Utopia, theodicy, and ritual: East Asian perspectives

ABSTRACT

This response argues that ‘utopia' and ‘utopianism' are useful conceptual tools for analysing and comparing social practices in different historical and geographical contexts. It also suggests that the theoretical interventions put forward in this special issue can be developed further by bringing them in dialogue with cases and theories from East Asia. The response introduces the example of Tenri City in Japan, conceived in the early postwar period as a physical realisation of the Tenrikyō Church’s utopian vision, which today comes across as an outdated urban planning project. It asks how groups such as Tenrikyō reconcile their utopian promises with the inherent imperfections that characterise any real-world social project, focusing on two key themes: theodicy and ritual action. The insights from this approach contribute to broader discussions in the study of religion\s, underscoring the interplay between temporal imagination, materiality, and everyday ritual practices in sustaining community life and social identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Pollution
• ritual theory
• Tenrikyō

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Research for this article was conducted in the context of the ERC-funded project Whales of Power: Aquatic Mammals, Devotional Practices, and Environmental Change in Maritime East Asia. This project is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 803211 (ERC Starting Grant 2018).

Notes on contributors

Aike P. Rots

Aike P. Rots is Professor in Asian Studies at the University of Oslo. He is the author of Shinto, Nature and Ideology in Contemporary Japan: Making Sacred Forests (Bloomsbury 2017) and the co-editor of Festivals in Asia (special issue of Religion, 2023), Sacred Heritage in Japan (Routledge 2020), and Formations of the Secular in Japan (special issue of Japan Review, 2017). He has written numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters in the fields of religious studies, Asian studies, critical heritage studies, and environmental humanities, and he is currently PI of the ERC-funded project Whales of Power: Aquatic Mammals, Devotional Practices, and Environmental Change in Maritime East Asia (2019–2025).