有關儒家是否為一宗教的問題，當代新儒家在這方面有豐富的討論，例如牟宗三先生認為一般人常說基督教以「神」為本，儒家以「人」為本這是不中肯的；相同的主題，唐君毅先生則指出儒家未嘗反對人之出自「仁心」而向「上帝」祈禱。即兩位新儒大家都肯定「神」、「上帝」與「天」等觀念皆為傳統儒家所接受；但是，傳統儒家卻長期以其「特殊」的價值觀－「敬鬼神而遠之」，用以對待此一「可敬之神」概念所象徵之「實體對象」。本文作者據此思考設定兩項工作目標：第一，在理論方向上，藉由前輩們研究之成果，一方面探討《論語》提出「敬之」而又「遠之」的哲學背景，分析「敬鬼神而遠之的價值觀」如何形成；另一方面則在此一哲學背景下提出本文對「儒學之宗教性」的看法。第二，在方法論方面，本文探討「敬鬼神而遠之」的形成因事實上亦是一種歷史對比的方法論，即以此探討為方法－從當代新儒家返回《論語》，反思當代新儒家與《論語》文本兩者之間呈現的宗教觀是否具有一致性；即透過此兩項目標，分析古典與當代兩種儒學之宗教性。 本文在結論提出對「敬鬼神而遠之」的看法，認為此觀念中「敬之」是因為「神」為一真實存在物；然而，「遠之」價值則源自於中原古文明於哲學時代來臨後，堅持「哲學追求『合理化』價值」的要求，即原初中國哲學家在形成以「文字之天」代表「真天」的歷程中，企圖使後世學者能夠遠觀吾人日常所熟悉的「文字之天」，對「文字之天」保持一「遠之」的思考距離，並檢討平常使用的「文字之天」對「真天」觀念的承載能力，並從此一「反省歷程」中洞察「真天」的豐富存在性，從中再開發出「儒家道德實踐基礎」中的根本動力源。

Regarding whether Confucianism is a religion, contemporary Neo-Confucians have abundant discussions. Mou Tsung-san believed the general claim that Christianity is founded on ”God” while Confucianism founded on ”Man” was not pertinent; Tang Chun-yi pointed out Confucianism never opposes that people can pray to ”God” out of their hearts of kindness (jen). In other words, both of these important Neo-Confucian scholars confirmed that traditional Confucianism accepted the concepts of ”god,” ”God,” and ”heaven. And yet, traditional Confucianism has always been applying their unique value-”respect the supernal and keep your distance”-to the ”substantial object” symbolized by the concept of the ”respectable god.” Based on such thinking, the writer sets two goals for this paper: First, in terms of the theoretical direction, employing the predecessors” research results, on the one hand, we explore the philosophical background against which Analects proposed the ideas ”to respect” and ”to keep your distance,” analyzing how the ”value of respecting the supernatural and keeping your distance” was formed; on the other hand, this article poses its opinion about ”the religiousness of Confucianism” against this philosophical background. Second, in terms of the methodology, the discussion of this paper about why the value of ”respecting the supernatural and keeping your distance” was formed is indeed a methodology of historical comparison, that is, the methodology whereby to reflect on whether contemporary Neo-Confucianism and the text of Analects are coherent in their religious views. In other words, this paper is to analyze the religiousness respectively of classic Confucianism and contemporary Confucianism by means of these two goals. In the conclusion, we give our remark about ”respecting the supernatural and keeping your distance.” It's believed here that ”respecting” is owing to seeing ”god” as a real being, whereas the value of ”keeping your distance” originates from the insistence of ancient central plains civilization on the ”request of philosophy for the value of 'rationalization'” after the age of philosophy came. In other words, during the process of making the ”verbal heaven” become the representative of the ”true heaven,” the early Chinese philosophers attempted to make the later scholars view in distance the commonly known ”verbal heaven,” keep a ”reflective distance,” contemplate and review how much the daily-used ”verbal heaven” can carry the idea of the ”true heaven.” Then they should perceive the rich existentiality of the ”true heaven” and develop from there the basic drive for the ”foundation of Confucian moral practice.”