Meeting

Plenary Session: Fellow Presentation

Alexander Henn / Sung-deuk Oak

Dr. Oak's talk introduces the main ideas and issues of his forthcoming book,
"The Making of the Korean Christianity: Protestant Encounters with Korean Religions, 1876-1915."

Prof. Dr. Alexander Henn: "Syncretism Reconsidered: Hindu-Catholic Encounters in Goa / India."

Syncretistic expressions and practices between Hindus and Catholics are widely spread in Goa. I will discuss the phenomena in light of the reappraisal of the concept of 'syncretism' in recent anthropological scholarship. How do the ethnographic data relate to  modern paradigms of the politics of religious synthesis? Are they still connected to the initiation of the Hindu-Catholic encounter in early-modernity? How adequate can a modern concept of religion deal with the subject?