ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Christians can listen to and learn from the Confucian tradition. It shows how Confucian-Christian dialogue can be mutually enriching to both the Christian as well as the Confucian traditions. The chapter begins with reference to Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutical approach to appreciating liturgy, identifying aspects of Christian liturgy that can be adequately compared with the Confucian rites and the practices of the tradition. In spite of discordant religious voices, Christian liturgy maintains striking similarities in elementary liturgical forms of meaning. In particular, the Eucharist as liturgy is the crucial testimonial act of remembrance, and has served as a social bond over generations, as the text of liturgy. The culmination of Christian initiation is the Holy Eucharist, in which Christ gives Himself in his body and blood: “It is very helpful to understand the Eucharist as the ongoing sacrament of Christian initiation, in which we are helped to become more and more what we receive—Christ.”.
