Recent years have seen a spate of scholarly books and articles on the phenomenon of Falun Gong, but written primarily from the view of history or the social sciences. This monograph is an important contribution written from the perspective of religious studies. Penny unravels the more obscure points of Li Hongzhi's teachings, showing how they grow out of but also considerably depart from classical Buddhist doctrines and traditions of Daoist biospiritual cultivation. Most significantly, Penny cuts through the rhetoric of both the Communist Party and the Falun Gong, showing how the movement, despite its protestations to the contrary, is indeed a religion. Penny argues that the movement has “many of the features associated with religions in the present and past, and across the world,” such as a charismatic founder, authoritative scripture, a moral code, a cosmology with divine beings, and a soteriological goal known as “consummation.” Despite this important insight, one cannot help but wish that the author had explained more thoroughly the theoretical rationale for his definition of “religion.” Perhaps in abstract Falun Gong is a “religion,” but various parts of it can also be practiced in isolation, without reference to all the characteristics that together make it a “religion.” These observations aside, this is currently the best introduction to the history of Falun Gong doctrines and practices. One hopes that Penny will write a follow‐up volume to explore the diverse ways that these ideas and practices are combined together in actual communities and the individual lives of practitioners.
