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Anna Sun

Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Religious Studies
Box 90964, 403 Chapel Drive, Durham, NC 27708
407 Chapel Drive, Box 90964, Durham, NC 27278

Selected Publications


Situating Spirituality Context, Practice, and Power

Book · 2021 Featured Publication Context, Practice, and Power Brian Steensland, Jaime Kucinskas, Anna Sun. When we analyze spirituality as a dimension of lived religious practice, we can note, for example, that it varies in intensity and form and in the degree to which ... ... Cite

Thinking with Weber’s Religion of China in the Twenty-First Century

Journal Article Review of Religion and Chinese Society · December 4, 2020 Featured Publication AbstractThis paper proposes a new approach to Max Weber’s Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism, which is to make the development of Confucianism, rather than the development of modern capit ... Full text Open Access Cite

Confucianism and Daoism: From Max Weber to the Present

Journal Article Review of Religion and Chinese Society · 2020 Cite

To Be or Not to Be a Confucian: Explicit and Implicit Religious Identities in the Global Twenty-First Century

Journal Article Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion · 2020 Featured Publication Cite

Turning Ghosts into Ancestors in Contemporary Urban China

Other Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Religion and Values in Public Life · 2019 Open Access Cite

Contemporary Confucius Temple Life in Mainland China: Report from the Field

Chapter · July 26, 2018 The Varieties of Confucian Experience offers a number of ethnographic accounts of the popular Confucian revival taking place in China since the beginning of the 21st Century. ... Open Access Cite

From Confucius to Ancestors

Other Politics, Religion & Ideology · July 3, 2018 Full text Open Access Cite

Fei Xiaotong’s Humanism Infuses "From the Soil: The Foundation of Chinese Society"

Other Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Religion and Values in Public Life · 2017 Link to item Cite

Traces of the Sage Monument, Materiality, and the First Temple of Confucius

Other Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion · 2017 Link to item Cite

A Sociological Consideration of Prayer and Agency

Journal Article TDR/The Drama Review · December 2016 Prayer may be seen as one of the most individual forms of action. Yet, like suicide, another supposedly individualistic action performed by a solitary individual, prayer is a dynamic, reflexive, intersubjective social action, and the sociality of ... Full text Open Access Cite

The Study of Chinese Religions in the Social Sciences: Beyond the Monotheistic Assumptions

Chapter · October 6, 2016 Each chapter of the book deals with one regional sub-discipline in Asian Studies, covering Chinese Studies, Japanese Studies, Korean Studies, South Asian Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, and Central Eurasian Studies. ... Open Access Cite

Conversion and Confucianism

Chapter · 2014 This refers to the people who participate in Confucius worship in Confucius temples. The Minimalist Criterion ensures the undeniable religious dimension of Confucianism; these are religious rituals performed in a sacred space. The next ... ... Cite

An Interview with Robert N. Bellah

Other Review of Religion and Chinese Society · 2013 Open Access Link to item Cite