Erin M. Cline is the Paul J. and Chandler M. Tagliabue Distinguished Professor in Interfaith Studies and Dialogue at Georgetown University and Senior Research Fellow in the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University. The author of five books, she is especially interested in how the virtues, values, and rituals that classical Chinese philosophers emphasized can help us to live better lives today.

• Acknowledgments


• Series Introduction: Guide to Sacred Texts


• A Note on Conventions


• Chapter 1 Is the Analects a Sacred Text?


• Chapter 2 Date, Authorship, and Historical Context


• Chapter 3 The Sacred in the Everyday


• Chapter 4 Spirits and Tian in the Analects


• Chapter 5 Disciples, Commentators, and Canonical Status


• Chapter 6 Particular Issues and Interpretations: Voices from the Margins and Enduring


• Influence


• Glossary


• Bibliography


• Index

The Analects is the most influential record of the teachings of Kongzi (known to most Westerners as Confucius) and is an important sacred text that stands alongside other sacred texts from around the world. This guide, in addition to providing an overview of the Analects, argues that we have good reasons to study the Analects as a sacred text, and that doing so sheds light not only on the text and the Confucian tradition, but on what the sacred is more broadly.