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7 - Religious Experience in Ancient Confucianism and Daoism

from Part III - Religious Experience Outside Traditional Monotheism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2020

By
Xinzhong Yao
Edited by
Paul K. Moser  and
Chad Meister
Paul K. Moser
Affiliation:
Loyola University, Chicago
Chad Meister
Affiliation:
Bethel University, Indiana
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Summary

Focusing on Confucianism and Daoism, Yao suggests that religious experience in these Chinese traditions falls into two broad categories: the human-centered and the transcendent-centered. Even so, he finds that the traditions agree in their tending to include an ultimate concern about human life and human destiny reflected in personal, familiar, and social matters, and that they typically associate their religious experiences with practices that, via self-cultivation, nourish a good human life.

Keywords

Religious experienceConfucianismDaoismHuman-centeredTranscendent-centeredSelf-cultivationGood life
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Religious Experience , pp. 159 - 186
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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