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Starting from the finding of the universality of philanthropic approaches in today’s religions, the present study asks whether they appeared in non-Christian religions as a result of a process of influence by Christianity or whether those religions had their own routes to develop philanthropic attitudes. The answer is articulated by analyzing Chinese religions and the alternating relationship that China has had with religious philanthropy over time. Based on the examples in question, it can be seen that the philanthropic concerns of a religion are dependent on the broader way of self-understanding in a given context and therefore have a subordinate role in the overall concerns of a religious community or society. However, when a religion is philanthropically active, it can use its own tradition to substantiate social involvement, even though qualitative or quantitative influences coming from outside may have strongly contributed to the recent philanthropic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]