The Global Repositioning of Japanese Religions ─ An integrated approach

This book explores the globalization of Japanese religions, challenging the simplistic identification of Japanese religions in this regard with the global expansion of several new religious movements.

The Global Repositioning of Japanese Religions draws on ethnographic and archival research in Japan and Hawaii to ask how Japanese Buddhism, Shinto, and new religious movements react to the increasing relativization of worldviews and values brought about by globalization. How do they position themselves on the world religious map in relation to other religions? Are they creatively appropriating elements of global culture? And is it possible for them to be simultaneously ‘within’ globalization and ‘against’ it? Organized around concrete case studies, this book explores: inter-religious dialogue and inclusivism in Japanese religion; religious environmentalism in Japanese Buddhism; the globalization of Hawaiian Shin Buddhism; and modalities of global repositioning in new religious movements. The author applies current theories to shed light on globalization as a multidimensional process through which both traditional religions and new religious movements reposition themselves as global players.

An empirically grounded study of the effects of global trends on local religions, this book will appeal to social scientists with interests in religion, globalization and new faith movements.

Ugo Dessi is Lecturer at the Institute for the Study of Religion at the University of Leipzig, Germany and Honorary Research Associate at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is the author of Japanese Religions and Globalization and Ethics and Society in Contemporary Shin Buddhism, and editor ofThe Social Dimension of Shin Buddhism.