Many Asian nations are experiencing a revival of religion in public and political life

Religion is returning to public and political life in many Asian countries contrary to previously dominant ideas about the inevitable decline of religion through the process of modernisation.Economic development and socio-cultural progress in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and China have brought religion back to the political and socio-cultural spheres.Asia is the only continent where virtually all major world religions today originated and developed: Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.Contrary to the classic sociological theories on the decline of religions in the face of modernisation and secularisation, which go all the way back at least to Max Weber, Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim, all these great religions are still going strong in most of Asia.In fact, like the other parts of the globe, Asia in the last four decades has been experiencing a religious revival.In many parts of Asia, religions have long played a significant role, not only in the lives of the faithful, but also in public and political life.Hinduism, plays an important role in India, and Buddhism is a crucial element in private and public lives in Thailand and Sri Lanka.Judaism is closely bound up with national identity in Israel, while Christianity, specifically Catholicism, is the single largest religion in the Philippines and Timor Leste.At the same time, Protestantism is making inroads in

Buddhism · China · Christianity · Element (criminal law · Face (sociological concept · Modernization theory · Politics · Protestantism · Religion, Society, and Development

• Religion, Redistribution and Regimes in Asia and Africa, 2005–2022

  Open Access•Philip Nel, Philip Rudolph Nel•Journal of Asian and African…•2026

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