Religionizing Confucianism: Ritual, Transcendence, and Social Formations in East Asia

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue proposes reframing Confucianism through the conceptual toolkit of Religious Studies. We believe that Confucianism marks a living sacred presence of its own and a general enquiry of life itself. In this Special Issue, therefore, instead of rehearsing the binary question, “Is Confucianism a religion?”, we take as our starting point the analytical act of religionizing Confucianism: asking what becomes visible, and what is distorted, when Confucian texts, practices, institutions, and imaginaries are examined in terms of ritual, transcendence, sacralization, social organization, and material culture. Our agenda is twofold: first, to produce historically and ethnographically grounded case studies that treat Confucianism as a religious formation in its own right; second, to use these cases to reflect critically on the category of “religion” and its applicability to East Asian traditions.

Within this broad agenda, this Special Issue focuses on four interrelated priorities:

1. The debate between rujia (Confucian “school”) and rujiao (Confucian “religion”).
2. Inner transcendence and modes of sacrality in Confucian self-cultivation and ethics.
3. Confucianism’s interactions with Daoism and Buddhism, especially under the rubric of sanjiao heyi (the unity of the three teachings).
4. The embedding of Confucianism within local cults, popular practices, civic ritual, art, and materiality.

The first theme revisits the modern and late-imperial negotiations between rujia and rujiao. Rather than treating the distinction as merely terminological, we invite contributions that show how it is tied to missionary critique, statecraft, May Fourth iconoclasm, and contemporary cultural nationalism. How, when, and by whom has Confucianism been framed as a moral philosophy, a state ideology, a civil religion, or a full-fledged “religion” with doctrines, rites, and institutions? By reconstructing these shifting regimes of classification, we hope to clarify how “religionizing” or “de-religionizing” Confucianism has shaped both scholarly discourse and lived practice.

The second theme concerns inner transcendence. Confucianism has often been portrayed as this-worldly and immanent, yet classical, Song–Ming, and modern New Confucian thinkers articulate powerful visions of transformation that exceed ordinary ethical life. We welcome studies of how practices such as ritual propriety, affective attunement, self-reflection, and cosmological resonance generate forms of sacrality without positing a radically otherworldly realm. This invites a reconsideration of transcendence as something that can be enacted within, rather than beyond, the human and social order.

Third, this Special Issue foregrounds the entanglement of Confucianism with Daoism and Buddhism, including doctrinal syntheses and practical accommodations subsumed under sanjiao heyi. Contributions may examine shared ritual repertoires, overlapping pantheons, hybrid temple spaces, and the cross-training of ritual specialists. By following these inter-traditional negotiations, we seek to understand how “Confucian religion” emerges not in isolation but through ongoing exchange, competition, and mutual translation among the three teachings.

Finally, we turn to Confucianism, and its appropriations in local cults, art, and materiality. Here we are interested in lineage and community temples, examination rituals, commemorative shrines, ancestral halls, village altars, and contemporary civic ceremonies that mobilize Confucian symbols, images, and objects. We especially invite studies of visual and material culture: temple architecture, statuary, spirit tablets, ritual implements, sacrificial vessels, didactic murals, calligraphy, printed portraits and sculptures of sages, and digital media that materialize Confucian authority and virtue. How do such material forms and artistic practices transmit Confucian values, structure social relationships, and inscribe sacred geographies in everyday space? Case studies from China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and the global diaspora are especially welcome.

By bringing these four themes into dialogue, the aim of this Special Issue is to refine our understanding of Confucianism as a religious formation and to contribute to broader debates on religion, civil religion, and the interface of ethics, ritual, materiality, and political order.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editors, Prof. Qiyong Guo (qiyong.guo@outlook.com) or Prof. Vincent Goossaert (vincent.goossaert@ephe.psl.eu), and CC the Assistant Editor, Margaret Liu (margaret.liu@mdpi.com), of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

A tentative deadline:

Deadline for abstract submission: 31 March 2026
Deadline for full manuscript submission: 30 June 2026

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Qiyong Guo
Prof. Dr. Vincent Goossaert
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Confucianism as religion
• rujia and rujiao
• inner transcendence
• sanjiao heyi (unity of three teachings)
• ritual and social organization
• local cults and popular religion
• art, materiality, and sacred space