Benjamin David Penny (born 27 October 1959) is an Australian Academia specialising in religious and spiritual movements in modern and contemporary China. He is a Harold White Fellow at the National Library of Australia.[ Harold White Fellow. Retrieved 14 January 2015]
His area of speciality is Falun Gong as well as the interpretation of Chinese religions by Western world and the history of the religions of Chinese Australians.[ Dr Benjamin Penny, Deputy Director, Australian Centre on China in the World. Retrieved 14 January 2015] The Times Literary Supplement states that in The Religion of Falun Gong Penny "makes a good case for defining Falun Gong as a modern Chinese religion. . . . He provides an admirable guide to the short history of Falun Gong and the eclectic complexities of its doctrine, which he sets within the framework of indigenous religious belief over the centuries."[ The Religion of Falun Gong – Editorial Reviews. Retrieved 30 January 2015]
Family and education
Penny is the younger brother of professor
Simon Penny (born 1955) who is a theorist, curator and teacher in the field of
Interactive art. Benjamin Penny was born in
Melbourne and attended Newington College (1972–1977).
[Newington College Register of Past Students 1863–1998 (Syd, 1999) pp155] He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney, a Master of Philosophy from University of Cambridge and a PhD from the Australian National University.
Benjamin has a son.
Career
After university study, Penny was a post-doctoral fellow at the ANU. From 1999 until 2005, he was the first Executive Officer of the Herbert and Valmae Freilich Foundation. During the years 2003 and 2004 he was a research fellow at the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research. Penny was appointed to the Division of Pacific and Asian History in October 2005. Since January 2010 he has been Deputy Director, and a Research Fellow, at the School of Culture, History & Language ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.
[ ANU Researcher. Retrieved 14 January 2015]
Awards
Selected publications
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"On the Acquisition of Moral Character", in Geremie R. Barmé and Jeremy Goldkorn (eds.), China Story Yearbook 2014: Shared Destiny, Canberra: Australian Centre on China in the World 2014.
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"An Exemplary Society", in Geremie R. Barmé and Jeremy Goldkorn (eds.), China Story Yearbook 2013: Civilising China, Canberra: Australian Centre on China in the World, 2013.
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"Searching for a Sage Today", in Geremie R. Barmé with Jeremy Goldkorn, Carolyn Cartier and Gloria Davies (eds.), China Story Yearbook 2012: Red Rising Red Eclipse, Canberra: Australian Centre on China in the World, 2012.
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The Religion of the Falun Gong, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
[ University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 14 January 2015][ The Religion of the Falun Gong University of Toronto Library]
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"Karmic Retribution, Animal Spirits, Falun Gong and the State", in Mayfair Yang, Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.
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"Master Li Encounters Jesus: Christianity and the Configurations of Falun Gong", W. Smith, M. Tomlinson, and L. Manderson (eds.), Beliefs beyond Borders: Faith, Spiritual Practice and Communities in Asia/Pacific, New York: Springer, 2012.
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"More than One Adam?: Revelation and Philology in Nineteenth-Century China", Humanities Research, XIV, 2007.
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"An Immigrant Chinese Sea God in Australia: The Chinese Background to Sydney's Retreat Street Temple", Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies, 2, 2008.
[ Dr Benjamin Penny. Retrieved 14 January 2015]
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Daoism in history: essays in honour of Liu Ts'un-Yan London: Routledge, 2006.
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Religion and biography in China and Tibet Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2002.
