Spirit, Qi, and the Multitude

We live in an increasingly global, interconnected, and interdependent world in which various forms of systemic imbalance in power have given birth to a growing demand for genuine pluralism and democracy. As befitting a world so interconnected, this book presents a comparative theological and philosophical attempt to construct metaphysical underpinnings for the idea of democracy, by bringing the Western concept of spirit into a dialogue with the East Asian nondualistic and nonhierarchical notion of qi (ch'i). The book follows the historical "adventures" of the idea of qi through some of its Confucian/Daoist textual histories in East Asia, mainly Laozi, Zhu Xi, Toegye, Nongmun, and Su-un, and compare them with analogous conceptualizations of the ultimate creative/spiritual power found in the intellectual constellations of Western and/or Christian thought, namely, Whitehead's Creativity, Hegel's Geist, Deleuze's chaosmos, and Catherine Keller's tehom. The book adds to the still nascent comparative theological contributions to the growing body of pneumatocentric (Spirit-centered), panentheistic Christian theologies which all emphasize God's liberating, equalizing, and pluralizing immanence in the cosmos. Further, the book introduces into the theological and philosophical dialogue of the West and Confucian/Daoist East Asia, which has hitherto been dominated by the American pragmatist and process traditions, a fresh voice shaped by Hegelian, postmodern, and postcolonial thought. This expands the debate and enriches the ways in which the pluralistic and democratic implications of the notion of qi may be articulated. Last and not least, the book provides a model of Asian contextual theology that dialogically draws on the religious and philosophical resources of East Asia to offer a vision of pluralism and democracy. A reader interested in the conversation between the East and West in light of the global reality of political oppression, economic exploitation, and cultural marginalization will find this book informative, engaging, and enlightening.