Enlightened Martyrdom - The Hidden Side of Falun Gong - James R. Lewis

Enlightened Martyrdom - The Hidden Side of Falun Gong - James R. Lewis

From Spiritual Healing to Protest: Falun Gong's Emerging Culture of Martyrdom

Enlightened Martyrdom - The Hidden Side of Falun Gong - James R. Lewis

Susan J. Palmer [+-]
Concordia University
Susan J. Palmer is an Affiliate Professor the Religion Department at Concordia University in Montreal, Qeubec. She is a researcher and writer in the field of new religious studies. She is currently working on a SSHRC-funded research project, Exploring Government Raids on Religious Communities, at McGill University in Montreal. Her next book, Storming Zion: Exporing Government Raids on New and Minority Religious Communities, co-authored with Stuart Wright, will be published in Oxford University Press in 2015. She has published eleven books and volumes, among them Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers (Syracuse, 1994); The New Heretics of France (Oxford University Press, 2011); Aliens Adored: Rael’s UFO Religion (Rutgers, 2004).

Description

Falun Gong’s ongoing resistance movement and the escalation of Master Li’s apocalyptic ideology in response to persecution is the focus of this study. On the basis of field research and interviews with practitioners, the author proposes a four-phase model of conversion, culminating in an activist commitment to the Master’s call to serve in the protest demonstrations against the People’s Republic of China’s persecution of Falun Gong. Since Falun Gong’s civil disobedience has resulted in the deaths of over 343 practitioners, it is important to analyze the process of conversion/commitment to the cause, and the practitioners’ own spiritual understanding of their activist efforts in a two-tiered resistance movement that is concerned with global human rights, but also with a cosmic battle between gods and demons, called fa-rectification.

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Citation

Palmer, Susan. From Spiritual Healing to Protest: Falun Gong's Emerging Culture of Martyrdom. Enlightened Martyrdom - The Hidden Side of Falun Gong. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 60-84 Oct 2019. ISBN 9781781794999. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=30554. Date accessed: 16 Apr 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.30554. Oct 2019

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