Conference on East-West Encounters and Religious Change in Modernizing East Asia

The Second Annual Conference of the
East Asian Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (EASSSR)

The 2nd annual conference of the East Asian Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (EASSSR) was held at Hokkaido University from July 27-28, 2019. The gathering included over 100 scholars—from Mainland China, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe, and the US—who gave presentations on various aspects of the conference theme: East-West Encounters and Religious Change in Modernizing East Asia. 

The first day of the conference opened with a keynote speech from G. Clinton Godart, a Lecturer at Tohoku University. With the theme of “Religious Receptions of Darwinism in Modern Japan,” Godart reviewed the origins of Darwinism in Japan and how this was connected to Japanese religions. In the second day’s keynote speech, Professor Fenggang Yang, president of EASSSR, together with Professors Francis Jae-ryong Song, Yoshihide Sakurai, Mark R. Mullins and David A. Palmer, shared about various methods and theories in the social scientific study of religion in East Asia.

Conference sessions covered a range of topics and various dimensions of the study of religion in the Global East. Some sessions focused on specific religious groups, including Christianity in China, Islam in East Asia, Taiwan Buddhism, Korean Fundamentalism, Japanese Gods in Taiwanese Religion, and New Religions. Other sessions explored the interaction of religion and society such as religion and politics, religion and civil society, religion and media, and religion and gender. Notably, six sessions examined the theory and methodology of the scientific study of religion in the Global East, during which scholars discussed the measurement of religious observance in the East Asian context, different dimensions of religious surveys, and the mapping of religious sites in China and beyond. 

The EASSSR 2020 conference is currently scheduled for early August on the South Korean island of Jeju.

The Online Spiritual Atlas of China (OSAC)—which visualizes the spatial distribution of religious sites in China—now includes Story Maps or visual essays that depict detailed aspects of specific religious sites. Using photos, videos, and text, OSAC Story Maps bring geo-spatial data to life by telling stories that describe and analyze various features of individual religious sites. Story maps include information such as historical background, characteristics of visitors and worshipers, and depictions of rituals carried out at the site. Together with the religious sites data and maps in OSAC, these Story Maps aim to further develop our understanding of religion in China. 

Click here to explore the OSAC Story Maps currently available for religious sites in China.