Stories

“The Logos and the Dao: John C. H. Wu’s Catholic Witness to China's Spiritual Traditions”

In Chinese thought, the Dao is the inner principle of all things, present in all yet transcending each and every. In the Gospel of John, the Logos is the Word, spoken by God, by which God constitutes all that is. What do these lines of thought have to do with one another? Renowned scholar John C. H. Wu explored the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western spirituality. On April 10, famed international scholar Robert Gimello provided an introduction to the life and work of John Wu. Moreover, in a day when many increasingly find differences threatening and divisive, Gimello drew on Wu to show what Christians can learn from Chinese thought. Rather than difference being a threat, it can open up new perspectives within one’s own tradition.

Robert M. Gimello is Research Professor Emeritus of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, and a Fellow of the Liu Institute for Asia & Asian Studies. He is most known for his study of Buddhism, especially medieval and early modern Buddhist thought. He also contributes to the formulation of robust Catholic theological perspectives on Buddhism. When Professor Gimello was an undergrad at Seton Hall University, he was a student of Wu, and noted when invited to speak that Wu has been “...a crucial formative influence on my development as a scholar, a model of Chinese learning, and an inspiring example of the ways in which learned respect for Asian thought and religion can be combined with faith in Christ.”

John C. H. Wu (吳經熊) was born in 1899, during the last years of the Qing Dynasty, is best known as the principal author of the Constitution of the Republic of China. A true renaissance man whose life and thought spanned eras and cultures, Wu translated one of the most famous and challenging Chinese philosophical works, the Dao De Jing, for a Western audience. A convert to Catholicism, he also served as China’s first ambassador to the Holy See.