John H. Berthrong - Böcker

This book is a study of comparative philosophy and theology. The themes are the critical issues arising from the modern interpretation of Confucian doctrine as they confront the Christian beliefs of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

This book is a study of comparative philosophy and theology. The themes are the critical issues arising from the modern interpretation of Confucian doctrine as they confront the Christian beliefs of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

A cross-cultural comparsion of creativity that introduces Neo-Confucian discourse as a sophisticated dialogue partner with modern western speculative philosophy and theology.This work examines the philosophies and theologies of three thinkers-Chu Hsi, Alfred North Whitehead, and Robert C. Neville-separated by time, space, and culture. In so doing John H. Berthrong provides a suggestive and successful comparison of creativity as a cross-cultural theme while introducing Neo-Confucianism as a sophisticated dialogue partner with modern Western speculative philosophy and theology.Creativity lies at the heart of the discourse of Chu Hsi (1130–1200) and Alfred North Whitehead. For both, creativity emerges as an attempt to illustrate the organic unity of the world without resorting to an appeal to a source for creativity beyond the concrete actuality of the cosmos. Subtle critics such as Robert C. Neville argue that process thought is fatally flawed because Whitehead separated creativity from the other crucial elements of his system. By interjecting the Chinese Neo-Confucian synthesis of Chu Hsi, it is possible to show how creativity can be re-integrated into process discourse as creative synthesis.

Brings Chinese Daoist and Confucian thought into conversation with Western process, pragmatic, and naturalist philosophy and theology.Expanding Process explores how comparative philosophy expands our understanding of the critical themes of process, change, and transformation. John H. Berthrong examines how notions of process manifest and shape the classical Confucianism of Xunzi, the early medieval Daosim of the Liezi, and Zhu Xi's Song Dynasty daoxue (Teaching of The Way). Berthrong links these various Chinese views of process and transformation to contemporary debates in the American process, pragmatic, and naturalist philosophical movements. Stressing how our pluralistic world calls for comparing and even appropriating insights from diverse cultural traditions, Berthrong contends that comparative philosophy and theology can broaden the intellectual frontiers and foundations of any serious student of contemporary global thought.