The legacy of Matteo Ricci and his companions

Abstract

After many years of fruitless attempts by Western missionaries to establish a foothold in Beijing, Matteo Ricci and his companions were finally given permission to enter the Forbidden City to build a house and a church in accordance with Chinese laws. This breakthrough of Ricci and his Jesuit brethren represents a significant period in the history of cultural dialogue between East and West. He had come a long way, motivated by a fervent desire to spread the Catholic faith, to save souls for the greater glory of God— ad majorem Dei gloriam. To succeed in China, Ricci would need more than just a rugged faith to convert the Chinese who, by and large, believed themselves to be superior to everyone else in the world. He would need science and technology and a willingness to accommodate and learn from that mystifying oriental culture. Ricci was gifted with these traits to an extraordinary degree that made his life in China fascinating from a religious, historical, and cultural point of view. In Ricci’s life, we are introduced to the first significant encounter between European and Chinese civilizations. A bridge between East and West, Ricci’s life and work in China is one of the most fascinating episodes in mission history. This essay attempts to appraise Matteo Ricci’s effort to accommodate Confucianism in propagating Christianity in China and his polemics against Buddhism. It attempts a critical study of Ricci’s work, The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, emphasizing its strengths and weaknesses.