What does being Catholic mean to religiously involved Filipino students? Drawing from qualitative research with undergraduates involved in campus-based Catholic organisations, this article argues that their religious identity is best characterised in terms of a reflexive spirituality. Reflexive spirituality is defined as the subjective spiritual disposition of engaging with Catholicism to ascertain its most important …

WPS 146 Being Catholic as Reflexive Spirituality: The Case of Religiously Involved Filipino Students Read More »

The great majority of books on religious diversity forgo an analysis of religious materials in favour of a focus on doctrine, scripture and governmental policy. This paper argues that the material aspects of religion — from statues and monuments of deities, to revered religious artworks, to talismans, amulets, and even sacred cars — are absolutely …

WPS 145 Tracing the Centrality of Materials to Religious Belief in Southeast Asia Read More »

In September 2006, a coalition of political forces spearheaded by the army removed the Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, by overthrowing parliamentary democracy. Elections which restored parliamentary government fourteen months later were a contest between the coup generals and the man they had overthrown. The generals argued that a return of a pro-Thaksinite government was …

WPS 144 The Mask-play Election: Generals, Politicians, and Voters at Thailand’s 2007 Poll Read More »

Conceptual shift from “gentry” to “local elites” fail to respect the internal relations of gentry and the renouncer, which complementarily constitutes the literati in the imperial Chinese value of “the literati’s vocation is the Way”. Examining the renouncers assessed in The Analects and depicted in the Official Histories, I argue that by keeping the literati’s …

WPS 143 Renouncers in Chinese World: Reconsidering Gentry and “Local Elites” Read More »

The implementation of new national laws on decentralisation and self-determination in Eastern Indonesia provides the case study to examine the various dilemmas resulting from the human right to culture such as integration versus exclusion, cultural flexibility versus codification, and re-empowerment of local cultures versus the re-emergence of feudal structures. The contribution first discusses the challenges …

WPS 142 The Revival Dilemma: Reflections on Human Rights and Self-Determination in Eastern Indonesia Read More »

This paper, originally the 15th James C. Jackson Memorial Lecture, argues the case for considering Malaysia and Singapore as immigrant societies, and analyzing their dynamic by comparison with New World countries such as Australia rather than with Asian neighbours. The historical demography of the two countries over the past two centuries puts them at the …

WPS 141 Malaysia Singapore as Immigrant Societies Read More »