not have any political implications. Nevertheless, this was not how the Beijing govern- ment interpreted it” (p. 88). Despite a troublesome start to the new millennium, Sino- Vatican relations shifted quite rapidly in 2007 as Pope Benedict XVI publicly approved the ordination of an open bishop and issued a letter calling for respectful and construc- tive dialogue — gestures that were well received. The years following have continued to be a mixed bag for Sino-Vatican relations. Any monograph discussing religion in contemporary China must be diligent in its representation of all relevant opinions. Importantly, the religious freedom offered by government policies mandate that religious organisations inside China must be com- pletely autonomous from entities outside. Whether the topic is religion, human rights, or disputed islands in the East China Sea, the Chinese leadership has argued for the nation’s right to self-determination — a notion initially articulated by Woodrow Wilson (1918) and underscored by the United Nations (1960). Chu’s study centres on a conflict between a Catholic theological understanding of papal authority and a Chinese political understanding of self-determination, which argues for autonomy from foreign polities like theVatican city-state. In describing this complex state of affairs, the work could be more nuanced. In one instance, the book gives the impression that the government-issued Document no. 3 was produced in response to the military clash in Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989 (p. 62). The document, however, was released in February 1989 – prior to the democracy protests. Additionally, a fuller picture could have been portrayed if the book had shown how the government issued Document no. 3 largely in response to the Vatican issuing an eight-point directive (September 1988) detailing the ways Catholics were to engage China, asserting the doctrine of papal supremacy and challenging the legitimacy of the Catholic Patriotic Association. In other instances, the book underscores that the three government-sanctioned Catholic organisations in China are political groups (pp. 12, 23, 43, 61, 116). But are they not also religious entities? The introduction states that, in the 1950s, the communist leaders established the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement (p. 3) and the Catholic Patriotic Association (p. 4). Yet, a fair amount of scholarship from Philip L. Wickeri, Beatrice Leung, Anthony S. K. Lam, John Tong, and others has demonstrated a much more tangled situation with Christian leaders entering into dis- cussions with Premier Zhou Enlai to create these new entities. It must be remembered that when a Chinese Catholic makes a conscious choice about papal authority, this is a decision that is both political and theological. All who are interested in contemporary religion in China ought to pay close attention to the recent history of the Chinese Catholic Church. Though one may debate with some of the analyses around this controversial subject, Chu’s book is a timely historical survey that highlights a number of delicate issues in a very accessible manner. ALEXANDER CHOW University of Edinburgh ARMIN GEERTZ and JEPPE SINDING JENSEN, eds: Religious Narrative, Cognition and Culture: Image and Word in the Mind of Narrative. Sheffield and Oakville: Equinox, 2011; pp. x + 336. This intellectually stimulating edited volume, devoted to the interactions of religious narrative (sacred stories and texts), cognition (the human mind), and culture, is divided into three sections.The first, “Theoretical Perspectives,” has two chapters, by each of the editors, which contextualise the subject area and offer broad frameworks in which to 279 BOOK REVIEWS © 2014 The Authors Journal of Religious History © 2014 Religious History Association