Religions of Asia Today, as the title suggests, is the only book to focus on the effect of modernity on the religions of Asia: what their adherents practice as well as the way the faiths developed historically. The book connects today's religions to their classical beliefs and practices but also shows how these religions have responded to and been transformed by the modern world. This core textbook is designed for the first university survey course on the major Asian religions or the East (Hinduism, Buddhism, East Asian religions, and Islam). It is a split version of Esposito, World Religions Today 3e that is intended for the introduction to Eastern or Asian religions classes that typically cover Hinduism, Buddhism, and East Asian religions. This Asian volume includes an entirely new chapter on Islam in Asia, which appears only in this volume.

Table of Contents:
1. INTRODUCTION ; Globalization: World Religions in Everyone's Hometown ; Understanding Religious Experience and Its Expressions ; The Great Transition: From Tribal Life to Urban Life and the Emergence of World Religions ; The Great Religious Stories of the World ; Modernization in Global Perspective ; Modern Colonialism, the Socialist Challenge, and the End of Modernity ; Postmodern Trends in a Postcolonial World ; Conclusion: We Are All Heretics in the Postmodern Situation ; 2. INDIGENOUS RELIGIONS ; I. Origins of Homo Religiosus: Prehistory ; II. Indigenous Religious Traditions: Soul Belief and Afterlife ; III. Indigenous Religions Today ; 3. HINDUISM ; Encountering Modernity: Hindu Challenges to India as a Secular State ; Premodern Hinduism: The Formative Era ; Premodern Hinduism: The Classical Era (180 BCE-900 CE) ; Premodern Hinduism: The Postclassical Era (900 CE-1500 CE) ; Hinduism and Modernity ; Hinduism and Postmodern Trends in a Postcolonial World ; Hindu Festival Practice ; The Religious Institutions of Contemporary Hinduism ; 4. BUDDHISM: WAYS TO NIRVANA ; Encounter with Modernity: Socially Engaged Buddhism ; Premodern Buddhism: The Formative Era ; Premodern Buddhism: The Classical Era ; The Core Doctrines ; Premodern Buddhism: Buddhist Expansion ; Buddhism and Postmodern Trends in a Postcolonial World ; 5. EAST ASIAN RELIGIONS: TRADITIONS OF HUMAN CULTIVATION AND NATURAL HARMONY ; Encounter with Modernity: Postcolonial Confucian ; ECONOMICS ; East Asian Religions in the Premodern Era ; East Asian Religions in the Early Modern Era ; East Asian Religions and Postmodern Trends in a Postcolonial World ; 6. ISLAM IN ASIA ; THE DAWN OF ISLAM IN ASIA ; THE ISLAMIC TRADITION ; JIHAD ; THE CHALLENGE OF EUROPEAN COLONIALISM ; 7. GLOBALIZATION: FROM NEW TO NEW AGE RELIGIONS ; New Religions ; New Age Religions ; East Goes West: Transcendental Meditation ; West Goes East: The Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon ; AND THE AUM SHINRIKYO MOVEMENT ; Religious Postmodernism and Global Ethics ; The Challenge of Postmodern Secular Relativism ; The Future of Religion in an Age of Globalization