Taiwan is a country with multi-religious context. The most popular religion is Folk Religion. It is a combination of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and folklore. Certainly, the Folk Religion is not serious in dogma or religious structure. It depends on the tradition from generation to generation. The most important religious activity is invoking for blessings, protection from evil and etc. The faithful follow activities of nearby temples or altars, celebrate anniversaries of deities and other festivals. Pilgrimage to famous temples around the island is also a common custom. There are 8,000 Taoist temples and more the 10,000 altars/shrines in Taiwan.
There are 20 main religions registered in Taiwan according to a Guide book for Religions issued on November 2009 by the Taiwanese Government namely:
Protestant Churches in Taiwan: There are mainly 24 denominations of Protestant Churches ( 基督教 ) and the largest the Presbyterian Church.
Catholic Church ( 天主教 )
Islam ( 伊斯蘭教 )
Li Chiao ( 理教 )
The government has officially recognized recently many “churches” or new communities of faith and new religious movements. The very rapid development of new religious projects, new religious communities and new religious movements everywhere in Taiwan is challenging every Christian and all religious believers to open themselves more and more to a genuine dialogue and cooperation with neighbors of other religious traditions. The whole Christian community, especially the Catholic community in Taiwan, faces this big challenge.
There has been, in the last ten years, a rapid development of new Buddhist centers of religious, cultural, social and educational activities. Among the new centers of religious activities, quite a few have been established by monks of the Tibetan tradition. Outstanding Buddhist Masters, men and women of great vision and deep spiritual experience, endowed with a remarkable sensitivity to the people's deepest aspirations and needs have initiated many new projects. Created in 1966, the Buddhist Compassion Tzu Chi Association ( 慈濟功德會 ) has today four million members committed to the development of social, medical, educational and cultural projects. In less than ten years, five Buddhist universities ( 華梵、佛光、慈濟、玄奘、法鼓大學 ) have been founded in Taiwan. Every year now, thousands of faithful follow one of the many three-day or seven-day spiritual retreats directed by Ch'an Masters. New monasteries are being constructed all over the island, as hundreds of new monks and nuns are ordained each year. Of course along with this trend comes a steady and unrelenting increase in the number of believers. Buddhism has now more than two million followers in Taiwan.
Present Situation of Inter-religious Dialogue in Taiwan
The dialogue between Christians and Buddhists that has deep roots in Taiwan is now progressing at a fast pace. A major and particularly audacious initiative of the Buddhist community occurred eleven years ago with the launching of an idea to create a "World Religions Museum" ( 世界宗教博物館 ). This project is to take place in Taiwan, and will form a meeting place for people of all faiths and people in search of a faith by which they can live. It is a place where all can easily learn to respect each other, to share their religious experience, and to work together for the construction of peace in the world. The project is being carried out step by step by the LingChiuShan Prajna Cultural and Educational Foundation ( 靈鷲山般若文教基金會 ). The first building of the Museum was inaugurated in Taipei in the year 2000.
In contrast with the flourishing "Chinese religions", Christianity is still, in the eyes of many, a "foreign religion". Christians still form only a tiny minority of the overall population. Many major churches, particularly the Catholic Church, have remained at a standstill for the last twenty-five years. However, it must be noted that Christianity's cultural, social and educational influence in Taiwan goes far beyond the churches' institutional boundaries. It must also be noted that several Christian churches are actively engaged in the search for effective ways and means of promoting in Taiwan a meaningful inter-religious dialogue. The Department and the Graduate School of Religious Studies at Fujen Catholic University are playing an important role in this field.
Even before Vatican II, several Christian leaders from the Catholic and the Protestant Churches of Taiwan had joined the Chinese Inter-faith Friendship Association ( 宗教信徒聯誼會 ) founded in Nanking by Archbishop Yu-Pin. It shows how dialogue between Christians, Buddhists and Muslims was already progressing. In 1973, the Chinese Association for Interreligious Dialogue ( 宗教座談會 ) was created in Taipei with the view of fostering dialogue and cooperation among leaders of the seven religions and was then officially recognized by the government. About fifteen years later, the Chinese Inter-faith Friendship Association welcomed as members, the representatives of all officially recognized religions (eleven at that time) and founded the World Inter-faith Association ( 世界宗教徒協會 ).
Looking Forward to the Future
Ten orientations are pointed out for the future work in a recent meeting of the Commission for Inter-religious and Ecumenical Cooperation -
- The Commission has good relations with Buddhist, Taoist and Protestant churches since its creation. More attention must be geared towards dialogue with the Islam religion in the future, because they are a big influence to world peace. Communication and good understanding with Muslims will be a key point for inter-religious dialogue.
- The relevant documents from colloquiums, workshops that have been done must be collected. The collected documents, the teachings of Vatican II and the Pontifical congregation for the evangelization of peoples concerning theology, spirituality and etc will be sent to each diocese to enforce the idea of inter-religious dialogue for the laity as well as the clergy.
- Write articles and columns with high readability in the Church’s newspapers and magazines, indicating the basic idea and appropriate attitude towards inter-religious dialogue and ecumenism. Invite parish priest to introduce these idea to the faithful in Sunday’s homilies.
- Establish work groups; organize weekend workshops in different levels for different people in order to promote the study of interreligious dialogue and ecumenism. The relevant person of each diocese, after participation in workshops can become a resource person to animate and encourage interreligious dialogue and ecumenism in their parish or diocese.
- Intensify the communication among organizations inside the Church, so that all who had organized activities on inter-religious dialogue can share with one another their experiences, their resources and later contribute to the inter-religious dialogue work for CRBC’s Secretariate.
- Emphasize the communication with folk religion; get acquainted with the meaning of their liturgies and actions.
- “Chinese Evangelistic Seminary” will openly discuss “spiritual” theology with Theologians’ Association. It is a good venue for participation and learning.
- The main work of this Commission is to strengthen propagation and formation. On one hand, continue to publish articles in newspapers and magazines, build up the basic conception of inter-religious and cooperation, foster the correct attitude; And on the other hand, collect all the information in Taiwan regarding this concern, including the ones from the Department of Religious Science of Fu Jen Catholic University, from the activities of each diocese and etc. After which, make a report to the Pontifical Commission.
(This report was presented by the Secretary General of CRBC on July 13th 2010 at the PCID meeting in Bangkok).