Co-edited by André Laliberté alongside his colleagues Pascal Bourdeaux, Eddy Dufourmont, and Rémy Madinier, the book translates and revises texts that were originally published in English, making this important scholarship accessible to a wider francophone audience.
The volume also features a new, original chapter by Professor Laliberté, devoted to the specific case of Taiwan. In this chapter, Taiwan is presented as markedly different from its Japanese and Chinese neighbours. The analysis highlights three defining parameters of the secular state in Taiwan:
- a high level of religious diversity,
- a complex historical legacy shaped by multiple colonial influences, and
- a party system structured around the imperative of national survival.
The chapter concludes with a critical review of the contemporary challenges faced by this widely accepted form of secularism.
This publication represents a significant contribution to francophone scholarship on religion, politics, and secularism in Asia.