Confucian Role Ethics in the 21st Century: Domestic Violence, Same-sex Marriage, and Christian Family Values

This chapter begins with the question. What would it mean to consider
Confucian Role Ethics (CRE), as articulated by Roger Ames, a genuine ethical
possibility in our contemporary world? Ames opens his monograph by sug-
gesting that CRE and its commitment to growth in personal relationships have
a great deal of contemporary relevance:

The contention of this monograph then, is that we are entering upon a
transitional period of enormous proportions with the imminent emer-
gence of a new cultural order, and that Confucianism offers us philo-
sophical assets that can be resourced and applied to serve not only the
renaissance of a revitalized Chinese culture, but also the interests of
world culture more broadly.