The phenomenon of South Korean Christianity is, in a word, remarkable. In less than 250 years, 29% of South Korea's population adheres to Christianity, a staggering 71% of Korean Americans identify as Christian, and the powerful zeal of Korean Christians to spread the Gospel's influence in South Korea already overshadows other established religious groups (i.e. Buddhism, Confucianism). This phenomenon-particularly the rapid growth and unique interpretation of Christianity among Koreans around the world-is intimately and inextricably tied to how Koreans appropriated the Bible in their religio-cultural and socio-political milieu from the 18th century onward. Less noted and understood, however, is the tapestry of Korean biblical interpretation that emerged from being missionized, colonized, divided, and globalized. These influences reflect a distinctive Korean-ness of biblical interpretation that relates closely to Korean perceptions of divine liberating intervention, and the Korean diaspora that seeks to move beyond oppression. This Handbook offers a comprehensive overview on how the Bible has been used by faith communities in Korea and the Korean diaspora over two centuries. In this volume, noted theologically diverse scholars present representative thinking on creative inculturations of the Bible in Korea. Some conservatively align with received western orthodoxy. Others have a sense of complementarity that informs distinctive accents of Korean Christianity, the long-standing religious traditions of Korea, the diversity of Korea's global diaspora, and the learning of non-Koreans attentive to the impact of the Bible in Korea. Together, this volume presents an exquisite tapestry of Korean biblical interpretation in the making.

Now in its Second Edition, Introducing Japanese Religion is the ideal resource for undergraduate students. This edition features new material on folk and popular religion, including shamanism, festivals, and practices surrounding death and funerals. Robert Ellwood also updates the text to discuss recent events, such as religious responses to the Fukushima disaster. Introducing Japanese Religion includes illustrations, lively quotations from original sources, learning goals, summary boxes, questions for discussion, suggestions for further reading, and a glossary to aid study and revision. The accompanying website for this book is available at www.routledge.com/cw/ellwood.

Introducing Chinese Religions is the ideal starting point for students exploring the fascinating religious traditions of China. This introduction covers the whole spectrum of Chinese religious history, from the multi-faceted religious heritage of pre-modern China, to the practice of different religions in China today, as well as the spread and influence of Chinese religions throughout the world. Mario Poceski, an experienced teacher of Chinese religions, explores the three main traditions of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, as well as the development of Western and popular religions in the region, such as Christianity and Islam. The book introduces students to the richness and diversity of Chinese religious life, pointing out mutual influences and intersections of the religions of the region, and how they interact with other elements of Chinese culture and society, including politics, literature and art. Illustrated throughout, the book also includes text boxes, summary charts, a glossary and a list of further reading to aid students' understanding and revision. The accompanying website for this book can be found at www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415434065.

This is a comprehensive work on the religions of China. As such, it includes an introduction giving an overview of the subject, and the special themes treated in the book, as well as detailed chapters on ancient religions, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Chinese Islam, Christianity in China as well as popular religion. Throughout the book, care is taken to present both the philosophical teachings as well as the religious practices of the religious traditions, and reflections are offered regarding their present situation and future prospects. Comparisons are offered with other religions, especially Christianity.

Sacred Heritage in Japan is the first volume to explicitly address the topics of Japanese religion and heritage preservation in connection with each other. The book examines what happens when places of worship and ritual practices are rebranded as national culture. It also considers the impact of being designated tangible or intangible cultural properties and, more recently, as UNESCO World or Intangible Heritage. Drawing on primary ethnographic and historical research, the contributions to this volume show the variety of ways in which different actors have contributed to, negotiated, and at times resisted the transformation of religious traditions into heritage. They analyse the conflicts that emerge about questions of signification and authority during these processes of transformation. The book provides important new perspectives on the local implications of UNESCO listings in the Japanese context and showcases the diversity of "sacred heritage" in present-day Japan. Combining perspectives from heritage studies, Japanese studies, religious studies, history, and social anthropology, the volume will be of interest to scholars and students who want to learn more about the diversity of local responses to heritage conservation in non-Western societies. It will also be of interest to scholars and students engaged in the study of Japanese religion, society, or cultural policies.

