Popular humanism as new religious movement: The case of Taiwan

I see the emerging new religious groups in Taiwan as an emerging form of popularism in its encounter with the post-colonial situation. This scenario differs greatly from Western new religious movements, where new religion lies outside culturally established religious traditions, and it is also distinct from other Eastern traditions, such as those found in Japan, where traditionally elite and popular traditions have a larger social and mental distance from each other. In the complex Chinese cultural and historical tradition, there exists a deeper interpenetrating elite-popular relationship, therefore determining a different route for religious phenomena. I use the term ‘popular humanism’ to label this trend in contemporary Taiwan. Finally, I use two axes to codify the emerging Taiwanese new religions, ‘methods in popular humanism’ and ‘institutional framing’, mapping the key new religious movements of Taiwan within these axes to localise each group and their mutual positions.