East Asia Religions

Paper Summary:

Discusses East Asian religions as human-centered rather than metaphysical mysteries. Overview of the principal characteristics of the major East Asian Religions: Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism. Development in China, Korea and Japan. Adaptation of Confucian ideals & its impact on society. Conflict between Buddhism , imported from India, with indigenous religions of Confucianism and Taoism. Comparison of Confusianist & Taoist orientations to Western religion.

From the Paper:

"The religions of China, Korea, and Japan have in common an emphasis on the essential unity of all things and the necessity of the individual's integration with nature, family, and society. In addition they have a strong basis in ancestrism and, for the most part, favor a level of syncretism that, especially for those in the Western monotheist traditions, seems remarkable. The overriding common characteristic of East Asian religion, however, is that it is human-centered and seen not, primarily, as the source of solemn metaphysical mysteries but as "part of a ring of relativistic commitments whose real center is inflexible norms or propriety for human and divine relations" (Ellwood & McGraw 180). A brief overview of the principal characteristic of the main East Asian religions will demonstrate how this region of the world has been a distinct entity in terms of the nations' reliance on ..."

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