| This dissertation demonstrates the similarities within differences between Chu Hsi's (1130-1200) and Paul Tillich's (1886-1965) concepts of human nature. Chu and Tillich, the greatest Sung Neo-Confucian philosopher and one of the leading Christian theologians of the twentieth century respectively, were both profound students of human nature. By developing three vague comparative theological categories--unity, activity, and reunification--this study suggests that, although these two great thinkers came from two radically different religious traditions and cultures, Chu and Tillich articulated similar views of the unity of human reality and the problem of human existence. Furthermore, they proposed remarkably parallel strategies to resolve the tensions of finite human existence in searching for a reunification of human nature with its root in divine reality. Although these three comparative categories are generated from the fertile matrix of Tillich's thought, they are designed to deal with a problem and its resolution common to Chu's thought as well.;By employing the category of unity, this dissertation shows that both Chu and Tillich have similar views of the self-world structure, how the human mind grasps and shapes reality, and how human beings see themselves as individual, communal, or social persons as well as creative but finite beings. By using the category of activity, this dissertation also argues that both Chu and Tillich have a similar view of the common problem of human finitude and failure. They agree that when human beings are actualized in the mundane world, their original nature will be distorted and selfishness will emerge. Human beings fail to be what they ought to be in relation to their primordial ground of being. Finally, by employing the category of reunification, this dissertation affirms that both jen and love, which are the ultimate principle and the drive toward reunion of the whole human reality in the thought of Chu and Tillich respectively, also share analogous functions for the resolution of the human problems of finitude, ignorance, error, and sin.;By analyzing similarities and differences between Chu's and Tillich's views of human nature, this study intends to facilitate the continuing dialogue between Confucians and Christians as alternative specifications of major religious worldviews. |
