Reviews for The Disappearing God Gap?: Religion in the 2008 Presidential Election

The average rating for The Disappearing God Gap?: Religion in the 2008 Presidential Election based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-09-20 00:00:00 Donald Cassel Not quite into confucious though as a icon of the Chinese culture by the government propaganda and though there are many Confucious Institutes in varied countries. It was once deemed as some sort of the obsolescent thoughts to be deprecated in the New Cultural Movement . Even till this day , a word was linked to it with exceedingly passive connotation as "cynicism" （犬儒主义）. Compared to its official background, Mencius is more lovable and accessible and more inspiring. The following are some excerpt from his thoughts that were still instrutive after millenniums. We were educated to absorb some of this ancient philosopher's views since a juvenile. 1-天将降大任于是人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身，行拂乱其所为，所以动心忍性，曾益其所不能。 Thus,when heaven is about to confer a great office on any man,it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil . It exposes his body to hunger ,and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, harden his nature , and supplies his incompetencies. 2-人恒过，然后能改，困于心，衡于虑，而后作，征于色发于声，而后喻。入，则无法家拂士，出，则无敌国外患者，国恒亡。然后知生于忧患，而死于安乐也。 Men for the most part err, and are afterwards able to reform .They are distressed in mind and perplexed in their thoughts,and they arise to vigorous reformation . When things have been evidenced in Men's looks ,and set forth in their words ,then they understand them. If a prince have not about his court families attached to the laws and worthy counsellors, and if abroard there are not hostile States or other external calamities, his kingdom will generally come to ruin. From these things we see how life springs from sorrow and calamity, and death from ease and pleasure. 3-不违农时，谷不可胜食也。数罟不入洿池，鱼鳖不可胜食也。斧斤以时入山林，材木不可胜用也。谷与鱼鳖不可胜食，材木不可胜用，是使民养生丧死无憾也。养生丧死无憾，王道之始也。 If the seasons of husbandry be not interfered with,the grain will be more than can be eaten. If close nets are not allowed to enter the pools and ponds ,the fishes and turtles will be more than can be cinsumed. If the axes and bills enter the hills and forests only at the proper time, the wood will be more than can be used. When the grain and fish and turtles ate more than can be eaten ,and there is more wood than can be used , this enables the people to nourish their living and mourn for their dead,without any feeling against any. This condition, in which the people nourish their living and bury their dead without any feeling against any, is the first step of royal government. 4-为富不仁 He who seeks to be rich will not be benevolent. 5-富贵不能淫，贫贱不能移，威武不能屈，此之谓大丈夫。 To be above the power of riches and honors to make dissipated, of poverty and mean condition to make swerve from principle, and of power and force to make bend:-these characteristics constitute the great man. 6-天时不如地利，地利不如人和。 Opportunities of time vouchsafed by heaven are not equal to advantages of situation afforded by the Earth , and advantages of situation afforded by the Earth are not equal to the union arising from the accord of Men. 7-得道者多助，失道者寡助。寡助之至，亲戚畔之，多助之至，天下顺之。以天下之所顺，攻亲戚之所畔，故君子有不战，战必胜矣。 He who finds the proper course has many to assist him. He who loses the proper course has few to assis him. When this,--the being assisted by few , reaches its extreme point, his own relations revolt from the prince. When the being assisted by many reached its highest point, the whole kingdom become obedient to the prince. When one to whom the whole kingdom is prepared to be obedient,attacks those from whom their own relations revolt, what must be the result? Therefore, the true ruler will prefer not to fight; but if he Di fight, he must overcome. …… …… Well , this is the last day of the year 2015, and this is the last book review of the year. What a new year will unfold and manifest itself tomorrow? Who the hell knows… Just make progress and be Happy:) 乙未十二月三十一（2015.12.31）

Review # 2 was written on 2011-12-25 00:00:00 Virginia Anderson Men and women go through their lives asking themselves "What is the right thing to do?", and trying to live good lives. And some of the very best answers to those questions of how to live a good life and do the right thing come from a Chinese philosopher who lived 2400 years ago. Many people in the West do not know Mencius and his work, but everyone everywhere should. Mencius, Meng Ke, 孟子, lived about a century after Confucius, and his work is unquestionably part of the intellectual and philosophical legacy of Confucianism. Mencius' declaration that "Holding on to the middle is closer to being right, but to do this without the proper measure is no different from holding to one extreme" (VII.A. 26, p. 151) sounds very Confucian, and recalls the inscription above the entrance to the