Christian-confucian Spirituality in Korea: a Comparison of Alfred North Whitehead and Yi Yulgok

This book engages in the Confucian-Christian dialogue in Korea by means of a comparative study of the cosmologies of Alfred N. Whitehead (1861-1947), the founder of process philosophy, and Yi Yulgok (1536-1584), the great scholar of Korean Neo- Confucianism. Although their philosophical and cultural traditions are different, Yulgok¿s and Whitehead¿s modes of thought are very similar in terms of organic, processive, and interrelational perspectives on the universe. This book argues that Whitehead¿s theory of eternal objects-actual entity has affinities with Yulgok¿s theory of principle- material force. Their two contrasting sets of concepts, based on reciprocal dialectical interrelationships, view the world as a cosmos characterized by the process of becoming. Accordingly, Whitehead¿s panentheistic interpretation of the God-world relationship correlates with Yulgok¿s Neo-Confucian notion of how the Great Ultimate relates to material force. These two concepts suggest a balanced structure of God and the world. This book then formulates a Christian Confucian spiritually based on two thinkers¿ versions of process cosmology.