“Confucian Shame in Christian Thinking” webinar video now posted

Last week, I led a webinar hosted by China Source titled “Confucian Shame in Christian Thinking.”

In the first part of the talk, I explain distinctive features of “Confucian shame” in contrast to other types of shame, whether social, psychological, etc. I explain some of the logic surrounding this view of shame, including its power to shame moral decisions and character.

Then, we’ll look at how this perspective of shame shows up in the Bible. Specific attention is given to Paul’s use of shame both in correcting churches and in admonishing believers to live Christ-honoring lives. Whenever conversations like these arise, people want to know about Matthew 18 and church discipline. So, I conclude with several thoughts relating to church discipline, honor, and shame.

Some Helpful Resources

In the webinar, I draw from a wide range of resources. In other to give proper credit as well as to help you keep track of the various books and articles, I list them below.

• Bongrae Seok. Moral Psychology of Confucian Shame: Shame of Shamelessness.
• Mano Emmanuel. Interpersonal Reconciliation between Christians in a Shame-Oriented Culture.
• Fabrice Teroni and Otto Bruun, “Shame, Guilt, and Morality,” Journal of Moral Philosophy, Vol 8, no 2 (2011): 223-245.
• Jackson Wu. Saving God’s Face: A Chinese Contextualization of Salvation through Honor and Shame.
• Jackson Wu. One Gospel for All Nations: A Practical Approach to Biblical Contextualization
• Jackson Wu. Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes: Honor and Shame in Paul’s Message and Missions
• Jackson Wu. “Have Theologians No Sense of Shame?: How the Bible Reconciles Objective and Subjective Shame.” Themelios 2018.
• Te-Li Lau. Defending Shame: Its Formative Power in Paul’s Letters.
• Randy Richard and Richard James. Misreading Scripture through Individualist Eyes: Patronage, Honor, and Shame in the Biblical World.

I’ve spotlighted several of these books on this blog, including my series on Defending Shame and my thoughts on Seok’s Moral Psychology of Confucian Shame.