FACULTY LEADER
Thomas Banchoff
Thomas Banchoff is director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, and professor in the Government Department and the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. His research centers on religious and ethical issues in world politics. Most recently he is the author of Embryo Politics: Ethics and Policy in Atlantic Democracies (Cornell University Press, 2011). He is...
RELATED PROGRAM
The last two decades have seen a surge of religious, ethical and cultural controversies around the world. Through research, teaching and outreach the Faith, Values, and Public Life program explores the intersection of globalization with contemporary issues including education, science and technology, and international relations.
RELATED MEDIA
CENTER NEWS
May 16, 2013Junior Year Abroad Network Annual Report
May 10, 2013
The Faith of the Novelist
RELATED RESOURCES ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Religion in China and the United States
China and the United States are leading global powers with very different constellations of religion, society, and politics. Knowledge of those differences, their origins, and their contemporary implications remains weak in both countries. The Religion in China and the US Project seeks to promote dialogue, improve understanding, and inform better policy on key issues in US-China relations including religious freedom and the changing role of religion in world affairs.
The project has three interrelated parts.
High-level dialogue. In February 2008, Georgetown signed a cooperative agreement with the Center for Religious Studies of State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) of the People's Republic of China to hold three annual meetings to foster dialogue around issues of religion, culture, and society. The first meeting, held at the Berkley Center in November 2008, addressed three topics: international religious freedom; Christianity, Confucianism and political culture; and religion and economic and social development. The second meeting in Beijing in December 2009 addressed the issue of religious pluralism and the third, convened at Georgetown in November 2010, focused on the intersection of religion, society, and the state in both countries. In July 2011 the Berkley Center enter arranged a short course for officials from SARA, who visited Washington, DC, New York, Houston, and Los Angeles, to learn about the social engagement of religious communities in the United States.
Postdoctoral fellow. With the support of the Walton Family Foundation, the Center holds an annual competition for a young Chinese scholar of religious studies to serve as a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Liyong Dai, an expert on traditional Chinese religions, was in residence in 2007-2009. Dr. Yichao Tu, whose work focuses on religion and international relations, was the 2009-2010 postdoctoral fellow. The 2010-2011 fellow was an historian, Dr. Liu Yi, the Executive Director of Center for Study of Religion and Society at Shanghai University. Dr. Rong He, a sociologist whose work focuses on religion and economics, was the fellow in residence during the 2011-2012 academic year. Dr. Huang Ping, a sociologist whose work focuses on transnational religious NGOs, religion, and diplomacy, is the fellow in residence during the 2012-2013 academic year.
A bilingual website. In spring 2010 the Center published a bilingual website that provides an overview of religion, society and politics in both countries, as well as a mapping of interdisiplinary scholarship in these areas. You can find the site here.
High-level dialogue. In February 2008, Georgetown signed a cooperative agreement with the Center for Religious Studies of State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) of the People's Republic of China to hold three annual meetings to foster dialogue around issues of religion, culture, and society. The first meeting, held at the Berkley Center in November 2008, addressed three topics: international religious freedom; Christianity, Confucianism and political culture; and religion and economic and social development. The second meeting in Beijing in December 2009 addressed the issue of religious pluralism and the third, convened at Georgetown in November 2010, focused on the intersection of religion, society, and the state in both countries. In July 2011 the Berkley Center enter arranged a short course for officials from SARA, who visited Washington, DC, New York, Houston, and Los Angeles, to learn about the social engagement of religious communities in the United States.
Postdoctoral fellow. With the support of the Walton Family Foundation, the Center holds an annual competition for a young Chinese scholar of religious studies to serve as a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Liyong Dai, an expert on traditional Chinese religions, was in residence in 2007-2009. Dr. Yichao Tu, whose work focuses on religion and international relations, was the 2009-2010 postdoctoral fellow. The 2010-2011 fellow was an historian, Dr. Liu Yi, the Executive Director of Center for Study of Religion and Society at Shanghai University. Dr. Rong He, a sociologist whose work focuses on religion and economics, was the fellow in residence during the 2011-2012 academic year. Dr. Huang Ping, a sociologist whose work focuses on transnational religious NGOs, religion, and diplomacy, is the fellow in residence during the 2012-2013 academic year.
A bilingual website. In spring 2010 the Center published a bilingual website that provides an overview of religion, society and politics in both countries, as well as a mapping of interdisiplinary scholarship in these areas. You can find the site here.
PUBLICATIONS
Beijing Lectures on the Sociology of Religion
August 31, 2010
The Berkley Center's Jose Casanova gave a series of prestigious lectures on the sociology of religion in Beijing in August, 2010. The lectures, available here in draft format, will be published as a book. They cover the historical origins of the idea of secularization and the shifting...
RELATED EVENTS
Homosexuality in China: An Emergent Social and Religious Controversy
April 25, 2013
In the United States and many other countries, debates about homosexuality have been prominent in the public sphere for decades. In China they are new. What was once a taboo topic is now emerging in traditional and social media. And as in the United States, controversy has assumed a religious...
Liberal Education in a Global Era: American and Chinese Perspectives
March 4, 2013
Education that promotes both knowledge and skills and personal and social responsibility is increasingly critical for professional success and effective citizenship in a complex, globalizing world. The ideals that inform liberal education, including self-reflection, ethical judgment, and...
Seminar on Religion, Politics, and Society in the United States
August 13, 2012
The Berkley Center hosted a three day seminar with leading young Chinese scholars of religious studies. The seminar was part of the third summer workshop of the Chinese Spirituality and Society Program organized by Professor Yang Fenggang of the Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue...
Mapping Religious Beliefs and Practices in Contemporary China
April 11, 2012
A recent national survey (2007) reveals the diversity and complexity of religious beliefs and practices in contemporary China. Dr. Rong He of the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences discussed the survey and highlighted some of its most interesting findings, including...
Why Christianity is Thriving in China Today
March 24, 2011
Christianity has been growing rapidly in China despite government restrictions. Chinese government policy on Christianity has changed from “suppression” (1949-1966) and “eradication” (1966-1979) to “controlling to weaken” (1979-1995) and “controlling to contain” (1995-2010). The number of...
Understanding Contemporary Religious Pluralism in China
April 15, 2009
The religious landscape in China has unique features that are poorly understood outside the country. While Buddhism, Christianity, and other "World Relgions" are present in the country, China is also home to a rich array of traditional religious practices. Contemporary social forms of Chinese...
Ritual Economy and Religious Revival in Rural Southeast China
March 30, 2009
The "Wenzhou Model" is often touted in China as a successful model of rural economic development and rural industrialization. Based on privatized household production, flourishing commodity markets, and rapid urbanization and industrialization, the local people of Wenzhou have rapidly transformed...
Secularization Theory and the Study of Chinese Religions
March 26, 2009
Over the course of the last half-century, evidence from China has been used first to support and later to confound simplistic arguments about the decline of religion in the face of modernity. Without launching a defense of secularization theory in general, Dr. Michael Szonyi argued that there is...
Comparing Secularism in India and China
September 8, 2008
Peter van der Veer, University Professor at Utrecht, explored different patterns of secularism in India and China, with special attention to the historical legacies of colonialism and the nation-building projects first undertaken in the 19th century. The government hostility towards religion in...