Re-recognition Of Jesuits’ Intellectual Apostolate During The Turn Of Ming And Qing Dynasties

In the late Ming Dynasty,Jesuit missionaries came to China and gradually formed a new form of evangelism called "Intellectual Apostolate" during their preaching.It originated from St.Francis Xavier’s preaching experiences in India and Japan,and it was later developed under the guidance of Alessandro Valignano and through the practical application of Michele Ruggieri,eventually taking shape under the work of Matteo Ricci.In the past,when academia discussed "Intellectual Apostolate",it generally referred to the knowledge dissemination activities of Jesuit.However,these studies lacked detailed discussions on the inherent relationship between Western knowledge and missionary activities.Additionally,scholars have paid less attention to the relationship between the Jesuits’ Accommodation and knowledge dissemination.This article aims to re-recognition of Jesuits’ "Intellectual Apostolate" based on this current situation.The article argues that Intellectual Apostolate is essentially a rational form of preaching that differs from both coercive proselytism and open evangelism.It employs scholarly methods to present Catholicism as a knowledge system with inherent connections to Confucianism,and to showcase this system to the Chinese people.Intellectual apostolate primarily includes two aspects:Cultural Accommodation and Intellectual knowledge dissemination.Cultural Accommodation involves showing respect for Confucian culture and using Confucianism to explain Catholic doctrine.Intellectual knowledge dissemination involves the spread of Western knowledge under the Catholic theological system,with the aim of satisfying the Chinese people’s intellectual needs and guiding their thinking towards theology.Intellectual apostolate was developed by Jesuits as a response to China’s rich cultural heritage,drawing on their own internal resources.Its ultimate goal was to guide China towards becoming a Catholic nation through scholarly means.In the specific practice of Jesuit Intellectual apostolate,the emphasis of Cultural Accommodation mainly involved showing respect for the Chinese language,Confucian theories,and Rites.Jesuits first translated the Latin "Dens" of Catholicism into the Chinese concept of "tian" or "shangdi",and then used some Confucian concepts to directly or indirectly explain Catholic doctrine.Their goal was to guide the Chinese towards Catholicism through their own cultural traditions.In addition,a crucial aspect of cultural adaptation was the respect for Chinese rites.This respect demonstrated that Jesuits did not view Confucianism as a paganism.It was this understanding that made their adaptation to Confucianism possible.The emphasis of Knowledge dissemination was mainly on the translation and introduction of Western astronomy.This has an intrinsic connection with their missionary work,on the one hand,Jesuit missionaries introduced not only astronomy but also the cosmology and theology behind it.On the other hand,they attempted to adjust China’s traditional concepts of astrology during the official calendar reform work in order to present the Chinese calendar in the form of the Western calendar in both calculation and application.This change aimed to alter Chinese people’s understanding of the heavens at a cosmological level,providing them with the necessary intellectual foundation to accept Catholicism.However,Intellectual apostolate did not continue to advance in the idealized form envisioned by the Jesuit missionaries.It underwent inevitable changes in response to the feedback from the Chinese.On the one hand,Chinese based on their own understanding of the relationship between heaven and humans,only applied the astronomy introduced by Jesuits at the methodological level,and thus separated this astronomy from the cosmology and theology behind it.On the other hand,they rejected the comprehensive introduction of Western knowledge system by the Jesuits and only absorbed what was necessary for practical skills.In terms of Cultural Accommodation,the Chinese absorption pattern of Western knowledge reflected the Jesuits’ work of interpreting Catholicism through Confucianism was actually utilized by the Chinese to interpret Catholicism through Confucianism.This ultimately led to the dissolution of Catholic academic studies within Chinese culture.