IM 590: The Chinese Worldview Today
This 4 week seminar in China is designed to equip students with a deeper understanding of Chinese philosophy and worldview. 30 hours of lecture over 10 days in the classroom is accompanied by afternoon field trips to important historical and cultural landmarks. IM 590 takes place June 3-20, 2010 at People’s University in Beijing and Xian Normal University in Xian, China. Cost is $4,335 (includes 3 hours graduate credit from Denver Seminary) plus airfare.
Course Description:
The course will offer an understanding of worldviews as found in modern China. It will provide an overview of Chinese culture through lectures on the historical development of Daoist, Confucian, and Buddhist thought and practice along with some folk local traditions. One main question we shall explore is: How do these traditions of thinking and practice shape the worldview of Chinese people today? Another question we shall explore is: how does modernity, in all its dimensions, also shape the Chinese worldview today? Finally, the course will examine the development of Christian thought and practice in China and how Christian thought and practice interacts with the modern Chinese worldview today. Primary sources as well as survey texts will be used, and those enrolled will have an opportunity to develop critical questions and approaches for further study into Chinese thought.
For more information please see the brochure. For a comprehensive description of the course and its requirements please see the syllabus.
Instructors: North American:
Dr. Diane Obenchain, Calvin College
She received two Masters Degrees from Stanford University, one in Philosophy of Education and a second in East Asian Studies. She completed her Ph.D. in Comparative History of Religion at Harvard in 1984. She has taught in Japan (1987-1988). 1988 at Peking University, she was the first western scholar to teach the academic study of religion in China, post 1949. From 1990-1993, as visiting professor at National University of Singapore, she taught East Asian philosophical traditions. From 1994-2002, she taught full-time at Peking University, Fudan University and Zhejiang University, helping to establish departments of Religious studies. She has been teaching in the Religion Department at Calvin since January 2005.
Rev. Dr. Russell Moy, Chairman of the board for Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity. MDV, Calvin Seminary, Ph.D. Claremont School of Theology, served as faculty for GTU and Drew University.
Instructors: Chinese:
Dr. Haiming Wen is an associate professor of Chinese and comparative philosophy in School of Philosophy, Renmin (People) University of China. (RUC) He is also the director assistant of the International Center for Chinese and Comparative Philosophy, RUC. He has taught philosophy at Peking University, School of Chinese Classics, RUC. He is the editor-in-chief (with Roger Ames) of “International Studies on Chinese Philosophy” series for Peking University Press and the director for the Office of International Affairs, School of Philosophy, RUC. When he worked on his dissertation as an East-West Center (EWC) affiliate. He has published a book titled Confucian Pragmatism as the Art of Contextualizing Personal Experience and World by Lexington Books. His work, Wisdom of Chinese Philosophy, has been published in both Chinese and English.
Dr. Lesong Cheng is currently assistant professor of Religious Studies and Taoism in School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China. He received his Ph.D. from Hong Kong Chinese University.
Dr. Wei Shan is an assistant professor of Renmin University. He obtained Ph.D. degree from University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka in 2005. Now he is also a Vice-Director of Yunmen Buddhist College, Guangdong Province, Supervisor of Ling-Shan Academy of WuXi, Juangsu Province, Sanskrit lecturer in the Buddhist Academy of China, and a permanent member of the Sri Lanka Association for Buddhist Studies, Sri Lanka. He has published a number of Critical articles both in Chinese and English journals in China and abroad. His research focuses mainly on the areas of Sarvāstivāda abhidharma philosophy, Sanskrit, Pali and Theravāda Buddhism.
Dr, Sun Yi is currently associate professor of Religious Studies teaching Christianity in School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China. He received his PhD. in Christian Studies from Peking University. was a visiting scholar at Regent College, Vancouver, BC Canada and Calvin College Grand Rapids, MI. He had publications of Bible Survey in Chinese.
Dr. Liu Sumin is currently associate professor of Philosophy in Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing, China. She received her Ph.D. from Wuhan University. Her dissertation was in Tomas Aquinas and had published translations of Aquinas major works.
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