Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
Comparative study of religions and philosophies, in spite of its significance and urgency, has been neither fully appreciated nor developed in the study of religion or philosophy. Comparative study, historically speaking, is still young and complex in its approach. Religious Studies as an intellectual discipline has traditionally concentrated on the investigation of a single tradition, enabling a student to become an ‘expert’ in that particular tradition. The world in which we live, however, no longer allows us to be content with the idea, the value, the way of thinking in our own tradition alone. In short, we no longer live in a ‘provincial’ age but in a ‘global’ age.
page 53 note 1 The meaning of salvation, of course, is not always the same to every Christian. I do not intend to discuss extensively the Christian meaning of salvation, which is beyond the scope of this paper. It must suffice to note that the goal of Christian faith is to achieve salvation in whatever sense; the individual, the social, this worldly, other-worldly, etc.
page 54 note 1 Here what I mean by faith is a state of being, not a mere acceptance of a system of belief.
page 54 note 2 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Akt und Sein (Act and Being), trans. by Noble, Bernd (London, Collins, 1962), p. 188.Google Scholar
page 55 note 1 Ibid p. 189.
page 55 note 2 Ibid p. 190.
page 55 note 3 Ibid p. 190.
page 56 note 1 Ibid p. 190.
page 56 note 2 Ibid p. 193.
page 56 note 3 Ibid p. 193.
page 56 note 4 Ibid p. 194.
page 58 note 1 For further discussion on the Chinese world view see Mote, , Intellectual Foundations of China (New York, Knopf, 1971), pp. 17–20.Google Scholar
page 58 note 2 Ibid p. 25.
page 59 note 1 Chan, Wing-it, for instance, defined Confucianism as ‘humanism’; see his book, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton, NJ., Princeton University Press, 1973), p. 3 and pp. 14–15.Google Scholar
page 60 note 1 Herbert Fingarette discussed Li extensively in his book, Confucians – The Secular As Sacred (New York, Harper Torchbooks, 1972).