Shimazono, Susumu (b. 1948)

A Japanese sociologist of religion and one of the world's leading experts on religion in modern Japan, Shimazono Susumu has been influential in shaping the discipline of religious studies in Japan and in broadening its horizons internationally. His theoretical contributions have been important globally in advancing studies of the relationship between magic and morality and in widening understanding of the dynamics of religion in advanced modern societies such as Japan. He is currently a professor of religious studies at the University of Tokyo.

Shimazono's work on Japan's new religions especially attracted prominence through books such as Gendai Kyûsai Shûkyôron (“Salvation Religions in Contemporary Society”), which identified concepts of salvation as a key theme in Japanese new religions and presented a critique of Weberian notions that in ...