A Comparative Study And Its Implications Of Ren In Confucianism And Agape In Christianity

Competitions and melting often occur between countries in the multi-cultures world, and it's very necessary for us to recognize and compare mainstreams of Chinese and western cultures-Ren and agape once again, while such comparison doesn't mean to distinguish good from bad. In this thesis the author tries to make up for Chinese deficiencies by learning from agape's strong points in order to set up new kind of interpersonal relationships so as to avoid spiritual crisis caused by industrial culture. Ren stresses courtesy and manners while agape emphasizes laws and commandments, both of them play profound influences of Chinese and western cultures.Based on the view point of comparative culturology, this thesis investigates the similarity and disparity between Ren and agape, verifies original literatures, review the social, historical and political sources of traditional cultures that result in the disparity. For scientific recognition, through evaluating and discarding passive affects of Ren and agape, the thesis discusses common spiritual crisis confronted by both Chinese and westerners and provides future trends of two cultures in order to reflect people's inner world.The thesis is made up of four chapters. Chapter one introduces the background of selecting this topic, aim, significance, research methodology and the layout of this thesis.Chapter two is literature review covering relevant definitions of concepts, previous studies.Chapter three is the heart of this thesis. It indicates differences and future trends of Ren and agape in political policies of Chinese and western cultures through contextual analysis by diachronic and synchronic studies. This paper also elaborates implications of Ren and agape by brief historical explanations in Chinese and western political policies. It also traces back resources of two political polices and takes their features as the points of penetration for the author's study. Moreover, the author still proposes her views on the advantages and disadvantages of Ren and agape and their future trends at the present age.The last chapter summarizes the whole thesis. By comparing connotations, original resources, great influences and trends of Ren and agape, the author provides her opinions by the influences of Ren and agape in modern times in order to stir up concerns and thoughts of Ren in its process of modernization, development and performance. Due to the limit of the author's knowledge in society, history, psychology and comparative culturology, limitations of this research are inevitable. Therefore, future researches are expected to critically succeed to Ren's notion and draw references from that of agape in order to carry on a comparative studyof Chinese and western cultures especially studies on Ren and agape effectively and profoundly, so that the development of people's inner world can be better promoted.