True Confucians, bold Christians: Korean missionary experience. A model for the third millennium. (Studies in World Christianity and Interreligious Realtions)

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Author: Antton Egiguren Iraola

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True Confucians, bold Christians

This is No. 45 of Studies in World Christianity and Interreligious Relations. The Studies are a continuation of the Church and Theology in Context series. The Studies are published by the Foundation for Studies in World Christianity and Interreligious Relations in collaboration with the Nijmegen Institute for Mission Studies and the Chair of World Christianity and Interreligious Relations at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The aim of the Studies is to publish scholarly works on Christianity and other religions, from the perspective of interactions within them and between them. General editor: Frans Wijsen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Editorial board: Michael Amaladoss, Chennai, India. Francis Clooney, Cambridge, United States of America. Diego Irarrazaval, Santiago, Chile. Viggo Mortensen, Aarhus, Denmark. Robert Schreiter, Chicago, United States of America. Abdulkader Tayob, Cape Town, South Africa. Gerard Wiegers, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Manuscripts for consideration can be sent to Frans Wijsen, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

True Confucians, bold Christians Korean missionary experience A model for the third millennium

Antton Egiguren Iraola

Amsterdam - New York, NY 2007

The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents Requirements for permanence”. ISBN: 978-90-420-2292-8 ©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2007 Printed in the Netherlands

In memoriam Arnulf Camps, OFM (1925–2006)

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Acknowledgments

As I offer this book to the reader I can hardly begin to acknowledge by name everyone who helped me in its genesis and development. I must, however, mention a few who were very close to me during the years of my research. I begin by thanking the Catholic University of Leuven, and more particularly the faculty of theology, for finding a place in its study programme for this rather atypical research content. In this institution Prof. Bert Broeckaert occupies a prominent place. He faithfully and diligently accompanied me during the birth and subsequent development of this book. I also need to mention Prof. Jacques Haers, who, at the beginning of my academic journey, listened to my story and concerns, wisely interpreted them and directed me to the Department of Interdisciplinary Religious Studies in the Faculty of Theology. Another institution I mention with gratitude is the Franciscan family: the Basque Franciscan Province, the Korean Franciscan Province, the Franciscan Foundation of Thailand, the Irish Franciscan Province, the Flemish Franciscan Province and the Dutch Franciscan Province. My Franciscan confreres supported and encouraged me throughout my study period by consistently providing the means necessary to carry on with my research. Among my Franciscan brethren I single out Prof. Arnulf Camps OFM (1925–2006). With his missionary, academic and pastoral experience and vision, Prof. Camps inspired the methodology of this book, read the manuscript, made corrections and additions, and offered invaluable suggestions which have contributed dramatically to the final edition of this book. May the Lord give him eternal rest. My deep appreciation goes to the Catholic Church of Korea and of Thailand, which helped me discover what Christian mission is all about. The book is about my missionary journey through the church in these two countries. I express my heartfelt thanks to the staff of the Research Centre of the History of the Catholic Church in Korea, especially its director Prof. Choi Andreas, who gave me unrestricted access to all the documents and helped me with the 17th and 18th century Korean language as well as Chinese texts. I also need to thank Professors Lee Won-soon, Song Young-bae, Cho Kwang and Sister Kim Seung-hee for their invaluable help. My deepest gratitude goes to Anne Riggs, John Dudley and Marcelle Manley for their assistance in correcting the English for the edition of this book. The same applies to prof. Frans Wijsen who has been a very important mediator in the process of getting this book published. I want to thank my large family of brothers and sisters that was always at my side with the testimony of their faith. Among them I learned to love Mary, the mother of God and all of us, venerated by the popular name of Our Lady of Arantzazu located in the diocese of San

8

Acknowledgments

Sebastian in the Basque country, to whom I offer the present book. I was also deeply touched by the Christian commitment of many lay people with whom I walked both during my missionary journey in Asia and the whole period of my studies and research. In particular I wish to mention my good friends Peter R. M. Merkx and Hans Wennink and their families. The example of lay people such as these, challenged me constantly to be more faithful to my own vocation as a Franciscan friar and daily renew my commitment to this lifestyle. Beijing – Leuven, January 2007.

Table of contents

Foreword

15

General Introduction

21

Chapter 1 Mission: a transforming, coherent lifestyle

47

Introduction

47

1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3

Is mission in crisis? Sources of crisis Foundation, aim and nature of mission The way forward

49 51 52 53

1.2 1.2.1

55

1.2.2 1.2.2.1 1.2.2.2 1.2.2.3 1.2.2.4 1.2.3 1.2.3.1 1.2.3.2 1.2.3.3 1.2.3.4 1.2.3.5 1.2.3.6

Brief historical overview of missionary praxis Medieval missiology in modern garb: the age of ‘discovery’ (1492–1801) Christian encounter with the New World The colonial background Missionary and vested interests Foundations of conquest and the organisation of evangelisation Missionary movement from 1801 up to Vatican II Church and state Missionary motives Gospel and culture Mission and neo-colonialism Vatican II: new understanding of mission New historical awareness Mission as dialogue Mission, not missions Ambiguities concerning mission Mission as service Mission for the new millennium

62 63 64 65 67 68 69 69 71 72 73 75 76

1.3 1.3.1 1.3.2

Contours of mission as a transforming, coherent lifestyle Mission springs from personal encounter with Jesus God is the agent of mission

78 79 81

1.2.1.1 1.2.1.2 1.2.1.3 1.2.1.4

55 56 59 60

Table of contents

10 1.3.2.1 1.3.2.2 1.3.2.3 1.3.3 1.3.3.1 1.3.3.2 1.3.3.3 1.3.3.4 1.3.4 1.3.5 1.3.6 1.3.6.1 1.3.6.2 1.3.6.3 1.3.7 1.3.8 1.3.8.1 1.3.8.2 1.3.8.3 1.3.8.4 1.3.8.5 1.3.8.6 1.3.9 1.4 1.4.1 1.4.2 1.5

