Confucian Tradition and Comparative Theology: a New Vista Explored at the Center
On Thursday, February 26, the Center hosted its annual Comparative Theology Lecture. While many Center events are comparative in the learning they promote, and have theological implications, this annual Lecture, initiated in 2009 during the directorship of Donald K. Swearer, is the primary annual event at Harvard in this field, currently supported by a generous grant from the Luce Foundation.
Last year we hosted two lectures similarly supported by Luce: In Nov. 2013, Robert Morrison (Bowdoin College) spoke on “What Can the Christian Category of Natural Theology Tell Us About Islam?,” while in April 2014, Wesley Wildman (Boston University), spoke on a related theme, “Comparative Natural Theology.”
This year’s distinguished lecturer was John H. Berthrong (Boston University), who will soon be retiring from BU’s School of Theology, where for nearly 30 years he has been a professor and administrator. Active in interfaith dialogue projects and programs, his teaching and research interests are in the areas of interreligious dialogue, Chinese religions and philosophy, and comparative philosophy and theology. Among his many publications are the notable All under Heaven: Transforming Paradigms in Confucian-Christian Dialogue (2006), The Transformations of the Confucian Way (Westview Press), and Concerning Creativity: A Comparison of Chu Hsi, Whitehead, and Neville 1998), and The Divine Deli (1999), a study of religious pluralism and multiple religious participation in North America. He was one of the founders of the Boston Society for Comparative Theology.
Professor Berthrong’s topic on February 26 was “The Ongoing Life of Chinese Religion as a Resource for Comparative Theology.” Before a full house in our Common Room, Berthrong sketched a vast and complex overview of Confucian tradition in contemporary China, where cultural, economic, and political changes are providing yet another context in which Confucian tradition is being reinvented, so to speak, as an important feature of Chinese society in general, and leading factor in the lives of 21st century individuals. Berthrong, in response to questions, also gestured toward the still wider horizons of Confucian tradition elsewhere in East Asia and even in the West.
Professor David Mozina (Boston College), a leading expert in living, practiced Daoism and an emerging new voice in comparative theology, responded with insightful reflections on Berthrong’s contributions to teaching and writing about Confucian tradition today. Mozina too opened for us a vista on the fresh possibilities for thinking about Confucian tradition, pinpointing ways in which the comparative theological challenges are different from those familiar in the study of Western religions and the religions of South Asia.
Indeed, the overall benefit of the two presentations and ensuing discussion was to show us how comparative theology, in its new instantiation as a robust 21st century form of theology, has abundant challenges before it, including the necessity of adapting itself to be linguistic, cultural, and religious context, and reinventing its own terminology as required by those encounters. We celebrate encounters such as the “Christian-Confucian,” but such names stand only at the beginning of the hard work to be done in such learning.
Again, as I have mentioned, this annual Lecture is not the only event engaging interesting comparative issues. On Thursday, March 5, the Center is the site of a lecture sponsored by Harvard’s Hindu Studies Colloquium, "The Divine Mother Comes to Michigan: Karumariamman as Supreme Shakti at a North American Hindu Temple,” by Professor Tracy Pintchman (Loyola University of Chicago). On April 7 we will reach out on into another relatively uncharted field, comparative theological work that engages Native American traditions. Professor Laurel Schneider (Vanderbilt University) will speak on “When the Book Is a Coyote: Some Challenges and Possibilities for Comparative Theology from Native American Traditions.” Both events take place at 5:15pm in the Common Room, and all are welcome.
—By Francis X. Clooney, Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions