Japanese Religions and Globalization. By Ugo Dessì. Routledge; Reprint edition, July 18, 2015. 200 pages. ISBN-10: 1138934887 ISBN-13: 978-1138934887
摘要
Dessì, a Privatdozent in Religious Studies at Leipzig University, has been a seminal contributor to the study of Shin Buddhism in recent years. With this book—a revised version of his habilitation thesis of 2012—however, he demonstrates a remarkable breadth of expertise in the wider field of Japanese religions. Alongside an elaborate fourteen‐part typology marking modes of involvement of Japanese religions in the context of today's “accelerated globalization,” Dessì discusses insightfully a great variety of case studies, ranging from traditional Buddhism and Shintō to new religious movements. Following theoretical considerations on the notions of “religion” and “globalization,” he gives convincing evidence of the impact that global dynamics exert upon institutional religious expression domestically and overseas. Dessì skillfully employs an interdisciplinary approach (among others informed by systems theory), always thoroughly positioning his line of argument amid a close reading of relevant original sources. He argues that globalization increasingly patterns the discursive trajectories upon which Japanese religions navigate. In other words, he views religious change, to a growing extent, as the effect of deliberate or unintentional responses to the forces of an evermore globalized environment. Dessì's study is a tour de force, a must read for the student of contemporary East Asian and Japanese religions.