Mission and the trinitarian God Mission founded in the biblical narrative Mission in diversity Mission by a community of prophets Community of prophets: solidarity with the marginalised Universality of prophecy Prophecy in communion Prophecy and celebration Mission that transforms and liberates To be church and to practise justice: raison d’être of mission Mission and the other religions Is Christianity essentially unique? Truth to be discovered in dialogue Is there any place for announcing the kerygma? Mission and ecumenical dialogue Contextual and inculturated mission Some hermeneutic clarifications Culture Enculturation Acculturation Inculturation Contextualisation Mission: a kenotic lifestyle in the service of an eschatological utopia

82 84 85 86 88 90 92 93 94 96 97 97 99 100 102 104 105 105 106 107 108 113 115

Conclusion: missionary praxis – method is the message Mission as a coherent lifestyle Mission as proclamation: “Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words”

117 118

Epilogue: a Franciscan missionary option in Thailand

121

120

Chapter 2 Struggling between the sword and the pen

127

Introduction

127

2.1 Siam in the age of conquest: a colonial mission praxis 2.1.1 A brief look at 16th century Siam 2.1.1.1 Arrival of European ships 2.1.1.2 Ayutthaya: a constantly challenged modern capital city 2.1.1.3 Buddhism: the religion that configures Siam’s identity

128 130 131 133 136

Table of contents

11

2.1.2 2.1.2.1 2.1.2.2 2.1.2.3 2.1.2.4 2.1.3 2.1.4

Missionaries, scientists, merchants, ambassadors, soldiers Dominican Order Franciscan Order The Jesuits France’s interest in mission and commerce Proclamation of the gospel and imperial expansion A method of coercion?

138 139 140 142 142 144 147

2.2 2.2.1 2.2.1.1 2.2.1.2 2.2.2 2.2.2.1 2.2.3 2.2.3.1 2.2.3.2 2.2.4 2.2.4.1 2.2.4.2

Matteo Ricci: the accommodation method of mission Matteo Ricci: his historical background The Europe that Matteo Ricci brought to China The China that Matteo Ricci found Mission to China: an impossible dream? Alessandro Valignano The missionary Matteo Ricci Matteo Ricci’s journey in China Matteo Ricci: brilliant polemicist and writer Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of Heaven Tianzhu Shiyi: widely read and contested Ricci’s understanding of some Confucian principles

151 152 153 155 158 159 161 162 164 166 168 170

2.3

Conclusion

173

Chapter 3 Korea, a missionary vision with a political thrust: kenotic model

179

Introduction

179

3.1 3.1.1 3.1.1.1 3.1.1.2 3.1.1.3 3.1.2 3.1.3 3.1.3.1 3.1.3.2 3.1.4 3.1.5 3.1.5.1 3.1.5.2

The arrival of Christianity in Korea: under the banner of conquista Japanese invasion Motives for the invasion A Catholic priest among the invaders An insurmountable challenge Change of ruling dynasty: shift to Confucian philosophy Key Confucian concepts: the sage-king Education for a moral society Formal education system Structural malaise Outcry for reform Reform of social and family structures Reform of political and intellectual life

185 185 186 187 188 190 196 200 202 204 206 207 209

12

Table of contents

3.2 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.2.3 3.2.4 3.2.4.1 3.2.4.2 3.2.5 3.2.5.1 3.2.5.2 3.2.6 3.2.7 3.2.7.1

The thrust of a missionary commitment 18th century Korea: an overview A community seeking sophia and social justice From reason to faith: mission with the pen Mission based on personal religious encounter From friendship to faith Proclamation and evangelisation For Koreans Christians God is the agent of mission Giving reasons for their faith A growing community Celebrating faith and suffering Mission by laity: ecclesial structures for survival In communion with the Catholic Church in Beijing

213 213 216 221 227 227 230 231 231 233 233 240 241

3.3 3.3.1 3.3.1.1 3.3.1.2 3.3.1.3 3.3.1.4 3.3.2 3.3.2.1 3.3.2.2 3.3.2.3

Mission and religious and cultural dialogue Doctrinal issues The presiding Lord: a novel understanding Personal God and incarnation Concept of soul Heaven and hell Social and moral issues Familial relations Ancestor worship Role of the king

244 245 245 249 251 254 255 256 259 261

3.4 3.4.1 3.4.1.1 3.4.1.2 3.4.2 3.4.2.1 3.4.2.2

Mission and social transformation Formation of a modern society Message of equality Bettering the lives of women and children Formation of modern culture Use of the Korean alphabet or Han-Geul Reform of political structures and laws and pre-eminence of individual conscience

264 265 266 269 273 274 275

3.5 From opposition to persecution: martyrdom 3.5.1 The first persecution period 3.5.2 The second persecution period 3.5.3 The third persecution: Shin-Yu persecution of 1801 3.5.4 Summary of the motives for the persecutions 3.5.4.1 Persecution on intellectual grounds 3.5.4.2 Persecution relating to social reform 3.5.4.3 Persecution due to different worldviews 3.5.5 Aftermath of the 1801 persecution

278 280 283 287 292 293 294 294 296

3.6

297

Conclusion: the laity’s kenotic missionary approach

Table of contents

13

Chapter 4 Relevance of kenotic mission today

303

4.1 4.2 4.3

305 308 310

Mission as ‘living among’ Mission in the “Spirit of Jesus” Mission as transformation

