Making the Gods Speak : The Ritual Production of Revelation in Chinese Religious History - Vincent Goossaert

Making the Gods Speak

The Ritual Production of Revelation in Chinese Religious History

By: Vincent Goossaert

Hardcover | 5 July 2022 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $105.95

$67.75

36%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $16.94 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 7 to 10 business days

When will this arrive by?
Enter delivery postcode to estimate

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.

About the Author

Vincent Goossaert is Research Professor in the Religious Studies Department at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris.
Industry Reviews
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 *

More in Religion & Beliefs

The Pocket Moon Magic : Gemini Pockets - Gemini Books
HOPE : The Autobiography - Pope Francis

RRP $36.99

$26.95

27%
OFF
The Power of Now : A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment - Eckhart Tolle
2025 Lunar and Seasonal Diary - Southern Hemisphere - Stacey Demarco
The Prophet : Penguin Classics Hardcover - Kahlil Gibran

RRP $32.99

$30.25

Conversations with God : An Uncommon Dialogue : Book 1 - Neale Donald Walsch
Reading Genesis - Marilynne Robinson

RRP $29.99

$20.50

32%
OFF
NRSV Catholic Bible Gift Edition [White] : Holy Bible - Thomas Nelson

RRP $39.99

$35.35

12%
OFF
We Who Wrestle With God : Perceptions of the Divine - Jordan B. Peterson
Murriyang : Song of Time - Stan Grant

RRP $39.99

$35.35

12%
OFF
Be Water, My Friend : The True Teachings of Bruce Lee - Shannon Lee