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- Accepting Plurality as an All-Encompassing Religion
Accepting Plurality as an All-Encompassing Religion
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Explores how the Hong Kongese blended ancestor worship into Christianity making the two compatible for individuals.
| creator | Wong, Rebecca |
| Title | Accepting Plurality as an All-Encompassing Religion |
| advisor | Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, Amy |
| supporting host | Grinnell College. Religious Studies Department. |
| Index Date | 2016 |
| Publisher | Grinnell College |
| Type of Resource | text |
| Genre | research paper |
| Digital Origin | reformated digital |
| Digital Extent | 23 pages |
| Media Type | application/pdf |
| description | As happens so often in history, cultures and religions collide and become inevitably intertwined. Hong Kong was no exception and served as a religious melting pot combining elements from both the east and west. Following the First Opium War and British occupation of Hong Kong, Christianity gained a strong foothold within the region. However, Christianity's increasing popularity did not result in a decrease in popularity in the folk religions of Hong Kong, including ancestor worship. Because Christianity did not displace ancestor worship, religious plurality is a topic of contention for many Christian religious authorities who regard certain aspects of ancestor worship, including worship of ancestors and the potential “superstitious” meanings behind certain practices, as incompatible with Christianity. Thus, many Hong Kongese have struggled to relinquish ancestor worship traditions that date back centuries while attempting to be devout Christians. However, my own upbringing and my father’s seamless integration of ancestor worship with Christianity made me wonder whether or not these two religions needed to be practiced exclusively. By consulting various religious authorities’ texts, both historical and modern-day, I found that there are a variety of methods and ways to interpret ancestor worship that allow the two to be compatible, and ultimately, the individual will need to determine the reasoning behind one’s own practices before deciding to commit faithfully to both. |
| Language | English |
| Topic | Identity (Psychology) |
| Topic | Ancestor worship |
| Topic | Religious pluralism |
| Topic | Christianity |
| Topic | Buddhism |
| Geographic | Hong Kong (China) |
| Temporal | 20th century |
| Classification | BL |
| Related Item | Digital Grinnell |
| Related Item | Student Scholarship |
| Identifier (local) | grinnell:13174 |
| Access Condition | Copyright to this work is held by the author(s), in accordance with United States copyright law (USC 17). Readers of this work have certain rights as defined by the law, including but not limited to fair use (17 USC 107 et seq.). |
| Identifier (hdl) | http://hdl.handle.net/11084/13174 |