In The Birth of Purgatory, Jacques Le Goff, the brilliant medievalist and renowned Annales historian, is concerned not with theological discussion but with the growth of an idea, with the relation between belief and society, with mental structures, and with the historical role of the imagination. Le Goff argues that the doctrine of Purgatory did not appear in the Latin theology...(展开全部)

Between the seventh and ninth centuries, the Chinese mind became preoccupied with a concept of the afterlife that persists into modern times. To be reborn, the deceased must successfully negotiate passage through ten courts of law, each ruled by a magistrate or king. The pains of transition from death to rebirth can be alleviated by the intercession of the living with contribut...(展开全部)

太史文（Stephen F.Teiser），普林斯顿大学宗教学博士，现任普林斯顿大学宗教学系教授、铃木大拙讲座教授，主攻东亚宗教和中国中古时期的民间信仰。著有《中国中世纪的鬼节》（The Ghost Festival in Medieval China,Princeton University Press,1988）,在海外汉学界和佛学界享有盛誉。

太史文（Stephen F.Teiser），普林斯顿大学宗教学博士，现任普林斯顿大学宗教学系教授、铃木大拙讲座教授，主攻东亚宗教和中国中古时期的民间信仰。著有《中国中世纪的鬼节》（The Ghost Festival in Medieval China,Princeton University Press,1988）,在海外汉学界和佛学界享有盛誉。

Between the seventh and ninth centuries, the Chinese mind became preoccupied with a concept of the afterlife that persists into modern times. To be reborn, the deceased must successfully negotiate passage through ten courts of law, each ruled by a magistrate or king. The pains of transition from death to rebirth can be alleviated by the intercession of the living with contribut...(展开全部)