China Research Seminar Series, Easter Term, 2014
Department of East Asian Studies, University of Cambridge
May 12, 2014 (Monday), 5pm, Room 111, Faculty of Classics (Sidgwick Site)
[Note date and venue different from the usual seminar series arrangement]
Multiple Meanings of Multiple Christianities: New Agendas for
Research in a Polysemic Chinese Religious Field
Professor Richard Madsen (University of California, San Diego)
Abstract:
The term “religion” has multiple
dimensions and can refer to extremely
disparate forms of cultural consciousness
and social organization. Christianity-asreligion itself encompasses the full range
of these ambiguous meanings, so much so
that from a sociological point of view it is
more useful to speak of Christianities than
of variants within a single Christianity. I
give examples of the variety of Chinese
Christianities and suggest new research
agendas for studying them.
Speaker:
RICHARD MADSEN is Distinguished
Professor of Sociology at the University
of California, San Diego and Acting
Provost of Eleanor Roosevelt College at
UCSD. He has written extensively on the
sociology of morality, religion and
politics, in both the United States and
Asia. His latest book is Democracy’s
Dharma: Religious Renaissance and
Political Development in Taiwan.
Catholic church in Nanning. Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Archdiocese_of_Na
nning
Baptism in a lake near Beijing. Source:
http://blog.boxun.com/hero/201008/jiatingjiaohui/3_1.shtml
All seminars take place on Wednesdays (unless otherwise arranged) at 5pm in rooms 8 &
9 in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge. Tea
will be served at the same venue at 4:45pm. All are welcome.