Paul Tillich and Chu Hsi

The Author: Kin Ming Au received his doctorate from Boston University, taught at Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary, and is currently on the faculty of Evangel Seminary (Hong Kong). He serves as editor for Ching Feng: A Journal on Christianity and Chinese Religion and Culture and teaches and does research in the area of contemporary Christian theology, philosophy of religion, Chinese ethics and philosophy, and comparative theology.

"This is an exciting study in comparative theology and philosophy based on two major thinkers, Paul Tillich and Chu Hsi. Although Tillich and Chu lived in vastly different cultures, they articulate a strikingly similar view of human reality and its predicaments. This book makes use of a sophisticated hermeneutic based on three main analytic categories: unity, activity, and reunification. This work shows how Tillich and Chu diagnosed and then tried to heal the existential dilemmas that arise from finitude, ignorance, and error in the mundane world. Moreover, Kin Ming Au illuminates the religious dimension of Chu's thought and demonstrates how Chu becomes an effective dialogue partner for Christian theology. This book ably promotes the growing international and intercultural dialogue between and among Christians and Confucians in the modern world." (John H. Berthrong, School of Theology, Boston University)
"Kin Ming Au has written a pioneering study of the human predicament based on a sophisticated comparison of Paul Tillich and Chu Hsi. The sophistication in the method of comparison allows not only for two thinkers from very different cultures to be thought together, but also allows for an analysis of the human predicament more subtle than would be possible from either thinker alone. Au joins the ranks of careful comparativists who have moved beyond intellectual history to critical, normative philosophy and theology, faithful to the texts of the traditions they study but innovative and responsible to the normative issues." (Robert C. Neville, Dean, School of Theology, Boston University)