Grundtvig och Konfucius. Att sammanbinda allt till enhet

Abstract

Realizing that humankind’s religiousness is a unifying and border-transcending phenomenon, we can conclude that objective comparative studies belong to the past. The time has come to construct a global theology that regards other religious expressions as valid and valuable revelations of the divine concrete spirit. A step in this direction would be to allow spokespersons from various traditions to meet in a symposium, where it would be fitting to present themes from the Confucian tradition and from the Danish theologian N.F.S. Grundtvig, both of whom shared a fundamental interest in the study of history and were preoccupied with a golden age that offered future generations a thought-provoking and meaningful way of life. Grundtvig was influenced by certain German Romantic philosophers. He regarded humankind’s development as a process of maturity, willed by God and revealed in the example of Jesus Christ. A key concept in Confucius’ thinking is self-cultivation, in which the will of Heaven was acted out in an anthropocosmic unity. Both Confucius and Grundtvig can be called visionary thinkers, and both aim to instigate an ongoing change in society as well as in the individual. While Grundtvig was largely formed by his Christian milieu, Confucius expressed an Eastern yin-yang view. Thus, Confucius presents a religious outlook which is determined by an anthropocosmic unity between Heaven and humankind. His view is transpersonal, grounded in the Absolute. Grundtvig is a more subjective thinker, involved at length in his own personal struggle for clarity. However, he believes that humankind’s religious quest will eventually unite East and West, in accordance with the vision expressed in Revelations, chapter 7.