Polyglot from the Far Side of the Moon (PDF)

Lauren F. Pfister is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Hong Kong Baptist University. Having been a Founding Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities and a Member of the Executive Committee of the International Society of Chinese Philosophy before his retirement in the Fall of 2017, he remains active in research and writing related to Chinese-European-American comparative philosophical and comparative religious themes, with a special interest in exploring texts produced by Christian missionary-scholars related to China. Among his major English monographic writings are Striving for 'The Whole Duty of Man': James Legge and the Scottish Protestant Encounter with China (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2004) and Vital Post-Secular Perspectives on Chinese Philosophical Issues (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Press, 2020). A volume of essays in Chinese dealing with the hermeneutics and history of the translations of classical Chinese works was published by Xiamen University Press in 2016. He was also involved in the republication of James Legge's Chinese Classics in 2010 by the East China Normal University Press in Shanghai, when, in collaboration with others, he helped prepare new critical introductions in Chinese for each of the five volumes as well as a general introduction to the whole set. Residing now in the Colorado Rockies with his wife, he is seeking to establish a new educational and research center there under the name of the Hephzibah Mountain Aster Academy, for which he will serve as the rector.