Between humans and gods

Author: Li Guiquan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-07-01
Features: The real "human" and the ethereal "divine" have an intricate relationship, one that permeates every corner of social life, making people interact with the divine consciously or unconsciously. This book, with vivid and engaging writing, compares and explains these relationships from eight perspectives: humans not only create and transform the divine but can also become divine themselves; they both pray to and worship the divine while also utilizing it; humans can admire the divine and manipulate it. Finally, the book further reveals the relationship between humans and the divine by exploring aspects such as the humanization, secularization, and transcendence of the divine. These complex relationships are both bewildering and thought-provoking. While presenting a relatively comprehensive look at the details of various "gods," the book also interweaves many fascinating anecdotes of human-divine interactions—some absurdly funny, some bizarrely tragic, and others with a lingering charm.