On the Possibility of Universal Love for All Humans: A Comparative Study of Confucian and Christian Ethics

On the one hand, Confucianism and Christianity advocate universal love for all humans on the ultimate basis of particular love for parents or for God respectively. On the other hand, they have to sacrifice the former for the latter in cases of conflict since they give top priority merely to the latter. In order to overcome this paradox in theory and realize the ideal of universal love in practice, they should transform their particularistic frameworks into universalistic ones and assign a supreme position to their ideas of universal love for all humans, which imply in a potential way a modern, humanistic principle ‘respect the deserved rights of every human being’.     

为“金规则”辨

学界近年在对“己所不欲,勿施于人”这个中国式的“金规则”的议论中,存在不少误读、误解。择要言之,一是将“金规则”之“金”理解为“道德价值最高”;二是用“知道做不到”质疑、贬低“金规则”;三是以“不同”的存在否证“金规则”：四是认为“金规则”不适合现代社会。然而经过仔细辨析可以发现,这些其实都是不确之语。     

Love,That Indispensable Supplement: Irigaray and Kant on Love and Respect

Is love essential to ethical life, or merely a supplement? In Kant's view, respect and love, as duties, are in tension with each other because love involves drawing closer and respect involves drawing away. By contrast, Irigaray says that love and respect do not conflict because love as passion must also involve distancing and we have a responsibility to love. I argue that love, understood as passion and based on respect, is essential to ethics.     

ALTRUISM AND THE GOLDEN RULE

This essay addresses recent claims about the compatibility of the sociobiological theory of reciprocal altruism with standard Western formulations of the Golden Rule. Derek Parfit claims that the theory of reciprocal altruism teaches us to be “reciprocal altruists,” who benefit only those people from whom we can reasonably expect benefits in the future. The Golden Rule, on the other hand, teaches us to benefit anyone regardless of their intention or ability to return the favor, or as Parfit puts it, the Golden Rule teaches us to be “suckers.” I argue that this distinction is founded on a misconception of the nature of the theory of reciprocal altruism, which is sociobiological as opposed to moral, and that this distinction accordingly confuses is with ought. Sociobiological theories may explain underlying psychological motivations in individuals (and perhaps even in populations), but these theories do not prescribe any sort of moral behavior. Furthermore, the theory of reciprocal altruism does not imply mental states of which agents are aware. The unconscious motivations assumed by this theory are in fact compatible with certain formulations of the Golden Rule; I will accordingly argue for the view that certain words with moral content related to the Golden Rule—such as “altruism” and “selfishness”—exist only insofar as they are social tools, which can further the self‐interests of an individual in any group.     

SIX CHARACTERISTICS OF A POSTPATRIARCHAL CHRISTIANITY

Abstract. Christianity is best understood not as a set of timeless doctrines, but as a historical movement capable of change and growth. In this respect, Christianity is like a science. Heretofore, most instances of Christianity have exhibited certain ways of thinking that, taken as a whole, have led to the subordination of women (and the Earth and animals as well) to men in power. This article describes these ways of thinking, then contrasts six ways of thinking and acting that can inform postpatriarchal Christianity and science.     

Confucian love and global ethics: how the cheng brothers would help respond to christian criticisms

There is an increasing awareness that we are living in a global village, which demands a global ethics. In this article, I shall explore what contributions Confucianism, particularly its conception of love, can make. It has often been claimed that Confucian love is love with distinction, as a natural feeling, and as merely human love and so it is inferior to the Christian love, which is universal, commanded, and based on divine love. Drawing on the resources of the Cheng brothers’ neo-Confucianism, I shall explore how Confucianism can make creative responses to such criticisms and thus make a unique Confucian contribution to the emerging global ethics.     

中庸的文化心理特征及其实践理路

中庸是中国人的核心文化心理特质,主要呈现为两种形态：理想中庸和现实中庸。对理想中庸的理论研究能够夯实现实中庸实证研究的理论基础。中庸具有相互融通的三维内涵：执两用中,用中为常道,中和可常行。中庸具有德性的本质规定性,显现为三个方面的文化心理特征：执两用中的中庸认知,执中致和的中庸情感,刚柔并济的中庸人格。中庸具有鲜明的实践品格,礼仪制度是中庸实践的客观根据,籍由观照本心所作出的道德判断是中庸实践的主观根据,择善而固执是中庸实践的现实路径。     

Love and Eschatology

Abstract : This article reflects on the connection between Christian hope for salvation and Christian praxis today. Following a discussion of Christian approaches to hope, salvation, and reconciliation, the eschatological potential of love is explored in conversation with significant theologies of love in Western Christianity. It is argued that love, properly understood, offers the most adequate and dynamic horizon for approaching God's coming reign and for being transformed in the process.     

