A compelling exploration of humanity, morality, religious practice, and leading a good life based on traditional Confucian thought.
In this exploration of humanity, morality, religious practice, and leading a good life based on traditional Confucian thought, you are invited on a path of transformation. The unexpected depths to be found in Confucianism surprised author Charles Jones when he began teaching East Asian religions to undergraduate students thirty years ago. It raised fascinating questions relevant to life today, like what does it mean to be human? To understand the Confucian answers to these questions, Jones familiarizes us with Confucius, his main successors, and the situations to which their writings responded.
But this is not another textbook introduction to Chinese religion and thought. Jones is an engaging, inquisitive scholar and thought provocateur whose ideas address problems all of us face throughout our lives. By engaging with the Confucian ideas explored in this book, like rethinking “human nature” and uncovering cultural presuppositions previously unnoticed, you might discover new horizons and possibilities for your life that previously you never could have imagined. And you will discover Confucius in an all-new light as a profound shaper of modern thought as much as Aristotle and Lao-tzu—whose revolutionary ideas have the power to change your mind for the better.
“Charles Jones, in a pithily engaging manner, brings Confucius down to earth. Plainly delineating the contours of the old master’s profound thinking, which is at once practical and speculative, quotidian and metaphysical, his slender but informative book invites us to ponder the contemporary relevance of what the ancient Chinese sage has to say about a flourishing life guided by reasoned views of ultimacy, sociality, civility, and literacy. In the end, it is an earnest but non-preachy plea for cross-cultural understanding: don’t just act and think in terms of what you already know; go explore something new in other cultures, and your mind may well be changed, for the better and richer.” —Dr. On-cho Ng, Professor of Asian Studies and Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University
CHARLES B. JONES is associate professor emeritus of Religion and Cultures at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He earned a PhD at the University of Virginia in 1996 and specializes in East Asian Buddhism. He has published in the areas of Buddhism in Taiwan, interreligious dialogue, the Jesuit missions in China, gentry Buddhism in late Ming China, and Pure Land Buddhism. Among his recent titles is Pure Land: History, Tradition, and Practice (Shambhala, 2021).
A compelling exploration of humanity, morality, religious practice, and leading a good life based on traditional Confucian thought.
In this exploration of humanity, morality, religious practice, and leading a good life based on traditional Confucian thought, you are invited on a path of transformation. The unexpected depths to be found in Confucianism surprised author Charles Jones when he began teaching East Asian religions to undergraduate students thirty years ago. It raised fascinating questions relevant to life today, like what does it mean to be human? To understand the Confucian answers to these questions, Jones familiarizes us with Confucius, his main successors, and the situations to which their writings responded.
But this is not another textbook introduction to Chinese religion and thought. Jones is an engaging, inquisitive scholar and thought provocateur whose ideas address problems all of us face throughout our lives. By engaging with the Confucian ideas explored in this book, like rethinking “human nature” and uncovering cultural presuppositions previously unnoticed, you might discover new horizons and possibilities for your life that previously you never could have imagined. And you will discover Confucius in an all-new light as a profound shaper of modern thought as much as Aristotle and Lao-tzu—whose revolutionary ideas have the power to change your mind for the better.
Reviews
“Charles Jones, in a pithily engaging manner, brings Confucius down to earth. Plainly delineating the contours of the old master’s profound thinking, which is at once practical and speculative, quotidian and metaphysical, his slender but informative book invites us to ponder the contemporary relevance of what the ancient Chinese sage has to say about a flourishing life guided by reasoned views of ultimacy, sociality, civility, and literacy. In the end, it is an earnest but non-preachy plea for cross-cultural understanding: don’t just act and think in terms of what you already know; go explore something new in other cultures, and your mind may well be changed, for the better and richer.” —Dr. On-cho Ng, Professor of Asian Studies and Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University
Author
CHARLES B. JONES is associate professor emeritus of Religion and Cultures at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He earned a PhD at the University of Virginia in 1996 and specializes in East Asian Buddhism. He has published in the areas of Buddhism in Taiwan, interreligious dialogue, the Jesuit missions in China, gentry Buddhism in late Ming China, and Pure Land Buddhism. Among his recent titles is Pure Land: History, Tradition, and Practice (Shambhala, 2021).
