Stating the Sacred : Religion, China, and the Formation of the Nation-State

中國憲法明確將其主權領域稱為“神聖領土”。為什麼一個俗稱的世俗國家提出這樣的主張，這對宗教與民族國家之間的關係有何啟示？ 《聚焦神聖》主要論述中國問題，為民族國家的形成提供了一種新穎的方法，認為其最關鍵的要素是國家如何實現民族的神聖化。

他研究了文本（憲法、法律法規、國家歷史），表面上普遍和規範的類別（種族、宗教、公民身份、自由、人權）和領土性（主權的完整性以及對資源和人民的控制）之間的結構聯繫，展示他們如何被神聖束縛在一起。考慮到他所謂的各種政治理論技巧，沃爾什認為民族國家進行聖化是為了使建立和擴大主權的暴力合法化。歸根結底，地域化是聖化的一種形式，而神聖的基礎性作用使所有民族國家成為宗教國家。

《神聖宣言》為理解中國的合法性，控制民眾，宗教自由，人權和國際關係的結構提供了新的方式，並提出了關於民族國家基本性質的現實問題。

China's constitution explicitly refers to its sovereign domain as "sacred territory." Why does an avowedly secular state make such a claim, and what does this suggest about the relations between religion and the nation-state? Focusing primarily on China, Stating the Sacred offers a novel approach to nation-state formation, arguing that its most critical element is how the state sacralizes the nation. Michael J. Walsh explores the religious and political dimensions of Chinese state ideology, making the case that the sacred is a constitutive part of modern China.

He examines the structural connection among texts (constitutions, legal codes, national histories), ostensibly universal and normative categories (race, religion, citizenship, freedom, human rights), and territoriality (the integrity of sovereignty and control over resources and people), showing how they are bound together by the sacred. Considering a variety of what he refers to as theopolitical techniques, Walsh argues that nation-states undertake sacralization in order to legitimate the violence of establishing and expanding their sovereignty. Ultimately, territorialization is a form of sacralization, and the foundational role of the sacred makes all nation-states religious states.

Stating the Sacred offers new ways of understanding China's approach to legality, control of the populace, religious freedom, human rights, and the structuring of international relations, and it raises existential questions about the fundamental nature of the nation-state.

Michael Walsh  (Auther) 

Publisher:Columbia University Press 

 ISBN:978-0231193566