Fenggang Yang: ‘The Social Significance of Religion: From China to the Global East’

Fenggang Yang, professor of sociology and director of the Center on Religion and the Global East, presented “The Social Significance of Religion: From China to the Global East” at the Westwood Lecture Series on March 27, 2024.

Abstract. Religion in China has survived and thrived despite Communist rule. Among the diverse religions, Christianity has grown dramatically in the last 50 years, while China has been undergoing rapid modernization. The religious change in China poses serious challenges to the political authorities, existing sociological theories and research methods. We have developed conceptual and methodological tools to understand religion’s social significance in China and the Global East, which includes East Asian societies, East Asian diasporas and East Asian cultures around the world.

Bio. Fenggang Yang is a professor of sociology and founding director of the Center on Religion and the Global East at Purdue University. He served as president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion from 2014-15 and was founder and president of the East Asian Society for the Scientific Study of Religion from 2018-20. Yang is the author of “Atlas of Religion in China: Social and Geographical Contexts” (2018), “Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule” (2012) and “Chinese Christians in America: Conversion, Assimilation and Adhesive Identities” (1999). He has given many invited lectures and keynote presentations at major universities and professional associations in the U.S., Asia and Europe. His interviews have appeared on National Public Radio, CNN and BBC and in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Time, the Economist and other media outlets.