📚 No cover available

Religion and Chinese society

By John Lagerwey

Book Description

Exploring the intricate relationship between spiritual practice and cultural transformation, this comprehensive scholarly collection examines how religious traditions have shaped Chinese society throughout history. Drawing from a prestigious international conference, these twenty-one essays offer fresh perspectives on the evolving landscape of Chinese religious experience.

The volume presents cutting-edge research that illuminates the dynamic interplay between ancient wisdom traditions and social change. Scholars investigate how Taoism and other spiritual movements have influenced community life, cultural values, and individual consciousness across different historical periods. Rather than treating religion as separate from daily existence, these studies reveal how spiritual beliefs have been woven into the fabric of Chinese civilization.

For readers interested in understanding how spiritual traditions adapt and transform within changing societies, this work provides valuable insights into the mechanisms of religious evolution. The research explores how sacred practices respond to social pressures while maintaining their essential character, offering lessons relevant to anyone studying the intersection of spirituality and culture.

At nearly a thousand pages, this collection serves as both a scholarly resource and a window into the complex ways that religious consciousness shapes human communities. The essays demonstrate how studying one culture's spiritual development can illuminate universal patterns in the relationship between inner transformation and social progress.

This work appeals to serious students of comparative religion, cultural anthropology, and the sociology of spiritual movements.