Concerning Creativity: A Comparison of Chu Hsi, Whitehead, and Neville (SUNY Series in Religious Studies) - Softcover

Berthrong, John H.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0791439445 ISBN 13: 9780791439449

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 1998

Synopsis

A cross-cultural comparsion of creativity that introduces Neo-Confucian discourse as a sophisticated dialogue partner with modern western speculative philosophy and theology.

This work examines the philosophies and theologies of three thinkers-Chu Hsi, Alfred North Whitehead, and Robert C. Neville-separated by time, space, and culture. In so doing John H. Berthrong provides a suggestive and successful comparison of creativity as a cross-cultural theme while introducing Neo-Confucianism as a sophisticated dialogue partner with modern Western speculative philosophy and theology.

Creativity lies at the heart of the discourse of Chu Hsi (1130–1200) and Alfred North Whitehead. For both, creativity emerges as an attempt to illustrate the organic unity of the world without resorting to an appeal to a source for creativity beyond the concrete actuality of the cosmos. Subtle critics such as Robert C. Neville argue that process thought is fatally flawed because Whitehead separated creativity from the other crucial elements of his system. By interjecting the Chinese Neo-Confucian synthesis of Chu Hsi, it is possible to show how creativity can be re-integrated into process discourse as creative synthesis.

About this title

About the Author

John H. Berthrong is Associate Professor of Comparative Theology at Boston University School of Theology. He is the author of several books, including Concerning Creativity: A Comparison of Chu Hsi, Whitehead, and Neville and All Under Heaven: Transforming Paradigms in Confucian-Christian Dialogue, both also published by SUNY Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791439445
• ISBN 13: 9780791439449
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 278