Over 100 experts and scholars from such research institutions as CASS, Peking University, East China Normal University and Sichuan University held an in-depth discussion on "World Religions Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic" at the "First Hot Topics in World Religions Research Forum" held online on June 29. This event was sponsored by the Research Office of Digital Humanities Religions and Religious Public Opinion at the Institute of World Religions under CASS.

Zheng Xiaojun, director of the Institute of World Religions, said that the COVID-19 pandemic has fully tested various social governance models of different countries around the world, demonstrating institutional and cultural diversity. During the pandemic, religious activity in different countries has intensified with the emergence of different religious responses, religious development and forms of dissemination. In the process of national governance system and capacity modernization, we should participate in global religious governance in various ways, jointly confront the real challenges of global risks and gradually form a prevention and control mechanism for governing global religious risks, Zheng said.

Focused on the diverse patterns presented by world religions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, participating scholars discussed the impact the pandemic has had on religions, the ways religions have responded, the relations between religions and epidemics from historical and comparative perspectives, and new trends in the study of religion.