Abstract
This chapter begins with my first encounter with agents of new religious groups. It is followed by an overview of the emergence of new and indigenous religious groups throughout Vietnam since Renovation as well as an introduction to my motivations in conducting this research. A brief introduction to Renovation, social changes, religious revival, and religious diversity is also provided. Scholarly discussions of changes of the religious picture by researchers inside and outside Vietnam are reviewed with a focus on various new forms of religious practices representing religious innovations. Some important issues surrounding the story of new Vietnamese religions that have not been previously comprehensively addressed conclude the chapter.
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Notes
- 1.
It is never explained what methods were used by the Government for Religious Affairs for the estimation of the number of religious adherents in Vietnam. The estimation could be based on reports submitted annually from all the local departments for religious affairs. It should also be acknowledged that the number of Buddhists is greater than 12 million because the majority of Vietnamese practise Buddhism in one way or another.
- 2.
Officially, the adjective ‘mê tín’ is used to refer to someone who excessively and unconditionally believes in supernatural symbols, imaginary beings, and creations which do not conform to natural rules. This belief causes him or her loss of rational thinking and consciousness thus causing negative effects on individuals, families, and communities in terms of health, time, and money and even on life and society.
- 3.
Literally, ‘ông’ means ‘an old man’ and ‘đạo’ means ‘a religious pathway.’ These men would speak to any person they met of their own ethical and religious ideas.
- 4.
At present, one fashionable practise called ngoại cảm aims to trace the lost graves of war-dead soldiers via communication with their souls. Yet the word ‘ngoại cảm’ is tossed about freely in Vietnam today. People tend to use it as a translation of ‘extrasensory perception’ to refer to a wide range of practises which aim to communicate with souls of the dead and with spiritual entities, without using ordinary human senses. Some founders of contemporary new religious groups see themselves as ESP practitioners who can directly communicate with nonhuman sources of prophecy, information, and energy.
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Hoang, C.V. (2017). The Rise of New Religious Worldviews. In: New Religions and State's Response to Religious Diversification in Contemporary Vietnam. Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58500-0_1
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