The Confucian Tradition

Between Religion and Humanism

Guoxiang Peng

• Publisher: Bridge 21 Publications
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9781626430792
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Philosophy

The author reviews the Confucian tradition through the two concepts, religion and humanities. Chinese scholars always adopt Zongjiao and Renwen from the ancient Chinese documents as the Chinese translation of religion and humanities. In respect of their own contexts of culture, the Chinese words and the English words share some similarities in meaning, but also have some vital differences. This book covers the major phases of the development of Confucianism, which have a wide historical span from the Pre-Qin period to the contemporary era with a focus on Confucianism in Song and Ming dynasties. Relevant ideas of modern Western disciplines such as philosophy of religion, religious studies and theology are employed by the author as references, not criteria, to illuminate key ideas in Confucian tradition and highlight the features of Confucianism as a religious or spiritual humanism. In some chapters, the author compares the eastern thinkers and theories with those western ones.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgement
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: An Interpretation of “All Things Are Complete in Me”
• Chapter 2: Religious Humanism Characterized by “One Body with All Things”: Focusing on The Western Inscription
• Chapter 3: Spiritual and Bodily Exercise: Religious Implications and Significance of Zhu Xi’s Interpretation of Confucian Classics
• Chapter 4: Wang Ji’s Doctrine of Believing in the Innate Knowledge of the Goodness and the Religious Evolution of Confucianism in the Late Ming Dynasty: A Perspective from Comparative Religious Studies
• Chapter 5: Death as the Ultimate Concern in the Neo-Confucian Tradition: Wang Yangming’s Followers as an Example
• Chapter 6: Confucian Identity in Pluralistic Religious Participation: Wang Ji’s View of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism and His Self-Identification
• Chapter 7: “One Principle with Many Manifestations” as the Confucian Pluralistic View of Religion: An Example of the View of Three Religions in the Wang Yangming School
• Chapter 8: Agreement Between Virtue and Happiness: The Highest Good in Kant and Mou Zongsan
• Chapter 9: A Comparison of the Supreme Status of Life in Confucianism and Christianity: An Examination of Kierkegaard’s Theory of Life Stages
• Chapter 10: Self-Cultivation as Spiritual-Bodily Exercise in Confucian Tradition and its Therapeutic Significance with Reference to Ancient Greco-Roman Philosophical Traditions
• Chapter 11: Religious Dialogue: The Core Subject of The Third-Period Confucianism
• Chapter 12: Resources in Confucianism for Resolving Religious Conflicts in the Globalization Process
• Chapter 13: The World Significance of Confucian Religiousness: Envisioning Twenty-First Century Confucianism from the New Trends in the Studies of Confucianism in the West
• Appendix: A Brief Discussion on the Study of Confucianism and Religion
• Postscript
• Citations and References