An introduction to ancient Chinese ideas on how to live a good life.
Self-Cultivation in Early China is an introduction to multiple aspects of the foundational practice of self-cultivation in early China (c.1000 to 100 BCE). Drawing on the Chinese classics and the dozens of scholars' texts (both received and excavated) that together form the basis of intellectual history for...(Read More)
A comprehensive, concise, and easy-to-read introduction intended for undergraduates and general readers interested in the study of mysticism.
The purpose of this book is to fill a gap in contemporary mystical studies: an overview of the basic ways to approach mystical experiences and mysticism. It discusses the problem of definitions of “mystical experiences” and “mysticism” and ad...(Read More)
Persons Emerging
(October 2021)
Three Neo-Confucian Perspectives on Transcending Self-Boundaries Galia Patt-Shamir - Author
Offers three neo-Confucian understandings of broadening the Way as broadening oneself, through an ongoing process of removing self-boundaries.
Persons Emerging explores the renewed idea of the Confucian person in the eleventh-century philosophies of Zhou Dunyi, Shao Yong, and Zhang Zai. Galia Patt-Shamir discusses their responses to the Confucian challenge that the Way, as p...(Read More)
Friendship and Hospitality
(September 2021)
The Jesuit-Confucian Encounter in Late Ming China Dongfeng Xu - Author
Offers a comparative and deconstructive reading of the cross-cultural encounter between the Jesuits and their Confucian hosts in late Ming China.
The Jesuit mission to China more than four hundred years ago has been the subject of sustained scholarly investigation for centuries. Focusing on the concepts of friendship and hospitality as they were both theorized and practiced by the ...(Read More)
Human Beings or Human Becomings?
(February 2021)
A Conversation with Confucianism on the Concept of Person Peter D. Hershock - Editor Roger T. Ames - Editor
Argues that Confucianism and other East Asian philosophical traditions can be resources for understanding and addressing current global challenges such as climate change and hunger.
Great transformations are reshaping human life, social institutions, and the world around us, raising profound questions about our fundamental values. We now have the knowledge and the technical experti...(Read More)
Offers practical and personal ways to help mitigate global climate change while sustaining an emotional and spiritual center through mindfulness practice.
The inundation of terrifying environmental news in recent years has left many people exhausted and in despair about our planet’s future. In Mindfulness as Sustainability, Maria Jaoudi addresses the need to take care of ou...(Read More)
Human Becomings
(December 2020)
Theorizing Persons for Confucian Role Ethics Roger T. Ames - Author
Offers an in-depth exposition of the Confucian conception of persons as the starting point of Confucian ethics.
In Human Becomings, Roger T. Ames argues that the appropriateness of categorizing Confucian ethics as role ethics turns largely on the conception of person that is presupposed within the interpretive context of classical Chinese philosophy. By beginning with...(Read More)
Explores the relationship between literature and philosophy in classical and contemporary Buddhist texts.
Can literature reveal reality? Is philosophical truth a literary artifice? How does the way we think affect what we can know? Buddhism has been grappling with these questions for centuries, and this book attempts to answer them by exploring the relationship between literature ...(Read More)
Argues that the only way to understand the Confucian vision of the consummate moral life is to take the tradition on its own terms.
In this landmark book, Roger T. Ames examines how the classics of the Confucian canon portray the authentic, ethical human being. He argues that many distinguished commentators on Confucian ethics have explained the fundamental ideas and terms of this...(Read More)
Broadens the parameters of religious studies by accounting for material acts that help shape religious worlds.
In Material Acts in Everyday Hindu Worlds, Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger analyzes the agency of materiality—the ability of materials to have an effect on both humans and deities—beyond human intentions. Using materials from three regions where Flueckiger conducted ex...(Read More)
