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Paul R. Katz has composed a fascinating account of the fate of Chinese religions during the modern era by assessing mutations of communal religious life, innovative forms of religious publishing, and the religious practices of modern Chinese elites traditionally considered models of secular modernity. The author offers a rare look at the monumental changes that have affected modern Chinese religions, from the first all-out assault on them during the 1898 reforms to the eve of the Communist takeover of the mainland. Tracing the ways in which the vast religious resources (texts, expertise, symbolic capital, material wealth, etc.) that circulated throughout Chinese society during the late imperial period were reconfigured during this later era, Katz sheds new light on modern Chinese religious life and the understudied nexus between religion and modern political culture. Religion in China and Its Modern Fate will appeal to a broad audience of religionists and historians of modern China.

Product Identifiers

PublisherBrandeis University Press

ISBN-101611685435

ISBN-139781611685435

eBay Product ID (ePID)175776400

Product Key Features

LanguageEnglish

TopicModern / 20th Century, General, Eastern, Asia / China, Religion, History

AuthorPaul R. Katz

IllustratorYes

Dimensions

Item Length0.8in

Item Height0.1in

Item Weight12.3 Oz

Item Width0.6in

Additional Product Features

Publication NameReligion in China and Its Modern Fate

Lccn2013-039296

Dewey Decimal200.951

Lc Classification NumberBl1802.K38 2014

Table of ContentForeword by Meir Shahar * Preface * Introduction * State versus Society: Temple Destruction Campaigns * Time and a Word: New Forms of Religious Publishing * Secular Yet Sacred: The Religious Lives of Modern Chinese Elites * Conclusion * Notes * Index

SeriesThe Menahem Stern Jerusalem Lectures

Publication Year2014

TypeTextbook

Dewey Edition23

FormatTrade Paperback

ReviewsAny summary of the sections [of this book] cannot possibly do justice to the richness of the discussion so concisely presented. While it is true that the focus of much of the book is primarily on the individuals who made up the elite in China - precisely because the assumption generally has been that their secularization was ahead of that of the masses - the outlook is even so not a narrow one, extending as it does at times beyond the Han Chinese to the margins of China. In an increasingly crowded market, this is a volume that stands out., "Taking head-on the widespread conviction that modernity entails secularization, Paul Katz shows how selected members of the Chinese elite in the first half of the twentieth century adapted their faith to modernity in the pursuit of traditional religious activities like charity, printed propagation of the faith, and spirit writing."-John Lagerwey, author of China: A Religious State, "Any summary of the sections [of this book] cannot possibly do justice to the richness of the discussion so concisely presented. While it is true that the focus of much of the book is primarily on the individuals who made up the elite in China precisely because the assumption generally has been that their secularization was ahead of that of the masses the outlook is even so not a narrow one, extending as it does at times beyond the Han Chinese to the margins of China. In an increasingly crowded market, this is a volume that stands out."- China Quarterly, China-watchers used to think there was traditional China and its religion, then Maoism, then a secular globalized society. Katz debunks this view, by focusing on the first modernity: both religion and its discontents were key parts of modernization processes all along., "Any summary of the sections [of this book] cannot possibly do justice to the richness of the discussion so concisely presented. While it is true that the focus of much of the book is primarily on the individuals who made up the elite in China - precisely because the assumption generally has been that their secularization was ahead of that of the masses - the outlook is even so not a narrow one, extending as it does at times beyond the Han Chinese to the margins of China. In an increasingly crowded market, this is a volume that stands out." -China Quarterly, " Katz's exploration of the religious life of the Chinese elite stands as a much-needed reminder of the limited success of China's secularizing elites in their attempts to transform Chinese culture."-David Ownby, Université de Montréal, The book is successful in demonstrating that educated elites, who were part of the development of modernity and industry in China, were also committed to various forms of religious cultivation, religiously based philanthropy, religious publishing, and the defense of certain forms of religion that were under threat from other elites throughout the period. The book thus helps to nuance our understanding of China's transition to modernity, by demonstrating the lingering importance of religion throughout the period, which is otherwise known for campaign after campaign targeting temples and superstitious practices., "Katz's exploration of the religious life of the Chinese elite stands as a much-needed reminder of the limited success of China's secularizing elites in their attempts to transform Chinese culture."-David Ownby, Université de Montréal, "China-watchers used to think there was traditional China and its religion, then Maoism, then a secular globalized society. Katz debunks this view, by focusing on the first modernity: both religion and its discontents were key parts of modernization processes all along."-Vincent Goossaert, coauthor of The Religious Question in Modern China,, Meticulously researched. . . . Paul R. Katz argues that modernization in China did not lead to a decline of religion, but rather to a change in religious life notably the lack of direct state participation in religion., Katz's study of religious innovation challenges narratives of Chinese religious conservatism and decline, and its mapping of elite religious activity overturns conventional depictions of the secularism of China's leading modernizers., "Katz's study of religious innovation challenges narratives of Chinese religious conservatism and decline, and its mapping of elite religious activity overturns conventional depictions of the secularism of China's leading modernizers."-David Palmer, coauthor of The Religious Question in Modern China,, "Katz's study of religious innovation challenges narratives of Chinese religious conservatism and decline, and its mapping of elite religious activity overturns conventional depictions of the secularism of China's leading modernizers."-David Palmer, coauthor of The Religious Question in Modern China, Taking head-on the widespread conviction that modernity entails secularization, Paul Katz shows how selected members of the Chinese elite in the first half of the twentieth century adapted their faith to modernity in the pursuit of traditional religious activities like charity, printed propagation of the faith, and spirit writing., "China-watchers used to think there was traditional China and its religion, then Maoism, then a secular globalized society. Katz debunks this view, by focusing on the first modernity: both religion and its discontents were key parts of modernization processes all along."-Vincent Goossaert, coauthor of The Religious Question in Modern China

Target AudienceScholarly & Professional

Number of Pages264 Pages