Is There a Korean Contribution to U.S. Pastoral Theology?

South Korea is a unique convergence of eastern and western religious traditions: 30% of South Koreans call themselves Christian, 30% Buddhist, and everyone is strongly influenced by the active traditions of Confucianism and Shamanism. Based on 8 months of research in South Korea, this paper explores three perspectives on the relationship of Christianity to traditional Asian religions: 1) Is Christianity saving Korean spirituality from the failures of Confucianism, Buddhism and Shamanism? 2) Is Christianity destroying Korean spirituality because of its connections with modernism and its rejection of historic Korean religions? 3) Is a deeper Korean spirituality transforming both Christianity and Asian religions into something that will help the world heal from the contradictions of modernism?     

儒家思想对于现代心理咨询的启示

儒家思想曾居中国传统文化主导地位。鉴于文化的传承性和对心理健康作用的必然性,儒家思想的心理咨询价值应当充分关注。文章强调,不宜刻板化否定儒家思想的心理咨询价值。基于心理咨询的常见问题,文章初步讨论了儒家思想对心理咨询可能有贡献的9个领域：人生意义、应对、生死教育、哀伤辅导、心理调节、人际认知、社会生活技能、人格发展、心理咨询技术等。进而,讨论了以儒家思想为资源,以心理学为目的,通过整理和发现、发展、操作化和验证等环节,构建儒家心理咨询学说的方法论问题     

《管子》中"礼法并用"的再探讨

《管子》所代表的"齐法家",较之以商鞅、韩非为代表的"晋法家",其最大的特色就是其中儒法结合的倾向。学界将这个特点称之为"礼法并用"。在本文中,从人性论基础、治理方式和"道统"观三个角度入手,认为《管子》中言"礼",很大程度上是从综合手段的意思上来说的,以教为本的意思不强。在这一点上,与先秦儒家的"礼"是有着根本性差别的,因此两者之间并不能简单的对等起来。较为准确的认识,应该是"礼治"与"法治"并存于以法为本的政治体系当中。     

Reconciliation Between Muslims and Christians

“A Common Word Between Us,” an open letter from Muslim scholars to Christian leaders, is the most developed effort at Muslim‐Christian reconciliation to date. Endorsed by well‐known Muslim scholars from diverse sects and backgrounds, the letter emphasizes the central role of love of God and the Golden Rule in both religions and cites the catastrophic consequences of conflict. The signatories frame a norm of interreligious covenant for constructive collaborations, present their argument as an authoritative Islamic position, and effectively reject the clash‐of‐civilizations narrative. Using game‐theory models to articulate strategic challenges facing interreligious initiatives, this essay argues that a norm of interreligious covenant can potentially produce successful collective action in situations resembling both coordination and prisoner's dilemma games, depending on the success of norm entrepreneurship.     

Memory,Rite, and Tradition： A Comparative Confucian-Christian Literary Analysis

I The Confucian Classics and Christian Scriptures speak often about the role ＂the past＂ plays in shaping individual and communal character, life, perception, morality and purpose. In both Christianity and classical Confucianism, memory, rite and tradition are each accorded a central place in preserving and interpreting the past as a dynamic force in the present. The first part of this paper studies points of thematic similarity in Christian and Confucian interpretation of memory, rite and tradition. In the second part of the paper, however, critical points of divergence are addressed; for behind the formal similarities lie deeper intellectual, relational and moral differences in understanding the nature and function of ＂the past＂ in determining both the present and the future. Comparative literary analysis provides a rich resource for contemporary application of the Confucian Classics and Christian Scriptures to discussion of cultural memory and global harmony. The comparative reading of ＇texts＇ also provides an important point of access for understanding the role literature itself plays in determining the form, content and power of memory, ritual and tradition in both Confucianism and Christianity.     

晚清寓华新教传教士的儒学观——以林乐知在上海所办《万国公报》为中心

晚清来华以林乐知等人为代表的自由派新教传教士对中国儒家学说的看法和态度存在着“合儒”、“补儒”、“批儒”、“代儒”等环环相扣的四个层次,其中,“合儒”是一种文化策略,“代儒”———基督教征服中国———才是他们的最终目的,而“补儒”、“批儒”则是从“合儒”到“代儒”之间的必要手段和桥梁。西教士对儒学中的缺陷、不足和劣根性等批语是完全站在西方人立场和基督教的角度进行的,但也应该承认这对动摇儒家思想在中国文化教育和思想中的核心地位不无助益,因而在近代中国具有开风气之先的思想启蒙作用。     

Islam and Christianity between tolerance and acceptance

Basic to the understanding of Christianity and Islam as faith‐identities are their principles of ultimate power or authority. For both, ultimate power belongs to God alone, and human authority must reflect this divine power. In both a tension exists between these two powers which determined the course of their respective histories and interaction with one another. While in both religions tolerance is a fundamental principle based on the imperative of love and respect for human life and dignity, the Qur'an clearly advocates mutual acceptance and cooperation among the people of the Book: Jews, Christians and Muslims. This is evidenced in the term ahl al‐kitab, the family of the Book, which includes all the children of Abraham.     