Tracing Japan's religions from the Hein Period through the middle ages and into modernity, this book explores the unique establishment of Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism in Japan, as well as the later influence of Roman Catholicism, and the problem of Restoration--both spiritual and material--following World War II.

Understanding Eastern Philosophy provides an accessible critical introduction to how some of the key philosophies of the East compare with those in the West. Starting from a discussion of the problems of distinguishing between religions and philosophies, Ray Billington presents a clear picture of the key tenets behind Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism and Confucianism.
Moving on to compare the key themes of religious philosophy that cut across East and West, such as a belief in God, the soul, moral decision-making, nature and authority, Understanding Eastern Philosophy presents a fascinating and controversial picture of the contribution theistic religions have to make. With its belief in a personal God bestowing a particular version of 'truth', Ray Billington concludes that the universal mysticism characteristic of Eastern thought provides a more realistic and rewarding path than is commonly supposed in the West.
Understanding Eastern Philosophy assumes no prior knowledge of religion or philosophy.

Critically examining the notion of 'world religions', Charles D. Orzech compares five purpose-built museums of world religions and their online extensions. Inspired by the 19th and 20th century discipline of comparative religion, these museums seek to promote religious tolerance by representing religious diversity and by arguing for underlying kinship among religions. From locations in Europe (Marburg, Glasgow and St Petersburg), to North America (Quebec) to Asia (Taipei), each museum advances a particular cultural history. This book shows how the curation of the objects they contain shapes public perceptions of religion, giving material form to the discourses about religion and world religions. Raising important questions about religion and secularity, museum displays and religious piety, Museums of World Religions questions the ideology that informs these museums. Building on recent anthropological work on the agency of religious objects, the author critiques these museums and suggests new approaches to displaying the matter of religion.

"A marvellous introductory text, well-organized and clearly written. The renditions of stories are readable and engaging." --Edward T. Gilday, Bowdoin College

Fingers Pointing Towards the Moon was the first of a series of extraordinary spiritual manifestos written by the anonymous Wei Wu Wei. Like a master instructing every reader who has the dedication to read this book, the author maintains direct and unrelenting perspective, giving Fingers Pointing to the Moon its status as one of Zen Buddhism's essential classics. The depth of understanding evinced by Wei Wu Wei places him with Paul Reps, Alan Watts, and Philip Kapleau as one of the earliest and most profound interpreters of Zen.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that during the last century, most especially during and since the 1960s, the language of spirituality has become one of the most significant ways in which the sacred has come to be understood and judged in the West, and, increasingly, elsewhere. Whether it is true that 'spirituality' has eclipsed 'religion' in Western settings remains debatable. What is incontestable is that the language of spirituality, together with practices (most noticeably spiritual, complementary, and alternative medicine), has become a major feature of the sacred dimensions of contemporary modernity. Equally incontestably, spirituality is a growing force in all those developing countries where its presence is increasingly felt among the cosmopolitan elite, and where spiritual forms of traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine are thriving. This new four-volume Major Work collection from Routledge provides a coherent compilation of landmark texts which cannot be ignored by those intent on making sense of what is happening to the sacred as spirituality-more exactly what is taken to be spirituality-develops as an increasingly important lingua franca, series of practices, and as a humanistic ethicality.

Every year hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world converge on Mecca and its precincts to perform the rituals associated with the Hajj and have been doing so since the seventh century. In this volume, scholars from a range of fields - including history, religion, anthropology, and literature - together tell the story of the Hajj and explain its significance as one of the key events in the Muslim religious calendar. By outlining the parameters of the Hajj from its beginnings to the present day, the contributors have produced a global study that takes in the vast geographies of belief in the world of Islam. This volume pays attention to the diverse aspects of the Hajj, as lived every year by hundreds of millions of Muslims, touching on its rituals, its regional forms, the role of gender, its representation in art, and its organization on a global scale.

