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Free to Obey: Gao Panlong and Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Selflessness, Fate, and Freedom
Katz, Sophia
Katz, Sophia
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Abstract
An analysis of the approaches to fate found in the writings of a Ming dynasty Confucian scholar, Gao Panlong (1562–1626), and a Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945), reveals surprising similarities between Confucian and Christian attitudes to fate. Despite many philosophical and theological differences, both traditions accepted the understanding according to which fate, designated by the Chinese term ming and the German term Schicksal, is not a mere power of circumstance, but involves the guidance of a higher metaphysical reality, heaven (tian ) or God. The discernment of heaven’s or God’s “guiding hand” in fate is part of the process of self-cultivation, which also implies one’s conscious efforts to restrain selfish desires. Different philosophical and theological premises affect the understanding of self in Confucianism and Christianity as represented by Gao and Bonhoeffer. Nonetheless, both traditions consider the achievement of selflessness and the dedication of oneself to the service of others as a desired goal of one’s personal development. In Bonhoeffer’s Christian framework, the presence of God’s guidance in fate allows the person, under certain circumstances, to submit to fate believing that one is submitting to God’s will. Such submission, which can be achieved only by a selfless person, is further seen as a culmination of human freedom. The term “freedom” is absent from Gao’s Confucian philosophical vocabulary. However, the parallels in his writing to the ideas presented by Bonhoeffer suggest that Confucian submission to fate, when fate is perceived as “the order of heaven” (tianming ), can also be understood as freedom.
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2017
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Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture, Chung Chi College, Shatin, Hong Kong