When looking at a particular religious tradition we can heuristically distinguish two crucial aspects. One aspect is the system of ideas, symbols, and ritual practices that make up this particular religious tradition. The other aspect is the mechanisms through which people mobilise this system of ideas, symbols, and ritual practices and are in turn mobilised by it. This second aspect we can call religious subjectification, i.e., how a certain kind of person (i.e. religious subject) is made through the dynamic interaction between ‘the system’ and ‘the people’ (this perspective of course owes its inspiration to Louis Althusser and Michel Foucault). Dr Chau has published on this topic in several articles.
