New Publication: "Of Ancestors and Ghosts: How Preta Narratives Constructed Buddhist Cosmology and Shaped Buddhist Ethics" by Adeana McNicholl

Congratulations to our alum, Adeana McNicholl, for her new book, Of Ancestors and Ghosts: How Preta Narratives Constructed Buddhist Cosmology and Shaped Buddhist Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2024)! Adeana's book is a rare comparative study of Sanskrit and Pali South Asian Buddhist narratives about pretas or "hungry ghosts"—pitiful beings with miniscule mouths and bloated stomachs whose state of extreme starvation is a result of stinginess and immorality in a former life. Of Ancestors and Ghosts highlights the important role of narrative for constructing religious cosmologies, illustrating the role of narrative in ethical formation over a long, cumulative process.