Date of Award

8-1-2002

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Exegetical Theology

First Advisor

Henry Rowold

Scripture References in this Resource

Matthew 7:12; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Acts 12:17; Acts 3:12-4:18; Acts 5:30-33; Acts 7:52-60; Acts 8:1ff; Acts 9:20-29; Galatians 3; Hebrews 12:1-13; Hebrews 5:12; James 1:1; James 1:2-4; James 1:9-11; James 2:14-26; James 2:2; James 3:10; James 5:7-11; John 10:39; John 7:30; John 8:59; Luke 11:24-26; Luke 4:29-30; Matthew 10:16-17; Matthew 12:43-44; Romans 3-4; Romans 7

Abstract

This dissertation is a cross-textual study, designed to compare the moral visions of the Epistle of James and Zhongyong. The Epistle of James is a book of the Christian New Testament. Zhongyong is one of the Four Books of Confucianism.

This introductory chapter will present the relevance and method of this study. First, the ongoing relevance of the present topic will be introduced in the section entitled China and Christianity. This section notes the impact of Christianity on China, the Chinese impact upon Christianity, and the consequent importance of investigating Chinese thought in order to understand Chinese interaction with Christianity. Mainstream Chinese Thought As Predominantly Confucian will then discuss the way in which Confucian thought has continually been affirmed as the mainstream in Chinese culture. Next, The History of Confucian and Christian Comparative Studies will express the relevance of this particular study as a continuity within the stream of a four hundred year old movement.

After discussing the relevance of this inquiry in the three sections noted above, the method of this dissertation will be presented in the following sections. Moral Vision: Point of Comparison defines moral vision and presents moral vision as the best point of comparison between Christian and Confucian thought. Cross-textual Study then introduces the method of comparative textual investigation used in this inquiry. This leads into the justification for the choice of each text: The Choice of Zhongyong and The Choice of The Epistle of James. Further refinement of the method of this cross-textual comparative study follows in From Exhortations to Metanarrative, which explains how the moral vision of each text will be presented in order to facilitate comparison. Then, Procedure of This Dissertation will describe the flow of presentation. Finally, Linguistic Matters will explain translation issues and the use of Chinese romanization and surnames in this dissertation.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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