This book offers a sociological exploration of the genesis and development of African and Asian religions. The chapters cover a variety of religious traditions including Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, Shinto and Sikhism. They also reflect on the historiography, phenomenology, and sociology of African religious epistemologies and spiritualities, as well as the complexity of the socioeconomic, cultural and political dimension of religion from an African perspective. The volume considers how the religions of the South and East have evolved and spread, emphasizing their plasticity and the need to look beyond their initial territories and consider them on a global scale. Bringing together a range of expert contributors, this is valuable reading for sociologists of religion as well as scholars in African and Asian studies.

Roberto Cipriani is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Roma Tre University, Italy.

Philippe Portier is director of studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (PSL) in France where he holds the chair ‘History and Sociology of Secularism’.