Guidelines to pronunciation of Korean words

313

Bibliography

315


Foreword

Before Vatican II mission fields were often seen as territories where the implantatio ecclesiae had not yet fully taken place. Missionaries were sent to these ‘church-less’ territories – an endeavour in which ordained ministers and members of religious congregations were the main protagonists – in order to ‘plant’ the church. However, the Council changed this concept of missions (plural) and opted for mission (singular), a project in which all baptised men and women are called to participate. Mission is rooted in the very essence of the trinitarian mystery. Jesus Christ is the missionary par excellence, sent by the Father and empowered by the Holy Spirit, with the mission to establish the kingdom of God, that is, to bring us human beings to be grafted into the same trinitarian life. “The Church in the world is a missionary church by her own nature”, because “according to the salvific design of the Father, her mission has its origin in the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Ad Gentes, 2). The whole church is engaged in mission everywhere, because all believers, together with people of other faiths and all people of good will, are engaged in Jesus’ unique mission to bring about the kingdom of God, although the special tasks and ministries may vary according to the needs and circumstances of place and time. Another Council document describing the relationship between the church and other religions (Nostra Aetate) affirms God as the source that inspires all people to undertake the search for truth and again designates God as the fulfilment of all human aspirations. The same document emphasises that there are many characteristics that are common to all human beings and affirms that even in those respects in which we may differ we can still find a ray of truth that illumines us all. The document on the missionary activity of the church (Ad Gentes) also mentions “the presence of semina of truth” in other religions. The constitution on the church in the modern world (Gaudium et Spes) affirms that God’s salvific action reaches – in ways unknown to us – all people on earth. At that time this was a novel way of thinking that opened up new perspectives in the reflection on, and praxis of, mission.

New horizons Although the concept of implantatio ecclesiae and references to activities aimed at expanding the church still occur throughout the documents of Vatican II, the fact is that the years following the Council saw the development of a new missionary vision that was more in harmony with the needs of the modern world.

Foreword

16

Thus various terms and their connotations, such as ‘inculturation’, ‘interreligious dialogue’, ‘holistic human liberation and social development’, and ‘prophetic denunciation of oppression and injustice’, came to be considered integral dimensions of mission. This new perspective in the theology and praxis of mission led followers of Jesus Christ to undertake mission from the here and now of human reality. Another essential dimension of mission associated with this new reflection was the importance of local churches. All local churches need to contribute to inculturation (transmitting gospel values from within the cultures in which they are incarnated) and contextualisation (finding God’s voice and presence in the sages, holy scriptures and ritual celebrations of the religions amongst whom they have been called to live) and consequently to open up their theological reflection, liturgical life and even ecclesial structures to fit the realities of contemporary historical challenges. Vatican II’s novel approach also challenged the so-called ‘mainline’ churches – the ones which traditionally sent out missionaries – to reflect on their inculturation and contextualisation efforts, particularly in the face of challenges arising from secularisation and modernity. It is against this background that we may speak of re-evangelisation or new evangelisation. Undoubtedly there are still many ambiguities in missionary theology and praxis. Often an emphasis on interreligious dialogue, inculturation, contextualisation, holistic human liberation or cooperation in development projects overshadows the need for experiencing the encounter with Jesus Christ that leads men and women to conversion. It was to resolve these ambiguities that two very important papal interventions were made. I shall outline them briefly.

Evangelii Nuntiandi With a view to balancing all the aforementioned issues which came to light after Vatican II, pope Paul VI wrote his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii nuntiandi (1975). Up to this day this papal letter is considered the Magna Carta of missionary theology and praxis. In his letter the pope used the term ‘evangelisation’ to convey the richness of missionary activity that combines the two elements of announcing the good news and conversion resulting from acceptance of the announcement: For the Church, evangelizing means bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new: “Now I am making the whole of creation new.” (Rev. 21:5; cf. 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15). But there is no new humanity if there are not first of all new persons renewed by Baptism (cf. Rom 6:4) and by lives lived according to the Gospel (cf. Eph 4:24–25; Col 3:9–10). The purpose of evangelization is therefore precisely this interior change, and if it had to be expressed in one sentence the best way of stating it would be to say that the Church evangelizes when she seeks to convert (cf. Rom 1:16; 1 Cor 1:18, 2:4) solely through the divine power of the message she proclaims,

Foreword

17

both the personal and collective consciences of people, the activities in which they engage, and the lives and concrete milieu which are theirs (n. 18).

According to pope Paul VI evangelisation is an activity that embraces all dimensions and aspects of the Christian life. Its aim is to announce the good news. This activity can be carried out in different ways: through liturgy, catechesis, preaching and administering the sacraments, but also via the first proclamation of the gospel to people who have never heard it and renewed proclamation to those who have already received it. Evangelii nuntiandi was an opportunity for the pope to address the new challenges facing missionary theology and praxis when it came to relating the announcement of the good news to the sociopolitical realities of massive poverty and oppression that millions of Christians were forced to endure, which many felt were not answered by the document. The debate was to continue in the years that followed. At any rate, the papal document brought a decisive shift in Catholic missiology. By changing from the old concept of ‘missions’ to the new one of ‘mission’ the church no longer saw itself as the key player in the process of building God’s kingdom but rather as an instrument in that endeavour, whose main agent is God. In addition new concepts such as inculturation, interreligious dialogue and holistic human liberation, and balanced equilibrium between universal and local church were given a place in the church’s mission. They help to build the kingdom of God and are thus considered essential to mission. Is it possible, then, to continue speaking about ‘conversion’? These were issues that pope John Paul II tried to answer.

Redemptoris Missio The new issues that arose in missionary theology and praxis, which seemed to render irrelevant or unnecessary both conversion to the gospel and excessive involvement in the striving for holistic human liberation as part of evangelisation, prompted pope John Paul II to write Redemptoris Missio. This encyclical may be seen as a fresh attempt to clarify points in the missiological debate. Unlike his predecessor Paul VI, John Paul II does not use the term ‘evangelisation’ to convey a comprehensive notion including all the church’s activities in the process of proclaiming the good news. John Paul II prefers the term ‘mission’. Thus the church has a threefold mission, depending on the situation in which it finds itself. The first is missio ad gentes. This missionary activity is directed to peoples and human groups in socio-cultural contexts in which Christ and his gospel are not yet known, or to Christian communities not mature enough to be capable of translating their faith into concrete reality in their environment or of announcing it to others by themselves. Secondly, it refers to the actio vel cura pastoralis. This activity is conducted by Christian communities that have suitable, solid ecclesial structures; they can witness to the gospel

