History of Religion

I’ve walked to the edge and back many times on how and whether to approach the issue of future of faith, or marketplace of meaning, or some other variation of the same theme. The rapid evangelisation of S Korea, and the eventual domination of S Korea business, politics etc by several megachurches is worth projecting out towards a possible future of China, as it will be the world’s largest Christian nation within our lifetimes. Would it be more like the Taiwanese way … meaning a foreign missionary transmission and hence still more elitist and less the bedrock of modern Taiwanese society … or like S Korea where it was an important anti-feudal movement against the old, against Japanese colonization etc and morphed into a home grown uniquely S Korean religion?

Of course, Buddhism has borrowed ‘best business practices’ from the pentecostal churches and we see that in the mega Buddhist corporations in Taiwan where, like the megachurches, they own satellite TV stations, malls, hospitals etc Religions do adapt in the marketplace. I have ordered the IPS study on what is happening in Singapore and look forward to reading it.

But for now, here’s a fun flash on how the geography of religion evolved over the centuries, you can see 5,000 years of religion in 90 seconds. Click here to see.