Modernity and the Materiality of Religion

Abstract

This book examines the role that Christianity has played in the development of East Asia and among East Asians in the United States. It contributes to the scholarship on East Asian Christianity by bringing together studies of Christianity in China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan and their diasporas. As a result, it offers new perspectives on how Christian ideas, practices, and institutions were adopted, translated, and practiced in relation to political, economic, social, and cultural developments in order to negotiate modernity. It explores how Protestant Christianity was negotiated and interpreted by individuals in Korea, China (with a brief look at Taiwan), and Japan starting in the nineteenth century as all three countries became incorporated into the global economy and the international nation-state system anchored by the West. In addition to the theme of religion and modernity, the book investigates the relationship between economy and religion, religion as a medium for social relationships, the sacred and social activism, and national identity and religion.