ABSTRACT
The interaction between religion and politics in Taiwan is a broadly peaceful one. The limited number of scholars in political science who explore the interactions between religion and politics may arguably mirror the general lack of attention in the discipline paid to the intersection of politics and religion in liberal democratic societies, a problem recently acknowledged in the field. This chapter aims to structure the presentation of the "state of the field" about research on religion and politics in Taiwan so as to reflect existing debates in two distinct but interrelated phenomena: the emergence of a Taiwanese identity, and the transition to democracy. On issues of civil liberties and support for the process of democratic transition, the Presbyterian Church was one of the few religious associations that openly criticized human rights abuse by the Kuomintang in the 1970s. Practitioners of religions banned in China, such as Falungong and Yiguandao, are free to worship.
