PERSONAL

Name: Benoît VERMANDER (魏明德)

Email: mdwei@fudan.edu.cn

EDUCATION/Education

1977-1983: Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris

1982-1094 : Yale Univeristy, dpt of political science

1990-1992: Facultés jésuites de Paris School of Theology

1992-1996:  FuJen Faculty of Theology

1984: Ph.D. in political sciences, Institut d’Etudes Politiques; Paris

2009 : Doctorate inSacacred Theology, Facultés jésuites de Paris

CAREER/Work Experience

1984-1986: European Parliament, Administrator

1986-1988: Regional Council Midi-Pyrénées, Avisor for the President.

1984-1988 : lecturer at Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Strasbourg and Toulouse

1996-2008 : Acadelic Director of Taipei Ricci Institute

2009-2014; Associate Professor, Fudan University

2014-present: Professor, doctoral advisor, Fudan University

AREAS OF STUDY/ Research Interests

Religious anthropology; Asian theology; Early China textual production; comparative classics and comparative philosophy

RECENT PUBLICATIONS (a selection)

Books

- Empty Yet Inexhaustible. Reading the Daodejing with Others. Nagoya, Chukasudo Publications, 2024

- Textual Patterns and Cosmic Designs in Early China. London, New York : Routledge, 2024

- The Encounter of Chinese and Western Philosophies A Critique. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2023. 

-《礼仪之力：社会人类学的新视角 [The Strength of Ritual. New Perspectives in Social Anthropology》Shanghai： Zhongxi shuju, 2023.

- Comment lire les classiques chinois ? Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2022.

- Alain Bonjean et Benoît Vermander, L’Homme et le grain. Une histoire céréalière des civilisations. Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2021.  

-《诠释三角。汉学、比较经学与跨文化神学的形成与互动》Fudan University Press, 2021.

- Versailles, la République et la Nation. Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2018.

- Shanghai Sacred. The Religious Landscape Global City. (With Liz Hingley and Liang Zhang). Seattle, University of Washington Press, 2018.

- Dancing on the Bridge. Cross-cultural Encounters and Dialogue 舞在桥上:跨文化相遇与对话.  (With LU Jin 鲁进). Beijing, Peking University Press, 2016.

- Corporate Social Responsibility in China. Singapore, World Scientific, 2014. (Chinese translation 企业社会责任在中国 published in 20014 by Jiaotong University Press, Shanghai.).

- Dialogue as a Game 对话如游戏. Beijing, Beijing Commercial Press 北京商务印书馆, 2012.

- Les Jésuites et la Chine. Paris / Namur, Lessius, 2012.

Selected Papers:

- De « L’École du Mystère (xuanxue) » à Michel de Certeau : l’art de commenter les textes mystiques. Interdiscip. J. Relig. Transform. Contemp. Soc. 2025, 1–18, https://doi.org/10.30965/23642807-bja10126.

- Vermander, Benoît, and Hang Thi Thu Phan. 2025. The Ritual Crafting of Social Spacetime in a Muong Community (North Vietnam) Religions 16, no. 2: 229. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16020229

- Transfers of Sacredness and the Trifunctional Imagery. Religions 15: 1251. https://doi.org/10.3390/ rel15101251

- « Lecture de l’Écriture et écriture des Pensées » Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, 2023, Vol. 79 (4): 1345-1366. DOI https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1345

- « The Jesuits in Jiangnan (1842-1949): A Networked Endeavor.” Sulla Via del Catai 16, November 2023, pp.129-155.

- - Confucius and the Hen-Pheasant: The Enigma at the Center of the Analects. Dao (2023/3). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-023-09890-y

- - « (Que) pouvons-nous connaître (de) Dieu ? » Recherches de Science Religieuse 2023/3 (Tome 111), pages 421 à 447

- « 修辭與數術: 《淮南子》的文本構成 » 諸子學刊 ( 第 二 十 四 輯 ), 2022, pp.166-190.

-  “Jouer (et Donner) à Penser. Une Lecture de Roberte Hamayon en Contexte(s) Chinois.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 30 (2021): 173–207. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27194642.

- « Le chamanisme, le genre, l’espèce », Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 200 | 2022, 71-82.

URL : http://journals.openedition.org/assr/67491 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/assr.67491

- “Encoding the Way: Ritual Ethos and Textual Patterns in China.” Geschichte der Philologien 61/62, 2022: 5-31.

- “Self-Examination, Discernment, and Decision Making: Criss-crossing the Confucian and Ignatian Traditions”, Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion Volume 19, Number 5, October 2022, pp. 522-545(24), https://doi.org/10.51327/LNGV5348

-   Jesus, the Anthropologist: Patterns of Emplotment and Modes of Action in the Parables Religions 13, no. 6, 2022: 480. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13060480

- “John Gerson and the Foundations of Mystical Theology”, 22 (2022), International Journal of Sino-Western Studies 國學與西學：pp. 15-21

- “L’expérience de l’hybride. Cultures céréalières et croisements spirituels. » Social Compass. September 2021. doi:10.1177/00377686211032775

- “Edit by Number: Looking at the Composition of the Huainanzi, and Beyond” Dao 20, July 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-021-09790-z, pp.1-40.

- « La “religion chinoise” : catégorie ouverte ou en voie d’épuisement ? », Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 192 | 2020, pp.95-105.

Edited Books:

- 人文与领导力  李爽与魏明德主编   上海商务2024年

-  Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives. Basel: MDPI, 2023.  

ISBN 978-3-0365-8928-2 (Hbk) / ISBN 978-3-0365-8929-9 (PDF) /

- Cultures and Spirituality. Vision and realization among religious traditions 文化与灵性:跨宗教传统的观照与实现(with Shen Xiuzhen 沈秀臻). Shanghai, Zhongxi shuju 中西书局, 2016 (in Chinese).

- A Reader of Ancient Roman Religion 古罗马宗教读本(with Wu Yaling 吴雅凌). Beijing, Beijing Commercial Press, 2012 (in Chinese).

- Shamanism and Christianity: Religious Encounter among Indigenous Peoples of East Asia (with Olivier Lardinois). Taipei, Taipei Ricci Institute, 2008.

- Cultural Diversity and Sustainable Development: Taiwan and the Global Imperative (with Yang Tzu-pao and Wu Ch'in-fa). Taipei, Taipei Ricci Institute, 2007.

- Creeds, Rites and Videotapes: Narrating Religious Experience in East Asia (with Elise DeVido). Taipei, Taipei Ricci Institute, 2004.

- Heart of Heaven and Heart of Man 天心与人心 (with Shen Qingsong 沈清松and Shao Dasheng 邵大箴). Beijing, Beijing Commercial Press, 2002. (Revised from the first edition published in Taipei by Li-hsu Cultural Press, 1999) (In Chinese).

COURSES

- Anthropology of Religion

- Comparative Spiritualities

- The Spirituality of Ancient Chinese Classics

- Asian Theologies

- Ancient Roman Religion

GRANTS AND AWARDS

- Corbay Prize (2022), awarded by the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques for L'Homme et le grain. Une histoire céréalière des civilisations (Les Belles Lettres).[41]

- Winner of the Annual Best Essay Award delivered by Dao, A Journal of Comparative Philosophy.[42]

- He has been selected in October 2014 as one of the 50 personalities having most influenced the dialogue between China and France in the last 50 years [43]

- Knight in the Ordre des Palmes académiques

- Auguste Pavie Prize (2013) awarded by Académie des Sciences d’Outremer for “Les Jésuites et la Chine”[44]

- Albert Thibaudet Prize (2011) for “L’Empire sans Milieu”