Literature and Religion

How does one culture “read” another? This book is a series of conversations between a scholar from China and a scholar from the West, each reading texts from the other’s culture. One of the key issues is the nature of religion and what we understand by that term in a world in which ancient religious and customs seem to be dying or under threat. Does literature and religion offer the possibility of mutual understanding—or merely illustrate our differences? These conversations between scholars are also between friends. And that, too, is important.