| This dissertation has two principal elements:one is theoretical, establishing a basic conception and framework of "religious existential ethics"; the other is historical, interpreting Christianity and Confucianism from the perspective of intellectual history. I am trying to weave these two principal elements into a coherent whole. On the one hand, I provide an in-depth understanding of Christianity and Confucianism from the perspective of religious existential ethics, presenting them as one kind of religious existential ethics, but with different approaches and models. This is the main content and direct purpose. On the other hand, I provide a historical interpretation of basic elements of Christianity and Confucianism in order to confirm the conception of religious existential ethics. This is the deeper intention and indirect purpose.In the first two chapters I lay out the some basic characteristics of religious existential ethics. On the one hand, it gives religious ethics an existential orientation, seeing religious ethics as a kind of existential ethics; on the other hand, it understands human being’s ethical existence from a religious perspective. It thus bridges religiosity and human being’s existential nature. In this sense, religious ethics is no longer a particular kind ethics in a particular realm, but human being’s entire existential ethics. To put it in another way, human being’s existential ethics is in the end a kind of religious ethics. This depends on the fusion of horizons of philosophical metaphysics and religious metaphysics. In this dissertation I fuse them into a horizon of "metaphysical religiosity." From this horizon, every form of advanced and mature religion is, from objective aspect, the ultimate concern for some kind of supreme being; and from subjective aspect, the transcendental concern for the finitude of human being. Therefore, religious existential ethics has universal metaphysical significance. It directs human being’s entire life world and life order toward some ultimate dimension, and acquires some transcendental dimension which goes beyond the limitation of current existence.Religious existential ethics has the following characteristics. First, its initial conceptions (which are also the goal of returning) are an original realm and a unity consisting of existentiality, religiosity, and ethics. This can be seen as an intuition opened by "existential comprehension." By appealing to Heidegger’s ontology of homeland and by analyzing believer’s experience of Christ’s presence, I bridge original existentiality and holy religiosity. By appropriating Heidegger’s understanding of the original meaning of ethics as living closer to gods, I bridge ethics, religion and existence. Existentiality narrates human being’s existential substance, ethics indicates human being’s existential guideline, and religiosity exhibits human being’s existential limitation and opens the ultimate and transcendental dimensions.Second, the pivotal conception of religious existential ethics is "religiosity." Having surveyed various intellectual resources, especially Georg Simmel and Max Scheler, I use "religiosity" to express the fundamental characteristic of human existence and the value of social and ethical order, directing toward the ultimate and transcendental dimension of human existence. To put it another way, I anchor the fundamental characteristic of religious existential ethics and its value on its ultimacy and transcendentality. Taking religiosity as the axis, we can bridge religion, individual existence, and social, historical and cultural existence. Religiosity may refer to the ultimate criterion of the entire cultural value system, and also to the ultimate destiny of finite individual existence. Along with this approach, every ethical tradition, however different they are, has, either explicitly or implicitly, some religious characteristic, aiming at its own ultimate criterion of value; and every human being, whether he/she believes in any particular religion, has, as individual, some kind of religious transcendental pursuit in his/her finite existence.Third, the deep inclination of religious metaphysics, i.e., human being’s special spiritual existence to transcend his finite nature and pursue infinity, is a priori foundation of religious existential ethics. Therefore, the basic characteristic of existential ethics based on religiosity is to confirm an infinite and supreme foundation, and confirm a transcendental and sublime existential belief. It manifests the fundamental difference between human being as finite spiritual being and all the other beings. Fourth, freedom and return is double unfolding of religious existential ethics. In the inclination toward ultimate existential metaphysics, human being’s existence shows its transcendental stance of continuous break of its finitude. This makes freedom the essential dimension of human existence, and opens the possibility of ideal realm. On the other hand, human existence also exhibits a returning stance to its origin. This makes human existence a journey returning home in accordance with human destiny. It realizes the co-existence of human being and ultimate being. Therefore, the freedom at issue is both to transcend our constraint, and to appeal