Few areas of the world provide a more suitable laboratory for exploring the role of religious organizations in modern political change than do the countries of East and Southeast Asia. In recent decades, most of the region has been swept by the twin forces of economic globalization and (relative) political liberalization. The region offers an inviting perch, then, from which to reflect on how religious associations in different countries respond to similar political and economic challenges.
It is comparisons such as these that underlie this welcome collection of case studies on religious organizations and democratization in East and Southeast Asia. The book project began as a special edition of the American Asian Review, published in 2001, with a primary focus on China, Taiwan, and Thailand. Struck by the “lack of comparative studies on religious organizations in newly democratizing Asia” (p. ix), the editors subsequently expanded the collection to include...