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Tradition and innovation in religious movements: East Asia, the West and beyond – CESNUR conference in Taiwan, June 2018

28 January 2019 By George Chryssides Leave a Comment

Scholars of New Religious Movements who like to combine academic presentations with fieldwork might profitably consider attending CESNUR events. This year’s annual conference was held in Taiwan, and was timed to coincide with the unveiling of the world’s largest statue of Guiguzi, and which was attended by 5,000 people, and to which conference attendees were invited.

Guiguzi, whose name means “the sage of ghost valley”, was a somewhat enigmatic figure – or maybe a composite character – who authored the fifth/sixth century book that bears his name. He is believed to have become an immortal, and is frequently identified with the bodhisattva Wang Chan Lao Zu. The Grand Master Hun Yuan is the founder-leader of Weixin Shengjiao – a sizeable Taiwanese religious movement founded in 1984 – and the Dean of Weixin College, where the conference was held. After suffering a serious illness in 1982, Hun Yuan attributed his recovery to supernatural powers, and subsequently devoted his life to spiritual affairs, claiming a mystical oneness with Guiguzi. Hun Yuan proved to be a jovial and extremely hospitable host throughout the conference and on the subsequent three-day field visits.

Most CESNUR conference themes are broad, since the organisers do not wish to exclude interesting innovative research. However, the Far-Eastern venue attracted scholars from Korea and Vietnam, as well as Taiwan, which serve to put new religions from these countries on the map, in line with the theme.

One panel was devoted to the Vietnamese Cao Dai movement, founded in 1924, and two panels addressed the theme of Feng Shui. Inevitably Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Movement received coverage, although a growing interest is now emerging on Daesoon Jinrihoe, which is Korea’s largest, but less well-known, new religion, and which provided the subject matter for one dedicated panel as well as a number of other presentations. Western NRMs found a niche two, and included one panel on Scientology.

The conference ended with a roundtable on the theme of charisma, in honour of Eileen Barker’s eightieth birthday, and chaired by J. Gordon Melton. A forthcoming edition of Nova Religio is planned to develop the theme, which arguably has relied on undue deference to MaxWeber until now.

The 2019 conference is already publicised on the CESNUR home page. The topic will be: Re-Enchanting The World: Spiritualities And Religions Of The Third Millennium. It will be held in Torino (6-7 September 2019).

George Chryssides


A previous version of this report was published in the November 2018 issue of the Bulletin of the British Association for the Study of Religions (BASR), https://basr.ac.uk.

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www.cesnur.org/2024/bordeaux-program.htm

Dieu juste cette maladie hallucinatoire de se croire connecté à l'au-delà qui t'y fait croire. Abraham tu as oublié de consulter. Religions, croyants, gourous et autres délirants en tenues de manipulateurs arrêtez de brouiller l'écoute de nos psychotiques chroniques, n'ajoutez pas vos illusions à leurs hallucinations déstabilisantes; c'est une insulte faite à nous familles qui essayons chaque jour de se sortir de ce marasme de cette maladie qui détruit les familles. www.psychose.eu/E-Pas-compris.html Libère-toi de ta liberté de croire alors sépare-toi de tes chaînes religieuses La parole de Dieu, NON que ta psychose hallucinatoire qui te parle à toi-même comme tes rêves et cauchemars de nuit. Dieu, Diable, Paradis, Enfer, Âme, Foi, Prophètes que de l'illusion psychiatrique cultivée pour te rendre obéissant. N'attends pas que la schizo entre chez toi Croyant tu dois être en manque de dictature religieuse. Et il y a des pays qui respectent ta demande alors vas-y. Bâtiments religieux : Rien n'est trop beau pour vénérer cette maladie du désastre familial. Alors nous parents dans cette galère on n'attends rien de personne, d'aucun partis politiques alors laissez-nous crever avec votre mec qui marche sur l'eau et votre âne ailé l'ascenseur du ciel: Ne soit plus à la botte des religions avec leurs histoires abracadabrantesques dignes d'arriérés mentaux. Pour une santé mentale comprise, souffrants et familles vos histoires de culte on en a plein le culte et aussi de la laïcité protectrice de cette entourloupe religieuse. < psychose.eu/E-Plagiat.html > S'il y avait un Dieu cette maladie hallucinatoire n'existerait pas. Elle est la dictature du cerveau pour le souffrant. Elle est l'empêcheur de vivre, l'intolérable pour sa famille. Chez toi ça va alors gave-toi d'irréalité mais n'attends pas que la schizo entre chez toi. La connerie est humaine, lorsqu'elle est inhumaine elle m'est intolérable.

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