The present research attempts to conceptualize and theorize the social engaging phenomenon of a contemporary Buddhist organization – Foguangshan – from a sociological and cultural perspective. This approach sees the growing presence of religion in contemporary society as a multi-facet social process that involves dialectic exchanges with various actors in the public realm, and acknowledges that a full understanding of the social presence and significance of a religious actor in a society cannot be realized only by the examination of their religious beliefs and practices but also the conceptualization of these religious expressions in search for the meanings and implications underneath. / The study acknowledges that despite the existence of abundance studies on Taiwanese Buddhism and Foguangshan, they are mostly historical and philosophical in nature; theoretical analysis of the social engaging mentality of these Buddhist communities and their interaction with the society is insufficient if not inattentive. The present research, therefore, would like to confront this issue by taking a dialectic approach that draws a connection between the socially engaging Buddhist community of Foguangshan with current social and cultural theories. / Specifically the paper will conduct a theoretical examination of Foguangshan and its interaction with the Taiwanese society by investigating their multiple aspects of publicness. This includes 1) how Foguangshan understands and imagines the public; 2) their strategy in engaging and penetrating into the public; and 3) how the people of the general public in return receives and responses to the social presence of the monastery. What this research tries to reveal is that while Foguangshan has been successful in expanding and penetrating into various public domains of the Taiwanese society, the outcome of their particular strategy in engaging with the public might result in an identity crisis beyond the intention of the monastery – an ambiguous public image between being religious and secular. / From our case study of Foguangshan in Taiwan the contemplation of these topics would be contextualized in a contemporary Chinese setting, and by doing so allows a cross cultural examination of the validity and universality of existing models of secularization and public religion. Hence the outcome of this study would not only provide an in-depth sociological and cultural understanding of the various public aspects of Foguangshan in relation to the contemporary history of Taiwan, the contextualization of this Buddhist phenomenon within a Chinese context could also further our understanding on how the particular social and cultural history of Taiwan, its Chinese cultural roots, and the religiosity of Chinese Buddhism have contributed to the unique way Chinese religions adapts and negotiates with modernity.
