There are Christians, and there are Confucians. The first is rooted in the teachings of a first-century Jewish rabbi named Jesus; the second, in the teachings of Confucius, a Chinese philosopher who pre-dates Christianity by at least 500 years. The two worldviews have often remained separate, but a professor at a prominent evangelical college argues that there should be “Confucian Christians.”
In “Confucius for Christians: What an Ancient Chinese Worldview Can Teach Us About Life in Christ,” Gregg Ten Elshof, who teaches philosophy at Biola University outside of Los Angeles, says that too many Western Christians have dismissed Eastern philosophies as “illogical, uncritical, nonsensical, relativistic, and dangerous.” These false characterizations often prevent Christians from drawing upon the deep wells of wisdom of Eastern worldviews, according to Ten Elshof.
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