Many philosophers and scientists over the course of history have held that the world is alive. It has a soul, which governs it and binds it together. This suggestion, once so wide-spread, may strike many of us today as strange and antiquated-in fact, there are few other concepts that, on their face, so capture the sheer distance between us and our philosophical inheritance. But the idea of a world soul has held so strong a grip upon philosophers' imaginations for over 2,000 years, that it continues to underpin and even structure how we conceive of time and space. The concept of the world soul is difficult to understand in large part because over the course of history it has been invoked to very different ends and within the frameworks of very different ontologies and philosophical systems, with varying concepts of the world soul emerging as a result. This volume brings together eleven chapters by leading philosophers in their respective fields that collectively explore the various ways in which this concept has been understood and employed, covering the following philosophical areas: Platonism, Stoicism, Medieval, Indian or Vedantic, Kabbalah, Renaissance, Early Modern, German Romanticism, German Idealism, American Transcendentalism, and contemporary quantum mechanics and panpsychism theories. In addition, short reflections illuminate the impact the concept of the world soul has had on a small selection of areas outside of philosophy, such as harmony, the biological concept of spontaneous generation, Henry Purcell, psychoanalysis, and Gaia theories.

When the undefeated samurai Miyamoto Musashi retreated to a cave in 1643 and wrote "The Book of Five Rings," a manifesto on swordsmanship, strategy, and winning for his students and generations of samurai to come, he created one of the most perceptive and incisive texts on strategic thinking ever to come from Asia.
Musashi gives timeless advice on defeating an adversary, throwing an opponent off-guard, creating confusion, and other techniques for overpowering an assailant that will resonate with both martial artists and everyone else interested in skillfully dealing with conflict. For Musashi, the way of the martial arts was a mastery of the mind rather than simply technical prowess--and it is this path to mastery that is the core teaching in "The Book of Five Rings."
William Scott Wilson's translation is faithful to the original seventeenth-century Japanese text while being wonderfully clear and readable. His scholarship and insight into the deep meaning of this classic are evident in his introduction and notes to the text. This edition also includes a translation of one of Musashi's earlier writings, "The Way of Walking Alone," and calligraphy by Japanese artist Shiro Tsujimura.

Joseph Kitagawa, one of the founders of the field of history of religions and an eminent scholar of the religions of Japan, published his classic book "Religion in Japanese History" in 1966. Since then, he has written a number of extremely influential essays that illustrate approaches to the study of Japanese religious phenomena. To date, these essays have remained scattered in various scholarly journals. This book makes available nineteen of these articles, important contributions to our understanding of Japan's intricate combination of indigenous Shinto, Confucianism, Taoism, the Yin-Yang School, Buddhism, and folk religion. In sections on prehistory, the historic development of Japanese religion, the Shinto tradition, the Buddhist tradition, and the modem phase of the Japanese religious tradition, the author develops a number of valuable methodological approaches. The volume also includes an appendix on Buddhism in America.

Asserting that the study of Japanese religion is more than an umbrella term covering investigations of separate traditions, Professor Kitagawa approaches the subject from an interdisciplinary standpoint. Skillfully combining political, cultural, and social history, he depicts a Japan that seems a microcosm of the religious experience of humankind.

In recent years China has witnessed unprecedented economic growth, emerging as a powerful, influential player on the global stage. Now, more than ever, there is a great interest and need within the West to better understand the psychological and social processes that characterize the Chinese people. The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Ppsychology is the first book of its kind - a comprehensive and commanding review of Chinese psychology, covering areas of human functioning with unparalleled sophistication and complexity. In 42 chapters, leading authorities cite and integrate both English and Chinese-language research in topic areas ranging from the socialization of children, mathematics achievement, emotion, bilingualism and Chinese styles of thinking to Chinese identity, personal relationships, leadership processes and psychopathology. With all chapters accessibly written by the leading researchers in their respective fields, the reader of this volume will learn how and why China has developed in the way it has, and how it is likely to develop. In addition, the book shows how a better understanding of a culture so different to our own can reveal much about our own culture and sense of identity. A book of extraordinary breadth, The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Psychology ia an essential sourcebook for any scholar or practitioner attempting to understand the psychological functioning of the world's most populous country.

