Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MISSION (Early Modern Evangelization of China: The Franciscan Mission and its Theory)
Période du rapport: 2021-07-01 au 2023-06-30
The project develops an exhaustive study of the Early Modern theory and methodology of the Franciscan mission to China (late Ming and early Qing dynasties, cca. 1580-1660). Due to the cultural, historical, and spiritual idiosyncrasies of the Middle Kingdom, ecclesiastical authorities could not directly transfer their missiological methodology, employed in the Indies and other parts of the world, to the Chinese Apostolate. They had to design specific, unique and novel strategies; the problem is that several religious orders were operating in China in the first phase of evangelization, and they all developed fairly different and sometimes directly conflicting approaches toward the mission. Modern scholarship has devoted its attention almost exclusively to the policy of the Jesuit order, failing to recognize the importance of the mendicant orders in the evangelization of China. The project fills in this void: it focuses on the Franciscan order, and more specifically on the first 80 years of its presence in the empire, crucial for the China Apostolate. It thoroughly examines this Franciscan evangelization project, as developed in a body of theological and missiological documents, historical accounts, and epistles, written by the missionaries themselves. It explores not only the basic theological assumptions of the Franciscan evangelization strategy, but also its ideological, spiritual, and symbolical underpinnings. It analyzes how the Franciscan missionaries attempted to introduce Christianity to a civilization that was, in many aspects, alien to the Christian message, and in which ways they tried (or resisted) to reconcile Christian spirituality and doctrine to the specific Chinese spiritual and cultural idiom. The study of the Franciscan apostolic methodology, of its key assumptions, arguments, and also of its internal dilemmas and challenges, helps us to better understand the complex nature of the encounter between Western religious thought and the Chinese civilization and, by extension, provides relevant insights into dynamics that determine East-West relations till the present day.
The work performed focused on 3 main tasks:
1. Data collection and archival research
Multiple subcorpora of missionary documents were systematically explored: (a) Franciscan correspondence; (b) Franciscan reports on the state of the mission, the so-called relationes; (c) Casuistry – recompilations of dubia and quaestiones addressed to Propaganda Fide; (d) Guidelines and instruction regarding the mission, on behalf of the superiors of the order; (e) Chronicles of the mission, historical accounts of the events of the mission; (f) Complementary Jesuit documentation (correspondence, relationes, reports).
2. Analysis of primary sources
The analysis focused on close reading of (a) contemporary documents (in manuscript or in printed form), and (b) modern editions of 17th and early 18th-century Franciscan missionary documentation (especially the monumental collection of Sinica Franciscana). The analysis was based, for the most part, on rigorous historical methodology (meticulous historic and chronological contextualization of the sources), completed with a literary perspective, in order to account for the figurative and symbolic values of the missionary documents.
3. Analysis of secondary sources
This analysis was performed in order to contextualize the primary sources in a rigorous historical and chronological framework, focusing on the following topics: (a) History of the Early modern Franciscan mission in China & Japan, and the Philippines; its administration; relation with the Church authorities in Europe and Manila; relation to other Catholic orders in China; individual missionaries; relations of the Franciscan missionaries to Chinese authorities; (b) Early modern Jesuit mission in China; (d) History of the Franciscan order and the history of its missionary enterprise in the Middle Ages. The specific spirituality of the order; (d) Corpus of early 20th-century Spanish historic studies on the Franciscan presence in China and Japan (extensive collections of Archivo Ibero-Americano). Together with Archivum Franciscanum Historicum; (e) Early modern martyrdom (for the international workshop); (f) Early modern doctrinal theology, liturgy, Early modern casuistry; Early modern canon law; missiological theory (related to the conversion); (g) Research methodology, particularly regarding trans-cultural translation, symbolic reading in historiography, and the multiple perspectives of the Otherness; (h) Trans-cultural encounter: Chinese response to Christianity; (i) Early modern Franciscan missionary enterprise in South American territories.
Overview of the results:
Scientific dissemination: 4 articles in Scopus Journals; final monograph; international workshop on martyrdom in Early Modern Christian missions in Asia, together with a collective volume from this workshop (in progress); the scholar participated actively in 3 international conferences, and presented the project at 2 international seminars and workshops
Communication of the action: the scholar organized a 1-month public exhibition (New Worlds. Far East in Early Modern European Culture) at the Research Library Olomouc, one of the 3 largest public libraries in the Czech Republic, and published an extensive book/catalogue to further expand the communication potential of the exhibition.
