Rethinking Ghosts in World Religions

Concepts of death and the afterlife are often studied through the lenses of different disciplines. The subject of ghosts, however, is not usually considered by serious scholars. Poo (history and philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei) has rectified this by editing a collection of essays on the different aspects of ghosts in various religions from the Akkadian to the European "Enlightenment", including the popular fiction of the twentieth century. Apparently, a large percentage of people in all known cultures believe that the dead can return as spirits. Articles look at ghosts in Ancient Egypt, India and Rome as well as the paucity of ghosts in the Hebrew Bible. Several papers look at different concepts of hauntings through the centuries in China, a welcome addition for English-speaking readers. Since folk belief is what establishes much of our understanding of the supernatural, the blending of cultures in a medieval European ghost story underscores the durability of that belief through religious changes. In contrast, a comparison of Hebrew, Confucian and Platonic discussions demonstrate the attempt to guide that belief into a dominant system. This discussion of ways in which ghosts have been perceived and rationalized across time and space will add much to our understanding of how humans fit their fear of death and their ambivalence about those who have gone before into established belief systems. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Mu-chou Poo, Ph.D. (1984) in Egyptology, Johns Hopkins University, is Research Fellow in the Institute of History and Philology at the Academia Sinica in Taipei. His publications include Enemies of Civilization: Attitudes toward Foreigners in Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and China (SUNY, 2005).