Article ID: CBB795207474

Natural Theology and Ancient Theology in the Jesuit China Mission (2020)

unapi

This article analyzes the proselytical use of ancient theology that developed in the environment of the Jesuit China Mission in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This period is roughly coeval with the European diffusion of deistic doctrines based on a secularized interpretation of natural theology. I argue that the threat posed by the spread of such doctrines produced a significant effect on the philosophy that Jesuits developed in order to relate to Confucianism. In particular, in the late seventeenth century, Jesuits belonging to the China Mission gradually abandoned Matteo Ricci’s natural theology and espoused an approach grounded in ancient theology. The situation changed, however, after the turn of the eighteenth century. Deism continued to spread, and even ancient theology came to be perceived as dangerously close the libertinism. The increasing suspicion towards ancient theology was reflected, in the China Mission, by the reception of the doctrines advanced by the so-called “Figurists”, a group of French Jesuits who proposed an interpretation of certain characters of the Chinese Five Classics as figurae of the Bible.

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Authors & Contributors
Fleck, Eliane Cristina Deckmann
Canaris, Daniel
Statman, Alexander
Wu, Huiyi
Schemmel, Matthias
Salvia, Stefano
Concepts
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Missionaries and missions
Science and religion
Transmission of ideas
East Asia, civilization and culture
Medicine
Time Periods
17th century
18th century
16th century
19th century
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
Early modern
Places
China
Americas
Spain
Beijing (China)
Paraguay
East Asia
Institutions
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
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