Title: Christianity and Chinese religions /
Authors: Küng, Hans, 1928-2021; Ching, Julia
Publisher: Doubleday,
Year: 1989
Subjects: Christianity and other religions Chinese; China Religion.
Abstract: Hans Küng, world-renowned theologian, sees the wisdom religions of China as the third great religious orientation of the world alongside the Semitic prophetic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and the mystical religions of Hinduism and Buddhism in India. In this book, Dr. Julia Ching, Shanghai-horn scholar and professor of religious studies at the University of Toronto, presents these Chinese religions in all their complexity, followed by an analysis from a Christian perspective by Dr. Küng. For centuries, Western interpreters of the Chinese have argued that they are not a religious people, citing their practical morality as evidence of a humanism without transcendence. However, thorough historical evidence indicates a surviving religious folk culture incorporating age-old rituals with striking similarities to the ancient traditions of Judaism and Christianity. These eminent scholars trace the significance of religious traditions on the history of China and give compelling glimpses of the effect of Chinese spirituality on Western society. They open our eyes to a world that is not so separate and foreign as the West once imagined.--From publisher description.
Contents: The religion of antiquity -- Confucianism: Ethical humanishm as religion? -- Taoist naturalism: Philosophy and religion -- Buddhism: A foreign religion in China.