Introduction to Religious Cultures in Taiwan-2011 Exploring Taiwan International Summer Program

This course explains the basic characteristics of religions in contemporary Taiwan and the social and political roles played by each major religious tradition in terms of C. K. Yang’s typology of institutional vs. diffused and its relevant theories in combination with official and scholars’ statistic data. The plurality and complexity of Taiwanese religions and the blurring boundary between their sacred and secular aspects are usually confusing and dazzling to an outside observer, who could easily misinterpret their doctrines and rituals. This course attempts to undo those religious puzzles by distinguishing the ultimate concern of religion from its practical socio-cultural functions in each tradition and to explore its impact on believers regarding these two aspects. This will illuminate the positive meaning of religion to overcome the crisis of cultural identity emerging from the multiple modernity of contemporary Taiwan.