The Religion of Falun Gong by Benjamin Penny (review)

Benjamin Penny's The Religion of Falun Gong is the latest book-length contribution to the relatively small literature on the Chinese spiritual movement. Other important volumes on Falun Gong include: David A. Palmer, Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), which places Falun Gong in the context of the broader qigong movement; my own Falun Gong and the Future of China (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), which situates Falun Gong in a historical context as well as carrying out extensive fieldwork among Falun Gong practitioners in North America; and James W. Tong, The Revenge of the Forbidden City: The Suppression of the Falungong in China, 1999-2005 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), which uses the campaign against Falun Gong to examine the resilience and capacity of China's Party-state apparatus after more than three decades of "reform and opening." As the title of his book suggests, Penny focuses on the religious aspects of Falun Gong, using his sinological training to identify links between Falun Gong beliefs and practices and those of historically recognized Chinese religions—chiefly Buddhism and Daoism. His ultimate argument is that Falun Gong should be treated as a religion, whatever political orientations the movement may have taken on as a result of the conflict with Chinese authorities.

Penny adopts a common-sense definition of religion which I find persuasive but which sociologists of religion might not. He notes that neither Chinese authorities nor Falun Gong practitioners consider Falun Gong to be a religion, and deftly explores the complex history of religion in modern and contemporary China, where the concept of religion has been limited to well-organized, world-historical faiths possessing a well-defined scriptural corpus and an educated clergy (hence China's "big five" religions: Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism). The size and diversity of post-Mao China's religious revival are pushing against the limitations of this definition, which has always been more a utopian dream nourished by China's political elite than an accurate portrait of China's religious reality. Consequently, the term "new religious movement" now appears more frequently in contemporary discussions of Chinese religions, even in China. "New religious movement" might well be a better label for Falun Gong than "religion," but the term comes with its own North American baggage that some find off-putting. In any event, Penny argues that Falun Gong, like other religions and new religious movements, provides teachings and practices that answer questions concerning the meaning of life, death, and salvation in both concrete and abstract terms. The core chapters of Penny's book are devoted to a detailed explication of this argument: "Spiritual Anatomy, Cosmos and History," "Cultivation," and "Steps to Consummation."

The particular strength that Penny brings to this exercise is his training in sinology and the history of Chinese religion. He can thus discuss Li Hongzhi's writings and Falun Gong's religious vocabulary in terms of the long history of Buddhist and Daoist writings and practices. This is a dimension largely ignored in more politicized discussions of Falun Gong, where Falun Gong spirituality is often read as a pretext for dissent or chicanery and accorded little genuine value, and Penny's exposition is wholly convincing as a demonstration of the religious character of Falun Gong.

At the same time, it is not always clear what claim Penny wants to make for Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong. The links he identifies between Falun Gong and traditional religious practices are most often indirect, general, and thus inevitably somewhat arbitrary. In other words, Penny rarely claims to have located a specific historical source for a Falun Gong belief or practice. Instead, he paints a broad picture of traditional discourse as a background out of which Falun Gong might have emerged. Furthermore, he takes considerable pains to demonstrate the extent to which Falun Gong discourse diverges from historical examples of cultivation practices and beliefs. This...