The Construction of the Religious

Title

The Construction of the Religious

Author

Yuan-Lin TSAI

Page

55-84

DOI

Abstract

　　The main theme of this article arises from a critical reflection on Rudolf Otto's discourse of God as the "wholly Other." Otto's idea, instead of developing a theoretical framework of bridging the gap between the Western and Eastern religions, illuminates the uniqueness of the Abrahamic monotheism. It requires a more dialectical way of thinking to develop such a comparative framework. This reflection leads the author to investigate the Chinese Muslim tradition in order to open another possibility to compare between the Western and Eastern ideas of divinity. Liu Zhi (1660?－1730?), the most prolific Chinese Muslim scholar in the Ming-Qing era, is an unprecedented cross-traditional thinker. His works provide the rich sources to search for the new ground of both the study of comparative religion and inter-faith dialogue.
　　The first section quotes from the Qur‘ān to illustrate Otto's "wholly Other" and to base Liu Zhi's philosophy upon the Islamic tradition; the second describes Liu's life and intellectual background, in which the Jingtang education and Sufism are emphasized; the third elaborates the "True One" in Liu's Tianfang Xingli (The Islamic Philosophy of Nature and Principle) and traces the two views of divinity in Liu's work, dualism and holism, toward the two intellectual traditions of Islam, Sunni theology and Sufi mysticism; the latter plays a significant role for Liu to develop a theoretical framework of comparing Islam and the three Chinese teachings; the last discusses the metaphysical implication of prophethood in Tianfang Xingli and how the Prophet Muhammad owns the "Ultimate Sainthood" which stands at the intermediate position between the sacred and the secular, the Creator and the created world, and would be the perfect model for humankind to achieve redemption.

Keyword

the "wholly Other", the Abrahamic monotheism, the Qur'2ān, the "True One", the "Ultimate Sainthood"

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