Taosim....any thoughts

[Ravenstorm]

I have converted into Taoism with some Buddhism aspects. I do not see much fault in the religion. What are your opinions on it?

[Baron von Gailhard]

I have converted into Taoism with some Buddhism aspects. I do not see much fault in the religion. What are your opinions on it?

The varieties of Taoism do not permit of generalities without further refinement. Do you mean philosophical Taoism, religious Taoism, or folk Taoism which is apt to be polytheistic? Do you accept all the books of Taoism. or just the Tao Te Ching?

The problem with Taoism, as I see it, is that the outward trappings of it do no justice to the primary works, that are admittedly sublime. It is almost possible for a Christian to accept Taoism in the highest sense in which it is conveyed in the Tao te Ching, but polytheistic Taoism seems to be a corruption of the ideals of that book, just as saint-worship is a corruption of Christianity.

[Ravenstorm]

I have converted into Taoism with some Buddhism aspects. I do not see much fault in the religion. What are your opinions on it?

The varieties of Taoism do not permit of generalities without further refinement. Do you mean philosophical Taoism, religious Taoism, or folk Taoism which is apt to be polytheistic? Do you accept all the books of Taoism. or just the Tao Te Ching?

The problem with Taoism, as I see it, is that the outward trappings of it do no justice to the primary works, that are admittedly sublime. It is almost possible for a Christian to accept Taoism in the highest sense in which it is conveyed in the Tao te Ching, but polytheistic Taoism seems to be a corruption of the ideals of that book, just as saint-worship is a corruption of Christianity.

the philosophical Taosim.
I accept only the Tao Te Ching....( i need to research more on other books of it)

[yourfriendrick]

I have converted into Taoism with some Buddhism aspects. I do not see much fault in the religion. What are your opinions on it?

The varieties of Taoism do not permit of generalities without further refinement. Do you mean philosophical Taoism, religious Taoism, or folk Taoism which is apt to be polytheistic? Do you accept all the books of Taoism. or just the Tao Te Ching?

The problem with Taoism, as I see it, is that the outward trappings of it do no justice to the primary works, that are admittedly sublime. It is almost possible for a Christian to accept Taoism in the highest sense in which it is conveyed in the Tao te Ching, but polytheistic Taoism seems to be a corruption of the ideals of that book, just as saint-worship is a corruption of Christianity.

the philosophical Taosim.
I accept only the Tao Te Ching....( i need to research more on other books of it)

It would be very interesting to go back in time and find out if the notion of tao as "way" had any influence on the phrase 'i am the way, the truth, and the light.'

aside from that, I find it noteworthy that about five hundred years ago there were Catholic missionaries in China who translated "logos" as "dao."

Philosophers can argue about John's Gospel and its notion of Logos, and whether that Logos is equivalent to Dao. But certainly a lot of Chinese converts regarded Christianity as a kind of Daoism.

Source:
http://orientem.blogspot.com/

Note especially his sidebar on Ricci, who also connected Christian ideas to Confucianism:

"Ricci publicly announced that he had come to China to supplement Confucian belief, and to attack the absurdity of Buddhism. He argued that the Catholic God and the Confucian Lord-on-High were equivalent, and that the Confucian term Heaven, or Providence, was compatible with the Catholic concept of God the Creator. Citing passages from Confucian classics, he demonstrated that the concepts of the soul's immortality and good and evil in Catholicism were analogous to the fundamental teachings of Confucianism."
─ Hahn Moo-Sook in Encounter

I'll try to find more documents on the translation of Dao, though, as not all of that was related to Ricci.