Transformative Choices for Wise Spiritual Renewal in the Inner Chapters of the Zhuāngzǐ and the New Testament Gospels

Abstract

Abstract By highlighting two genres of literature found within the Inner Chapters of the Zhuāngzǐ and the Four Gospels of the New Testament, I compare creatively and meaningfully these two classical collections of texts from Daoist and Chrstian traditions in a manner never previously pursued. In those two genres are “instruction plura-logues” and “hard sayings”: the former involves a master/teacher interacting with at least two others (disciples, questioners, seekers, or opponents), and so always involves a conflict in values and worldviews; the second involve poignant sayings that point toward an alternative expression of lived wisdom and the worldview advocated by the master/teacher. Many illustrations of both genres within these two classical collections of texts are presented and analyzed. What is learned by this study is that instruction plura-logues and hard sayings challenge interlocutors to consider alternatives to mundane wisdom, provoking transformative choices for wiser spiritual sources of renewal.