A Ruified Christian with Lauren Pfister

QUICK SUMMARY

What does it mean to be a “Ruified Christian”? In this episode of Religion to Reality, hosts Dave Plisky and Fr. John Gribowich sit down with Dr. Lauren F. Pfister, professor emeritus at Hong Kong Baptist University and a 30-year resident of Hong Kong, to explore the deep overlap between Confucian (Ru) tradition and Christian faith. Dr. Pfister shares his conversion story, the night his university community wept over Tiananmen Square, and the three-year beard-growing ritual he created to honor his late parents. Plus: a solo primer on the basics of Confucianism to open the episode.

IN THIS EPISODE WE EXPLORE

• Confucius (Kong Qiu / Master Kong) — founder of the Ru (Confucian) tradition
• The Confucian Analects, Mengzi, Zhongyong, Shujing, Xiaojing — foundational Ru texts referenced throughout
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Søren Kierkegaard — early spiritual influences on Dr. Pfister
• Ralph Covell — missionary-scholar and mentor at Denver Seminary
• Chang Chung-ying (Chen Dongyin) — Dr. Pfister’s teacher, whose late-in-life conversion is discussed
• Hans-Georg Gadamer — philosopher whose dialogue with Chang Chung-ying helped shape the latter’s turn toward theism
• Lin Yutang, From Pagan to Christian — Chinese writer and intellectual referenced as a parallel conversion story
• C.K. Yang — sociologist who coined the term “dispersed religion” to describe folk Confucian practice in modern China

KEY MOMENTS

• [00:00] Cold open — Dr. Pfister on encountering “a personal relationship with the living God”

• [00:01–03:00] Host Dave Plisky’s solo primer on Confucianism: the five core virtues (ren, li, yi, zhi, xin), the five foundational relationships, and the ideal of the junzi
• [05:00] Dr. Pfister’s upbringing in a shrinking Methodist church in Colorado and his start at the University of Denver in 1969, amid the “Woodstock West” protests
• [08:00] A life-changing lecture leads to his conversion and a shift from mechanical engineering into the humanities
• [11:00] The call to Hong Kong Baptist College in 1987, and mentor Ralph Covell’s influence
• [12:00] June 4, 1989 — the Tiananmen Square massacre and the moment his university’s president wept publicly during Sunday service, cementing the Pfisters’ decision to stay in Hong Kong for good
• [18:00] What it means to call himself a “Ruified Christian”,  drawing parallels to Origen, Augustine, and Aquinas adopting Greek philosophy into Christian thought
• [21:00] A deeper look at what Confucianism (the Ru tradition) actually is, and why it’s often called a philosophy rather than a religion
• [26:00] The story of his own teacher’s late-in-life conversion, sparked by a dialogue with philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer
• [27:00] Chinese intellectual Lin Yutang’s journey from Christian, to skeptic, back to Christian
• [33:00] A crash course in Chinese history: the Warring States period, the rise of the Qin and Han dynasties, and how Confucian thought shaped “Imperial China”
• [39:00] How ancestor veneration, ritual, and cosmology (yin and yang) gave early Ru tradition religious dimensions, and the centuries-long “Rites Controversy” it caused for Christian missionaries
• [44:00] The three-year mourning ritual Dr. Pfister created after his parents’ deaths, including growing out his beard as a living, daily act of remembrance
• [52:00] Where Confucian tradition remains strongest today (hint: Korea) and why most modern Chinese wouldn’t call themselves “Confucian”
• [57:00] Remonstrance — the Confucian duty to respectfully challenge elders who go astray and why that’s a dangerous idea in contemporary China
• [58:00] The closing question: how Dr. Pfister cultivates a posture of listening without agenda

ABOUT LAUREN PFISTER

Dr. Lauren F. Pfister is Professor Emeritus of Religion and Philosophy at Hong Kong Baptist University, where he taught for more than 30 years and directed the Center for Sino-Christian Studies. A specialist in comparative philosophy, Chinese intellectual history, and cross-cultural hermeneutics, he holds a PhD in comparative philosophy from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. He is the author or editor of numerous books and 250+ scholarly publications on Confucian thought and the history of Sinology, including a landmark work on missionary-scholar James Legge. He now co-founded and serves as a mentor at the Hephzibah Mountain Aster Academy in Colorado.

MEMORABLE QUOTE

“I ask what I don’t know. I ask how they came to their convictions… I can only love what I know is a true need or a true hope in another. If I don’t listen, how can I know what they need and what they hope?” — Dr. Lauren Pfister

 RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Religion to Reality Substack (episodes, essays, and monthly interfaith gathering signup): religiontoreality.substack.com
• Show notes & resources: religiontoreality.org