Yang Fenggang has done more than any other scholar to put Chinese religion on the map of the sociology of religion. Besides carrying out the broad stream of research upon which this study is based, he has organized a series of workshops and conferences that have introduced a generation of scholars in China to the sociological theories and methods for studying Chinese religion. He is exceptionally well informed about policy debates within China about how to regulate religion, and about empirical research that has been done on the extent of the religious revivals taking place in China today. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in this topic.
Yang intends this book to be a contribution to the sociology of religion, and from the point of view of area specialists, this has strengths and weaknesses. Unlike many historians and even anthropologists (an excellent example combining both history and anthropology...
