Buddhism Revitalization in China and Japan Essay

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Updated: Jan 13th, 2024

The study provides an overview of two academic works that summarize the tendencies of religion revitalization in China and Japan. The comparison stems from the idea of general similarity between the theological traditions that are valued by the citizens of two countries. Thus, both China and Japan’s populations focus on the Buddhism dogmas as well as the religious platforms of their beliefs were altered by the process of globalization approximately at the same time. The authors of the works manage to show in which ways the age of industrialization and technology influenced theology. The studies agree on the issues of political reformation influence as well as the change of communication paths and social indicators.

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China and Japan in Prospect: Renovating Religion

The studies, however, represent two individual accounts, since one can track the critical discrepancies in the treatment of religious patterns across China and Japan.

It is claimed that in spite of being deeply patriotic, the Japanese tend to adopt numerous theological traditions such as Christian weddings from overseas (Betros par. 5). The tendency evolved as a payoff of globalization. In his scientific work, Nelson differentiates the factors that promoted the changed. These are the orientation confusion, bureaucratic differentiation, individualization, and culture modification (Nelson 2). The author highlights that the aforementioned social factors contributed to a particular dispersion of theological views across Japan. Nevertheless, he concludes that the modern century brought some positive changes to the revitalization process. Specifically, there is a growing number of individual priests and the communities that aim at renovating the religious dogmas.

Religion in China constitutes the core of social unions since the community is fully dependent on local theological doctrines (Overmyer 34). The tradition did not change much over the time. However, the general principles of globalization have recently produced some impact on the status of religion in China. In his book, Adam Chau dwells on the sources of modification. Therefore, the author states that the crucial factors of change stemmed from Communism doctrines, the crisis of religion legitimacy, degradation of the socioeconomic positioning of Buddhism as well as networks’ activity (Chau 12). According to Chau, the globalization aspects became the means of religious revitalization since the innovative public policies that were introduced by Chinese government provided a firm ground for a legitimization of rituals and traditions.

Conclusion: Redefining Religion in Asia

The dominating feature of Japanese religious beliefs has long been a concept of individualism suppression (McFarland 20). The tradition of Chinese ideas has risen under the influence of Communist atheism (“Religion in China” par. 1). The authors of the reviewed works, however, manage to prove that the process of globalization changes world theology foundation.

Works Cited

Betros, Chris. How Religious are Japanese People? 2013. Web.

Chau, Adam. Revitalizing and Innovating Religious Traditions in Contemporary China, New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.

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McFarland, Nill. “Religion in Contemporary Japanese Society.” Asian Society 2.1 (2011): 14-21. Print.

Nelson, John. “Global and Domestic Challenges Confronting Buddhist Institutions in Japan.” Journal of Global Buddhism 12.1 (2011): 1-15. Print.

Overmyer, Daniel. Religion in China Today, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print.

Religion in China 2015. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2024) 'Buddhism Revitalization in China and Japan'. 13 January.

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IvyPanda. 2024. "Buddhism Revitalization in China and Japan." January 13, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/buddhism-revitalization-in-china-and-japan/.

1. IvyPanda. "Buddhism Revitalization in China and Japan." January 13, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/buddhism-revitalization-in-china-and-japan/.


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IvyPanda. "Buddhism Revitalization in China and Japan." January 13, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/buddhism-revitalization-in-china-and-japan/.

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