Democracy's Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan

This is a CDDRL's Special Event within our Democracy in Taiwan Program. It is also co-sponsored by the Public Diplomacy/Emerging Publics Project of the Center for the Pacific Rim at University of San Francisco. In this seminar, Dr. Richard Madsen will talk about his new book that explores the religious renaissance that has reformed, revitalized, and renewed the practices of Buddhism and Daoism in Taiwan and how this religious renaissance embraces democracy modernity.  

Richard Madsen is distinguished professor and chair of the sociology department at the University of California, San Diego and a co-author (with Robert Bellah et al.) of The Good Society and Habits of the Heart which received the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was jury nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He has authored or co-authored five books on China, including Morality and Power in a Chinese Village for which he received the C. Wright Mills Award; China's Catholics: Tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society; and China and the American Dream.  He also co-edited (with Tracy B. Strong) The Many and the One: Religious and Secular Perspectives on Ethical Pluralism in the Modern World. His latest book is Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan.

Richard Madsen received an MA in Asian studies and a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard.

"Madsen is a genial and well-informed guide, both to social-political change in Taiwan and to the ins and outs of religious movements. His engaging writing skillfully interweaves profound insights and themes into the descriptive analytical narrative. Democracy's Dharma presents new material based on recent research while offering a fresh spin on thinking about Asian religions."–Thomas Gold, editor of Social Connections in China: Institutions, Culture, and the Changing Nature of Guanxi