From Xinhua: China Dialogue: World Civilisations

Voices from China's international dialogue on world civilizations




English.news.cn 2010-09-27



QUFU, Shandong, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Followings are some of the remarks scholars made at the First Nishan Forum on World Civilizations opened Sunday in Qufu City, the birthplace of China's great philosopher Confucius, in the eastern Shandong Province.



"In my recent research, I've been startled to learn that the fundamental principles of Confucius' teaching are the same as those that I have been preaching all my life!"



-- Robert H. Schuller, founding pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, USA



"Old superstition is the worship to ghosts and spirits, while new superstition is the blind belief in science and technology, which can meet our secular needs and even offer more than needed, but it can't meet our soul's need and may even obsess our soul."



--Xu Jialu, president of the organizing committee of the First Nishan Forum on World Civilization



"With a view toward the future, it is likely that the spirit of East Asian modernity imbued with Confucian characteristics will serve as a reference for public intellectuals in North America and Western Europe as well as intellectuals elsewhere in the world."



--Du Weiming, Professor of Harvard University, USA



"At the dawn of the 21st century, we have ample ethical and cultural resources from the East and the West to forge together a more peaceful, prosperous, and harmonious world."



--Dwight N. Hopkins, Professor of Theology, University of Chicago, USA



"The significance is we are enjoying the dialogue between Confucianists and Christians. This kind of dialogue was already started some 400 years ago, but because of a lot of misunderstandings, it ended up in frustration of both sides."



--Wolfgang Kubin, sinologist and professor of the Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies at the University of Bonn, Germany



"What is required for 'harmony in diversity' to be realized, I think, is that we exhibit the category of transcending love modeled by Jesus, and endeavor also to become junzi, as Confucius encourages us to do."



--David Lyle Jeffrey, former vice president of Baylor University, USA



"I don't think some kind of final answer will emerge at this conference. Most of the really important things that go on are not at the podium, rather at the lunch table. You know, when people talk to each other and develop relationships, they will have impact on the world. But China is rising, Chinese culture is rising, and in some way, this conference tells the world here comes Confucianism."



--Roger Ames, professor of the University of Hawaii