Chinese Religious Life

Edited by David A. Palmer, Glenn Shive, and Philip L. Wickeri

Reinterprets Chinese religion with a focus on the personal and social experiences of religious life and the public practices of religious communities

Chinese Religious Life

Edited by David A. Palmer, Glenn Shive, and Philip L. Wickeri

Description

Written by a team of internationally renowned scholars, this volume provides an in-depth introduction to religion in contemporary China. Instead of adopting the traditional focus on pre-modern religious history and doctrinal traditions, Chinese Religious Life examines the social dimensions of religious life, with essays devoted to religion in urban, rural, and ethnic minority settings; to the religious dimensions of body, gender, environment, and civil society; and to the historical, sociological, economic, and political aspects of religion in contemporary Chinese society.

Chinese Religious Life

Edited by David A. Palmer, Glenn Shive, and Philip L. Wickeri

Introduction Philip Wickeri

Part I: Ways of Being Religious in the Chinese World
1. Spirituality in a Modern Chinese Metropolis, Lizhu Fan and James Whitehead
2. Communal Worship and Festivals in Chinese Villages, Wai-lun Tam
3. The Religious Life of Ethnic Minority Communities, Philip Wickeri and Yik-Fai Tam
4. Modalities of Doing Religion, Adam Chau

Part II. Religion, Culture, and Society
5. The Body: Health, Nation, and Transcendence, David A. Palmer
6. Gender and Sexuality, C. Julia Huang, Elena Valussi, and David A. Palmer
7. Chinese Cosmology and the Environment, Robert Weller
8. Religious Philanthropy and Chinese Civil Society, André Laliberté, David A. Palmer, and Keping Wu

Part III. Religion, Politics, and the Economy
9. Religion in Chinese Social and Political History, David A. Palmer
10. The Social Organization of Religious Communities in the Twentieth Century, Vincent Goossaert
11. Contemporary Issues in State-Religion Relations, André Laliberté
12. Market Economy and the Revival of Religions, Fenggang Yang

Part IV. Global Perspectives
13. The Globalization of Chinese Religions and Traditions, Richard Madsen and Elijah Siegler
Conclusion, Glenn Shive

Glossary
Suggested Further Readings
Index

Chinese Religious Life

Edited by David A. Palmer, Glenn Shive, and Philip L. Wickeri

Author Information

David A. Palmer is an assistant professor in the department of Sociology and fellow of the Centre for Anthropological Research at the University of Hong Kong. His most recent book (co-authored with V. Goossaert) is The Religious Question in Modern China (2011).

Glenn Shive is the executive director of the Hong Kong America Center, a consortium of Hong Kong universities promoting academic exchange between the United States and Hong Kong and between the United States and China via universities in Hong Kong. His B.A. in religion and PhD in Chinese history are from Temple University in Philadelphia.

Philip L. Wickeri is Advisor to Hong Kong's Anglican Archbishop on Theological and Historical Studies and Adjunct Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California. His most recent book is Reconstructing Christianity in China: K. H. Ting and the Chinese Church (2007).

Contributors:

Adam Yuet Chau, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Cambridge
Lizhu Fan, Department of Sociology, Fudan University
Vincent Joseph Goossaert
Huang Chien-Yu, Institute of Anthropology, National Tsing Hua University
Andre LaLiberte, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa
Richard Paul Madsen, Department of Sociology, University of California, San Diego
Charles Hammett Nolley
David A. Palmer, Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong
Glenn Shive, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Elijah Siegler, Department of Religious Studies, College of Charleston
Tam Yik Fai, Religious Studies Program, History Department, Then Pennsylvania State University
Wai-lun Tam, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Francesca Tarocco, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, The University of Manchester
Elena Valussi, Department of Humanities, History, and Social Sciences, Columbia College
Robert P. Weller, Department of Anthropology, Boston University
James Douglas Whitehead
Philip Lauri Wickeri, San Francisco Theological Seminary, Graduate Theological Union (UC Berkeley)
Yang Fenggang, Department of Sociology, Purdue University

Chinese Religious Life

Edited by David A. Palmer, Glenn Shive, and Philip L. Wickeri

Reviews and Awards

"The essays in this volume present data on an important contemporary development, one with implications for insight into the human condition..." --Journal of Chinese Political Science

"This book offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of religious life in contemporary China. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the book situates Chinese religious life in the wider contexts of culture, economy, politics, and globalization. Chinese Religious Life is a must-read for those who want to know the momentous religio-cultural changes in China during the past several decades."--Kwok Pui-lan, author of Chinese Women and Christianity, 1860-1927

"An excellent introduction to religion in China. It is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the various modalities of religious life amongst Chinese people...Highly recommended."--Reviews in Religion & Theology

"Chinese Religious Life is highly recommended for use in graduate seminars and as a platform for further textual, as well as field-based, research. Due to immense changes in state policies and restrictions imposed after the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the 2012 transfer of Communist Party leadership, Chinese Religious Life has become an even more sensitive and timely topic..." --China Review International