Suchergebnisse

Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- Chapter 1: The Rise of New Religious Worldviews -- The Advent of Hồ Chí Minh as the Jade Buddha -- Questioning the Rise of New Religious Groups -- Renovation and Religious Revival -- Enquiries into New Religious Groups Since Renovation -- An Alternative Approach to New Religious Groups -- Into the Landscape of New Religions -- References -- Chapter 2: Modernity and Religious Reconfiguration: A Vietnamese Perspective -- Modernity and Interactions Between Religious and Nonreligious Spheres -- Modernity and Social Differentiation -- Modernity Following Different Paths -- Social Spheres' Multidimensional Interactions in East and Southeast Asia -- Religion and Aspects of Modernity in Contemporary Vietnam -- Religious Changes During the Colonial Era -- Different Religious Landscapes During 1945-1975 -- A New Religious Landscape Since Renovation -- Theorising the Rise of New Religious Groups -- Religious Reconfiguration in Vietnamese Modernity -- References -- Chapter 3: Revitalising the Legacy of a Local Sage: The School of Teaching Goodness -- Founder of the School of Teaching Goodness -- From a Carpenter to a Spiritual Master -- Building the School -- Students at the School -- Changing Local Authorities' Control -- Remaking the Past into the Present -- Revitalising the Legacy of the Local Sage -- Reforming a Traditional Village School -- Reviving a Local Folk Belief -- Utilising Ancestors' Knowledge to Help People -- Beyond Revitalisation of Traditions -- References -- Chapter 4: A 'Spiritual Revolution' for National Salvation: The Way of the Jade Buddha -- Deification of Hồ Chí Minh and Its Outcomes -- The Jade Buddha and His Heavenly Mediums -- A 'Spiritual Revolution' to Remake the World -- Followers of the Jade Buddha -- Millenarian Expectations -- Legitimating the Belief in Hồ Chí Minh's Spirit.

This book approaches newly emerging religious groups through the interplay between religious and non-religious spheres and in the context of religious diversification in post-Renovation Vietnam. It considers the new religious groups as a part of religious reconfiguration in contemporary Vietnam caused by intensified interactions among these spheres. It explores changes of relationship between religions, and changes between the religious sphere and the political, economic and public spheres. Specifically, it traces trajectories of religious development in relation to politico-economic changes in this rapidly modernising nation. The book tests a hypothesis that at least some new yet unrecognized new religious groups have a positive/ active role in modernisation rather than a negative/reactive role. To this end, the book draws on a number of research approaches and methodologies in an effort to provide readers with a multi-faceted understanding of Vietnam's new religious groups, including how the current socialist state has responded to their emergence and challenges. The research is interdisciplinary in orientation, drawing on sociology and anthropology. It is also comparative in that it bases its argument on a consideration of three distinct new religious groups in Vietnam. The research is also qualitative and ethnographic in that it drew on some of the techniques associated with participant observation during a sustained period of fieldwork amongst the targeted groups. The concept of religious reconfiguration developed in this book provides a framework for the study of religion in Vietnam which opens the way to further analysis from a comparative perspective. Meanwhile, an emphasis upon religious reinvention which addresses processes of remaking, transforming, legitimating and accommodating can be useful for research into New Religious Movements elsewhere in Asia. A research in the challenges of new religions through could act as a catalyst for interdisciplinary studies based on detailed empirical study of religious diversity and of religious freedom by other scholars. It is hoped that this research might help to give a voice to religious minorities that are often the victim of stereotyping, misunderstanding, and punitive treatment. The book is suitable for post-graduate students and social researchers who are interested in religious revival, religious diversification, state-religion relationships, and state's regulation of new religions.

This article investigates new religious movements that have emerged in post-Renovation Vietnam. The formation and development of movements that worship Hồ Chí Minh will be examined through the Way of the Jade Buddha. My analysis of this indigenous movement will discuss its controversial attempts to establish communication with the spirit of Hồ Chí Minh. It is argued that the movement is a channel through which people can empower themselves, seek legitimacy, and promote nationalistic aspirations. The emergence of such movements demonstrates the ongoing millenarian dream of social transformation in the face of the challenges of international integration and the tensions caused by maritime conflicts with China. (J Southeast Asian Stud/GIGA)