Making the Gods Speak

The Ritual Production of Revelation in Chinese Religious History

Vincent Goossaert author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Harvard University Press

Published:26th Aug '22

Should be back in stock very soon

Making the Gods Speak cover

For two millennia, Chinese society has been producing divine revelations on an unparalleled scale, in multifarious genres and formats. This book is the first comprehensive attempt at accounting for the processes of such production. 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. 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. Making the Gods Speak thus offers a ritual-centered framework to study revelation in Chinese cultural history and comparatively with the revelatory practices of other religious traditions.

An ambitious study…no one before Goossaert has attempted such a monumental task, and as such, with this book, he has done the field of Chinese religions an essential service in creating for us a map…that directs us to areas where new and exciting research may await our inquiries. -- Katherine L. Alexander * History of Religions *
Goossaert offers a compelling narrative about how spirit-writing and revealed texts were significant forces shaping the religious life of late imperial China…Excellent. -- Natasha Heller * Material Religion *

ISBN: 9780674270947

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 25mm

Weight: 612g

368 pages