Mission and Catechesis. Alexandre de Rhodes and Inculturation in Seventeenth-Century Vietnam by Peter C. Phan (review)

490book reviews Southeast Asian Mission and Catechesis.Alexandre de Rhodes and Inkulturation in SeventeenthCentury Vietnam. By Peter C. Phan. [Faith and Culture Series.] (Maryknoll, NewYork: Orbis Books. 1998. Pp. xxiv, 324. $50.00.) In the English-language historiography of missions in Asia, the Jesuits Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and Roberto de Nobili (1577-1656) are known as seventeenth-century pioneers of inculturation of Catholicism more than Alexandre de Rhodes (1593-1660). Solange Hertz translated his Divers voyages et missions (Paris, 1653) under the title Rhodes ofVietnam (Westminster, Maryland , 1966), but no research in English occurred until the appearance of this welcome study and translation of Rhodes's Vietnamese-Latin Catechism published in Rome in 1651. Divided into two parts, this book opens with a chapter depicting the history of Vietnam, the Portuguese Jesuits who began the mission there, and a biographical sketch of Rhodes, a native of Avignon. A volunteer for the Japan mission , he arrived in Macao, but superiors sent him to Cochin China when persecutions inJapan intensified. Rhodes is well known for the romanization of the Vietnamese language which was fully adopted in this century. He published a Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin dictionary and several volumes on the history of Tonkin and on the mission in Cochin China as well as the catechism. As the "founder of Vietnamese Christianity" (p. 38), Rhodes established the Church in Tonkin and revitalized it in Cochin China from 1640 to 1645. The next chapter, centering on Rhodes's strategies in terms of cultural, religious, liturgical, and ecclesiastical adaptations, is followed by two chapters analyzing the Catechismus and its theological message. Part One ends with a short essay on a contemporary assessment of catechesis and inculturation. Part Two is a translation of the Catechismus with some references either to the Vietnamese or the Latin texts that appeared in the original. Several flaws mar this otherwise scholarly work. Contradictory statements include the following: (1) the arrival of Nicolas Trigault in Rome "towards the end of 1614" and thus "probably" (p. 40) influencing Rhodes there in April of that year as he was writing a letter volunteering for the missions and (2) misreading the Latin text referring to the 1693 edict of Charles Maigrot, vicar apostolic in Fukien, China, concerning the terms for God. Peter Phan says "only t'ien-chu, and not t'ien and shang-ti, would be inappropriate for God" (p. 135). But Maigrot emphatically supported only t'ien-chu and rejected the other terms. Phan's claim that atheism "after all arose as a philosophical problem only in the West in the modern age" (p. 163) would surprise Maigrot, who stated that the Neo-Confucianism of Chu Hsi (1120-1200) was atheism. Inconsistent translation of such key Vietnamese terms as dao by way, law, or religion (p. 215, n. 4) creates confusion that is further compounded in the same passage as "their religions " (p. 82) but "their religious sects" (p. 249). Phan never cites Catechismus Pro Us qui volunt suscipere Baptismum in octo dies divisus, Réédité . . . par BOOK REVIEWS491 André Marillier, MEP (Saigon: Tinh-Viet, 1961), with its French biography of Rhodes, an analysis of his catechism and the Vietnamese and Latin texts. In that same year a Vietnamese edition by Pham Dinh Khiem and Nguyen Khac Xuyen also appeared in Saigon. Phan's assessment of the impact of Rhodes's catechism in modern Vietnam needs some revision. Despite these shortcomings, this is a significant contribution towards understanding the development of Catholicism in seventeenth-century Asia. John WWiTEK1SJ. Georgetown University ...