A Theological Meditation on Augustine's De Trinitate and Laozi's Dao De Jing

In Search of Transcendent Order in A Violent World: A Theological Meditation on Augustine's de Trinitate and Laozi's Dao De Jing Author: Chan Hiutung Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/1989 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2009 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of Theology IN SEARCH OF TRANSCENDENT ORDER IN THE VIOLENT WORLD: A THEOLOGICAL MEDITATION OF LAOZI’S DAODE JING AND AUGUSTINE’S DE TRINITATE a dissertation by Hiutung Chan Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2008 1 © copyright by HIUTUNG CHAN 2008 2 IN SEARCH OF TRANSCENDENT ORDER IN A VIOLENT WORLD: A THEOLOGICAL MEDITATION OF LAOZI’S DAODE JING AND AUGUSTINE’S DE TRINITATE Abstract by Hiutung Chan This dissertation is a comparative study of spiritual cultivation in Early Daoism and the spiritual teaching of Augustine’s Christianity. My goal is to examine how early Daoism’s founder, Laozi, and the Christian bishop, Augustine of Hippo, characterize the fulfillment of humanity through religious transformation. My argument is that the metaphysical speculations that figure in their works---and which scholarly readers often emphasize---are offshoots of profound practical, soteriological concerns. These soteriological concerns reveal that the primary interest for both writers was to discover those spiritual and intellectual practices that could most effectively mediate between human experience and the manifestation of transcendent order. This study takes its inspiration from pioneering instances of comparative theology (particularly works by Francis Clooney S.J. and Lee Yearly), and focuses on the cross-reading of texts. For Laozi, the basic text used in this study is. For Augustine, the primary text is de Trinitate , with some Daode Jing closely related writings. Both texts play similar formative roles in their respective religious traditions. My methodology also makes heuristic use of Bernard Lonergan’s study of the 3 fourfold operation of human consciousness as experience, understanding, judgment and decision. This general description of human consciousness is a useful framework to draw out similarities and differences in these texts. The primary thematic interest of the thesis is ethical. I explore how early Daoism and Augustine’s Christianity were both animated by the concern to confront human violence through spiritual exercises and the renewal of authentic humanity. In comparing Daode Jing and de Triniate , I consider the ways that each author’s encounter with social violence shaped their intellectual projects. Laozi and Augustine’s search for transcendent order was motivated by the hope of overcoming disordered human desires. This task required an understanding of human participation in transcendent order which could be realized in direct realms of experience, through knowledge of the operations of interior consciousness and the practice of daily spiritual exercises. Though both thinkers are often treated in dogmatic or philosophical terms, their primary interest was in practical spirituality, a way of living. Both Laozi and Augustine searched for ‘the Way” for disciples of their respective traditions to nurture personal life and to maintain hope as a religious community in a turbulent world. These issues are dealt with in four chapters. In Chapter One I develop my theoretical framework and the categories of the hermeneutics of consciousness. In Chapter Two I reconstruct the political-religious context of Chinese culture that the 4 author of Daode Jing criticized . Against this context, I then explain in Chapter Three Laozi’s major insights into the nature of transcendent order, particularly his understanding of its character as Three in One (Self-so, Nothing and Something), specified in Daode Jing. In Chapter Four I expound Augustine’s development of the doctrine of the Trinity as the fundamental signature of divine reality, which is also reflected in the structure of human subjectivity. This leads to Chapter Five where I consider these two views as dialogical partners and advance the view that a juxtapositional reading of these two texts leads to new insights through the way that each can be said to develop a distinctive interpretation of the concept “effortless action.” Chapter One: A Methodology of Comparative Theology Introduction: Hermeneutics of Consciousness as a Method for Comparative Theology 1. This dissertation is a comparative study of spiritual cultivation in Early Daoism and the spiritual teaching of Augustine’s Christianity. My goal is to examine how early Daoism’s founder, Laozi, and the Christian bishop, Augustine of Hippo, characterize the fulfillment of humanity through religious transformation. My argument is that the metaphysical speculations that figure in their works---and which scholarly readers often emphasize---are offshoots of profound practical, soteriological concerns. These soteriological concerns reveal that the primary interest for both writers was to discover those spiritual and intellectual practices that could most effectively mediate between human experience and the manifestation of transcendent order. 2. My thesis is that any human experience can be referred to a transcendental ground, and that the reverse is also true: sound theoretical reflection on ultimate reality can be linked to its engendering context in the empirical world. Both Laozi’s metaphysical discourse and Augustine’s theological rhetoric can be traced back to their living experience in the common world, especially to their struggle with the mimetic 5 mechanisms of human violence. These two great theological minds developed their own unique approaches in the search for true peace and harmony. 3. Reading early Daoism and Augustine’s theology together is an exercise in comparative theology, stimulated by recent developments in this young discipline. According to Francis Clooney, James Garden used the term “comparative theology” as early as the end of the 17th century in a book with that title. It has been used with various meanings since that time, and in recent decades has come to be identified with a distinct discipline that combines confessional religious interests with detailed, empathetic study of sources in multiple traditions 4. In this emerging new discipline, scholars have not reached any extensive agreement on methodology and there are exemplary works that reflect different approaches. Two examples have had significant influence on my own outlook. Lee Yearley's book, Aquinas and Mencius, has been a crucial inspiration for this study, particularly in its pioneering conversation between Chinese and Christian classics. 1 His careful scholarship enables readers to begin to read Mencius through Aquinas's eyes, and Aquinas through Mencius's eyes, and at the same time to come to a clearer understanding of virtue, a theme they hold in common. In my study I seek a clearer understanding of the different expressions of transcendent experience in early Daoism and Augustinian theology. On the basis of this interpretive reading of these two religious traditions, I will then make some tentative efforts to read early Daoism through Augustine’s eyes, and especially to read Augustine through the eyes of early Daoism. Although I do not formally follow Yearley’s own comparative format as the model in my work, it has been very suggestive in my thinking. 5. Francis Clooney is another source of inspiration for this study. I am particularly impressed by his emphasis on allowing different religious traditions to have their own theological voices and his skillful, detailed comparison of concrete texts. In the book Hindu God, Christian God , Clooney expresses a willingness to accept partial as opposed to definitive results. Clooney contends that comparative theology does not need to see its way to specific theological conclusions. Theologians from different traditions might use similar types of theological reasoning, while yet reaching contrary conclusions. This might be frustrating if one assumes that the most important goal is to reach a certain consensus between different religions. In Clooney’s terms “since comparison is not reducible to an appreciation of similarities, noticing important differences—for example, different theologies of creation or of embodiment—need not indicate a break or end to theological conversation.” 2 1 Lee H. Yearley, Mencius and Aquinas: Theories of Virtue and Conceptions of Courage New York: SUNY Press, 1990 2 Francis Clooney, Hindu God, Christian God. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2001. 168 6 6. Francis Clooney admonishes students of comparative theology to attend carefully to the texts themselves before drawing any theological conclusions. He encourages scholars to cross religious boundaries with openness, and to stay with texts long enough to allow themes to emerge from the comparison itself. Patience is an intellectual virtue for doing comparative theology, resisting immature and untimely systematizations of religious experience. We cannot move too quickly even to specify the principles that are guiding our comparative study. 3 7. As a Chinese Christian theologian, when I engage in comparative theology, I immediately encounter challenges about the problem of truth. In the Chinese context, a knot of mutual exclusivism often arises between Chinese traditions

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