孔子思想之现代宗教史的意义

Abstract

In analyzing the religious phenomenon in modern society, people often say “we have already ushered in an age characterized by pluralism in religion”. Therefore, the traditional concept of god in Christianity, such as “the absolute and supernatural god”, has collapsed, and a demand for understanding of religion in a new sense has come into being, thus, people have realized that in the cultural society of mankind, there are also many ways to experience religion and salvation. Some scholars advocate the central task of religion should be to “experience change”，namely, to experience the great change from the “present ego” to the “new ego”. However，as early as 2000-plus years ago, Confucius already began to try to change people's concept by the root, stressing that we could not seek happiness by conforming to the absolute being, such as gods, God or Heaven, but should perfect ourselves through reasonable transformation in daily life, such as “do what we want to do without going beyond the rule”. This ideal means a seamless unity between Heaven and man, that is, human mind should not be restricted by anything beyond natural, or we should try to become one with Heavenly truth in our natural motion. That is why Confucianism can exist as a religious value in the present religious pluralism society.