ABSTRACT
This concluding chapter of the book presents some key concepts discussed in the book, which describes the other gods that the Vietnamese Communists wanted to drive from the world, how they attempted to do that, and what they hoped to install as their own new God. The chapter constitutes a reflection upon a deeper issue raised by the history of cultural and ritual reform in Thinh Liet: the reasons behind the incomplete success of the official reforms. It argues that the revolutionary reform campaign problematized two of the most fundamental aspects of Thinh Liet life: what did it mean to be a moral person and what were the nature and limits of human agency. Thinh Liet society had its own definitions on these points prior to the revolution, but the revolutionary campaigns introduced their own. Thus, Thinh Liet cultural life remains complex and contradictory.
