Rationalizing Religion: Religious Conversion, Revivalism and Competition in Singapore Society (Social Sciences in Asia, 13)

Examining modernity and religion, this book disputes the widely-spread secularization hypothesis. Using the example of Singapore, as well as comparative data on religion in China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, it argues that rapid social change and modernity have not led here to the decline of religion but on the contrary, to a certain revivalism.Using qualitative and quantitative data collected over a period of twenty years, the author analyzes the nature of religious change in a society with a complex ethnic and religious composition.