A voluntary exile : Chinese Christianity and cultural confluence since 1552 / edited by Anthony E. Clark.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Clark, Anthony E., editor.

Series:

Studies in missionaries and Christianity in China

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Missions--China--History.

Missions.

Christianity and culture.

History.

China--Church history.

China.

Church history.

Christianity and culture--China.

Physical Description:

xiii, 222 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Lanham, MD : Lehigh University Press, 2013.

Summary:

Western missionaries in China were challenged by something they could never have encountered in their native culture. Most Westerners were Christian, and religious competitions in their own countries were principally denominational, but once they entered China they unwittingly became spiritual merchants who marketed Christianity as only one religion among the long-established purveyors of other religions, such as the masters of Buddhist and Daoist rites. A Voluntary Exile: Chinese Christianity and Cultural Confluence since 1552 explores the resulting convergence of cultures. This collection of new and insightful research considers themes of religious encounter and accommodation in China from 1552 to the present, and it confronts how both Western Europeans and indigenous Chinese mitigated the cultural and religious antagonisms that stemmed from cultural misunderstanding. The contributors identify areas where missionary accommodation in China succeeded and failed, and they offers fresh insights into what contributed to cultural conflict and confluence. Each chapter responds in some way to the "accommodationist" approach of Western missionaries and Christianity, focusing on new areas of inquiry. For example, Michael Maher, SJ, considers the educational and religious formation of Matteo Ricci prior to his travels to China, and how Ricci's intellectual approach was connected to his so-called accommodationist method during the late Ming dynasty. Eric Cunningham explores the hackneyed assertion that Francis Xavier's mission to Asia was a "failure" due to his low conversion rates, suggesting instead that Xavier's "failure" instigated the entire Chinese missionary enterprise of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. And Liu Anrong confronts the hybridization of popular Chinese folk religion with Catholicism in Shanxi province. The voices in this collection come from divergent scholarly methodologies, giving the reader a unique encounter with a variety of disciplinary views. This volume reaches across oceans, cultures, political systems, and religious traditions to provide important new research on the complexities of cultural encounters between China and the West. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 A Glorious Failure: The Mission of Francis Xavier and Its Consequences on the China Enterprise / Eric P. Cunningham Cunningham, Eric P. 21

2 Jesuit Formation and Its Influence on the Methods of Matteo Ricci / Michael Maher, SJ Maher, Michael, SJ 39

3 The Lefebvre Incident of 1754: The Qing State, Chinese Catholics, and a European Missionary / Robert Entenmann Entenmann, Robert 59

4 Restoring the Ancient Faith: The Taiping Rebels and Their Mandate / Thomas H. Reilly Reilly, Thomas H. 77

5 Mandarins and Martyrs of Taiyuan, Shanxi, in Late-Imperial China / Anthony E. Clark Clark, Anthony E. 93

6 Christianity for a Confucian Youth: Richard Wilhelm and His Lixian Shuyuan School for Boys in Qingdao, 1901-1912 / Lydia Gerber Gerber, Lydia 117

7 Catholic and Chinese Folk Religion during the Republican Era in the Region of Taiyuan, Shanxi / Liu Among Among, Liu 145

8 Church-State Accommodation in China's "Harmonious Society" / Joseph Tse-Hei Lee Lee, Joseph Tse-Hei 173.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

9781611461480

1611461480

OCLC:

857879103