Starting in 2008, I taught a series of overseas courses on Taiwanese popular religions for Long Island University’s Global College. I taught all of these courses on-site at local Taipei temples. Prior to class, students read theoretical writings stressing how religious practice exists in a social context, and always is shaped by and shapes its social context. In all, students analyzed six different theories of popular culture, with a primary focus on applying these theories to contemporary Taiwanese society. During our temple visits, we analyzed the logic of temple practice, and examined how the content and structure of Taiwanese temples are always formed, at least partially, out of the “stuff” of its socio-cultural world (e.g., language, symbols, groups, interactions).