temple of Apollo at Delphi: μηδὲν ἄγαν, meden agan, nothing in excess. At the same time, however, Mencius offers something new and different from the work of Confucius. And it is in that difference that Mencius' work - known simply as The Mencius - becomes wonderfully modern. For all the profundity of Confucius' Analects, there sometimes seems to be something a bit self-interested about it all. Confucius calls upon his disciples to practice benevolence, to be sure; but to what end? Some readers of The Analects may feel that Confucius overemphasizes benevolence as a path toward being a gentleman rather than a "small man," and gentlemanly status as the means by which one can secure an Imperial post equal to one's talents. Is the whole point of benevolence that it helps one get a really good job? Such would be a gross oversimplification of The Analects, in my opinion, but The Mencius does not leave itself open to such charges. Mencius, rather, engages in some fruitful speculations on the source of human benevolence itself. In Mencius' view, all people come into this world with what he calls "the germ of benevolence," a predisposition to do good on behalf of others for others' sake, with no self-interest involved. Mencius explains this concept in one of the most famous passages from The Mencius: "Suppose a man were, all of a sudden, to see a young child on the verge of falling into a well. He would certainly be moved to compassion, not because he wanted to get in the good graces of the parents, nor yet because he disliked the cry of the child. From this it can be seen that whoever is devoid of the heart of compassion is not human….The heart of compassion is the germ of benevolence" (II.A.6, p. 38). That impulse toward compassion, Mencius argues, is natural to us; it is a predisposition. "Human nature is good just as water seeks low ground. There is no man who is not good; there is no water that does not flow downwards" (VI.A.2, pp. 122). Yet if all people come into the world with that predisposition toward empathy for all living things, how is it that people are able to behave cruelly? In Mencius' view, the human tendency toward compassion is something that must be exercised and nurtured, because otherwise it can be lost. If one develops those innate qualities of compassion and ethical awareness, then "When these are fully developed, he can tend the whole realm within the Four Seas; but if he fails to develop them, he will not be able even to serve his parents" (II.A.6, pp. 38-39). The system of morality that Mencius sets forth is eminently practical and sensible. When one of his disciples suggests that an unjust tax cannot be abolished immediately, Mencius compares that to a man making a "reduction" from stealing his neighbor's chickens daily to stealing them only once a month and adds, "When one realizes that something is morally wrong, one should stop it as soon as possible. Why wait for next year?" (III.B.8, p. 71). In this time of wars that seem to go on without end, there is something only too modern in Mencius' declaration that there are "no just wars. There are only cases of one war not being quite as bad as another" (VII.B.2, p. 157). And an observer of the contemporary political scene might shake his or her head in rueful agreement with Mencius' observation that "A good and wise man helps others to understand by his own clear understanding. Nowadays, men try to help others understand by their own benighted ignorance" (VII.B.20, p. 161). A helpful introduction by scholar D.C. Lau of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (who also translated Penguin Books editions of the Tao Te Ching and The Analects) situates The Mencius in its social and historical context. Along with a glossary of personal and place names, Lau also includes four appendices: one on events in the life of Mencius, a second that examines early traditions about the philosopher, a third on the text of The Mencius, a fourth that focuses on Mencius' understanding of ancient history, and a fifth on Mencius' use of analogy in argument. It is like taking a seminar in Chinese history and philosophy, all in the course of a 246-page book. I read The Mencius while my wife and I were on a trip to Shanghai. Not far from the towering skyscrapers of the Pudong and the neon-lit commercialism of the Nanjing Road shopping district, one can walk quietly in Old Shanghai, amidst the serenity of the 16th-century Yu Garden. It is easy to imagine people of earlier times walking among the rockeries and pavilions of Yu Garden, and then sitting down by a pond to read from The Mencius. Walking in Old Shanghai, experiencing the friendly smiles and the quiet courtesy of the Shanghainese people, even amidst the modern busy-ness of one of the world's largest cities, I could not help thinking that the compassionate and benevolent spirit of Mencius lives on in the land of his birth.