Process and Pluralism

Chinese Thought on the Harmony of Diversity

Zhihe Wang

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9783110328066
• eBook ISBN:
  9783110328448
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

This book offers a uniquely process relational oriented Chinese approach to inter-religious dialogue called Chinese Harmonism. The key features of Chinese harmonism are peaceful co-existence, mutual transformation, and openness to change. As developed with help from Whiteheadian process thought, Chinese harmonism provides a middle way between particularism and universalism, showing how diversity can exist within unity. Chinese harmonism is open to similarities among religions, but it also emphasizes that differences among religions can be complementary rather than contradictory. Thus Chinese harmonism implies an attitude of respect for others and a willingness to learn from others, without reducing the other to one's own identity: that is, to sameness. By emphasizing the possibility of complementariness, a process oriented Chinese harmonism avoids a dichotomy between universalism and particularism represented respectively by John Hick and S. Mark Heim, and will make room for a genuine openness and do justice to the culturally and religiously "other."

Table of contents

• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• FOREWORD
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• Chapter 1: The Road toward Religious Pluralism: A Historical Survey
• Chapter 2: John Hick’s Religious Universalism: A Process Response
• Chapter 3: Heim’s Religious Particularism And a Process Alternative
• Chapter 4: Whiteheadian Religious Pluralism
• Chapter 5: Chinese Harmonism
• Chapter 6: Philosophical Foundation of Chinese Harmonism
• SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX