The Modern Study of ‘Religion’, the Confucian Tradition, and the Human Person
In the modern and global eras, people of diverse ways of living have come into increasing contact and have been inclined to make comparisons. On what scholarly basis can comparison be deeply informative, even life transforming? In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the West gave birth to the mo...
| Published in: | Research in the social scientific study of religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2017
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| In: |
Research in the social scientific study of religion
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| Further subjects: | B
Religion in Asien
B Cultural sciences B Religious sociology B Social sciences B China B Religionspsycholigie B Asien-Studien B Religionswissenschaften |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In the modern and global eras, people of diverse ways of living have come into increasing contact and have been inclined to make comparisons. On what scholarly basis can comparison be deeply informative, even life transforming? In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the West gave birth to the modern concept of ‘religion’ and to several modern academic disciplines that investigate this newly named thing called ‘religion.’ These disciplines include sociology, anthropology, psychology, and phenom-enology of religion. Respectively, these disciplines discern religion as concerned with social wholes, with ‘who we are’ as human beings, and with inward motivations expressed in outward phenomena such as ritual, scripture, moral conduct, artistic form, and social institutions. Engaging modern understandings of religion, particularly the psychology of religion, this essay takes initial steps to compare what some psychologists call ‘the interdependent self’ and the ‘independent self’ with the ‘parent role’ and the ‘child role’ in the family-based relationship that Chinese people call xiao (in this essay translated as ‘properly ordered family/clan affection’; others sometimes translate it as ‘filial piety’). For Confucians, xiao is the root of the cultivated virtue called ren (kindness). This match between the two Western and Chinese conceptions enables astute appreciation of how religious and moral discipline brings these two kinds of self and/or roles into complementary relationship, maturing the best of both. This case study, engaging the multi-disciplined, modern study of religion, exemplifies how contemporary peoples around the world can learn well from each other |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Research in the social scientific study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/9789004348936_006 |