Polycentric Globalization and Transnational Religious Fields: Rethinking Religious Expansion through I-Kuan Tao

Religious globalization is commonly interpreted through two paradigms: centralized missionary expansion or diaspora transmission tied to ethnic community reproduction. This paper argues that I-Kuan Tao represents a third configuration: polycentric globalization within a transnational religious field. Originating in China and consolidated in Taiwan, the movement now operates across Southeast Asia, North America, Europe, and beyond without a singular governing center. Decentralized regional associations maintain ritual continuity and shared cosmological narrative while exercising contextual autonomy. Authority circulates through relational networks rather than hierarchical command. Drawing on scholarship on transnational religion, mobility, and networked governance, the study analyzes how ritual standardization, multidirectional flows, and negotiated coherence enable expansion beyond diaspora while preserving institutional stability. The case challenges assumptions that globalization necessitates either centralization or fragmentation and proposes polycentric governance as a distinct mode of contemporary religious expansion.