Prof. Louis Aldrich, Taiwan – 28 gennaio 2005

My topic today is philosophy in the Asian context and the Christianization of contemporary thought. The two largest nations in the world, India and China are both in Asia and each has been influenced by very different types of philosophical thought. Here I will focus on
China. The greatest influences on Chinese culture have been Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism - Buddhism coming out of South Asia while Confucianism and Taoism have their origin within China and are the best representatives of traditional Chinese philosophy. Confucianism is basically a form of ethical humanism, but a humanism open to
transcendence of humanism. Taoism has a metaphysical foundation, the Tao, but the Tao also enters into human life in mysterious ways. Since the Soong Dynasty till today, Chinese philosophy has been dominated by "Li Sywe" or neo-Confucianism, which combines the metaphysical insights of Jwang Tsz's Taoism and Buddhism with the Confucian system.

Contemporary neo-Confucianism has added new dimensions from Western philosophy, especially being influenced by the philosophy of Kant. Tang jwun yi of Hong Kong's former New Asia Academy is a representative of that Kantian school. Because of its importance, many contemporary attempts at inculturation of Christian thought have taken
neo-Confucianism as a starting context. Concretely, many Chinese Bishops have taken on this task: for examples, Cardinal Yu bin and Archbishop Lwo gwang. While both Cardinal Yu and Archbishop Lwo were active in promoting this contemporary dialogue between neo-Confucianism and Christian thought, Archbishop Lwo was also a prolific scholar who
has written what may be called "an outline of Chinese philosophy" for the Catholic Church.

The Theological Faculty of Fu Jen University continues this dialogue with contemporary neo-Confucianism: most notably Frs. A.B. Chang, whose prolific writings include "Wisdom Tradition and Jesus as Sage", and Mark Fang, a biblical scholar and another prolific writer whose works include such articles as "Image of Christ Reflected in Confucius." Many younger Chinese Catholic theologians and philosophers throughout the world are
seriously pursing this great and necessary work of contemporary Christianization by uniting the supernatural riches of the Catholic faith with the human riches of China's 5,000 year old culture.