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List of contents
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction: Images, Issues and Impressionism
1. Confucius, ‘The Master’, and Cultural Decay
2. Jesus, ‘The Christ’, and Spiritual Renewal
3. Heaven, Earth and ‘Harmony’
4. Humanity, Society and the Search for Worth
5. Character, Purpose and Morality: China and Enlightenment Habits and Values
6. Truth and Truthfulness: The 19th-Century Crisis in China and the West
7. Memory, Rite and Tradition: The Chinese Origin of a Western Movement
8. Sickness, Death and the Afterlife: On Making Sense of Everything and Nothing
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Christopher Hancock is Director of Oxford House (Research Ltd) and a Visiting Professor at St. Mary's University, London. Prior to this, he taught at Cambridge University, was Dean of Bradford Cathedral, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in China at King's College, London. His current work focuses on the role culture, ethics and religion play in contemporary geopolitics.
Summary
Christianity and Confucianism: Culture, Faith and Politics, sets comparative textual analysis against the backcloth of 2000 years of cultural, political, and religious interaction between China and the West. As the world responds to China's rise and China positions herself for global engagement, this major new study reawakens and revises an ancient conversation. As a generous introduction to biblical Christianity and the Confucian Classics, Christianity and Confucianism tells a remarkable story of mutual formation and cultural indebtedness. East and West are shown to have shaped the mind, heart, culture, philosophy and politics of the other - and far more, perhaps, than either knows or would want to admit. Christopher Hancock has provided a rich and stimulating resource for scholars and students, diplomats and social scientists, devotees of culture and those who pursue wisdom and peace today.
Foreword
An analysis of the very different but not totally incompatible belief systems of Christianity and Confucianism, and from there the societies that have been shaped around these faith values.
Additional text
A rich treasure store which shows in particular how Europeans at the dawn of the modern era began to engage with the world view which has done so much to shape the Chinese identity.