18

Foreword

in the milieu in which they live and are aware of being part of the church’s universal mission. Thirdly, the pope refers to an intermediate situation, which he calls ‘new evangelisation’ or ‘re-evangelisation’. This applies to traditional Christian countries but sometimes also to young churches, in which many baptised Christians have lost the sense of the faith or do not consider themselves to be members of the church, thus leading lives that are far from Christ and his gospel (cf. 33). The intention of the encyclical is clearly to remind the faithful of their urgent, frequently neglected task of announcing the good news to people who have not heard about Christ and the gospel, at the same time emphasising the need for new evangelisation (cf. 3). The pope stresses the need for the church’s mediation in order to obtain salvation. The Holy Spirit is free to act in all creation, but it does so only through the mediation of the church; dialogue with other cultures and religions is necessary, but dialogue must also be used as a way to spread the gospel and the Catholic Church’s authentic interpretation of the Christian teachings; the kingdom of God must deal with economic, social, cultural and political liberation, but it cannot be separated from the church, which is the kingdom’s servant in all these spheres (cf. 4. 29). Because of the many developments taking place in our modern world, the pope writes, many are questioning this way of thinking about mission. Why have mission? Does it still make sense to speak about mission among nonChristians? Has interreligious dialogue not replaced the concept of mission among non-believers (cf. 4)? Does the concept of freedom of conscience, so dear to the fathers of Vatican II, not exclude all attempts at conversion? Can one not be saved in any religion? Why, then, have mission? To these questions the pope answers: Our own time, with humanity on the move and in continual search, demands a resurgence of the Church’s missionary activity. The horizons and possibilities for mission are growing ever wider, and we Christians are called to an apostolic courage based upon trust in the Spirit. He is the principal agent of mission! […] Today the Church must face other challenges and push forward to new frontiers, both in the initial mission Ad Gentes and in the new evangelization of those peoples who have already heard Christ proclaimed. Today all Christians, the particular churches and the universal Church, are called to have the same courage that inspired the missionaries of the past, and the same readiness to listen to the voice of the Spirit (30).

True Confucians, bold Christians Korean missionary experience: a model for the third millennium This is the background to the present book, True Confucians, bold Christians. Korean missionary experience: a model for the third millennium. In it the author invites readers to look at the particular missionary method developed by a small group of Korean Christians during the last quarter of the 18th century. That Korean missionary method of two hundred years ago is proposed as a

Foreword

19

model for mission in the third millennium. It displayed all the characteristics that the two papal documents underline: following the lifestyle of Jesus of Nazareth, announcing his good news to compatriots, conducting dialogue with their culture, looking at the needs of fellow citizens and passionately feeling the pain, suffering and oppression of the poorest of the poor, and devoting their whole lives to the transformation of society to make it a better place for those who need it most. The existential effort of Korean missionary Christians was indeed in line with Jesus’ goal of realising the kingdom of God in the here and now. Their lifestyle and missionary method are qualified by the author as being kenotic and transforming. In the introduction the author defines such a kenotic and transforming lifestyle as follows: … that lifestyle in which one identifies with powerlessness, service and love to the extreme of accepting the cross of Jesus of Nazareth, capable of creating – or rather, co-creating with God – a new being in a new heaven and a new earth. Kenosis consists of a triple movement, not sequential in time and space, of exodus (abasement), incarnation (entering into human history and taking the form of a servant) and transformation (creating a new heaven and a new earth by dying on the cross).

The three missionary models the author analyses, following his own missionary experience in different countries in Asia (conquista in Thailand, Mateo Ricci’s accommodation in China, kenosis in Korea) – … need to be seen not so much as historical events that took place in a particular time and place, but rather as deeply engraved mind structures and personal attitudes as we confront many of the modern time issues such as mass poverty and its relationship to the churches, interreligious and ecumenical dialogue, relationship with Islam, Catholic education in public institutions, moral and ethical problems regarding the treatment of embryos for eugenic purposes, issues concerning the end of life, social debate on alternative lifestyles and the role of women in ecclesial institutions, to mention but a few.

The author, a fervent follower of Francis of Assisi, cites chapter XVI of the Rule of 1221 to remind us of the two methods of doing mission: not engaging in futile discussions and mutual disqualifications but remaining servants and obedient to all creatures for God’s sake, and announcing the good news if we discern that to be God’s will in the here and now of concrete historical circumstances. It is from this source that the author draws the contours of what mission needs to be today. It should start with a personal encounter with God, a religious experience, thus making God the protagonist and initiator of mission. Then God will lead us into his trinitarian life, which is so marvellously related in the biblical texts. Reading these texts will make us see the diversity of creation, yet God’s communitarian project in inviting us all to partake of his abundant gifts will challenge us to act in solidarity with the poor and oppressed, and together with them celebrate God’s infinitive love, tenderness and compassion, which will finally set us free.

20

Foreword

This was the great discovery the Korean Christians made by carefully reading some Catholic books written in Chinese, which had made their way all the way from Beijing to Seoul, and boldly putting Christian precepts into practice. With no help from foreign missionaries, these Korean lay Christians who had been Confucians let themselves be guided by the word of God. In that word they discovered Jesus of Nazareth, and him they decided to follow to the end, indeed to death on the cross. It is the transformation of hearts and transformation of society, which constitute the core of mission, that link those first Korean Christians of the 18th century to us contemporary Christians of the 21st century, wherever we are. This is the thrust of the book: that we should move from the models of conquest and accommodation to the evangelical model of kenotic mission.

