Jan KoniorCorresponding author

Confession Rituals and the Philosophy of Forgiveness in Asian Religions and Christianity

Article
15/1 - Spring 2010, pages 91-102
Date of online publication: 15 juin 2010
Date of publication: 01 juin 2010

Abstract

In this paper I will take into account the historical, religious and philosophical aspects of the examination of conscience, penance and satisfaction, as well as ritual confession and cure, in Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. I will also take into account the difficulties that baptized Chinese Christians met in sacramental Catholic confession. Human history proves that in every culture and religion, man has always had a need to be cleansed from evil and experience mutual forgiveness. What ritual models were used by Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism? To what degree did these models prove to be true? What are the connections between a real experience of evil, ritual confession, forgiveness and cure in Chinese religions and philosophies?

Keywords

Cite this article

Konior, Jan. “Confession Rituals and the Philosophy of Forgiveness in Asian Religions and Christianity.” Forum Philosophicum 15, no. 1 (2010): 91–102. doi:10.35765/forphil.2010.1501.06.

Bibliography

Asmussen, Jes Peter, Jørgen Læssøe, and Carsten Colpe. Handbuch der Religionsgeschichte. Vol. 3. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1975.

Kuo, Li-ying. Confession et Contrition dans le Bouddhisme Chinois du Ve au Xe Siècle. Paris: Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, 1994.

Lai, Chi Tim. “Hope in the Early Taoist Experience of Sins and Repentance.” In Interpretations of Hope in Chinsese Religions and Christianity, edited by Daniel. L. Overmyer and Chi Tim Lai, 110–114. Hong Kong: Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture, 2002.

Li, Wenchao. Die Christliche China-Mission im 17. Jahrhundert: Verständnis, Unverständnis, Missverständnis. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2000.

Loyola, Ignacio de. Ejercicios espirituales. Santander: Sal Terrae, 1990.

Loyola, Ignacy. Konstytucje Towarzystwa Jezusowego. Kraków: WAM 2001.

Malmqvist, Nils Göran David. “Die Religionen Chinas.” In Handbuch der Religionsgeschichte, edited by Jes Peter Asmussen, Jørgen Læssøe, and Carsten Colpe, 3:1–69. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1975.

Menegon, Eugenio. “Deliver us from Evil: Confession and Salvation in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Chinese Catholicism.” In Forgive Us Our Sins: Confession in Late Ming and Early Qing China, edited by Nicolas Standaert and Ad Dudink, 9–101. Sankt Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica, 2006.

Rummel, Stefan M. Der Mönche und Nonnen Sündenmeer: Der buddhistische Klerus in der chinesischen Roman- und Erzählliteratur des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts; mit einer vollständigen Übersetzung der Sammlung Sengni niehai. Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1992.

Standaert, Nicolas, and Ad Dudink, eds. Forgive Us Our Sins: Confession in Late Ming and Early Qing China. Sankt Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica, 2006.

Stevenson, Daniel Bruce. “Review of Li-ying Kuo: Confession et Contrition dans le Bouddhisme Chinois du Ve au Xe Siècle.” Journal of Chinese Religions 24 (1996): 203–207.

Wieger, Léon. Bouddhisme Chinois. Vol. 1, Vinaya, monachisme et discipline, hinayana, véhicule inférieur. Paris: Cathasia, 1951.

Wu, Hsi-chen, Li-cheng Kuo, and Teh-ming Yeh. Chinese Moral Tales [中國寓言]. Taibei Shi : Guo Li Bian Yi Guan, 1987.

Wu, Pei-yi [吳百益]. The Confucian's Progress: Autobiographical Writings in Traditional China. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990.

Wu, Pei-yi [吳百益]. “Self-Examination and Confession of Sin in Traditional China.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 39, no. 1 (1979): 5–38.

Zürcher, Erik. Buddhism in China: Collected Papers of Erik Zürcher. Edited by Jonathan A. Silk. Leiden: Brill, 2013. doi:10.1163/9789004263291.

Zürcher, Erik. “Buddhist Chanhui and Christian Confession in Seventeenth-Century China.” In Buddhism in China: Collected Papers of Erik Zürcher, edited by Jonathan A. Silk, 609–635. Leiden: Brill, 2013. doi:10.1163/9789004263291_024.

Copyright