Praying for practical benefits (genze riyaku) is a common religious activity in Japan. Despite its widespread nature and the vast numbers of people who pray and purchase amulets and talismans for everything from traffic safety and education success to business prosperity and protection from disease, the practice has been virtually ignored in academic studies or relegated to the margins as a product of superstition or an aberration from the true dynamics of religion. Basing their work on a fusion of textual, ethnographic, historical, and contemporary studies, the authors of this volume demonstrate the fallacy of such views, showing that, far from being marginal, the concepts and practices surrounding genze riyaku lie at the very heart of the Japanese religious world.
目次
Benefits in the religious system : settings and dynamics -- Scripture and benefits -- Buying out chance : morality, belief, and prayer -- The providers of benefits : gods, saints, and wizards -- The dynamics of practice -- Selling benefits : the marketing of efficacy and truth -- Guidebooks to practical benefits.
