Religion and Society in Asia
About the Book Series
This series contributes cutting-edge and cross-disciplinary academic research on various forms and levels of engagement between religion and society that have developed in the regions of South Asia, East Asia, and South East Asia, in the modern period, that is, from the early 19th century until the present.
The publications in this series should reflect studies of both religion in society and society in religion. This opens up a discursive horizon for a wide range of themes and phenomena: the politics of local, national and transnational religion; tension between private conviction and the institutional structures of religion; economical dimensions of religion as well as religious motives in business endeavours; issues of religion, law and legality; gender relations in religious thought and practice; representation of religion in popular culture, including the mediatisation of religion; the spatialisation and temporalisation of religion; religion, secularity, and secularism; colonial and post-colonial construction of religious identities; the politics of ritual; the sociological study of religion and the arts. Engaging these themes will involve explorations of the concepts of modernity and modernisation as well as analyses of how local traditions have been reshaped on the basis of both rejecting and accepting Western religious, philosophical, and political ideas.
Customising Islamic Law: Matrilineal Muslims of the Indian Ocean
1st Edition
Edited
By Mahmood Kooria
February 17, 2026
Millions of Muslims across the Indian Ocean littoral have historically followed a matrilineal system, where women had better economic and social stability and an upper hand in their personal choices. The system raised serious questions as the Islamic legal tradition evolved in the Middle East, ...
Religion and Nationalism in Chinese Societies
1st Edition
Edited
By Cheng-tian Kuo
January 09, 2026
This book explores the interaction between religion and nationalism in the Chinese societies of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Cheng-tian Kuo analyses the dominant religions, including Chinese Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity, Islam, and folk religions, but he also goes ...
Buddhist Responses to Christianity in Postwar Taiwan: Awakening the World
1st Edition
By Scott Pacey
December 01, 2025
After the Communist victory in China's civil war, Taiwan, then governed by the KMT (or Nationalist Party), became a focal point for both Buddhist and Christian activity in the Chinese world. Focusing on some of the most influential monastics of the time, this study considers Buddhist responses to ...
Buddhist Revitalization and Chinese Religions in Malaysia
1st Edition
By Lee Ooi Tan
December 01, 2025
Buddhist Revitalization and Chinese Religions in Malaysia tells the story of how a minority community comes to grips with the challenges of modernity, history, globalization, and cultural assertion in an ever-changing Malaysia. It captures the religious connection, transformation, and tension ...
Chinese Popular Religion in Text and Acts
1st Edition
Edited
By Shin-yi Chao
December 01, 2025
This volume explores practices and experiences in Chinese popular religion. The research adds new materials and new approaches to well-known worships such as the cults of doomsday, underworld, and Lord Guan on the one hand, and draws attention to under-the-radar deities and holy figures hiding in ...
Fatwa in Indonesia: An Analysis of Dominant Legal Ideas and Mode of Thought of Fatwa-Making Agencies and Their Implications in the Post-New Order Period
1st Edition
By Pradana Pradana Boy ZTF
December 01, 2025
This book looks at fatwa in Indonesia during the period following the fall of President Suharto. It is an in-depth exploration of three fatwa-making agencies-Majelis Ulama Indonesia, Lajnah Bahth al-Masail Nahdlatul Ulama, and Majelis Tarjih Muhammadiyah-all of which are highly influential in ...
Islam in a Secular State: Muslim Activism in Singapore
1st Edition
By Walid Jumblatt Abdullah
December 01, 2025
The overtly secular state of Singapore has unapologetically maintained an interventionist approach to governance in the realm of religion. Islam is particularly managed by the state. Muslim activists thus have to meticulously navigate these realities – in addition to being a minority community – in...
Pathways to Contemporary Islam: New Trends in Critical Engagement
1st Edition
Edited
By Mohamed Nawab Mohamed Osman
December 01, 2025
Pathways to Contemporary Islam: New Trends in Critical Engagement highlights that the current tensions in Islam and the Muslim world are the result of historical dynamics as opposed to an alleged incompatibility between religious tradition and modernity. The emphasis on pathways indicates that ...
The Biography of a God: Mahasu in the Himalayas
1st Edition
By Asaf Sharabi
December 01, 2025
Mahasu is the joint name of four gods whose influence is widespread throughout the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Like other deities in the Western Himalayas, they are regarded as royal gods who rule over territories and people. This book traces changes in faith and practices ...
The Malaysian Islamic Party PAS 1951-2013: Islamism in a Mottled Nation
1st Edition
By Farish A. Noor
December 01, 2025
The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party PAS is the biggest opposition party in Malaysia today and one of the most prominent Islamist parties in Southeast Asia. This work recounts the historical development of PAS from 1951 to the present, and looks at how it has risen to become a political movement that is...
The Power of the Nath Yogis: Yogic Charisma, Political Influence and Social Authority
1st Edition
Edited
By Daniela Bevilacqua, Eloisa Stuparich
December 01, 2025
The volume collects a series of contributions that help reconstruct the recent history of the Nath tradition, highlighting important moments of self reinterpretation in the sampradaya’s interaction with different social milieus. The leitmotif tying together the selection of articles is the authors’...
The State, Ulama and Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia
1st Edition
By Norshahril Saat
December 01, 2025
The Suharto (1966-98) government of Indonesia and the Mahathir (1981-2003) government of Malaysia both launched Islamisation programmes, upgrading and creating religious institutions. The author argues that, while generally ulamas, or religious teachers, had to support state ideologies, they ...