Aomen lishi xueshe xuekan 澳門歷史學社學刊 = The journal of the Macau Ricci Institute / Rothlin, Stephan 羅世范

On 9 October 2023 in Beijing we celebrated the 400th birthday of Ferdinand Verbiest who is considered one of the most outstanding missionaries in China following in the footsteps of Matteo Ricci and Johann Adam Schall von Bell. The Symposium on “Exploring the Mysteries of Heaven with Ferdinand Verbiest: Dialogue between Science and Faith” provided an opportunity for the Macau Ricci Institute at the University of St. Joseph to cooperate with the Embassy of Belgium in China, the Yale Center Beijing, the Korean Center for Innovation and the Swiss Chamber of Commerce. This overview of the extremely rich encounter limits itself to briefly highlighting three core dimensions of our combined effort which was in line with the last fourth centenary celebration in 2010 recalling the death of Matteo Ricci 400 years ago. From a Western point of view, it may not easily be understandable how much the memory of friends is greatly valued and appreciated in China over the span of several centuries. While it was encouraging to see how many people on different levels of society in Belgium did enthusiastically join this event on a stunningly beautiful autumn day in Beijing–which included a visit to the six Astronomical instruments at the Ancient Observatory in downtown Beijing–should not let us ignore the fact that Ferdinand Verbiest like other luminaries did a long time ago fall into oblivion in Europe.

2023 年 10 月 9 日，我们在北京庆祝了南怀仁诞辰 400 周年，他被认为是继利玛窦和汤若望之后在中国最杰出的传教士之一。圣若瑟大学澳门利玛窦学社与比利时驻华大使馆、耶鲁大学北京中心、韩国创新中心和瑞士商会合作举办了“与南怀仁一起探索天国之谜：科学与信仰的对话 ”研讨会。在此，我们将简要介绍研讨会的三个核心方面，这与2010年利玛窦逝世400周年纪念活动的精神是一致的。从西方的角度来看，我们可能不容易理解中国人在几个世纪的时间里是多么珍视和感念对朋友的怀念。令人鼓舞的是，在北京秋高气爽的日子里，比利时社会各阶层的许多人都踊跃参与了这一活动，其中包括参观位于北京市中心古观象台的六台天文仪器——我们不应该忽视这样一个事实，即南怀仁和其他杰出人物一样，很久以前就在欧洲被遗忘了。-- Publisher's note

 Lib. only has issue 12