Religions in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations, Third Edition is the ideal textbook for those coming to the study of religion for the first time, as well as for those who wish to keep up-to-date with the latest perspectives in the field. This third edition contains new and upgraded pedagogic features, including chapter summaries, key terms and definitions, and questions for reflection and discussion. The first part of the book considers the history and modern practices of the main religious traditions of the world, while the second analyzes trends from secularization to the rise of new spiritualities. Comprehensive and fully international in coverage, it is accessibly written by practicing and specialist teachers.

In recent years China has witnessed unprecedented economic growth, emerging as a powerful, influential player on the global stage. Now, more than ever, there is a great interest and need within the West to better understand the psychological and social processes that characterize Chinese people.
The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Psychology is the first book of its kind-- a comprehensive and commanding review of Chinese psychology, covering areas of human functioning with unparalleled sophistication and complexity. In 42 chapters, leading authorities cite and integrate both English and Chinese-language research in topic areas ranging from the socialization of children, mathematics achievement, emotion, bilingualism, and Chinese styles of thinking to Chinese identity, personal relationships, leadership processes, and psychopathology. With all chapters accessibly written by the leading researchers in their respective fields, the reader of this volume will learn how and why China has developed in the way it has, and how it is likely to develop. In addition, the book shows how a better understanding of a culture so different to our own can tell us so much about our own culture and sense of identity.
A book of extraordinary breadth, the Oxford Handbook of Chinese Psychology will become the essential sourcebook for any scholar or practitioner attempting to understand the psychological functioning of the world's largest ethnic group.

Ichiro Hori's is the first book in Western literature to portray how Shinto, Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist elements, as well as all manner of archaic magical beliefs and practices, are fused on the folk level. Folk religion, transmitted by the common people from generation to generation, has greatly conditioned the political, economic, and cultural development of Japan and continues to satisfy the emotional and religious needs of the people. Hori examines the organic relationship between the Japanese social structure--the family kinship system, village and community organizations--and folk religion. A glossary with Japanese characters is included in the index.

This book argues that Dylan actually embraces two radically distinct world views at alternating periods. Throughout his various stages, Dylan's work reveals an affinity with the Zen world view, where enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation and intuition rather than through faith and devotion. Forgoing Christianity and Western Views for Zen and Buddhism, "Bargainin' for Salvation" will capture your attention and direct it toward the East. One of the mysteries of Bob Dylan's incredible corpus is why he seems to veer and zigzag so drastically and dramatically from one extreme standpoint to another. Throughout his career, rapid, radical transitions in musical style and public persona have either inspired or shocked different sectors of his fans. Is Dylan's work complex and contradictory, or is there an underlying consistency and continuity? Steven Heine, Director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Florida International University, argues that Dylan actually embraces two radically distinct world views at alternating periods. One is prevalent in his Protest (early '60s), Country (late '60s), and Gospel (late '70s) phases; it finds Dylan expressing moral outrage in endorsing a single higher truth based on a right-versus-wrong philosophy. The second view appears during periods of Dylan's disillusionment in the mid '60s ("Desolation Row"), mid '70s ("Tangled Up in Blue"), and mid '80s ("Jokerman"), finding him disenchanted with one-sided proclamations of truth and wandering, seemingly aimless amid a relativistic world of masks and disguises where nothing is ever what it claims to be. Throughout his various stages, Dylan's work reveals an affinity with the Zen world view, where enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation and intuition rather than through faith and devotion. Whatever his current beliefs are, though, one can go into reading this book knowing that there are no others like it. Forgoing Christianity and Western views for Zen and Buddhism, "Bargainin' for Salvation" will capture your attention and direct it toward the East.

