Christianity is not the only religion, or even the first, to teach human dignity and to upend prevailing notions of status. If objections to the abuse of the weak by the strong are the hallmark of any tradition, it is that of China. Sweeping generalizations about Christianity’s exceptionalism are often premised upon incuriosity toward the breadth of non-Christian moral inquiry, and few traditions have been victim to this incuriosity as consistently as China’s. If any Western scholar can change this, it is Brook Ziporyn, whose new translation of the Daodejing stands out.

The themes of the gospel resound across centuries and civilizations.