Books will do this to you, although mostly when they fall on your head from the top shelf.
Today on the bus, reading Karen Armstrong’s The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, I went through the fairly slim part about Kong Qiu, or Confusius as he somewhat confusingly is known in English. I rather hoped for a more complete treatment. But then Ryuho Okawa thinks Confusius is one of the most awesome people who have lived in the last 5000 years, perhaps the greatest after himself (the Buddha) and Jesus Christ. By avoiding an outright religious angle with gods, Heaven, afterlife etc, Confusius’ philosophy was able to last for thousands of years without being twisted by sects trying to conform it to their own fantasies. Religious people tend to abandon logic way too easily for Okawa’s tastes, or even mine for that matter.
Well, it was short, but it was sweet. Armstrong certainly seems to share the admiration for Confusius, but her book has a sweeping range, trying to sum up the whole Axial Age from China to Greece. That is a huge project. I am sure she could have written a book about Confusius if she had the time. I would not mind buying it, I think.
Not that I am saying Armstrong is one of my top authorities on religious matters. Â But she is an accomplished scholar and writes an engaging prose. For a grand overview such as this book about the Axial Age, one could do worse. And I think she is particularly well suited for writing about a man who himself did not consider religion “out of this world”, but rather taught a transformation or refinement of the soul through making everyday life a kind of sacred ritual.
Note to self: Read up more on Confusius, if given the chance. Â I am not planning to become his student or anything, but a few thousand words more about one of the greatest thinkers of history may be worth the time.
As better men than I have pointed out, the greatest men of history are so rare that one would be considered amazingly lucky to ever meet 1 of them. But in books, we can meet them by the dozen. That’s some superpower!