The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Analects of Confucius S 13

condemn Israel for social injustices. They condemn rich Israelites for taking advantage of and cheating the poor. The book of Amos is relatively short; it con tains nine chapters. It belongs to the portion of the Hebrew Scriptures ( see S CRIPTURES , H EBREW ) known as “The Twelve,” which Christians call “the minor prophets.” It mostly prophesies destruction, but the final few verses promise that after the destruc tion, YHWH will restore his people. Analects of Confucius The most important book containing the teachings of C ONFUCIUS (551– 479 B . C . E .), the founder of C ONFUCIANISM . Confu cius was one of the most influential teachers who ever lived. But he did not actually write down his teachings. After his death, his followers gathered his sayings. They were eventually collected into a book, the Analects. The Analects was put together perhaps in the third century B . C . E . The Analects does not expound Confucius’s ideas in a neat, orderly sequence chapter by chap ter. It also does not contain stories about Confu cius’s birth, activities, and death, as, for example, the GOSPELS do about J ESUS . Instead, the Analects contains short statements, sometimes no more than a single sentence long, unconnected with one another. These statements claim to present Confu cius’s teachings in his own words. The following saying is typical: “Tzu-kung asked, ‘Is there a sin gle word which can be a guide to conduct through out one’s life?’ The master said, ‘It is perhaps the word “ shu [reciprocity]” Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire’” (Analects 15.24 [Lau tr.]). In the Analects, Confucius instructs his stu dents, who were male, on how to become gentle men. To Confucius a gentleman was more than someone who is courteous and polite. He was someone with moral depth. Confucius considered the gentleman to be the ideal of what it means for most people to be human. (A few go beyond being gentlemen. They are sages.) In Confucius’s eyes, what characterizes a gentleman is humaneness. Humaneness has two

Amon Also spelled Amun; the chief god of Egypt in the New Kingdom. At first Amon was only the god of a small place. Around 2000 B . C . E . his cult was brought to Thebes, the capital of Egypt. He became identified with Re, the sun god. When the New Kingdom began in 1570 B . C . E . Amon-Re became the god of the kings and the king of the gods. Egyptian gods are sometimes shown with the heads of animals; Amon had the head of a ram. His major temples sat on the east bank of the Nile at Karnak and Luxor near Thebes. During festivals Amon went visiting. During one festival a procession carried him from Karnak to Luxor. During another he visited the tombs on the west bank of the Nile. As Egypt’s wealth grew, Amon’s temples became immense, and his priests became extremely powerful. Amon had a consort, Mut (mother), and a son, Khonsu (the moon). Some later thinkers claimed that all the gods were his manifestations. Others claimed that he was J UPITER . Ruins of Amon’s tem ples still stand at Karnak and Luxor. They attract hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. Amos (active mid-700s B . C . E .) a prophet of ancient Israel Amos is also a book in the B IBLE containing the sayings of this prophet. Amos was a shepherd who lived in the town of Tekoa in Judea during the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judea (783–742 B . C . E .), and Jeroboam II, king of Israel (786–746 B . C . E .). He claims to have received messages from the G OD YHWH (“the Lord”) that foretold the destruction of Israel’s neighbors: Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites. They also foretold the destruction of Judah. But most of the messages were about the coming destruction of Israel. At the time that probably seemed unlikely. The Israelites were worshipping YHWH with lavish SACRIFICES and offerings. According to Amos, however, God rejected these. He also faulted Israel for its failure to repent. The book is not very specific about what Israel has done wrong. Some verses hint that Israel had offended YHWH by worshipping other gods. A few verses explicitly