Contributed By: Jonathan Seitz

In Taipei, I teach at Taiwan Graduate School of Theology, a Presbyterian seminary. Theological students at our school take either a course in contextual theology or Taiwanese religions. Some years back, I took on the Taiwanese religions course, and during the semester we study a mix of folk and popular religion, what are often called ‘the three teachings’ (Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism), new religious movements, indigenous religion, and also some contemporary topics (related to civic life, education, and gender). One of the highlights of the semester has become a visit to Taipei’s Museum of the World’s Religions, located in a department store in a suburb.

Jonathan with students at Museum of World Religions

The Museum of the World’s Religions is not the only such museum in the world, but such museums are rare. I have not read it yet, but Charles Orzech has a new book out Museums of World Religions: Displaying the Divine, Shaping Cultures (Bloombury, 2020). It looks at seven different religiously themed museums around the world, concluding with Taipei’s. In SBCS, Maria Reis Habito wrote an early article about the museum (Volume 22, 2002) and has been an advisor. To me, the museum is culturally interesting. I remember being surprised when I visited Taiwanese and Chinese national museums that often were more directed towards art and civilization (with far fewer portraits, suits of armors, and the like, as are common in the history museums I visited growing up). The first time I visited the Museum of World Religions, I realized that I wished there were more such teaching sites available.

Taipei’s museum exhibits a religious studies sensibility, with a succession of exhibitions that teach and demonstrate. The entrance uses shares different terms in different languages for key religious concepts. A waterfall wall allows students to contemplate rituals of cleaning (common before entering many religious sites). A walkway simulates a pilgrimage. There’s a type of mini labyrinth that introduces viewers to different religious zodiacs. A film shares about cosmic origins. One of the highlights is a large room with several areas that treat stages of life. The tour usually concludes with a giant viewing hall where there are exhibits on major religions as well as some rotating presentations, and famous religious sites (The Dome of the Rock, Buddha’s Light Temple, Chartres, etc.).

Students put hands on interactive exhibit at MWR

My students often come from conservative backgrounds and are wary of non-Christians. They have often had little formal background in religion. The Museum of World Religions gives them a crash course in many of the core aspects of religious studies (belief and practice, ritual, themes like death and dying, etc.). They often take delight in the interactive aspects of the museum (the waterwall, the walkway, a wall that uses thermal paint to display handprints, the videos in the rites of passage hallway). For many of them, this is one of the first times that religious pluralism is presented side-to-side in such variety.

The Museum does have a perspective. It was founded in 2001 by Hsin Tao, a famous meditation master in Taiwan, and the Museum does outreach (they were of three Taiwanese groups I saw at the 2019 Parliament of the World’s Religions, along with Tzu Chi and Fo Guang Shan). The museum is universally positive in depicting religion, with no discussion of violence and war and seeks to depict rather than critique (so women and men are shown, but there is little discussion of gender).

For me, the visit to the museum is one of the highlights of the semester. I also take them on a neighborhood temple walk, and students do a mix of their own reports. The Museum of World Religions is one of the surprises that greeted me when we moved to Taiwan long-term. I am grateful for its presence and wish there were many more such museums.

An interactive exhibit with video footage at MWR