For the most part, I appreciated the Confucius reading selection, Chung-Yung, that was assigned this week. Even the style and format was a refreshing change of pace from the typical readings. Its structure made it easy to pick up and put down. However, the part that I appreciated most about the reading were the numerous parallels between Chung-Yung and the Bible, even though it had no influence on Confucianism.
As a Christian, it was fairly easy for me to notice similarities between Chung-Yung and the Bible. The first major one that I noticed was a quote on the unwobbling pivot. It was written that one should “Center oneself in the invariable” (Confucius, 105). This reminded me of the parable that Jesus once told in the book of Matthew. It says, “24 Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7: 24-25 ESV). In the parable, “the rock” is the invariable. By centering himself in the invariable, the wise man was able to withstand the storm. Now this leads to the question of what is invariable? The parable is very clear that Jesus’ teachings are invariable and unchanging, but the Confucius writing is not so clear. It is also vague when it says, “The man of breed pivots himself on the unchanging and has faith.” (Confucius, 115). When I read this I immediately wondered what the man of breed is to have faith in. There were several other similarities that I noticed such as a variation of The Golden rule (page 121), the importance of keeping your word (page 123), the harmony of parents (page 129), courtesy to foreigners (page 159), and holding material riches in low esteem (page 159). The common trend that I found throughout all of these was that Confucius did not give reasons for doing these other than for being a man of breed. Christians should be motivated to live this way to strive to live like Jesus did and to show God’s love to a broken world.
Having established that there are undeniable similarities between Christianity and Confucianism we must now ask the question “so what?”. Asking this question led me to wonder what the end goal (or telos for you Aristotle fans) is for these two things in question. They both seem to point to some sort of universal or supreme good. Both establishing that there is a standard of perfection that the average man is to strive towards. From the Christian viewpoint, I can understand that this moral standard of perfection is unattainable by man, but that through Jesus’ sacrifice and God’s forgiveness, we can enjoy life free of the wages of sin, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6: 23 ESV). As I attempted to consider the Confucianism viewpoint, I remembered a critical piece of information. Christianity is a religion. Confucianism is an ideology. Christianity has an end goal, while Confucianism does not. It is a system of philosophy. It was intentional for Christianity to have an end goal and for Confucianism to lack one.
“It was intentional for Christianity to have an end goal and for Confucianism to lack one.” This was the quote that I found most provoking in your blog and adding to the gravity of the statement, it was the way in which you finished your blog. This left me in deep thought as to what perhaps was the divine purpose behind it- why was it intentional?
ReplyDeleteOverall, Landon, this was a well-written blog. The way in which you connected the Confucius reading to the passage from Matthew approached the reading through a lens different from the way in which I had viewed it. While this was very insightful, I do have some critique. When you pose questions to yourself, they are in turn posed to the reader; I believe that if you do this, you must either be very clear that answer is obvious, or you must address the question yourself. When you brought into question what the man of breed is to have faith in, you left the question unanswered. It then left me wishing you had explored that topic more. Rather than answering that question, you then brought up different themes in the Confucius that related to Christianity. While relevant, I feel that this was an abrupt distraction from what you had been previously discussing. You did this again when you questioned Confucius’ reasoning for the man of breed acting in a certain manner, but you did not explore that reasoning. I think that you had very good individual or groups of thoughts, but they could have been discussed and connected in a more thorough manner. Therefore, while your points were provocative and critical, they lacked a certain depth.
Depth: 17
Scholarship: 20
Polish: 10
Total Score: 47/50
DeleteLandon, I think that you did a great job of evaluating and comparing Confucianism and Christianity. I liked how you went very in-depth in this topic, and I feel that you at least acknowledged the majority of points possible. Also, I think you did a good job of bringing in direct quotes and even quoting the Bible to help your comparison. There were a few times that I wished that you would have gone deeper into answering a question, such as faith in relation to Confucianism, but you did a good job overall. 46/50
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