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Similarities And Differences Between Confucianism And Christianity

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Sometimes, life provides us with a challenge of either conforming to two ideologies or forgoing one and upholding the other. Being able to be both a Confucian and a Christian depends on how one weighs the similarities and differences of either part. It is well-acknowledged that both Confucianism and Christianity are significant. Their teachings have aided to form the value systems of Eastern and Western and cultures, which have navigated millions of people in behavior, spirit, mind, behavior, and relationships. Going through their doctrines, we can discover something in common. Nevertheless, if we take a direct look, we can see that the whole structures of their philosophies are completely different. The composition is aimed at …show more content…

Christ’s teaching tells us to treat others as we would like to be served. There are also similarities in their lessons about humanity; Christianity holds family sacred, reveres the past and respects order. Hence, it embraces the truth and goodness of Confucius doctrines. Rishmawy states that he has learned a different way of viewing Jesus teachings with the help of Confucius (D. Rishmawy 2015). Before he read Confucius, he had a mentality that loving your enemy involves treating them precisely as you would entertain your friends. After going through it, he understood that this was unwise in some situations that required one to protect themselves from such kind of people. Consequently, through such incidences of both ideologies complementing each other, one can be both a Confucian and a Christian at the same time. Despite the similarities between the two, differences that may prevent one from being both a Christian and a Confucian exist. According to Huang (2009), differences between them are seen in their ways of thinking. One of the apparent striking differences is in their beliefs. Christians have faith in a single God who created everything in the universe. God is considered to be distinct from human beings. God is purely spiritual, unlike a human being who has a physical and spiritual segment. Nevertheless, Confucians have no particular person as their god (Doyle and Chang, 2014). Confucius never

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