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Gods, Heroes, and Ancestors: An Interreligious Encounter in Eighteenth-Century Vietnam

Though a minority religion in Vietnam, Christianity has constituted a significant presence in the country since its arrival in the sixteenth century. This translation and analytical study of a 1752 ... More

Though a minority religion in Vietnam, Christianity has constituted a significant presence in the country since its arrival in the sixteenth century. This translation and analytical study of a 1752 document entitled Tam Giáo Chư Vọng [Errors of the Three Religions] adds to the knowledge of its early history within its cultural and religious contexts. This anonymous manuscript paints a rich picture of the three traditional Vietnamese religions (Tam Giáo), i.e., Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. Aiming at the new converts, the writer describes the “errors” (Chư Vọng) of these traditional beliefs and religious practices and provides an apologetics for the Christian doctrines. Structured as a dialogue between a Christian priest and a Confucian scholar, the work explains and evaluates many religious customs and rituals of eighteenth-century Vietnam—many of which are still in practice today. In addition, it contains a trove of information on the challenges and struggles that Vietnamese Christian converts had to face in following the new faith. Beside its enormous historical value for studies on Vietnamese religions, language, and culture, this manuscript raises contemporary and highly complex issues concerning the encounter between Christianity and other religions, Christian missions, religious pluralism, interreligious dialogue, and the dialogue between Christianity and cultures.Less

The Divine Eye and the Diaspora: Vietnamese Syncretism Becomes Transpacific Caodaism

Janet Alison Hoskins

Caodaism, Vietnam’s third largest religion with four million followers, is now a major world religion. Colorful and strikingly eclectic, it incorporates Chinese, Buddhist and Western traditions along ... More

Caodaism, Vietnam’s third largest religion with four million followers, is now a major world religion. Colorful and strikingly eclectic, it incorporates Chinese, Buddhist and Western traditions along with more recent world figures like Victor Hugo, Jeanne d’Arc, Lenin and (in the USA) the Mormon founder Joseph Smith. Sometimes described as “outrageously syncretistic”, its combination of different elements has been seen as an excessive, even trangressive combination of the traditions of Asia and the West. Caodaism emerged in the 1920s during the struggle against colonialism in French Indochina. Millions converted in the first few decades, and Caodaists played important roles in the nationalist movement and the American war in Vietnam. Communist victory in 1975 led to severe restrictions inside Vietnam, but Caodaism flourished in the diaspora in the US, France, Australia and Canada. The lives of religious founders from the Caodai “the age of revelations” (1925-1934) are contrasted with experiences of their disciples and descendants in the “age of diaspora” (1975-present) when many Caodaists went into exile. Paired biographies of founders and followers show the tension between initial religious inspiration and diasporic re-interpretations in a new context, as the religion has achieved a global outreach on both sides of the Pacific.Less