Kim Sunghae S.C. Professor, Department of Religious Studies Sogang University, Seoul, Korea


In the course of a conversation with D. T. Niles around the year 1935, Karl Barth proclaimed: “the other religions are no-faith.” To such a self-confident statement Niles asked: “And how many Hindu people do you know?” “None” was Barth’s answer. Niles, again, tried to inquire, “From where do you, then, conclude that Hinduism is no-faith?” “A priori” was Barth’s final answer.1 Although arguments like the one given by Barth are no longer offered in order to justify missionary endeavor – understood as Christian expansion – it is also true that it is very difficult to articulate valid reasons, which would describe the motivations that urge the propagation of the Christian faith in our present society characterized by its cultural and religious plurality.2 Is mission still an integral task of the Christian faith in Jesus Christ, the only Savior?3 If yes, how is mission to be carried out today? Does it still make sense for people to leave their countries and embark on a journey to bring Christian faith to other lands and peoples? Or is it not time to realize the great effort to summon a gathering of all religions in order to try to resolve their claims to be the only holders of the absolute truth? Juan de Segovia carried out a similar effort in the XV century.4 1

2

3

4

Quoted by Peter Pandemakil, “El Desafío Misionero Hoy: Una Teología Prospectiva de las Religiones” in Estudio Agustiniano, vol. XXXVI-2-2001. 281. T. D. Niles, “Karl Barth, a Personal Memory” in The South East Asia Journal of Theology, Fall 1969, 10ff. (Quoted in Kenneth Cracknel, Towards a New Relationship: Christians and People of other Faith (London: Epworth Press, 1986) 120. Arnulf Camps, “The Theology of Religions as Pilgrim Theology” in G. Riße et al (eds.), Wege der Theologie: an der Schwelle zum dritten Jahrtausend. Festschrift für Hans Waldenfels zur Vollendung des 65. Lebensjahres (Paderborn, 1996). 369–380. (Translated by Henry Jansen from German). “Dialogue and Proclamation” Rome, June 20, 1991. Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples, 1. Quoting also from Nostra Aetate, 2. Regarding this important historical effort see Richard William Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962) 45f. Some modern theologians have also made similar proposals although on different issues. Thus, Hans Küng, Proyecto de una Ética mundial (Madrid: Trotta, 1990) proposed a similar view in a conference, which was held in Chicago in 1993. Also, Hans Küng and Karl-Joseph Kuschel, eds., Hacia una Ética Mundial. Declaración del Parlamento de las Religiones del Mundo (Madrid: Trotta, 1994). Raimon Panikkar, La Plenitud del Hombre: Una Christofanía (Madrid: Siruela, 1999) 27, proposes a New Jerusalem II Council to discuss issues such as the meaning of “Historical Concretion”, “Human Living Together”, and “Cosmic Brotherhood” and “transcendence of human life.”


22

1 Mission as Witness Mission is as old as the life of the church, because the church as a community of believers in the great vision of Jesus of establishing the kingdom of God was born out of the missionary activity of his disciples.5 There was no doubt in the mind of the apostles and disciples of Jesus that they were just following an explicit command of Jesus: “Go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to fulfill all I have commanded you. I am with you always until the end of the world” (Matthew 28: 19-20). “Whether or not this Gospel passage directly represents the exact, original words of Jesus, there is little debate about the fact that when the disciples decided to define their responsibility for the message of Jesus, they did so in terms of preaching and receiving converts into the Church by having them ‘baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus’ (Acts 8:16).”6 For the Christians of the first century there existed an overwhelming sense of loyalty to Jesus’ words and commands confirmed by the experience of the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus was the final confirmation that the man they followed had been exalted to heaven, thus becoming the Christ who fulfilled the messianic expectations of the people of Israel.7 Missionary activity became the witness – through words and life-style – to the kingdom of God Jesus had already announced, and not a means to bring it. For it was clear for the first Christians that the building of the kingdom pertained to God’s domain and not to their effort. In order to make visible the kingdom of God already present in the world, the first communities did not hesitate to target the gentiles, considered unclean by Jewish standards, and to consider them legitimate candidates to listen to the Good News, and through baptism, to become members of the church established by the Lord. We can observe that this decisive step was taken not without hesitation and even internal conflict as confirmed by the account Peter had to offer to the community in the wake of the baptism of Cornelius (Acts 10: 28). Many members of the community were not convinced by Peter’s reasoning, and further conflicts, controversies, uncertainties, and clashes in a mixed Jewish-Gentile community kept taking place. Some in the communities’ leadership seemed to be moving further away from the Jewish traditions by being too complacent to the demands of the Gentiles. These tensions were addressed 5

6 7

Lamin Sanneh “Theology of Mission” in David F. Ford, The Modern Theologians: An Introduction to Christian Theology in the Twentieth Century (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2001) 555–574. Ibid. 555. Donald Senior, C. P. and Carroll Stuhlmueller, C. P., The Biblical Foundations for Mission (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1983) 2.


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at the first Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15: 5-29). The participants saw the need to emerge from the seclusion of a totally Jewish community, and to undertake the enormous responsibility of transforming the Greco-Roman world and of making it a Christian society.8 However, tensions among the followers of Jesus have never ceased to exist.9 The first debate of the council, which was to continue to be present also during other councils of the three first centuries, had to do with the problem of remaining Jewish or adapting to the new realities Christians found in their way. The final decision of the first council of Jerusalem strongly opposed the imposition of Jewish laws and traditions upon the gentile converts. It can be affirmed that this debate as well as the final decision were to define the authentic character of the Christian mission: no impositions. Christians were to act as yeast, not as masters, in society.10 In describing the origin and the nature of the missionary endeavor on a crosscultural setting, such as the one in which Jewish and Gentiles, and also the Christians of Jerusalem and Antioch, of Asia and Europe all could feel at home and members of the same church of Jesus Christ, the council members were aware that the Holy Spirit was working among them. Cross-cultural relationships, mutual tolerance, and a ministry with no imposition became the “dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.”11 Moreover, Christians felt free to express their faith about Jesus in the languages and cultural symbols of the peoples among whom they lived, without clinging to the original language and culture of Jesus. Thus, the primitive church began speaking the languages of the “Parthian, Medes, and Elamites and [of the] residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene … and of Rome (Acts 2: 9 and 10). The church felt itself at home in the world under the staunch guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the Christians did not hesitate to free themselves from the obligation to think of Jerusalem as an exclusive geographical center or the Temple as the only ritual reference. From the hand of Saint Paul the first Christian communities came to believe that God’s temple did not refer to a human structure and that circumcision no longer was to be considered as an external sign of belonging to a group, but rather Christianity was about being consecrated to the Spirit (cf. 1Cor 3:16-17; 6:9).12 8

9 10

11 12

See George H. Dunne, S. J., Generation of Giants: The Story of the Jesuit in China in the Last Decades of the Ming Dynasty (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1962) 4. David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in theology of Mission (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1996) 3. Anastasios of Androussa, “Thy Will be Done” in James A. Scherer and Stephen B. Bevans, New Directions in Mission & Evangelization. Vol. 2, (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1994) 31. Lamin Sanneh, “Theology of Mission.” 556. Cf. Ibid. 557.

