Confucianism And Christianity: Heaven Relationship, The Relationship Between The Man Of God And The Comparative Study,

This dissertation consists of a preface and seven chapters.The preface gives an overall introduction to this dissertation. At first, the preface elaborates the rationale for choosing the topic of this dissertation. The author (of this dissertation) thinks that, the heaven-man relation of Confucianism and the God-man relation of Christianity, are the fundamental relations that govern the category and other conceptions of both Confucianism and Christianity. A comparative study between the two will not only help to find the commonalities and differences between Confucianism and Christianity from their fundamental roots, but also enable in-depth understanding of the characteristics of both Confucianism and Christianity. Secondly, the preface emphasizes the aims and significances of this study. The author thinks that there are multi-aspect significances in a comparative study on the two relations through dialogue and communication between Confucianism and Christianity, while the most significant one is that, it enables each side to learn and absorb the fresh and beneficial cultural resources from the counterpart.The main body of a total of seven chapters in this dissertation can be divided into three portions. The first three chapters focus on the analysis and research on the concepts of heaven, doctrine of man, and heaven-man relation of Confucianism. Chapter four and five discuss the doctrine of divinity, doctrine of man, and the God-man relation of Christianity. The last two chapters of the dissertation compare and analyze the heaven-man relation of Confucianism, and the God-man relation of Christianity. In the following paragraphs, the main contents of these three portions of the dissertation are given in a concise manner.[1]. Heaven, Man and Heaven-Man Relation in ConfucianismThe author thinks that, the concept of heaven of Confucianism in pre-Qin dynasty actually evolved gradually from the original idea of heaven emerging ever since the early Zhou dynasty, after being reshaped over time. Confucius, Mencius, and other great thinkers referred, absorbed, and extended the concept of heaven from the Western Zhou...