The Ethnic Significance Of The Agape In Christianity On Constructing Personality In Modernity

In the age of Chinese modernity with the characters of social changes, the crisis of moral ethics can be traces in various aspects. Under such circumstances, Chinese thinkers realize the functions of individual beliefs in western countries. The standpoint of Christianity towards the secularization, for example, makes even the co-called perfect man in modern society feel ashamed; On the contrary, the negation of individual satisfaction from Christianity also block any of the ethnic nihilism out of the desperation of modernity. From this perspective, Christianity proves its ethnic significance above the disadvantage of modernity and becomes the positive human resource in modern civilization. This thesis elaborates the value of agape including humanity and grace in Christianity on constructing personality in modernity from the perspective of religion and philosophy.There are always two extremes for people to form an attitude towards life, one is to be blindly optimistic and the other one is to be over pessimistic. For Christianity, however, it is between the limits of human beings and that of tensility from the power of God. That is to say, human being is both the combination of the image of God as well as its creations, so even, within the highest spiritual level, man is still the creation of God; on the other hand, though he lives at the lowest social level, he still reflects the image of God in certain perspectives.According to Christianity, love originated from agape which focuses on the dying of Jesus on cross. The nature of this kind of love is the love of tragedy. It confines, promotes and takes beyond such human desires for friendship and Eros. It encourages human beings to persue to become a newly created being, or new existence, which is connected with the ultimate comforts. The latter turn against medium worship and refer Vergaffung as the extremely pursuing of the seculars things. At the same time, the idea of new existence emphasizes on the independence of the individual and encourages the resuming unification of love and being loved, the used-to be selfhood and that of the new one.Therefore, Christianity defines the new existence as the salvation of Jesus' love and the new beings become the salt and light of the world. This is the truth of human existence.Once the newly established life value has been formed, the new beings manifest their love of God on the love of their neighbors as well as their family members. Even though the love of God is beyond the family tie, family relationship becomes more harmonious under it. To love God and to love people are the two aspects of one commitment to God, and thus, a person loves God and he naturally loves the people around him. This kind of love encourages the new beings to love people beyond the laws and social conventions, that is, to be able to love his enemies, from which to realize the true value of his life.Confucianism has been a great influence on China's five-thousand histories, and the main recourse in Chinese ethnic unity. For example, the kindheartedness from Confucianism, mercy from Buddhism, and inaction from Daoism all advocate to beyond the egoism. This article refers to these theoretical backgrounds, and tends to elaborate how the love in Christianity has positive influences the reconstruction of human beings in the modernization of society, and thus, provides certain suggestions for the studies of traditional ethics.