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The first Christians were convinced that the Holy Spirit was deeply inspiring the community and making it act boldly. In her book She Who Is, Elizabeth Johnson writes, Whether the Spirit be pictured as the warmth and light given by the sun, the life-giving water from the spring or the flower filled with seeds from the root, what we are actually signifying is God drawing near and passing by in a vivifying, sustaining, renewing, and liberating power in the midst of historical struggle. So profound is this true that whenever people speak in a generic way of God, of their experience of God or of God’s doing something in the world, more often than not they are referring to the Spirit, if a triune prism were introduced.13

In traditional theology reflection seems to follow a Johanine approach, in which God sends Jesus, who sends the Spirit; the Holy Mystery is incarnate in Jesus and continues to be present in the whole creation through the Spirit. This perspective has been attributed to Thomas Aquinas and Barth, and is evident in the first chapter of Ad Gentes (2-6) and chapter III of Redemptoris Missio of John Paul II. However Johnson challenges us to see that it is the Spirit that we know first, who precedes Jesus not only in our lives but also in the history of the world and in cultures, which have not known Jesus Christ.14 This perspective that places the Holy Spirit in the task of God’s leading history and human experiences has important implications for Christian mission. One of them is that the Spirit of God is already present in history and human cultures prior to any announcement of the Christian message.15 God reveals himself in the dynamic of self-emptying, life giving, and empowerment that invites all creatures to be truly themselves, that demands from the church also to come out from herself, an “ec-centric” and “centrifugal”16 task of empowering others. The church exists and lives not for herself but for God and others. This means that the inside of the church can only be known from her outside, from her way of doing mission. In her effort to be a credible witness of God’s inner (Trinitarian) life, she has to let herself be led by the Holy Spirit, already present in the world, in history, and human cultures, and realize that she will be credible only by the Spirit she is able to manifest. The church, following Jesus who became the face and heart of God and allied with the Holy Spirit, will be able to become the concrete “face”17 of the Spirit in the world, for God’s life was and is already there. 13 14 15 16

17

Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Discourse (New York: Crossroads, 1992) 127. See Contextual Theology in 1.2.8.6. Arnulf Camps, Studies in Mission History, 1956–1998 (Leiden-Boston-Köln: Brill, 2000) 159. Ibid. 167. Johannes C. Hoekendijk, The Church Inside Out (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1966) 658. In line of this same thought see, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Teología de la Liberación: Perspectivas (Salamanca: Ediciones Sígueme, 1994) 297. John Breck, “The Face of the Spirit” in Pro Ecclesia III (Spring: 1994) 165–178.


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2 Mission as Walking Together This study seeks to be faithful, respectful and thankful to the insight of God’s pervading presence in human history of which mission has to become the activity – better still, life-style – that gives a concrete face to God’s Spirit. The present study about different mission methods has germinated and developed along a personal journey as a missionary in different countries of Asia. I was always amazed at God’s presence among the peoples I lived with, particularly among the poor. I discovered that I was not alone in my journey. During my journey in Korea I was blessed to be part of a dynamic church, struggling to understand from faith the meaning of the present circumstances and to give hope to all peoples of good will during the turbulent moments of military dictatorship.18 As the country made impressive economic advances, other issues appeared in the horizon, such as the military’s violent massacre aimed to quench the democratic aspirations of the people of Kwang-Ju19 in May 1980, with the human right abuses that followed, the dramatic increase in numbers of prisoners of conscience, and cheap labor and inhuman working conditions in factories. Christian leaders and believers from all churches not only offering hope, faith, and reconciliation, but also frontally challenging the national security politics were addressing all these issues and the neo-liberal economic schemes applied by subsequent military governments. The Christian churches gave witness – by their solidarity with the most disadvantaged people and their commitment to human rights issues – to the suffering and crying face of God. Looking at the dynamism of the young Korean church, the faith and commitment of the laity, and the hard work of women, I could not but ask myself where all this creativity came from. To answer it by saying that the Church was the only social institution to stand up to the military regime and thus capable of bringing together all the opposition forces of the nation with a certain degree of safety was too easy an answer. Then I decided to begin looking at the history of Christianity in Korea, and there I found a more convincing 18

19

Military rule had always been painful in Korea ever since Park Cheong-hee seized power and imposed martial law in 1972. The Korean “economic miracle,” however, also brought popular discontent about military rule and yearning for democracy. After the assassination of President Park in 1979, the popular desire for democracy was constantly crushed, especially during the presidency of Jeon Doo-hwan (1980–1988). Kwang-Ju is a large city located at 380 kilometres Southwest of Seoul. In May 1980, as the military were having their power struggle to choose a military leader to succeed Park Ceong-hee, who had been assassinated in October 1979, a popular uprising against the continuation of military rule took place that demanded the return to democratic institutions. The uprising was mercilessly crushed with the connivance of the American Government. The military rulers never allowed an official inquiry to be made. It is believed that thousands of innocent people, students, merchants, farmers, were killed.

