Chinese Religious Life

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.

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, Andr? Lalibert?, 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, Andr? Lalibert?; 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

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).