The Politics of Religion in Asia

Religious logics and ritual practices have been pivotal in political formations globally, and may form the hidden foundations underlying secular state authority. In Asia, rituals of state long served to legitimize and sustain kingdoms, and nation-states. Religious revivals, charismatic leaders and strongmen, ghosts, spirit mediums, amulet cults also animate people's political aspirations. How have these figured into representations of social, cultural, religious, ethnic difference in modern Asia? Students will examine complexities of theologically-inflected reasoning in Asia, to understand the hegemony of state, and inspiriting fuel that drives political movements. Ethnographies cover Korea, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and scholarship on Inter-Asian cultural studies.