Religious Encounters in Transcultural Society - (Ethnographies of Religion) by David William Kim (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book examines the condition of religious organizations or teachings within a different culture where one or more indigenous religions are already present.

Book Synopsis

This volume focuses on the various phenomena of religious encounters in a transcultural society where religion or religious traditions play a significant role in a multi-cultural concept. Religious Encounters in Transcultural Society is divided into three parts: Islamic encounters with regional religions, East Asian religious encounters, and alternative religious encounters. This book evokes the fact that religious encounters exist in every transcultural society even though they often remain hidden behind socio-cultural issues. The situation can be changed, but one culture cannot harmoniously and always contain two or multi-beliefs. The issue of religious encounters mostly arises in the transnational process of religious globalization.

Review Quotes

Thematically divided into three parts dealing with Islamic, East Asian, and alternative religious encounters, this fine collection of twelve essays examines various historical and contemporary outcomes of religious encounters across the globe. By including multiple religious traditions, cultural settings, and periods, this volume helps to shed light to the different ways religious adherents have responded to interreligious contact and exchange by means of contestation, adaptation, or alteration. Thus, its specifically broad scope will catch readers' attention and will make it an important contribution for area specialists and students of religion, globalization, and processes of transculturation alike.

This book will be a useful tool for specialists of several academic disciplines, including modern historians of Eastern and Western civilizations, historians of religions, sociologists, anthropologists, and political scientists. It is also to be recommended to opinion- and decision-makers as a source of information and experiences to help face phenomena which are destined to increase in the near future and need to be wisely governed in a globalized world.

This volume addresses one of the most pressing issues of our time: religious encounters within multi-cultural societies in which significant religious tensions have been produced by modernity and globalization. The authors offer rare insights drawn from their depth of knowledge in particular religious traditions, including Islamic, East Asian, and alternative religious encounters. I strongly recommend this book to any reader interested in understanding the dynamic forces affecting religious traditions in today's world.

What happens when religion meets religion? They fight? They dialogue? They adjust? They merge? All of the above--and more. This volume takes us on a global voyage indicating something of the vast range of reactions by and to religions that find themselves encountering other religions in other cultures. A truly fascinating read.

About the Author

David William Kim is visiting fellow at the Department of Political and Social Change, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University.