Complete Name of Professor
When we talk about religion and its impact to the world and society, these two always come to mind: Confucianism and Christianity. Confucianism was started by Confucius. He lived in China from about 550 to 479 B.C. He never claimed to be god but after his death, those who become his followers started to worship him. Although not many people today would call themselves as Confucianists, the teachings still have a strong hold particularly in Asia (Comparing Confucianism and Christianity, 2008).
On the other hand, Christianity came after the death and resurrection of Jesus. His followers were first called as Christians. In the days of Paul, one of his followers, Christians follow Christ and worship Him as the Son of God. Today, Christianity has a strong hold even to nations where there is a strong Confucian influence such as China, Japan and Vietnam. But what really marks the difference between Confucianism and Christianity when it comes to its philosophical teachings?
Before laying down the differences between the two, we must take note that Confucianism and Christian teachings are quite consistent. Both share a lot of common cores and values such as the concept of love. Christians are known for their teachings of, “Love all people as yourself”. In Confucianism, the teaching called ren, which is frequently translated as love and goodness has this famous teaching of, “To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there must belove for men” (Rui, 2007). However, if we take a closer look, we can see that their systems of belief are quite different.
The first striking differences between the two is their beliefs. Christians believe in one God – the One who created the universe and all that is in it. It has drawn a clear line between God and humans – God is the supreme being and ‘man’ a particle of His creation. Confucians, on the other hand, have no specific beings as their gods. Confucius never mentioned about gods or afterlife; his main concern was the social life and the principles and beliefs that should govern society, family and personal life. The word ‘tian’ which is translated as heaven which anchors on the idea that although heaven is something intangible, it is actually everywhere. All the natural phenomena in this Earth are part of the so called ‘Heaven’ and in obeying the laws of Heaven, one must focus on the presence of the physical universe.
Another major difference is their ideas about human nature. This, I believe, is the reason why cultures that evolved from these two religious traditions behave differently. In Christianity, there is the belief that the sinful nature is in every human being which can be traced back from their ancestors Adam and Eve who disobeyed God by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and therefore man do not possess any intrinsic divine nature and in capable of saving himself. Man needs faith – the proper human response, which requires complete trust in God’s promises of forgiveness. Contrary to this, Confucians believe that humankind is naturally good and that humans are born of wisdom, kindness and righteousness. The evil is caused by man’s inability to avoid the influences of his environment. In order to recapture the innate goodness of man, one must pay closer attention to self-cultivation.
Finally, the third main difference between the two is their ideas about life. While Christians believe in the view of eternity afterlife, Confucius’s teachings do not believe on the eternity of life. Christians emphasis is on determining one’s fate afterlife while Confucius’s focus is in this limited life.
These two systems of beliefs were said to have led the ideological differences among Chinese and Westerners. How people’s religious beliefs were molded and the transmission of these beliefs depends on many factors but one of which is the geographical environment. Why is this so? Would anyone expect a people’s religion or philosophy to grow up without the influence of his physical environment (Whitbeck, 1918)? It is obvious that if one came to believe in the existence of, say, certain deities, one would most likely live in harmony of this belief because at the end of the day, one thing that binds people is religion.
Works Cited
Comparing Confucianism and Christianity. (2008, June 17). June 27, 2015 tarihinde Kids of
Courage : http://www.kidsofcourage.com/?p=1277
Rui, D. (2007). A Comparison between the Christian and Confucian. Canadian Social Science ,
1-4.
Whitbeck, R. H. (1918). The Influence of Geographical Environment upon Religious Beliefs.
American Geographical Society.
