Augustine and East Asian Thoughts

Dear Colleagues,

We are very pleased to submit a Special Issue for your consideration.

Augustine was considered to be “the second founder of the Christian faith” (Jerome) and “the first modern man” (Henry Chadwick) who initiated modernity. As Eugene TeSelle contends, even the theology of the West “is largely a series of annotations to his work”. Clearly, Augustine’s philosophy and theology deeply influenced the Western world from the Middle Ages to our contemporary times.

Although the influence in the West is clear, Augustine’s influence in the East is much less considered. nonetheless, Augustine has been highly influential in East Asia. With the footsteps of the Jesuits and the Protestant missionaries, Augustine’s works and thoughts were introduced in East Asian countries and began interacting with Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and Shintoism. This recognition increased interest in Augustine’s work in East Asia, especially in China. Thus, since the 20^th century, the translation and research of Augustine’s works in East Asia are becoming thriving.

The main reason is that many topics of Augustine’s philosophy and theology are relevant to the modernization of East Asian countries. Some of these topics include the problem of free will in moral philosophy, the problem of church unity in the doctrine of the Church, the relation between state and church, the relation between the earthly city and heavenly city in political philosophy, etc.  

In this Special Issue, we will focus on the following topics.

1. The communication history of Augustine’s thoughts in the East Asian countries, including the translation and research of his works. This will encompass the first introductions back to the 16^th century and until today.
2. Comparative studies between Augustine’s thoughts and East Asian thoughts. Notably, we are looking at comparisons between Augustine’s theory of God, the cosmos, epistemology, moral philosophy, political philosophy, and philosophy of history with similar ideas of the main philosophical and religious branches of East Asian thought, such as Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Islam and Shintoism, and so forth.
3. Augustine and the state-church relation in East Asian countries. Augustine’s division between the city of God and the city of the earth laid the foundation for the separation between state and church in modern society. We would like to know whether and how his theory influenced the state-church relation in East Asian countries.
4. Augustine’s influence on East Asian Catholic churches and Protestant churches.
5. Augustine and the church unity problem in East Asian countries.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Dr. Wei Hua
Guest Editor

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