Meaning and Controversy within Chinese Ancestor Religion

Chinese practices related to ancestors have long been the subject of conflicting interpretations. These practices are rooted in the lived experience of practitioners, and therefore need to be considered as embodied expressions of the quest for existential meaning. For practitioners, the achievement of existential meaning requires the inclusion, implication, and mediation of the ancestors. When gestures in ancestor rites are analyzed from this perspective it is possible to appreciate their essence as constitutive of “ancestor religion.” This book uses an inquisitive method that investigates the discrepancies between foreign and local explanations, and proposes another hermeneutic framework for ancestor related praxes.   

CH 1 Introduction: Are Ancestors a Problem?         

CH 2 The Hermeneutic Problem within Ancestor Related Practices

CH 3 The Conflict of Interpretation of Chinese Ancestor Rites       

CH 4 “Our ” Perspective: Indigenous Explanation of Ancestor Rites          

CH 5 Existential Practical Hermeneutic of Ancestor Religion          

CH 6 Conclusion        

Paulin Batairwa Kubuya is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Fu Jen Catholic University and Executive Secretary of Taiwan Regional Bishops' Conference-Commissions for Interreligious Dialogue and Ecumenism.