to our return to our destiny, and thus very different from the constructive freedom in modern philosophy. Religious existential ethics is double fulfilment of freedom and return, a mode of existence with the depth of life.Having set the basic conceptions of religious existential ethics (Chapters1and2), I take Christianity and Confucianism as two paradigms, and provide an interpretation of them from the perspective of intellectual history. This framework is an intellectual structure consisting of several basic elements, and will unfold itself in the following interpretation of Christianity and Confucianism (Chapters3to7).Chapter3("Holiness and Secularity:The Foundation of the Supremacy of Religious Ethics") makes use of Eliade’s conception of holiness and presupposes some foundation of meaning, which is both holy and supreme, both ultimate and transcendental. It is the foundation of justification and legitimacy of human being’s existential order. Christian conception of God and Confucian conception of the Decree of Heaven is the manifestation of this conception. Absoluteness, personhood, and holiness are basic characteristics of traditional conception of Christian God. This absolute God turns out to be the foundation and criterion of human existence. This personal God encounters human being and participates in human history. This holy God, with his mysterious transcendence, awakes human being’s consciousness of his own limitation, and provides the sense of belonging. It also creates the models of grace-acceptance, and revelation-faith. Modern conceptions of God brings pluralistic picture and multi-dimensional link between human being and God, and I discuss various ideas about God in Albrecht Ritschl, Karl Barthes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Jurgen Moltmann. In contrast, Confucian conception of Heaven and Decree of Heaven does not have the dichotomy between this world and that world, secularity and holiness, but unfold an existential state, harmonizing Decree of Heaven and human nature, the Way of Heaven and the Way of human being, the Principle of Heaven and human heart, and culminating in the harmony of Heaven and human being. It does not direct to a holy world, in contrast with a secular world, but refers to a foundation of value with holy significance. It is rooted in the ultimacy of religiosity, and has the characteristics of naturalness and morality. I will discuss two questions in Confucian conception of Decree of Heaven:first, I will discuss the establishment and evolution of conception of Decree of Heaven from the perspective of intellectual history, and then I will analyze, based on the "Four Books," the philosophical meaning of Confucian existential state.Chapter4("Fulfilment and Deficiency:Presupposition of Human Nature in Religious Ethics") discusses the "original goodness" of human nature in its relation to the perfect principle (this is the presupposition of religious metaphysics), and the deficiency of human being as finite being. I discuss Christian conception of sin on the basis of human being’s existential structure, the two dimensions of human nature and their tension. The unity of the image of God and the image of Nature, and the unity of transcendental spiritual image and finite created image, forms the tension between spiritual transcendentality and bodily finitude, and it is this tension that explains human being’s sinfulness. The neglect of our natural limitation, and the attempt to become infinite, is the result of human being’s overstepping his boundary. And in this process, our free will plays an important role. Confucian idea of the goodness of human nature finds its ultimate justification in the Heaven. Human nature is originated in the Decree of Heaven, so it is good. Decree of Heaven is the existential reason for the goodness of human nature."Destiny and benevolence" not only shows Confucius’undertaking of the Decree of Heaven, but also shows that benevolence is the way of harmonizing Heaven and human being. Zisi’s "Decree of Heaven is Human Nature" and Mencius’"obedience to the Decree of Heaven is human nature" provide ultimate justification of the goodness of human nature. On this basis, Mencius interprets human nature with his theory of heart, and puts forward the doctrine of "four hearts"(commiseration, the sense of shame, a reverential attitude toward others, and the sense of right and wrong). He uses them to explain the four cardinal virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. The route from striving in one’s hear, to knowing the human nature, and to knowing the Heaven provides the epistemological reason for the goodness of human nature.Chapter5("Transcendence and Fallenness:The Transcendental Paths of Religious Ethics") illustrates the possible grounds of transcendental inclination by analyzing human being’s spiritual existence. I discuss three different types of transcendence: philosophical, artistic, and religious, and distinguishes transcendence by one’s own power and transcendence by external power. Christian model of transcendence is based on external power and the sacred salvation. I analyze the grounds of salvation by external power in theology and in human nature. Through an interpretation of Augustine’s theory of freedom, I