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answer: the all-pervading presence of God was already at work in the history of the people of Korea during the painful times of persecution in the first years of the nineteenth century, as explained in chapter III of this work. Korean Christians now were looking at the painful situation of their Christian ancestors, and from that well they gathered now the necessary faith and strength to keep faithful to God and to their brethren. My journey in Asia also took me to Thailand. The Franciscans – who had earlier been in Thailand between 1592 and 1767 in different places – decided to open a new presence in a majority Buddhist country of Asia. In 1985 – with the approval of the local hierarchy – Franciscans were invited to open a Catholic replica of the structure of a Buddhist temple, a place for spiritual meditation, and a welcoming center for anyone who wished to deepen his/her religious experience. Soon, the friars discovered the huge social challenges the country was facing with the HIV-AIDS pandemic and decided to answer it by offering a comfortable and friendly environment for those patients who were poor, abandoned by their families, and in the final stages of their disease. The AIDS patients became the real face of God in our midst. The Catholic temple was the waiting room, so to speak, for people getting ready for the last trip. I have spoken of a personal journey. Here, however, I find myself engulfed in an interesting vocabulary problem that illustrates the hazards and ambiguities of my own journey. I went to Asia as a “missionary.” My superiors had sent me to the “missions.” I thought of myself as a follower of those bearded missionaries, eloquent and colorful, with the crucifix in their hand that used to visit the schools and parishes of my small town. The tale of their adventures and missionary work among pagans, their happiness and conviction that the souls of missionaries were saved if they could convert infidels, inspired me to be one of them. As a missionary, I went to Asia to make new Christians and help to expand the Catholic Church. My journey in Asia changed that view. What follows in this work is the result of a journey that has challenged my understanding of being a missionary and of doing mission. In helping me to discover the new meaning of mission, my heart is full of gratitude to Korea and Thailand and to their peoples, be they Christian, Buddhist, Confucian, or nonbelievers. This discovery has inspired the present work.

3 Structure and Orientation of the Study The title of the Chapter I of this work sets the tune of a challenge: Mission, a transforming coherent life-style. More than Korea, it was Thailand that taught me that mission is first of all about a coherent life-style, and not because this was being practiced by the Church, at least at institutional level. Roman Catholics in Thailand are a minority church of roughly two hundred thousand


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believers and yet financially rich and powerful. What is the meaning, then, of “mission” or being a “missionary” in Thailand? On the one hand, direct evangelization is only allowed within the already existing community of believers; no outside evangelization activity is allowed. On the other hand, there exists an unspoken sense and conviction among Thai peoples that all religions are intrinsically good and help people to be good: consequently, there should not be crisscrossing of religions. Moreover, Buddhism is the religion that gives national identity, and most Thai people believe that their religion is tolerant enough to allow other religions to co-exist in their land; in fact, theirs is a history of tolerance of other religions, which finds no parallel with most of the Christian countries in Europe up to Vatican II. Thus, in Thailand I learned that to be a missionary meant for me – before any attempt to proclaim my faith – to lead a coherent life-style: a coherence between my faith in Jesus and my practice of gospel values: the practice of compassion. Life-style is defined as “the typical way of life of an individual, group, or culture.”20 The word “typical” is defined as “constituting or having the nature of a type, model; combining or exhibiting the essential characteristics of a group, conforming to a type; regular.”21 “Coherent” is defined as “logically or aesthetically ordered or integrated: consistent; having clarity or intelligibility: understandable, having the quality of cohering: cohesive, coordinated.”22 The title of the first chapter, then, refers to a regular life model, lived by a person or group, that exhibits its essential characteristics in a logical and aesthetic manner. Applying this definition to missionary praxis, it can be affirmed that faith in Jesus and commitment to his life-style and aspirations shown in his words and deeds are the essential characteristics that need to be exhibited by the individual and the group that claims to follow Christ in a consistent, cohesive and coordinated manner. What, then, makes a life-style missionary? To answer the question I have added to the title the word ‘transforming.’ The verb “to transform” is defined as “to change in composition or structure; to change the outward form or appearance of; to change in character or condition: convert; transform implies a major change in form, nature, or function.”23 A life-style that is transforming, needs to look at what needs to be transformed. For it, we need to look at people who are in disadvantageous situations, the poor, those who suffer with no hope of better lives ahead. I have found two sources of inspiration for this missionary approach meaning a life-style of transformation. The first comes from Ignacio Ellacuría, 20 21 22 23

See Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, Massachusetts: MerriamWebster, Inc., 1997) 672. Ibid. 1279. Ibid. 223. Ibid. 1253.

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a Basque Jesuit missionary in El Salvador who – together with six of his companions and two women – was assassinated on the early hours of 16th November 1989. Ignacio had been one of the main architects of the transformation operated by the University of Central América (UCA).24 The university was transformed from being a prestigious university for high-class and rich students that offered them better chances to aspire for positions of power and economic control of the country into a high learning institution committed to improving the lives of the poor. Ignacio was persuaded that any church institution that did not carry within itself the missionary thrust of the transformation of political, economic, social and religious structures aiming at making society a more livable place, particularly for the poor, was bound to become an ideology.25 My second source of inspiration comes from my brother in Franciscan life, J. Hoeberichts.26 Like me, he too was a missionary for many years in Asia – in his case Pakistan. Hoeberichts analyses the reasons for what he considers the minority status of the Catholic Church in Pakistan in his book, Francis and Islam. The reasons he puts forward includes criticism of Christianity for “considering itself on theological grounds, but also very much because of the economic and technological progress of the West, to be superior to other religions.”27 This is a strange attitude for a community that was called to act as yeast and light of the world and to follow on the example of the master who washed the feet of his disciples. It is only with the spirit of the Spirit – if I may be permitted to duplicate the term. Thus, “the wind blows where it pleases and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:9) that mission can be lived as credible witness. Hoeberichts proposes the return to Francis of Assisi’s way of doing mission as he spelled it out in his first rule or Regula Non Bullata.28 Concretely, in a environment of crusade preparations announced with drums and trumpets in Christian Europe – under the rational justification of papal encyclicals and other documents29 – to go against the infidel Saracens, Francis proposed an alternative way

24

25 26 27 28

29

For a detailed analysis of UCA see Charles J. Beirne, S. J., Jesuit Education and Social Change in El Salvador (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1996). UCA was named after a nineteen-century Salvadoran priest and political leader, José Simón Cañas, the first legislator to propose and fight for the emancipation and abolition of slavery. Ignacio Ellacuría and John Sobrino, Fé y Justicia (Bilbao: Desclée de Brouwe, 1999) 50–51. J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam (Quincy, Illinois: Franciscan Press, 1997). Ibid. xii. Francis wrote this Rule for his followers during the period July 1219–1220, after his return from Egypt. (See J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam. 45). This Rule was not the one officially approved by the pope. Pope Innocence III and his Crusade Encyclical Quia Maior of 1213 in which the pope called for the fifth crusade and other documents of the time. (See J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam. 8–42).


