Throughout his academic career, Anthony C. Yu has employed a comparative approach to literary analysis that pays careful attention to the religious and philosophical elements of Chinese and Western texts. His mastery of both canons remains unmatched in the field, and his immense knowledge of the contexts that gave rise to each tradition supplies the foundations for ideal comparative scholarship. In these essays, Yu explores the overlap between literature and religion in Chinese and Western literature. He opens with a principal method for relating texts to religion and follows with several essays that apply this approach to single texts in discrete traditions: the Greek religion in Prometheus; Christian theology in Milton; ancient Chinese philosophical thought in Laozi; and Chinese religious syncretism in The Journey to the West. Yu's essays juxtapose Chinese and Western texts Cratylus next to Xunzi, for example and discuss their relationship to language and subjects, such as liberal Greek education against general education in China. He compares a specific Western text and religion to a specific Chinese text and religion. He considers the Divina Commedia in the context of Catholic theology alongside The Journey to the West as it relates to Chinese syncretism, united by the theme of pilgrimage. Yet Yu's focus isn't entirely tied to the classics. He also considers the struggle for human rights in China and how this topic relates to ancient Chinese social thought and modern notions of rights in the West. "In virtually every high-cultural system," Yu writes, "be it the Indic, the Islamic, the Sino-Japanese, or the Judeo Christian, the literary tradition has developed in intimate indeed, often intertwining-relation to religious thought, practice, institution, and symbolism." Comparative Journeys is a major step toward unraveling this complexity, revealing through the skilled observation of texts the extraordinary intimacy between two supposedly disparate languages and cultures.
Letter to Louis de Kergolay ( 1831 ) , in Selected Letters on Politics and Society , trans . Roger Boesche and James Toupin ( Berkeley : University of California Press , 1985 ) , p . 58 . 76. Letter to Ernest de Chabrol ( 1831 ) ...
An adventure rich with danger and excitement, this seminal work of the Chinese literary canonis by turns allegory, satire, and fantasy.
This distinctive comparison of Islamic and Christian mysticism focuses on the mystic journey in the two faith traditions - the journey which every believer must make and which leads to the Divine.The author clears away misconceptions and ...
and synthesis of analyses of the person' in anthropology (→LiPuma 1998, 74f.). However, it has also triggered critique. ... Melanesia and Melanesian cultures are the 'setting for a sustained thought experiment' (→Gell 1999, 34).
World Religions in Practice introduces five of the world's great religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – and explores how they are lived and expressed in custom, ritual, and symbol.
Somayeh Baeten, née Shafiei, is a German citizen born in Tehran in 1981. She was raised in a caring Persian family with her beloved mom, Soosan, who inspired and supported...
The same can be said for Sean Patrick Adams's comparison of the Richmond coal basin and the Pennsylvania anthracite fields. Political institutional support, or the lack of it, was crucial in explaining the success ...
Capricious Worlds covers a period of 20 years of exile. Through the life journeys of Vietnamese refugees, the book presents a world rich in experience and wisdom, where the will to survive is complemented by the skills to do so.
Written in a clear and direct style, this Handbook offers a contemporary integrated resource for students and scholars from the perspectives of social science, humanities, journalism and other disciplines.
... 32–35 , 47 Heian Japan 29 , 126 , 135 Heidegger , Martin 27 , 125 Heine , Heinrich 100 Heraclitus 159 Hinton , David 6–9 , 15 , 17 , 32–33 , 181–83 , 189 1989 version 8 Chan Buddhism 7 close to archetype of Chinese translation 7–8 ...