Confucianism demonstrates a wealth of resources for rethinking human-earth relations. This second volume in the series on religions of the world and the environment includes 16 essays that address the ecological crisis and the question of Confucianism from three perspectives: the historical describes this East Asian tradition's views on nature, social ethics and cosmology, which may shed light on contemporary problems; a dialogical approach links Confucianism to other philosophical and religious traditions; and examination of engaged Confucianism looks at its involvement in concrete...

Zhu Xi, the twelfth-century architect of the neo-Confucian canon, declared Zhou Dunyi to be the first true sage since Mencius. This was controversial, as many of Zhu Xi's contemporaries were critical of Zhou Dunyi's Daoist leanings, and other figures had clearly been more significant to the Song dynasty Confucian resurgence. Why was Zhou Dunyi accorded such importance? Joseph A. Adler finds that the earlier thinker provided an underpinning for Zhu Xi's religious practice. Zhou Dunyi's theory of the interpenetration of activity and stillness allowed Zhu Xi to proclaim that his own theory of...