Ecological crisis and strategy in the Jesuit China mission / Adam Parr

Journal of Jesuit Studies 11 (2024)

Local access dig.pdf[Parr-Ecological crisis and strategy.pdf]

Abstract: In Laudate Deum (2023), Pope Francis calls on those negotiating today’s climate emergency to be “strategists.” No organization has a longer history of strategy-making than the pope’s alma mater, the Society of Jesus, whose China mission was founded during an ecological crisis. No Jesuit is more celebrated as a strategist than Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), who observed the effects of that crisis in 1604 and praised the emperor’s response but noted its inadequacy. As a result of this, and the influence of Xu Guangqi (1562–1633), the idea of introducing European science to China materialized as the final strand of the China mission’s strategy. Xu’s own career was dedicated to preserving Ming China through agricultural and military reform, and his ideas are present in Ricci’s work. Thus, Ricci’s strategy-making was forged in the context of challenges recognizable today, and its strengths and limitations represent a resource for the strategists addressed by Pope Francis.

Na companhia dos livros : manuscritos e impressos nas missões jesuítas da Ásia oriental 1540-1620 / Rui Manuel Loureiro.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-330) and index.

Na Companhia dos Livros: Manuscritos e impressos nas missões jesuítas da Ásia Oriental 1540-1620. The Jesuits, more than any other early modern organization, were in close contact with books and with manuscripts, which were paramount to all aspects of their activities. The connections of the Society of Jesus with European and Asian written cultures were very intense, in terms of consumption and production of written texts, and are extremely well documented in European 16th and 17th century sources, thus providing a perfect subject for research. The chronological frame chosen for the present work (1540-1620) coincides with the historical moment when the Society of Jesus was testing a new method of cultural adaptation in China as well as in Japan, one that was particularly dependent on textual practices. The present research project, then, tried to identify: European books read by the Jesuits; books written by the Jesuits; European and Asian books translated by the Jesuits; books printed in China and in Japan by the Jesuits, in European and in Asian languages.