Confucian Questions to Augustine

Is My Cultivation of Self Your Care of the Soul?

JunSoo Park

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781532654046, 9781532654053
• eBook ISBN: 9781532654060
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy of Religion

In Confucian Questions to Augustine, Park compares the works of Confucius and Mencius with those of Saint Augustine. His purpose in so doing is to show Confucian Augustinianism as a new theological perspective on Confucian-Christian ethics and Augustinianism by discovering analogies and differences in their respective understandings of the formation of moral self, particularly the acquisition of virtue, and how they believe this leads to happiness. Using the method of inter-textual reasoning, and assuming continuity between Augustine's early and later works, he compares Confucius and Mencius's xue, si, li, and yue with Augustine's moral learning, contemplation, sacrament, and music, respectively. Confucian Augustinianism shows how to enjoy God, follow Jesus, and live in the Holy Spirit.

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How to Acquire Virtues for Happiness

Purpose of This Study

In this book, I compare the works of Confucius and Mencius with Saint Augustine. My purpose in so doing is to show Confucian Augustinianism as a new theological angle on Confucian-Christian ethics and modern Augustinianism such as Augustinian realism, Augustinian proceduralism, Augustinian civic liberalism, and Radical Orthodoxy by discovering analogies and differences in their respective understandings of character formation, and the development of moral virtues which lead to happiness.

There are excellent reasons for conducting such a comparative cross-cultural study of Confucius, Mencius, and Augustine. Above all, they not only highly influenced Chinese and Western culture respectively but also are of mutual influence in East Asia. It is persuasive that Confucius, Mencius, and Augustine have been regarded as key sources of ethics in the cultures of East and West given that their ethical thoughts have greatly influenced Confucianism and Western Christianity. Zhao demonstrates that “Confucianism is the mainstream of Chinese culture and Christianity is the cornerstone of Western culture. Chinese culture cannot be understood without understanding Confucianism, and nor can the Western spirit be interpreted without interpreting the spirit of Christianity.”1 Confucianism is an ethical religious tradition that has shaped the culture of China for 2,500 years, following which its influence subsequently spread to Korea, Japan and Vietnam.2 Particularly, in the process of Confucianism’s development Mencius has played a distinctive role in that “while Confucius laid the solid groundwork for Confucianism, Mencius clearly defined the principles, penetrated into their meanings more profoundly, and built a more comprehensive system.”3 Furthermore, the thinking of Confucius and Mencius has been regarded as orthodox in China, Korea, and Japan. Although still not directly visible in the social consciousness of modern Koreans and Japanese, it still profoundly shapes primary family life experiences. Thus, while the position of Confucianism in modern Chinese society has been challenged greatly since the Cultural Revolution, its influence is still profound, especially since the recovery of Chinese traditional culture from the end of the 1980s.4 Therefore, the study of Confucianism, for Chinese Studies, has not only historical significance, but also modern relevance. Furthermore, Confucianism is a living tradition in a pluralistic global context in that the Confucian tradition becomes a heritage for the whole of humankind by the globalization of Confucianism in the appearance of Boston Confucianism represented by Robert Neville and John Berthrong. Confucianism is no longer a tradition restricted to the ‘Sinitic’, ‘East Asian’, or ‘oriental’ world as the sole possession of the ethnic Chinese.5

The relationship of Christianity and Western culture is a very close one and Christianity is now a major influence in Asian cultures, both within mainland China, and even more so in nations such as South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan which have significant influence from Confucianism.6 In the West before the Enlightenment everything including science and philosophy was the ‘maid’ and ‘servant’ of Christian practice. Although the status of human rationality and reason greatly increased as a result of the Enlightenment, the ingrained influence of Christianity on Western society remains very strong.7 It is noteworthy that Augustine has had a profound influence in the process of Christianity’s development within Western civilization. For many centuries, from the Middle Ages to the present, as Drober depicts, Augustine has remained the most prominent and most widely studied author in western Christianity, second only to biblical writers such as Paul.8 The roots of this extraordinary phenomenon go back to Augustine’s own lifetime and are in part due to the fact that he did not produce the most immense literary corpus of all western Christianity for solely academic purposes.9 Already, a good number of his contemporaries considered him to be both the most accomplished theologian and the most trustworthy pastor of their times.10 These appreciations of Augustine’s person and works have continued unabated for the last 1600 years. Considering the rapid growth of urban Chinese intellectuals converting to Protestantism formed by the Neoplatonic worldview of Augustine,11 Confucian and Augustinian reasoning is necessary in the context of the Chinese church to engage religious dialogues and tackle public issues.12

According to Biggar, “recent Christian ethics has ten...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgements
• Chronological Table: Confucius, Mencius, and Augustine in History1
• Chapter 1: How to Acquire Virtues for Happiness
• Chapter 2: Xue (學) and Moral Learning
• Chapter 3: Si (思) and Contemplation
• Chapter 4: Li (禮) and Sacrament
• Chapter 5: Yue (樂) and Music
• Chapter 6: Confucian Augustinianism
• Bibliography