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The central theme of this volume is to re-examine the received concepts and images of ghosts in various religious cultures ranging from the Ancient Near East and Egypt to the Old Testament, the Classical Era, Early medieval and Early Modern Europe, Early India, and Medieval China. As a religious phenomenon, the realm of ghosts has been less studied than the realm of the divine. Through a collaborative effort by scholars from different disciplines, this volume proposes a multi-cultural approach to construct a wider and complicated picture of the phenomenon of ghosts and spirits in human societies and to have a grasp of the various problems involved in understanding the phenomenon of ghost.
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Rethinking Ghosts in World Religions Numen Book Series Studies in the History of Religions Series Editors Steven Engler (Mount Royal College, Calgary, Canada) Richard King (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, U.S.A.) Kocku von Stuckrad (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Gerard Wiegers (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands) Advisory Board b. bocking (london, uk); f. diez de velasco (tenerife, spain); i.s. gilhus (bergen, norway); g. ter haar (the hague, the netherlands); r.i.j. hackett (knoxville, tn, usa); t. jensen (odense, denmark); m. joy (calgary, canada); a.h. khan (toronto, canada); p.p. kumar (durban, south africa); g.l. lease (santa cruz, ca, usa); a. tsukimoto (tokyo, japan); a.t. wasim (yogyakarta, indonesia) VOLUME 123 Rethinking Ghosts in World Religions Edited by Mu-chou Poo LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009 Cover illustration: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: Purchase, F1938.4 (detail). This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication-Data Rethinking ghosts in world religions / edited by Mu-chou Poo. p. cm. — (Numen book series ; v. 123) Proceedings of a conference held in Dec. 2005. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17152-7 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Ghosts. 2. Spirits. 3. Religions. I. Pu, Muzhou. II. Title. III. Series. BF1471.R48 2009 202’.15—dc22 2009004700 ISSN 0169-8834 ISBN 978 90 04 17152 7 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands CONTENTS Preface .................................................................................................. Acknowledgements ............................................................................ Abbreviations ...................................................................................... List of Contributors ........................................................................... vii ix xi xiii Introduction ........................................................................................ Mu-chou Poo 1 Wind and Smoke: Giving up the Ghost of Enkidu, Comprehending Enkidu’s Ghosts ............................................... Jerrold S. Cooper Belief and the Dead in Pharaonic Egypt ....................................... Christopher J. Eyre Where have all the Ghosts Gone? Evolution of a Concept in Biblical Literature .