Tu Weiming: The Global Confucian

The third generation Confucian Tu Weiming is introduced in this chapter along with an account of his biographical formation as a scholar of and global activist for Confucianism, including a discussion of whether one can meaningfully distinguish between an earlier phase of exegesis and a later phase of advocacy. The source of his commitment to Confucianism is shown to lie in his understanding of philosophy as religiophilosophy. The underlying explanatory framework for the presentation of Tu’s Confucianism is drawn from a sociological approach to philosophy. It is thus argued that Tu has refashioned Confucianism in terms of a worldview and developed a specific vocabulary to make it fit for joining a global debate across academic disciplines but within the macro-sociological parameters of a dialogue among religions, civilizations and modernities.