Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule

by Fenggang Yang, Dmitrii Galcyn (Translator)

Overview

Religion in China survived the most radical suppression in the human history—a total ban of any religion during the Cultural Revolution. All churches, temples, and mosques were closed down, converted for secular uses, or turned into museums for the purpose of atheist education. Since the 1970s, however, religion has thrived even though China remains under Communist rule. Christianity ranks among the fastest-growing religions throughout the vast land while many Buddhist and Daoist temples have been restored. The Communist authorities have carried out waves of atheist propaganda, anti-superstition campaigns, and severe crackdowns on Christian churches and new religious movements. How do we explain the resilience and vitality of religion in modernizing China? How did religion survive the eradication measures in the 1950s to 1970s? How have various religious groups managed to revive despite strict regulations? Why have some religions grown fast? Why have some forms of spirituality gone through dramatic turns? This book provides a comprehensive overview of the religious change in China under сommunist rule, and it also offers a set of theoretical tools for studying religious vitality in modernizing societies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798887190020
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	07/05/2022
Series:	Contemporary Eastern Studies
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)
Language:	Russian

About the Author

Fenggang Yang is Professor of Sociology and the founding Director of the Center on Religion and the Global East at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. His research focuses on the sociology of religion, religious change in China and immigrant religion in the United States. He has served as the President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (2014-15) and the first President of the East Asian Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (2018-2020). He has given many invited lectures and keynote presentations at major universities and professional associations in the US, Asia, and Europe. His media interviews have appeared on the National Public Radio, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Time, Economist, CNN, BBC, etc.

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter One: Explaining Religious Vitality
Chapter Two: A Definition of Religion for the Social Scientific Study of Religion
Chapter Three: Chinese Marxist Atheism and Its Policy Implications
Chapter Four: Regulating Religion under Communism
Chapter Five: The Red, Black, and Gray Markets of Religion
Chapter Six: The Shortage Economy of Religion under Communism
Chapter Seven: Oligopoly Dynamics: China and Beyond

Editorial Reviews

"Yang's book Religion in China has brilliant chapters, some controversial but all provacative and worth considering." —The New York Review of Books

"Yang's argument cuts to the heart of contemporary discourses, and does so in a manner that is both nuanced and thought-provoking. Brilliant work; very highly recommended." —Sociology of Religion

"This book, or at least the key parts of it, should be required reading in graduate seminars that cover the new paradigm. Yang's argument cuts to the heart of contemporary discourses, and does so in a manner that is both nuanced and thought-provoking. Despite the complexity of the theoretical issues at hand, this is also a very accessible work, with enough detail to interest sinologists, yet not enough to burden nonspecialists—no easy task! Brilliant work; very highly recommended."—Sociology of Religion

"Fenggang Yang, a sociologist at Purdue University, takes readers of his new book Religion in China on an overview tour of this dramatic historical peregrination... readers interested mainly in seeing this market framework applied to the dramatic changes in Chinese religion since 1949 will find much in Yang's book that is valuable and insightful." —American Journal of Sociology

"Yang's arguments about the factors driving religious change in China demand our attention." —The Christian Century

From the Publisher