"This book argues that the development of Catholicism in Asia was closely connected with globalization. Since the 16th century Catholicisms has contributed significantly to global connectivity, while at the same time the Church 's global expansion has transformed the Church's own global consciousness. Casanova and Phan adopt a framework of three distinct phases of the development of Catholicism in Asia and Oceania - early modern (16th to 18th centuries), modern Western hegemony (1780s to the 1960s), and the contemporary, after Western hegemony. With this framework, contributors discuss the development of Catholicism in all major countries of the region, including China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, and Australia. Except for the Philippines and Timor-Leste, Catholicism in Asia is and is likely to remain a minority religion for the foreseeable future. For that reason, however, it can serve as a unique prism through which to look at the processes of globalization in Asia, precisely because the historical processes through which Catholicism took roots in the entire region and became inculturated as an Asian religion are so intimately connected with the processes of globalization"--

José Casanova is one of the world's leading scholars in the sociology of religion and a senior fellow at the Berkley Center at Georgetown University, where his work focuses on globalization, religions, and secularization. His best-known work, Public Religions in the Modern World (1994), has become a modern classic in the field.

Peter C. Phan currently holds the Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J. Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University. He is the first non-Anglo to be elected President of the Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Theological Society. His work includes over 30 books and 300 essays.