The Hermeneutical Self and an Ethical Difference

Reviews / Votes

'Chung's book is an important contribution to interreligious solidarity towards compassionate justice within the context of imperial capitalism creating a dangerous crisis for human life and earth. He creatively awakens the wisdom of Confucianism and Daoism in postcolonial perspective in order to reread history from below, giving the victims of western civilization a voice and designing a new epistemology transcending the dominating reductionist rationalism. This is liberation theology at its best.'
Prof. Ulrich Duchrow, University of Heidelberg

'With breadth of historical comprehension, intercivilizational insight, and synthetic judgment, Paul Chung immerses the reader in his quest to construct a usable hermeneutics for this second 'axial age' (Jaspers). We are challenged to engage in an archeological reframing of the colonial era that leads to the dismantling of the iron cage of capitalism and the privileging of subaltern perspectives toward the emergence of a postcolonial, irregular, life-enhancing ethic. Retrieving the wisdom of Confucian thought from Western stereotypes and drawing upon Western voices from Aristotle to Levinas, Aquinas to Bonhoeffer, Chung casts an imaginative vision of the theological task in our times.'
Craig L. Nessan, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, IA

'Chung is to be applauded for his development of the similarities in the hermeneutical traditions of both and his desire to put them in dialogue. [...] ...there is much to like in Chung's text... [...] ...for those wrestling with the interreligious dialogue between Christianity and Confucianism, it will be a necessary read.'
Nathan Crawford, Reviews in Religion and Theology, Volume 20, Issue 3, July 2013

'This book will appeal to a wide range of scholarly interests and provide food for thought among those interested in hermeneutics, ethics, political theology, liberation theology, and postcolonial critiques of the Western traditions of philosophy and theology.'
Brodie McGregor, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, The Expository Times, Volume 125, Number 1, October 2013

'Chung's book is commendable and could be a helpful addition to university and seminary libraries across the world.'
James E. Taneti, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, 67(4), October 2013

'Paul S. Chung's all-encompassing hermeneutical project is relevant for the historical inquiry into hermeneutics, and for the comparing of different hermeneutical approaches, coming from the Western as well as from the Eastern traditions. [...] it is a plea for a global hermeneutics as a consequence of and need for intercivilizational engagement.'
Dana Tabrea, Hermeneia, No. 13, 2013

'In this book, Paul Chung sets forth an insightful conversation between Western hermeneutical theory and ethics, on the one hand, and Confucian teaching on interpretation and the moral self, on the other. Chung's perceptive discussion of a wide range of classical and contemporary thinkers in both traditions lays the groundworkfor developing a post-colonial theory of interpretation and ethics that both critically evaluates globalization even as it recognizes the deep benefits of recognizingand engaging the plurality of civilizations that surround us.'
Lois Malcolm, Professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary, St.Paul

"Few theologians are positioned to provide as engaging a conversation between Eastern and Western hermeneutics as is Chung in this book. [...] this book provides a helpful counterbalance and critical engagement with an alternate point of view for how hermeneutics can be used for an understanding of the moral self."
Timothy Shaun Price, University of Aberdeen, in Theological Book Review (tbr), Vol. 25, No.2, 2013

Paul Chung states that the purpose of his book ... is "to investigate the relationship between hermeneutical theory and ethics in a global-critical, inter-civilizational and postcolonial framework". He draws on the work of scholars from Aristotle to the modern age.
Church Times, 29th May 2015