Bringing Christ to the Nations: Shifting Models of Mission among Jesuits in China

BRINGING CHRIST TO THE NATIONS: SHIFTING MODELS OF MISSION AMONGJESUITS IN CHINA BY Jean-PaulWiest* Introduction From the late nineteenth century on, one of the striking differences between the work of Protestant and Roman CathoUc missionaries in China was the greater emphasis placed by Protestants on developing Christian institutions of higher education. For the CathoUc Church, the legacy of the condemnation of the Chinese Rites by Rome in 1742 had been the forsaking of Matteo Ricci and his Jesuit companions' efforts to convert China from the top down. CathoUc missionaries became mostly interested in the masses of China, not in its inteUigentsia. It was not until around the time of the First Plenary Council held in Shanghai in 1924 that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church again began to attach importance to higher education, but by then rising nationaUsm made the opening of schools under western auspices very difficult. There had been, however, one major exception. Since their return to China in 1842, the French Jesuits professed that Ricci's methods of evangelization, although "indirect" in nature, were stiU "the most effective of aU because they aüowed missioners to influence the highest circles of the Chinese society."1 This led, in 1903, to the launching of Zhendan University in Shanghai.The Jesuits aimed at providing Chinese youth with a first-rate higher education in a Christian environment and, by the same token, at providing Chinese society with an eUte that would be CathoUc or at least weU disposed toward Christianity. *Mr. Wiest is Research Director of the Center for Mission Research and Study at Maryknoll , New York. 'Joseph de la Serviere, Histoire de la Mission du Kiang-Nan (2 vols.; Zikawei, Shanghai , 1914), 1, 41. See also Lettres des Nouvelles Missions de la Chine, 1841-1868 [hereafter cited as LNM] (Lithograpy, n.p., n.d.), II, 317, letter of Poissemeux,January 30, 1850. The term "indirect evangelization" refers to means, other than direct preaching, used by missionaries to draw non-Christian people's attention and interest. 654 BYJEAN-PAUL WIEST655 Yet, as this paper wiU show, the (indirect) missionary approach adopted by the Jesuits of Zhendan was based on an understanding of mission substantiaUy different from that of their confreres of the sixteenth , seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries in China. The disparity of missionary styles between the two groups is striking. What was the significance of these shifts in the Roman CathoUc Church's understanding of itself and its mission and how did they affect the coming of age of an indigenous Chinese Catholic Church? I. Models and Images of Mission Over the centuries, missionaries have been motivated by different perceptions of their role and have used countless means and ways to expand the influence of Christianity. A closer look at these various understandings and styles of mission reveals, however, that they are aU variations or refinements of three basic models associated with three distinct images.2 The model most prevalent during the Middle Ages was that of the crusader. The crusades were special armies dispatched outside the frontiers of Christendom by the pope and the European kings to confront, repel, and subject by force people labeled as infidels.The conquistadors of the sixteenth century were just a later version of the aUiance between the cross and the sword to push further out the frontiers of the non-Christian world. Linked to the military aspect of this model was its very hierarchical structure. The crusaders and the conquistadors were carrying out orders that came all the way down to them. The basic image for this model is that of a pyramid with the bulk of those at the bottom being sent out. Mission was a one-way activity. In this context, to suggest that non-Christian reUgions could bring something to Christianity would have been preposterous. The geographical division between a Christian and a non-Christian world lasted weU into the first part of this century. As for the confronta2My approach to the topic ofmission is different from the one adopted by David Bosch in his masterpiece book, TransformingMission:Paradigm Shifls in Theology ofMission (Maryknoll, New York, 1991). While Bosch analyzes the various shifts in theological thinking on mission, I...