Chapter 24 Towards a Daoist Comparative Theology
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Abstract
The present chapter gives an overview of foundational Daoist views with respect to divine and quasi-divine beings. In addressing “the question of gods” both within and beyond Daoism, I draw upon the Daoist understanding of a hierarchical theistic cosmic order in which the highest deities do not consume meat or blood. I then utilize this framework to analyze certain received ancient Israelite and thus Abrahamic conceptions of god(s). In the end, I seek to advance a new Daoist-influenced “theology of blood(lessness),” one in which both human and “non-human” animals are liberated from involvement in ritual sacrifice based on suffering and violence, from their sacrificial role in the daily blood rites that maintain modern societies. Perhaps then we may encounter and even enact the sacred as sacred.