Global Gurus in Motion -Challenges for the Academic Study of Religion-

Abstract

Ultimately this lecture assumes, like the political campaign of Barak Obama in the United States, that we arc entering a radically new paradigm in the study of contemporary religion. This re-Orientation-res many are calling it asks that scholars stop their fixation on "colonialism" and issues of the dominance of West over East and look at the world that we now have in front of us. Rather than beginning with discussions of postmodern or postcolonial theory. ethic identity formation, or even diaspora that dominated the 19905. I prefer to start with the contemporary world and with a hard look at the current conditions in the urban Asia-particularly the religious trends that are now assuming a growing presence along side of fundamentalism and pluralism. New spiritual-religious!' movements are spreading throughout Asia and into the Americas, Europe, and now Africa, originating out of India' s long tradition of gurus-but melded to very modern forms and discourse. I am betting like Obama, that these instances of melding, mixing, and matching, will soon become potent and powerful. In this paper I hope to show that these new movements have important implications for departments . of Religious Studies that are emerging in Asian universities.