Traditions deepen our grasp

The revival of traditional culture has become a hot topic in China today. So what can we learn from tradition? "I think people need to learn something valuable in their traditions that lie behind our present cultures," says Robert Bellah, a leading US sociologist who specializes in religion and morality studies. "That will not only deepen our understanding of who we are, but will also help us in understanding where we want to go," says the 84-year-old American scholar.

And we need to "genuinely understand other traditions rather than only one", he added, emphasizing that certain values are shared by the major moral traditions of the world, which offer a good basis for mutual understanding and joint work to deal with the problems we face today.

Bellah, who first drew attention in the 1960s with his "civil religion" and has authored books such as Habits of the Hearth, shared his views on moral traditions with China Daily in Peking University, where he was invited to deliver a keynote speech at the Beijing Forum.