1. Data collection and archival research
Multiple subcorpora of missionary documents were systematically explored: (a) Franciscan correspondence; (b) Franciscan reports on the state of the mission, the so-called relationes; (c) Casuistry – recompilations of dubia and quaestiones addressed to Propaganda Fide; (d) Guidelines and instruction regarding the mission, on behalf of the superiors of the order; (e) Chronicles of the mission, historical accounts of the events of the mission; (f) Complementary Jesuit documentation (correspondence, relationes, reports).
2. Analysis of primary sources
The analysis focused on close reading of (a) contemporary documents (in manuscript or in printed form), and (b) modern editions of 17th and early 18th-century Franciscan missionary documentation (especially the monumental collection of Sinica Franciscana). The analysis was based, for the most part, on rigorous historical methodology (meticulous historic and chronological contextualization of the sources), completed with a literary perspective, in order to account for the figurative and symbolic values of the missionary documents.
3. Analysis of secondary sources
This analysis was performed in order to contextualize the primary sources in a rigorous historical and chronological framework, focusing on the following topics: (a) History of the Early modern Franciscan mission in China & Japan, and the Philippines; its administration; relation with the Church authorities in Europe and Manila; relation to other Catholic orders in China; individual missionaries; relations of the Franciscan missionaries to Chinese authorities; (b) Early modern Jesuit mission in China; (d) History of the Franciscan order and the history of its missionary enterprise in the Middle Ages. The specific spirituality of the order; (d) Corpus of early 20th-century Spanish historic studies on the Franciscan presence in China and Japan (extensive collections of Archivo Ibero-Americano). Together with Archivum Franciscanum Historicum; (e) Early modern martyrdom (for the international workshop); (f) Early modern doctrinal theology, liturgy, Early modern casuistry; Early modern canon law; missiological theory (related to the conversion); (g) Research methodology, particularly regarding trans-cultural translation, symbolic reading in historiography, and the multiple perspectives of the Otherness; (h) Trans-cultural encounter: Chinese response to Christianity; (i) Early modern Franciscan missionary enterprise in South American territories.
Overview of the results:
Scientific dissemination: 4 articles in Scopus Journals; final monograph; international workshop on martyrdom in Early Modern Christian missions in Asia, together with a collective volume from this workshop (in progress); the scholar participated actively in 3 international conferences, and presented the project at 2 international seminars and workshops
Communication of the action: the scholar organized a 1-month public exhibition (New Worlds. Far East in Early Modern European Culture) at the Research Library Olomouc, one of the 3 largest public libraries in the Czech Republic, and published an extensive book/catalogue to further expand the communication potential of the exhibition.
The project has thoroughly explored the Early modern Franciscan evangelization project in China and its discoursive representation, as developed in an extensive body of Franciscan historical accounts and epistles, and other missiological and theological documents. It examined the ideological, spiritual, and symbolical underpinnings of the Franciscan Apostolate by (a) studying the ideological exploitation of the missionary documents in propagandistic campaigns in Europe, and the intricate dynamics of contrasting policies between the Franciscans and the Jesuits; (b) by examining the role of the specific Franciscan spirituality in the construction of the evangelization strategy of the order in China, (c) by studying how the missionary discourse uses complex symbolic images to represent the meanings of the mission and of the Christian Apostolate in general. Given that the Franciscan missionaries explicitly constructed their missiological discourse as complementary (or contrasting) to the Jesuit attitude, the project analyzes the Franciscan approach consistently in comparison with that of the Society of Jesus.
Methodologically, the project has employed, in a novel way, the methodology of trans-cultural translation, in order to account for the extremely complex rendering of the Christian doctrine and its subsequent meaning-making in an alien cultural system.
The project has also contributed to the existing scholarship on Early Modern Apostolate by organizing an international workshop that discussed the idea and the practices of martyrdom in Early Modern Asian missions from multiple perspectives (historical, literary, anthropological, theological, and iconographical).
In the organization of the Exhibition at Research Library Olomouc, the project has succeeded in reaching out to the non-academic, general public, and in transmitting the enormous interest of the Early Modern Catholic missions in Asia and their importance for our contemporary understanding of East-West cultural encounter and for our modern perception of China.
Methodologically, the project has employed, in a novel way, the methodology of trans-cultural translation, in order to account for the extremely complex rendering of the Christian doctrine and its subsequent meaning-making in an alien cultural system.
The project has also contributed to the existing scholarship on Early Modern Apostolate by organizing an international workshop that discussed the idea and the practices of martyrdom in Early Modern Asian missions from multiple perspectives (historical, literary, anthropological, theological, and iconographical).
In the organization of the Exhibition at Research Library Olomouc, the project has succeeded in reaching out to the non-academic, general public, and in transmitting the enormous interest of the Early Modern Catholic missions in Asia and their importance for our contemporary understanding of East-West cultural encounter and for our modern perception of China.