Week 9 – Cobb Chapter 9

The discussion on ghosts in this chaper seems particularly worthy of further reflection. Beavsn summarizes Fei Xiatong’s conclusion that

…ghosts symbolize beleif in and reverence for the accumulated past….when tradition is concrete, when it is part of life, sacred, something to be feared and loved, then it takes the form of ghosts.

I wonder if the critique is entirely valid. What comes to mind in particular is our own religious roots in the Hebrew Old Testament. The Hebrew Bible as a whole seems to say very little about “the afterlife,” and certainly shows very little thought with regard to “ghosts.” And yet, central to the Jewish community is a sense of tradition and connectedness with the past. Perhaps the function served by ghosts in other contexts is fulfilled in the Jewish context through identification with YHWH and the promised land.