China has a large number of indigenous ethnic minorities, some of which have large populations. Many of these minorities have animist, local religions, which are closely bound up with their ethnic culture. The revival of religion generally in China in recent years has been paralleled by a revival of religion amongst the ethnic minorities. This has caused a renewal of long-standing tensions between majority Han and non-Han minorities, the latter often having endured for a long time policies designed to suppress their separate ethnic identities and make them conform to majority Han norms. This book, based on extensive original research among the Bai people, a people with a population of around five million, explores these important issues. It considers how majority-minority ethnic relations have evolved over time, discusses amongst many other issues how local religions emphasise ancestor cults which reinforce minorities sense of their separate ethnicity, and concludes by assessing how these important issues are likely to develop."

This examination of death rituals in early Japan finds in the practice of double burial a key to understanding the Taika Era (645-710 A.D.). Drawing on narratives and poems from the earliest Japanese texts--the Kojiki, the Nihonshoki, and the Man'yoshu, an anthology of poetry--it argues that double burial was the center of a manipulation of myth and ritual for specific ideological and factional purposes. "This volume has significantly raised the standard of scholarship on early Japanese and Man'yoshu studies."--Joseph Kitagawa "So convincing is the historical and religious thought displayed here, it is impossible to imagine how anyone can ever again read these documents in the old way."--Alan L. Miller, The Journal of Religion "A central resource for historians of early Japan."--David L. Barnhill, History of Religions

How can Daoism, China's indigenous religion, give us the aesthetic, ethical, political, and spiritual tools to address the root causes of our ecological crisis and construct a sustainable future? In China's Green Religion, James Miller shows how Daoism orients individuals toward a holistic understanding of religion and nature. Explicitly connecting human flourishing to the thriving of nature, Daoism fosters a "green" subjectivity and agency that transforms what it means to live a flourishing life on earth. Through a groundbreaking reconstruction of Daoist philosophy and religion, Miller argues for four key, green insights: a vision of nature as a subjective power that informs human life; an anthropological idea of the porous body based on a sense of qi flowing through landscapes and human beings; a tradition of knowing founded on the experience of transformative power in specific landscapes and topographies; and an aesthetic and moral sensibility based on an affective sensitivity to how the world pervades the body and the body pervades the world. Environmentalists struggle to raise consciousness for their cause, Miller argues, because their activism relies on a quasi-Christian concept of "saving the earth." Instead, environmentalists should integrate nature and culture more seamlessly, cultivating through a contemporary intellectual vocabulary a compelling vision of how the earth materially and spiritually supports human flourishing.

Taking into account the long history and wide range of Confucian Studies, this book introduces Confucianism - initiated in China by Confucius (551 BC–479 BC) - primarily as a philosophical and religious tradition. It pays attention to Confucianism in both the West and the East, focussing on the tradition’s doctrines, schools, rituals, sacred places and terminology, but also stressing the adaptations, transformations and new thinking taking place in modern times. Xinzhong Yao presents Confucianism as a tradition with many dimensions and as an ancient tradition with contemporary appeal. This gives the reader a richer and clearer view of how Confucianism functioned in the past and of what it means in the present. A Chinese scholar based in the West, he draws together the many strands of Confucianism in a style accessible to students, teachers, and general readers interested in one of the world’s major religious traditions.

This major source of Chinese mythology (3rd century BC to 2nd century AD) brings together a treasure trove of rare data and colourful fiction about the mythical figures, rituals, medicine, natural history and ethnic peoples of the ancient world.

The Classic narrates episodes of 204 mythical figures, notably the gods Foremost, Fond Care, and Yellow, and goddesses like the fearsome Queen Mother of the West and the doomed Girl Lovely, the nurturing solar and lunar goddesses, and many others unknown outside this text. This eclectic Classic also contains crucial information on early medicine (with cures for impotence and infertility), on omens to avert catastrophe, rites of sacrifice, and familiar and unidentified plants and animals. It offers a guided tour of the known world in antiquity, moving outwards from the famous mountains of central China to the lands ‘beyond the seas.’

For this major new edition, Anne Birrell brings the text to life by using English equivalents for all the many names. She provides a lucid and entertaining Introduction and Notes which expertly combine traditional commentaries with insights from comparative mythology.