Reinvention of Confucianism as Secular Christianity by Gu Hongming
Reinvention of Confucianism as Secular Christianity by Gu Hongming

Summary/Abstract: The question asked in this article was: How Gu Hongming attained to interpret Confucianism in such a way that it seemed for Europeans as equal to Christianity or even suppressing it? Gu Hongming interpreted Confucianism in such a way that it was fitting to understanding of religion promoted by liberal theology. He introduced Confucianism as religion in a sense, that it was concerned only with pure morality, just like Christianity was in its essence, as in Matthew Arnold’s writings. Then he claimed that having no supernatural elements, Confucianism is more compatible with contemporary European thought than Christian religion. Furthermore, he not only stated the compatibility of Confucian teachings with contemporary European thought, but also pointed out that if religion has to be valued according to its performance on the field of morality, then Confucianism is working better than Christianity, because Chinese people live in peace.In the end it is worth to notice that the nineteenth century liberal theology lost its popularity after the Second World War. Gu Hongming was forgotten even earlier.

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