Public Lecture Recap: Christian-Confucian Dialogue in the Contemporary World

On July 31, 2025, Dr. Stephanie Wong delivered a Free Virtual Public Lecture on the topic of "Christian-Confucian Dialogue in the Contemporary World."

Drawing upon her work with two efforts of the Vatican's Dicastery of Interreligious Dialogue — the international "Women Building a Culture of Encounter Inter-religiously" network, and a project drafting a guidebook on Christian-Confucian relations — Dr. Wong shared insights on the prospects for Christian-Confucian Dialogue at the intersections of the academy and the Church. She spoke to the way that assessments of Confucianism as a religious, philosophical, ethical, or cultural tradition continue to inform and puzzle dialogue efforts, as these categories are institutionalized differently both state and church governments. She also highlighted the importance of a spirit of friendship and curiosity in navigating questions of ecumenical diversity and women's roles, as Christian and Confucian communities may hold stereotypes about the other and have limited knowledge about the other community's internal diversity and debates.

During the Q&A session afterward, Dr. Wong answered questions from the audience, exploring in more detail the different ways in which Christian-Confucian dialogue has developed in different geographical locations and historical moments. For more research from Dr. Wong, we invite you to keep an eye out for her upcoming book on the early twentieth-century indigenization movement, Making Catholicism Chinese: The Catholic Church in Modernizing China (forthcoming with Oxford Univeristy Press, December 2025).

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