Western Learning and Christianity in China: The Contribution and Impact of Johann Adam Schall von Bell, S.J. (1592-1666) (review)

Founded in 1540 by Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) and directly responsible to the pope and to its own general, the Society of Jesus was a part of the Counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church, the purpose of which was to defend and promote the Catholic faith everywhere in the world ad majorem Dei gloriam, "to the greater glory of God." Well-known Jesuits who served in China are the Italian Matteo Ricci (Li Madou ) (1552-1610), the German Johann Adam Schall von Bell (Tang Ruowang ) (1592-1666), and the Belgian Ferdinand Verbiest (Nan Huairen ) (1623-1688). Perhaps not so well known, but no less important, are their Chinese converts and counterparts among the scholar-official literati such as Xu Guangqi (Paul) (1562-1633), Li Zhizao (Leo) (1565-1630), and Yang Tingyun (Michael) (1557-1627). Without the assistance of the Chinese, foreigners in China in the past, as in the present, could accomplish little. All three of these men were scholars of the Confucian classics holding jinshi degrees and high positions as officials in the imperial court. They not only facilitated the introduction of their Jesuit tutors in Western learning into the official environment and the subsequent establishment of churches in China, but also defended and protected them in times when priests and other Jesuits came into conflict with the authorities or local Chinese.

The Jesuits were noted for their method of propagating the Christian faith through accommodation to the cultures of their host countries. The method of accommodation was introduced by Francis Xavier (1506-1552), the missionary who worked in India and Japan, a country he felt would never be converted to Christianity unless China, the cultural center of East Asia, was first brought into the faith. Though Xavier himself never entered China proper, his accommodation method was nevertheless applied there by Alessandro Valignano (1538-1606), the Jesuit Visitor to the Far East, after it was initiated and implemented in exemplary fashion by Father Matteo Ricci. And the Jesuits brought to China not only their religion but mathematics, science, Western technology, and whatever art and gadgetry that they felt would help win the acceptance by the Chinese for them and, more importantly, for their gospel message.

This two-volume publication consists mainly of the proceedings of the International Schall Symposium held in Sankt Augustin, Germany, in May 1992, one of the major events in celebration of the four-hundredth Anniversary of the birth of Johann Adam Schall von Bell, who was born in Cologne (or possibly Luftelberg) on May 1, 1592. Other 1992 celebratory events included the issuance of commemorative postage stamps in April by the German Federal Minister for Post and Telecommunication, a pontifical mass held on May 3 in Cologne, a public festival in the town of Luftelberg, and other symposia in Germany. In Taiwan, an International Conference on Schall was held by the Catholic Fu-jen University in Taibei.

The collection gathered here consists of fifty-three scholarly papers including an introduction in English by the editor Roman Malek. The essays are printed in their original language: English (twenty-seven), German (eight), Chinese (seventeen), and French (one).¹ The English and German essays all have a brief summary in Chinese, while the Chinese essays have a summary in either English (fifteen) or German (two), depending on the second-language proficiency of the Chinese author. Like most scholarly proceedings in their final publication, these two volumes include a few contributions not from the original symposium, for augmentation and coherence. The essays are organized under a wide umbrella to include not only missionary concerns and methods, but natural science, philosophy and religion, and East-West cultural interaction and...