scholarly journals For the record: The Canton exile of the missionaries (1666-1671) by the Polish Jesuit Szpot Dunin

2020 ◽  
pp. 145-185
Author(s):  
Thierry Meynard

The Chinese Rites Controversy definitively shaped the history of Christianity in China. When some missionaries were exiled in Canton from 1666 to 1671, they sought to resolve their disagreement on whether certain Confucian rituals could be practiced by Chinese Christian converts but their differences ended up even more entrenched. In his unpublished history of the China mission covering the period from 1640 to 1700, the Polish Jesuit Tomasz Ignacy Szpot Dunin (1644-1713) gives an account of the discussions held in Canton. His account not only reveals previously known materials but also offers new insights on the Controversy.

Author(s):  
Yanrong Chen

Most studies of the Bible in China focus on Protestant churches starting in the nineteenth century, as a Chinese Catholic Bible was absent during the first two-hundred-year history of Christianity in China until an official edition was published in the twentieth century. In fact, despite the absence of a full translation, the Bible was rendered into a wide variety of genres corresponding to the native Chinese culture of sacred texts called jing in Chinese. This essay provides a broadened view of the Bible reception in China by presenting a range of Chinese Christian sacred texts from the late sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. These texts conveyed biblical words and messages to Chinese audiences of the time, and they creatively integrated genres from the European Church’s convention of Christian literature and the Chinese literary courses of classical studies and religious texts. This overview demonstrates major examples and organizes them according to their compositions. The diverse types form a spectrum of Chinese Christian sacred texts, in which most individual Chinese Christian works studied in this volume can find a proper place to fit.


2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 533-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. E. MUNGELLO

ABSTRACTIn the last thirty-five years there has been a fundamental reinterpretation of the history of Christianity in China. This reinterpretation has resulted from a changing atmosphere in China that has greatly reduced anti-Christian feelings and allowed for more extensive study of Chinese historical documents. In addition, there has been a remarkable growth among Chinese Christian churches. These changes have led to a reconceptualization of the role Christianity played in China's long-term history. As a result, there has been a transformation from viewing Christianity as a failed foreign graft to a creative indigenous force. This historiographical review surveys the evolution of this reinterpretation as well as the most significant recent publications on the topic.


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