In this thesis I analyse the relationship between science and religion in a non-Western and specifically Chinese context through an examination of the writings of Kang Youwei (康有爲1858–1927), a prominent reformer and Confucian thinker of the period of transition from Imperial to Republican China. Described by his followers as the ‘Martin Luther of Confucianism’, Kang envisioned a central social role for Confucianism as a state religion, championing the restoration of a ‘pristine’ religion o...