Making the Gods Speak. The Ritual Production of Revelation in Chinese Religious History.
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard University Asia Center. 2022. Stock ID #217113 "This book attempts at accounting for the processes of producing divine revelations in Chinese society. It builds a typology of the various ritual techniques used to make gods present and allow them to speak or write, and it follows the historical development of these types and the revealed teachings they made possible. When referring to this item please quote stockid 217113.
Black and white illustration, 351pp, appendix, bibliography, index. Hardback in dustjacket, as new.
Within the large array of visionary, mediumistic, and mystical techniques, Vincent Goossaert devotes the bulk of his analysis to spirit-writing, a family of rites that appeared around the eleventh century and gradually came to account for the largest numbers of books and tracts ascribed to the gods. In doing so, he shows that the practice of spirit-writing must be placed within the framework of techniques used by ritual specialists to control human communications with gods and spirits for healing, divining, and self-divinization, among other purposes. The book thus offers a ritual-centered framework to study revelation in Chinese cultural history and comparatively with the revelatory practices of other religious traditions." (Publisher's description).
Price: $85.00 AU