Description
Book SynopsisFrom the fifth century BC to the present and dealing with the Three Teachings (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism) as well as popular religion, this introduction to the eight-volume Early and Modern Chinese Religion explores key ideas and events in four periods of paradigm shift in the intertwined histories of Chinese religion, politics, and culture. It shows how, in the Chinese church-state, elite processes of rationalization, interiorization, and secularization are at work in every period of major change and how popular religion gradually emerges to a position of dominance by means of a long history of at once resisting, adapting to, and collaborating with elite-driven change. Topics covered include ritual, scripture, philosophy, state policy, medicine, sacred geography, gender, and the economy. It also serves as the basis for an on-line Coursera course.
Trade Review"The book is a fertile source of reliable information on many aspects of religious history." -Barbara Hendrischke, University of Sydney, in Religious Studies Review, Volume 45, Number 2, June 2019 'The book covers essentially all the main aspects of Chinese religiosity in a nutshell and it constitutes an invaluable guide for extant academic research on Chinese thought.' - R.Tatu, (Romanian Orthodox Church, Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa, South Africa), Pharos Journal of Theology, 102 (2021). 'By preparing an invaluable synthetic overview that presents many of the field’s most important intellectual breakthroughs, Paradigm Shifts can help scholars take stock of where we stand as well as consider new directions for future research.' - Paul R. Katz, Academia Sinica, Taipei, T’oung Pao 105 (2019) 649-652. 'Quoi qu’il en soit, Paradigm Shifts est un livre brillant, utile et provocant, qui contribue à insérer l’étude des religions – et de la religion – chinoises dans une approche globale du fait religieux en régime de modernité et post-modernité.' - Benoît Vermander, Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 188 (2019), 353-356.
