Books as Bodies and as Sacred Beings

Reviewed by: Imran H Khan Suddahazai, University of Bolton, UK

Published by: Sheffield (UK) and Bristol: Equinox Publishing, 2021, 160pp. ISBN: 978-1781798850.

Edited by: James W. Watts and Yohan Yoo.

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The volume edited by James W. Watts and Yohan Yoo is a collation of papers presented at the conference entitled, ‘Books as sacred beings’ held at the Seoul National University in October 2017. The thematic framework shaping the discourse through the book’s subsequent ten chapters focuses on the religious traditions of Korean Shamanism, Islam, Tantric Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Daoism as case studies, which are grounded in the veneration of their scriptural texts as sacred beings through ritualised practices. These acts transform the sacred text into a sentient body whilst conversely transforming the mundane human body into an embodiment of the sacred text.