ON A PARADOX OF CHRISTIAN LOVE

The two love commands attributed to Jesus clearly show the basic feature of Christianity as a “religion of love.” However, it may be argued that there is conflict between these commands, so that the Christian idea of love confronts a deep paradox: on the one hand, it takes loving God as the ultimate foundation of loving one's neighbor and loving one's neighbor as the perfect manifestation of loving God. On the other hand, it gives supremacy to loving God over loving one's neighbor, with the result that, in cases of conflict, Christianity has to sacrifice loving one's neighbor to loving God and thus to negate the second great command by the first.     

Christian‐Muslim theological encounter: The priority of tawhid

Both Islam and Christianity are monotheistic faiths, yet the one God proclaimed and worshipped by each appears to be a different deity by virtue of the different conceptual construct that applies in each case. For Islam the defining motif is the idea of tawhld, for Christianity it is the notion of Trinity. In respect to theological dialogue between these two faiths the onus lies with the side holding the more complex construct to relate that back to the simpler and less complex, especially where the simpler motif is deemed to be contained within ike complex. Thus it behoves the Christian side to examine critically the trinitarian and related doctrines concerning the understanding of God, with a view to a clearer restatement of the essential oneness of deity which, after all, is the undergirding conceptual reference. In attempting this task, the ‘problematic of unity’ inherent in the Christian concept of God is addressed and a theological revision is suggested. The intention is to rethink critically aspects of Christian doctrine so as to further Christian‐Muslim theological dialogue, without in any way diminishing the essential insight of either side, but rather with a view to opening new lines of expression that each might equally affirm.     

The phenomenology of respect: with special attention to Kant,Scheler, and Confucianism

In this paper, I focus on analyzing the manifestation and significance of respect. I first illustrate the two (or three) meanings of jing 敬 and their connection in Confucian classical texts, which is helpful to understand the Confucian phenomenology of respect. The two (or three) meanings are (1) seriousness as a mind-state and (2) respect (and attention) as an intentional feeling. After clarifying this point, I undertake a phenomenological analysis of respect, in order to show that respect helps one to achieve moral pursuit. This analysis takes the Kantian notion of respect as a starting point but further is accomplished by the phenomenology of value and feeling. The respect for duties and affairs, the respect for personhood and dignity, and the respect for the worthy with merit motivate one to take moral actions. For example, respect contributes in taking one’s duties seriously, appreciating human beings’ spiritual values and good tendencies even when they have not been actualized, supporting the worthy to play a role (offering them important positions), and emulating the worthy to make a contribution and serve others. In Subsequently, I clarify how respect helps one to achieve religious pursuit in one form of Christianity, in light of Max Scheler’s discussion on humility and reverence. Through revering God one respects others; through serving God and participating in God’s humble spirit one serves others. I elucidate the Confucian classics’ discussions on religious experience, in order to show how respect helps one to achieve religious pursuit in one form of Confucianism, and how it is similar and different from Max Scheler’s clarification. The concrete relation between respect and li 禮 in the Confucian tradition will be treated in another work.     

CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS: SKETCH TOWARD A RECONCILIATION

Abstract. Evolutionary ethics posits the evolution of dispositions to love self, kin, and friend. Christianity claims that God's ethical demand is to love one's neighbor. I argue that the distance between these two positions can be interpreted theologically as original sin, the disposition to disobey God's command and practice self-love and nepotism rather than neighbor-love. Original sin requires Incarnation and Atonement to unite God and humanity. The ancient doctrine of the Atonement as educative does not invoke the Fall. Its revival may help reconcile Christianity and evolutionary ethics.     

Love for the Neighbour as Lived Theology

The aim of this article is to identify the theological potential for interreligious relations as embodied in the everyday life of ordinary Christians in South India. The empirical study that underlies the discussion is based on interviews with lay churchgoers and pastors from Pentecostal and mainline Protestant churches in Bangalore. The beliefs they articulate, as well as the practices they carry out in their daily lives, are defined as their lived theology. This is analyzed through the terminological framework of theology in four voices. Interviewees express beliefs that emphasize the superiority of Christianity over other religions and the importance of evangelism. Nevertheless, in everyday life they prioritize respect for religious others and maintenance of relationships with them over sharing an exclusivist message about Christ. Their lived theology emphasizes relatedness across religious boundaries and the priority of showing love for the neighbour in practice.