus: Abortion, Sexuality, and the Spirit World in Taiwan. By Marc L. Moskowitz. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001. viii, 206 pp. 49.00 (cloth).
Text and Context: Redemptive Societies in the History of Religions of Modern and Contemporary China
In recent years, scholars of modern and contemporary Chinese religion have turned their
attention to the subject of âredemptive societiesâ, a term coined by Prasenjit Duara in 2001
to refer to groups such as the Yiguandao, the Daoyuan, the Tongshanshe , the Wushanshe,
and others which had a major socio-religious impact during the Republican period.
Spiritually authoritative or sacred texts play a number of crucial roles within redemptive
societies. First and foremost, of course, they record and codify a redemptive societyâs
beliefs and rituals and are thus key sources for the analysis of these aspects of a specific
religious system. As obvious as this may appear, such analyses have not been carried out
for many of these texts, which more commonly serve as quarries in which to collect data
on the organizational structure or social and political history of a particular group. Research
that takes the doctrinal systems encoded in modern redemptive societiesâ sacred
texts seriously has been fairly rare.
We have therefore put together an international team of scholars from Europe, Taiwan,
Canada, China, Hong Kong, and Japan to focus on the textual and contextual histories of
redemptive societies, with an eye toward giving their past â and their future â the attention
they deserve
Moral Mediums : Spirit-Writing and the Cultural Construction of Chinese Spirit-Mediumship
Philip Clart examine la profession de mĂ©dium en tant que champ culturel contestĂ© de la religion populaire chinoise. Ă partir de ses propres recherches de terrain, de sources premiĂšres telles que des livres de morale et de lâĂ©tude de la mĂ©diumnitĂ© au travers de la sphĂšre culturelle chinoise, il dĂ©montre lâexistence dâinterprĂ©tations diffĂ©rentes et parfois rivales de la mĂ©diumnitĂ©. Il dĂ©crit en particulier la vision que lâon en a parmi les tenants taĂŻwanais du culte de lâĂ©criture automatique (« les salles du PhĂ©nix »), oĂč la profession de mĂ©dium est rĂ©gie par les rĂšgles dâun univers moral. Puisque les dieux sont des forces morales, le mĂ©dium qui en est possĂ©dĂ© ne peut ĂȘtre quâune personne que sa valeur morale rend agrĂ©able aux dieux. La moralitĂ© devient la prĂ©condition et la base de la transcendance ; lâunion entre la divinitĂ© et le mĂ©dium est ainsi perçue comme se produisant entre deux entitĂ©s dâessence semblable.Philip Clart addresses spirit-mediumship as a contested cultural field in Chinese popular religion. Drawing on his own field research, primary texts such as morality books, and studies of spirit-mediumship across the Chinese cultural sphere, he demonstrates the existence of different and sometimes competing interpretations of mediumship. In particular, he describes the views held among Taiwanese spirit-writing cults (âphoenix hallsâ), where mediumship is governed by the rules of a moral universe. Since the gods are moral forces, so the medium possessed by them must be a person whose moral cultivation renders him or her akin to the gods. Morality becomes the precondition and basis of transcendence, and the union of deity and medium is thus seen as occurring between two entities that are essentially alike