- [UNTITLED]
- Dedication
- Contributors
- The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion
- Introduction
- History and Religious Conversion
- Demographics of Religious Conversion
- Geographies of Religious Conversion
- Anthropology of Religious Conversion
- The Role of Language in Religious Conversion
- Sociology of Religious Conversion
- Conversion and the Historic Spread of Religions
- Migration and Conversion of Korean American Christians
- Psychology of Religious Conversion and Spiritual Transformation
- Religious Conversion and Cognitive Neuroscience
- Dreaming and Religious Conversion
- Deconversion
- Feminist Approaches to the Study of Religious Conversion
- Seeing Religious Conversion Through the Arts
- Religious Conversion as Narrative and Autobiography
- Religious Conversion and Semiotic Analysis
- Political Science and Religious Conversion
- Hinduism and Conversion
- Conversion to Jain Identity
- Buddhist Conversion in the Contemporary World
- Conversion to Sikhism
- Adherence and Conversion to Daoism
- Conversion and Confucianism
- “Conversion” and the Resurgence of Indigenous Religion in China
- Conversion to Judaism
- Conversion to Christianity
- Conversion to Islam in Theological and Historical Perspectives
- “Conversion” to Islam and the Construction of a Pious Self
- Conversion to New Religious Movements
- Disengagement and Apostasy in New Religious Movements
- Legal and Political Issues and Religious Conversion
- Conversion and Retention in Mormonism
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter discusses how one becomes a Confucian in Chinese society. Unlike the conversion process in religious traditions that have a clear initiation ritual such as baptism, there is no clear step in Confucianism that marks such transformation. The process of becoming a Confucian in most cases is a gradual process that involves social and religious rituals, education in the Confucian canon, moral self-cultivation, as well as participation in certain Confucian social institutions. Historically, to become a Confucian in China is not about the renunciation of other religious beliefs or the exclusion of other religious practices but rather a deepening of one’s bonds in a given community, and a consolidation of one’s multiple religious, social, and cultural identities. This chapter proposes a typology that identifies Confucian practices, including Confucius worship, ancestral rites, and what can be called “cultural Confucianism.”
Keywords: Confucianism, Confucian, China, self-cultivation, ritual practice, ancestral rites, cultural Confucianism
Anna Sun is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Asian Studies at Kenyon College, Gamblier, Ohio.
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- [UNTITLED]
- Dedication
- Contributors
- The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion
- Introduction
- History and Religious Conversion
- Demographics of Religious Conversion
- Geographies of Religious Conversion
- Anthropology of Religious Conversion
- The Role of Language in Religious Conversion
- Sociology of Religious Conversion
- Conversion and the Historic Spread of Religions
- Migration and Conversion of Korean American Christians
- Psychology of Religious Conversion and Spiritual Transformation
- Religious Conversion and Cognitive Neuroscience
- Dreaming and Religious Conversion
- Deconversion
- Feminist Approaches to the Study of Religious Conversion
- Seeing Religious Conversion Through the Arts
- Religious Conversion as Narrative and Autobiography
- Religious Conversion and Semiotic Analysis
- Political Science and Religious Conversion
- Hinduism and Conversion
- Conversion to Jain Identity
- Buddhist Conversion in the Contemporary World
- Conversion to Sikhism
- Adherence and Conversion to Daoism
- Conversion and Confucianism
- “Conversion” and the Resurgence of Indigenous Religion in China
- Conversion to Judaism
- Conversion to Christianity
- Conversion to Islam in Theological and Historical Perspectives
- “Conversion” to Islam and the Construction of a Pious Self
- Conversion to New Religious Movements
- Disengagement and Apostasy in New Religious Movements
- Legal and Political Issues and Religious Conversion
- Conversion and Retention in Mormonism
- Index