emphasize that human beings in the constraint of sin are impotent of choosing the good. Therefore, human beings have to rely on the sacred force from an external other, and gain rebirth through accepting Grace in revelation and faith. Confucian model of transcendence is based on one’s own power and consciousness, and it is a path of becoming a sage. Considering the Heaven-man order, the goodness of human nature is a priori, and consciousness is innate. This is the internal justification of becoming moral by one’s own power. Consciousness is the direct comprehension of the Decree of Heaven. Therefore the path of become moral by one’s own power is to appeal to benevolence, to trace back to the Decree of Heaven, and to retrospect in oneself. It includes both the inwardness of transcendence, i.e., to return to oneself is also to return to the common origin of Decree of Heaven, and the outwardness of transcendence, i.e., to unfold one’s consciousness and existence to fill the entire world, and to realize the state of sage in the ideal of "internal saints and external kings" and in the harmony of Heaven and human being.Chapter6("Ultimate Love and Alienation:Existential Paradigm of Religious Ethics") compares the love of parents, the love of friends, and sexual love, and draws the conclusion that the "ultimate love" is an existential love, generated by the origin of oneself. It transcends the value of beloved in objective relation and becoming the origin of value. I reach this conclusion through an analysis of Eberhard Jiinge’s structure of love and Max Scheler’s order of love. I then illustrate the absolute model of holy love, which is unconditional, impartial, and absolute. It forms the transcendental root of Christian ethics of love. The transition from God’s love to man’s love means not that love is rooted in human nature, but human nature is rooted in love. In contrast, Confucian benevolence is a hierarchical model of love. Benevolence includes human nature, virtue, and harmony of Heaven and human being. The center of benevolence is the love of humanity, but it is not limited to humanity, but extends to everything in the world, for the benevolent person loves everything in the world. Therefore, benevolence bridges Heaven/Earth and everything in the world. It is a metaphysical-religious conception, and a kind of universal love. As for the practice of benevolence, there are a number of dimensions:in cultivating benevolence and appropriate attitude it advocates truthfulness, in cultivating virtue and regulations it advocates mean and propriety, in practicing benevolent actions it advocates doing one’s best and using oneself as a measure to gauge others. It emphasizes the procedure from the near to the distant, from oneself to others, from human being to things. Therefore, Confucian love has salient ethical character, and is rooted in family relationship based on bloodline. We should understand benevolence as originated in parents-children affection and also transcending this affection and reaching a kind of universal love.Chapter7("Eternity and Nihility:The Ultimate Concern of Religious Ethics") deals with the finitude of human life. This finitude throws human beings in front of the critical alternatives between eternity and nihility, and this is the horizon of ultimate concern. It is a question of hope in the end. Hope is closely linked with freedom, and the hope for eternity arises in the tension with freedom. Death presents itself in free will’s retrospective examination, and nihility becomes a challenge to one’s existence. But eternal life which denies death, and eternal hope which negates nihility also present themselves in free will. But hope cannot be sustained only by freedom. Freedom and hope have to be given to the ultimate faith to the eternal being. To illustrate the ultimate concern of eternal hope, I discuss the views of Paul Ricoeur, Max Scheler, Martin Heidegger, Soren Kierkegaard, and Paul Tillick. And then I discuss the difference between Christian hope for eternity, and Confucian pursuit of immortality. Christian view is eschatological. I survey the development of eschatology from Old Testament to New Testament, discuss the basic concepts of eschatology, and examine the contemporary eschatology’s reconstructions of eternal hope (especially John Macquarrie and Jurgen Moltmann). In contrast, Confucian pursuit of immortality is a worldly concern. Because of its characteristic of practical rationality, Confucianism insists that we should focus on the realm of living, this world, and this life. The key is not death but life. It is concerned with worldly social and ethical issues, instead of life of the other world. It thus pursues the eternal value of living, and the immortal meaning of one’s life. Confucian immortality means that one’s deeds in life will not vanish along with one’s death, but rather leave historical influence. This immortality is represented in establishing one’s deeds, virtue and word. Confucian immortality is also represented in the continuation of one’s offspring. Confucian immortality can be comprehended through the conception of the harmony of Heaven and human being, and thus exhibits both humane and religious characteristics. |
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