Title

The Mind's Dynamism in Chinese Catholic Theology: A Comparative Study of Metaphysics and Knowledge in the Thought of Wang Yangming and Joseph Marechal

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2018

Journal Title

Journal of World Christianity

Volume

8

Issue

2

Abstract

As a particular case study of “world Christianity,” this article seeks to develop a Chinese Catholic epistemological foundation for the Church’s theological quest to know God. It is a comparative study of the thought of Neo-Confucian philosopher Wang Yangming (1472–1529) and the Belgian Jesuit Joseph Maréchal. I demonstrate how both thinkers affirm the subjective contribution of the human mind in any act of knowing while still maintaining that any accurate or moral knowledge participates in a higher order of ontological being. The agreements between Wang’s Neo-Confucian and Maréchal’s Transcendental Thomist theories of mind make for a fruitful convergence of the Chinese and Catholic intellectual traditions, from which Chinese theology can contribute to the worldwide Church’s understanding of God.

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