Lee, C: Christian-Confucian Spirituality in Korea

This book engages in the Confucian-Christian dialogue in Korea by means of a comparative study of the cosmologies of Alfred N. Whitehead (1861-1947), the founder of process philosophy, and Yi Yulgok (1536-1584), the great scholar of Korean Neo- Confucianism. Although their philosophical and cultural traditions are different, Yulgok s and Whitehead s modes of thought are very similar in terms of organic, processive, and interrelational perspectives on the universe. This book argues that Whitehead s theory of eternal objects-actual entity has affinities with Yulgok s theory of principle- material force. Their two contrasting sets of concepts, based on reciprocal dialectical interrelationships, view the world as a cosmos characterized by the process of becoming. Accordingly, Whitehead s panentheistic interpretation of the God-world relationship correlates with Yulgok s Neo-Confucian notion of how the Great Ultimate relates to material force. These two concepts suggest a balanced structure of God and the world. This book then formulates a Christian Confucian spiritually based on two thinkers versions of process cosmology.