Abstract
Continuing the narrative of Volume II, this book also addresses conceptual categories and values that have been foundational for the narrative of Chinese religions in the last few centuries. Unlike Volume II, the chapters in this book do not just assess the recent history of those values or their intellectual formation, but aim to analyze their role and development during processes of religious practice. Also similar to both Volume I and Volume II, the term modern does not appear explicitly in the title in order to highlight continuities and processes of connection, rather than a solid break, between what happened before and after the mid-nineteen century. In the following pages we will explain why we think the study of concepts in practice can advance the field, the questions the contributors to this volume address, how this book positions itself within the existing scholarship, and how this research line may continue in the future.