Chinese Religious Cultures: Historical Traditions and Modern Interpretations

Dear Colleagues,

Chinese religion has been playing a critical role in shaping China’s civilization development. With a long history and continuous traditions, Chinese religious cultures are dynamic and mainly consist of Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Catholic, Protestantism, Confucian religious thoughts and diverse folk religion. Understanding the historical traditions of Chinese religions will give great insight into the ancient Chinese society and modern times, as well as the enduring cultural communication between the world civilizations. Modern interpretations of Chinese religious cultures are conducive to understanding the characteristics and features of Chinese civilization and the role religion has played in Chinese society and people’s daily life. We are pleased to invite global scholars to contribute an academic article related to religious cultures in China (particularly on the religions mentioned above), including their history, tradition and development, from multiple disciplinary aspects of modern academic interpretations. We hope that this Special Issue will contribute to a better understanding of the characteristics of Chinese religions and Chinese cultural tradition.

For this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Interpreting Chinese religious cultures and scriptural texts with modern theories of religious studies;
• Exploring the modern value and significance of Chinese traditional religious cultures in China;
• Comparative studies on Chinese religious cultures with the perspective of modern communication and mutual learning among civilizations;
• The influence of important Chinese religious rituals, practices, figures, conceptions, theories, thoughts, events and places on the modern Chinese society;
• The international spread of Chinese religious cultures and its modern value to the global civilization.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, the interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor or the Assistant Editor of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purpose of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Reference

Brashier, K.E. 2015. The Modern Endeavor to Interpret Early Chinese Religions, Oxford Handbook Topics in Religion (online edn, Oxford Academic, 3 Feb. 2014), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935420.013.34, Accessed 30 Apr. 2024.

Zhuo, Xinping. 2015. The Direction of Modern Chinese Religion, On China’s Cultural Transformation, Issues in Contemporary Chinese Thought and Culture. Edited by Arif Dirlik and Keping Yu. Leiden: Brill, Vol(5), p.228-240.

Yang, C. K. 1970. Religion in Chinese society: A study of contemporary social functions of religion and some of their historical factors. Berkeley and Los Angeles:University of California Press.

Wong, W. Y. 2011. Defining Chinese Folk Religion: A Methodological Interpretation. Asian Philosophy, 21(2), 153–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/09552367.2011.563993

Rosker, J. S. 2017. Is Confucianism a religion? Modern Confucian theories on the ethical nature of classical discourses. Asian Philosophy, 27(4), 279–291. https://doi.org/10.1080/09552367.2017.1388552

Cao, Nanlai. 2019. A Sinicized World Religion?: Chinese Christianity at the Contemporary Moment of Globalization Religions 10, no. 8: 459. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10080459

Frankel, James D. 2016. Chinese–Islamic Connections: An Historical and Contemporary Overview. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 36(4): 569–83. doi:10.1080/13602004.2016.1248175.

Weber, Max. 1968. The Religion of China : Confucianism and Taoism, Translated and Edited by Hans H. Gerth, New York: Free Press.

Mou, Zhongjian, 2018, A Brief History of the Relationship among Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, 儒道佛三教關係簡明通史, Beijing: Renmin Press.

Kengo, Araki. 1975. Confucianism and Buddhism in the late Ming. The unfolding of Neo-Confucianism. Edited by William Theodore De Bary, New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 39--66.

Prof. Dr. Yuehua Chen
Prof. Dr. Chuanhui Zeng
Dr. Zhejia Tang
Dr. Xuedan Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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-blind 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.

• modern interpretations
• Chinese religious cultures
• Buddhist culture
• Daoist culture
• Islamic culture
• Christian culture
• Chinese folk religion
• Confucian religious thoughts