Stating the Sacred: Religion, China, and the Formation of the Nation-State by Michael J. Walsh

Abstract

Reviewed by: Stating the Sacred: Religion, China, and the Formation of the Nation-State by Michael J. Walsh Zhe Ji Michael J. Walsh, Stating the Sacred: Religion, China, and the Formation of the Nation-State. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020. 272 pp. US$95 (hb). ISBN 978-0-231-19356-6 The politico-culturally constructed sacredness of the nation-state and the fictiveness of the relative narrative are hardly new revelations within academe. However, most existing research is based on the West’s historical experiences or that of its ex-colonies. In this regard, this book is a rare, intriguing, and brilliant attempt to interpret the politico-theological foundation of contemporary China, complemented by some brief comparisons with the situation of South Africa and other countries. The author’s core idea is that the modern state sacralizes the nation, so “nation-states are always religious states” (p. xv). Such a sacralization is achieved through a set of discourses and practices about territory, religion, citizenship, and race, which “are foundational constructs of the nation-state, bound together by the inviolate and encoded in constitutional language” (p. 152). The book’s six chapters are broadly organized around these “foundational constructs,” preceded by a rich preface summarizing the book’s topics, categories, arguments, and approaches. Sovereignty and identity—which seem inevitable for any study on the nation-state—are not the main foci of this book, but they are dealt with in an interspersed or inexplicit manner. For the author, the sacred and inviolable territory is primary to a nation-state. As described in the first chapter, the territory’s integrity (both space and borders) is defined as inviolate. This requires the sacrifice of citizens for their nation and causes conflicts between different nation-states and between the different ethnic groups of a country. Territorialization also involves various forms of colonialism and justifies the state’s sovereignty. The second chapter considers the constitution as a religious text since it imposes a transaction between the state and people, like the transaction between a god and its believers. According to the author, “state soteriology depends on control of its populace via the inviolate. Salvation is to be found in dutiful citizenship” (p. 60). In this chapter, the author compares the constitutions of a dozen countries and the UN Declaration of Human Rights, especially their articles on religion and civic and human rights. The third chapter stresses that certain social groups conceptualize both “religion” and “human rights” at specific historical moments. They are indeed instruments for a nation-state to sacralize itself, its control over the people, or its moral superiority. This argument is supplemented with the author’s perception of the Museum of World Religions in Taipei and his analysis of Document 19 of the CCP. As we know, this document from 1982 is still the official guideline of the PRC’s religious policy. The fourth chapter examines the Beijing government’s regulation of the incarnation and identification of Tibetan “living Buddhas.” For the author, this political control on religious affairs expresses the PRC’s intention of the total territorialization of Tibet. A word-for-word analytic reading of Article 36 of the PRC’s constitution, on freedom of religious belief, can also be found in this chapter. The next chapter is entitled “Contact,” in which the author mentions the observations of some Western missionaries and diplomats during the late Qing Empire. Mostly, the Chinese at that time, in the Westerner’s eyes, were pagans who were to be civilized. Even though some missionaries appreciated Buddhism or Confucianism, they did not consider either as real religions since Christianity was the only authentic religion for them. This process to verify and confirm one’s own belief through a negative conceptualization of the others’ belief is termed by the author as “colonial authentication” (p. 125). He suggests that this nineteenth-century Western legacy has influenced the CCP’s attitudes to religions because—as I understand it—the religious nation-state is in a competition of authenticity and loyalty with religions. The last chapter addresses the relationship between the state [End Page 336] and its citizens. The state is supposed to offer salvation to its...