Confronting Confucian understandings of the Christian doctrine of salvation : a systematic theological analysis of the basic problems in the Confucian-Christian dialogue / / by Paulos Huang.

• Superior document: Studies in systematic theology, v. 3
• Author: Huang, Paulos Zhanzhu.
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in systematic theology (Leiden, Netherlands) ; v. 3.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (332 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

A complete exploration is the first systematic analysis ever comparing the central religious doctrinal aspects of Christianity with those in Confucianism. Huang's work carefully covers the whole history of the Confucian-Christian tradition, and ends up with genuinely new insights. He elaborates on the idea of transcendence in the Confucian tradition in a manner which enables an interpretation of the Christian means of salvation. His explanation of transcendence, and its connection with the means of salvation, is new and unique, offering a clue to the special understanding of salvation germane to the specifically Chinese intellecual history. Huang's book is a must for anyone interested in the Sino-Western cultural encounter.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Aim ; Sources ; Method ; Previous research ; Motivation ; Structure and notational convention -- The preconditions for the dialogue. The legacy of Matteo Ricci for the Confucian-Christian dialogue ; Confucianism ; The Confucians who have mostly commented on the Christian doctrine of salvation ; The Christian concept of God in Chinese terms -- Confucian ideas of the Saviour in Christianity : the assimilation of God to the Chinese concepts of shangdi and tian. The neo-Confucian ideas of the assimilation ; Cultural nationalist Confucian ideas of the assimilation ; Modern Confucian ideas of the assimilation -- Confucian ideas of the object of salvation in Christianity : created humanity and its status. Human beings as part of creation ; The status of human beings -- Confucian ideas of the means of salvation in Christianity. The existence of transcendence in Confucianism ; The transcendece of the Christian God and that of the Chinese heaven ; The superiority of the internal transcendence to the external transcendence -- Basic problems in the Confucian-Christian dialogue. The hidden differences between Confucian and Christian ways of thinking ; Four obstacles in the Confucian-Christian dialogue ; Affirmative elements in the Confucian-Christian dialogue.