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Confucianisms, according to Lionel Jensen, are the results of a four-century long process

of pious manufacture: pious, because aimed at truth rather than manipulation; manufacture,

because the work has been done out of materials close to hand. These materials are the texts,

words, and symbols out of which traditions are invented and re-invented. Jensen’s book is

simultaneously a meditation on the ecumenical goals of “traditionary invention” and a close

study of the specific ways in which sixteenth- and twentieth-century communities have

negotiated between inherited meanings and current circumstances. Its case studies splendidly

exemplify its broader theoretical themes; I will look …

Confucianisms, according to Lionel Jensen, are the results of a four-century long process

of pious manufacture: pious, because aimed at truth rather than manipulation; manufacture,

because the work has been done out of materials close to hand. These materials are the texts,

words, and symbols out of which traditions are invented and re-invented. Jensen’s book is

simultaneously a meditation on the ecumenical goals of “traditionary invention” and a close

study of the specific ways in which sixteenth- and twentieth-century communities have

negotiated between inherited meanings and current circumstances. Its case studies splendidly

exemplify its broader theoretical themes; I will look …

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