Images, Miracles and Authority in Asian Religious Traditions

In this edited volume, Richard Davis and his colleagues examine how religious images are understood by practitioners in Asia and what social, cultural, and political aspects are connected to the miracles associated with these images. Unlike previous works on images in Asia, this book significantly expands the inquiry to include not only Hindu images but Jain and Buddhist images as well and moves beyond India to also look at examples in China and Japan. This important contribution to Asian studies and to the comparative study of religion should interest not only scholars of Asian religious texts but also students of Asian art history, architecture, and archaeology. }In this edited volume, Richard Davis and his colleagues examine how religious images are understood by practitioners in Asia, how the miracles associated with these images are to some degree programmed by expectations and responses, and how such religious events interrelate with political and social change and conflict. Unlike previous works on images in Asia, which focus almost exclusively on Hindu examples in India, this book significantly expands the inquiry to Jainism and Buddhism and moves beyond India to look at images in China and Japan as well. In his introduction, Davis discusses the ideological underpinnings behind various historical understandings of the nature of the miraculous, thus contextualizing the essays that follow.This important contribution to Asian studies and to the comparative study of religion should interest not only scholars of Asian religious texts but also students of Asian art history, architecture, and archaeology. }