Is Confucianism a Religion?

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I always thought of Confucianism as a philosophy within indigenous Chinese religious traditions, similar to Stoicism or Neoplatonism in the Mediterranean.

This is all strange to me because growing up, there seemed to be no separation between Confucianism, Buddhism, or Daoism. In my household and in all the media we consume, it seemed like everyone just believed (or entertained the notion of) an amalgam of all three. Even though there were few specifically Buddhist idols in my house, one of the Daoist goddesses (using feminine pronouns because Guan Yin' seems to identify as female) is called Buddhist, and my family seems to call themselves Buddhist despite the worship of ancestors and other explicitly Daoist deities.

The more scholarly aesthetic of your videos is quite refreshing - it's a rarity on Youtube to see an introduction that actually lays down relevant context instead of being a melange of sales pitch and in-jokes

People sometimes poke fun at the Romans for pretending that the pantheons of every group they ran into were basically same as the Hellenistic pantheon, but Christian missionaries don't seem to be any better here

I called Confucianism a religion in front of my Korean colleague and she was shocked, SHOCKED. She called it, “Too many rules.”

The Western Christian-centric ideas of what is and is not religion don't really apply to Eastern spiritual practices, or other non-Monotheistic cultures. Confucianism incorporates practices we would consider religious alongside practices we would consider secular and sees little distinction between the two.

The trio of Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism and their relationship is super interesting.

As a Southeast Asian Chinese, Confucianism seems to be very much part of the overall culture, rather than seen exclusively as a religion. On the note of exclusivity, I think I have seen all three major Chinese religions and folk religions in the same temple like the Tua Pek Kong Temple in Sitiawan, Malaysia. Personally I think Chinese classics (e.g. Journey to the West where both Taoist and Buddhist deities exist together) played a huge role in normalising this sort of non-exclusivity. Interestingly, I never knew Tua Pek Kong is our own Southeast Asian extension of the Chinese Folk Religion, who is not part of the "original" mythology. And that such mix-religion SEA Chinese temples are not exactly uncommon. Huh.

First Bible in China was composed by Nestorian during Tang Dynasty. This Nestorian Bible used many Buddhists term to illustrate gospels.

I just discovered your channel and I like it. You deal with a sensitive topic in an even handed, respectful and objective manner. Most other YouTubers dealing with similiar topics make an unfunny snarky "joke" every two minutes or inject their ideological biases. You don't, that's good. You present everything in an understandable way for average people without dumbing things down. You're an intellectual without being grating and condescending like many intellectuals are. Keep up the good work.

East Asia's views on religion continue to baffle my western mind and intrigue my academic soul.

In Chinese culture and traditions, at least for my family and relatives in China, HK, TW and SG, Ancestor worship, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism have always been mixed and worship as a whole. There is no separation in them unless one goes more in-depth into a particular sect of religion (e.g. my family in SG goes more into the Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism), hopefully, @ReligionForBreakfast can do a video series on Tibetan Buddhism and Vajrayana). Confucianism, especially in terms of filial piety, humanness and morality had been the backbone of upbringing among my family for ages.

In Chinese, we use the same word 「教」 for both religion ("-ism") and "teachings" (or "to teach").

I don't think Confucius wanted to be worshipped. But he was a great sage for sure, great video by the way 👍

I thoroughly enjoyed the video. However there's an important point which you missed. In 1939 his holiness Pope pius xii released a new decree known as Plane Compertum which recognised the Chinese rites of venerating confucius and ancestors as a cultural practice of filial piety which is civil in nature and an honourable way of esteeming one's relatives rather than superstition. It effectively recognised it as a philosophy compatible with Catholicism rather than a separate religion.

Fascinating video. The protestant scholar uttering a Christian prayer at a Confucian altar shocked me, I must admit. It reminded me of how the ancient Greeks would interpret the gods of the nations around them as being like their own. Confucianism is difficult for many of us westerners to understand because it's not a philosophy in the same sense as we've formulated philosophies to be for more than 2,000 years; but it's also not a religion per se, since there is no focus on the supernatural existence of a god or gods, no exhortation to live righteously for the purpose of being blessed by said god(s), and no mythology. And so if we decide to expand the definition of religion to include “philosophies,” wouldn't that make Stoicism, Epicureanism, Neoplatonism, and etc into religions? Again, fascinating stuff.

Andrew, could you do a do a video / series on the role of acclimation to local cultures in regards to evangelization efforts? How does the prosceltyzing community decide to make value judgements about what is imperative to keep as dogmatic theology; what is more tertiary; and what local religious practices can be co-opted?

The exact video I needed, at the exact time I needed it! I am doing an analysis of the Christ archetype on my other channel

Nice to see that Perlego is sponsoring you, have been using their service for a while and it’s pretty neat. Just wish their eBooks for be more suitable for citing 🙃