Across his life the bio-chemist Joseph Needham moved from orthodox Christianity to a more universalist spiritual stance, much influenced by the tranquillity of Confucianism. At the same time he retained faith in what he called “creatureliness, the unescapable inclusion of humanity in space-time, subject to pain, sorrow, sadness and death” [Time, The Refreshing River, 1943, p.65].