Generational Crossroads: sensing religious crisis in contemporary Asian communities

11th Annual International ADI Conference | 18-19 June 2019   
Asian Dynamics Initiative, University of Copenhagen
South Campus, Njalsgade 120, 2300 Copenhagen S

Conveners: Astrid Trolle, Dept. of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen; Paulina Kolata, University of Manchester

How do generational transformation and economic uncertainty affect religious practice? From depopulating regions of Japan to a diaspora of Filipino Catholics in Denmark, this session explores how uncertainty feeds into a sense of decline and anxious futures across religious communities in Asia and Asian diaspora. Social and geographical mobility continues to reshape the ever more global religious landscapes, particularly in relation to shifting demographics and sociality networks. In light of these shifts, we ask how the diversification in the systems of values impacts on the institutional vulnerability of religion, focusing on the religious practitioners and their experiences of religious change. Uncertainty evoked through that change is partially shaped by generational conflicts reflected in divergent ideas of religious continuity (or a lack thereof). Aging membership of religious communities is thus opening new avenues for understanding the malleability of religious narratives and practices. We aim for a discussion of how disruption, displacement and diversity in religious practices shape perceptions of crisis. In doing so, we foreground the cross-generational, gendered and minority perspectives. We welcome contributions from scholars that work on how the sense of precarious futures prevalent in many Asian societies speaks to religious practices across the generational spectrum.

Download abstracts here (pdf)