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to deal with the difference: one of peaceful presence and coexistence with the Muslims with no power and prepotency, but in humble service and submission to all creatures for God’s sake.30 Francis had earlier discovered – he himself affirms in the Testament that it was by “divine inspiration”31 – that the distinctive feature of the Gospel, the Good News, “is to be looked for in its weakness, in its inability to prove itself or to force its way”32 upon others. In this spirit, I aim to set out in the first chapter of this work the history of the crisis of mission and how the institutional church often made it impossible to recognize the face of God or the soft presence of the Spirit in the world. In order to reverse this trend, I propose some contours that describe what I believe – based on the experience of my personal missionary journey – should be the basic attitudes that the Church – as the community of believers in Jesus and his high vision – would need to acquire for the new millennium. “Contour” is defined as “an outline or a curving of irregular figure; the general form or structure of something.”33 The nine contours that I offer refer to attitudes to be existentially practiced in missionary endeavor – without pretending to be exclusive and complete. These contours are intertwined, interdependent, and shed light upon each other. The points of contact of a contour cannot be defined, or clearly separated. I purposely emphasize human experience of an encounter with the startling person of Jesus – be it at a personal and/or a communitarian level – and sharing it with others first as a life-style rather than as an intellectual conviction theologically explained. There is a sense of crisis regarding mission today. If all religions are ways to salvation, is there any place for announcing the good news to others?34 If Buddha, Confucius and Mencius, or Mahomet are to be regarded as mediators between God and human beings, is there any place for Jesus Christ, the only and exclusive savior of the world?35 Mission is being challenged also by other urgent issues that Christians are facing today, such as the issue of globalization,36 with its dark side of leaving behind millions of people as a faceless mass with no access to the benefits of material progress; or the new challenge in Europe with the issue of massive

30 31

32

33 34 35 36

Ibid. 182. Chapter 16 verse 3 of Regula Non Bullata in Omnibus, Saint Francis of Assisi: Writings and Early Biographies. English Omnibus of the Sources for the Life of Saint Francis (Chicago: Franciscan Press, 1973). David J. Bosch, “The Vulnerability of Mission” in James A. Scherer and Stephen B. Bevans, eds., New Directions in Mission & Evangelization (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1992) 77. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 251. Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and the Other Names: Christian Mission and Global Responsibility (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1996) 8. Ibid. 69. Manuel Castells, The Rise of Network Society (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000) 101–110.

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numbers of immigrants that flood our cities seeking for better living standards. Many of the immigrants bring along their religious beliefs and demand spaces to practice their religious rituals. This is creating a growing social unease and numerous conflicts that are blamed upon religious diversity. Religion is even used as a rationale for justifying wars and killing in the name of God. Ecological problems such as the warming of the planet – provoked by us – that threatens human existence itself, also need to be addressed by a community of believers who see mission as the return to the centrality of gospel values through love and humble service. The title of Chapter II – Struggling between the sword and the pen – refers to two methods of practicing mission that have characterized the Roman Catholic Church in two mission37 countries of Asia, namely Thailand and China. The church’s effort to expand into Thailand during the 16th century was a failure – at least in quantitative terms.38 I often wondered why this happened. Was it only because Buddhism was, and still is, the religion that gives identity to Thai people and Christianity found it impossible to reverse it? The answer seems too simplistic. Or was not – and is it still not the case today – the method the Catholic Church used the root cause of the lack of success?39 In China, on the other hand, a great and innovative missionary touched the hearts and minds of many people, namely Matteo Ricci. His influence went beyond the borders of China and his books – written in Chinese – were widely discussed also among the intellectual community in Korea during the 17th and 18th centuries. I have, furthermore, categorized the two mission practices, the first, with the term method of conquest – the term has been inspired by Professor Camps who speaks about a conquista method of doing mission applied by Spanish and Portuguese missionaries who went to the newly discovered territories along with soldiers and merchants.40 This was also the case with the missionaries who went to Thailand. The second method I have characterized with the term accommodation to describe the way Ricci announce the gospel to Chinese people. Throughout the history of the Catholic Church41 there have

37 38

39 40 41

Understood as expanding the presence of the Catholic Church in the world. Concerning the failure of the Catholic Church to have a significant presence in Thailand, see Michael Smithies & Louis Bressan, A Resounding Failure: Martin and the French in Siam 1672–1693 (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1998). I am convinced that the method of doing mission then and now may be the root cause of the fact that Christianity – at least in its institutional form – lacks convincing proofs. A. Camps, “The Catholic Missionary Movement from 1492 to 1789.” 213–221. See also Stephen Neill, A History of Christian Missions 120-122. Although well aware of the different methods of doing mission in the different Christian churches, I will concentrate mostly on the Catholic Church, as it is more relevant for my research concerning the mission methodologies used in the early years of Christian implantation both in Thailand and Korea.


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been many very different mission models.42 Each model, moreover, corresponds to a very concrete and particular mode of understanding theology and ecclesiology, for faith, and the way it is rationalized, is always rooted in history, in the concrete, in the every day situations and the language and religious symbols of people. Regarding missionary methods studied in this work, however, there exists a divide between the mission period of Thailand and China concerning methodology. The missionary paradigm43 of the Middle Ages as it was articulated in Thailand, as conquista, coincided with a particularly dangerous type of Europeanism or Euro-centeredness that brought together mission and secular political powers.44 This was one of the consequences of the de facto identification of Church, Society, and State by which different popes exercised control over kings and these took decisions concerning mission. Thus, economy, politics, and missionary activity went hand in hand. This led to an enclave45 lifestyle – in which the missionaries, religious priests in most of the cases, never totally adapted to local people; the converted indigenous people were no longer part of their own people but were siphoned into a foreign cultural reality; where the laity was supposed to obey and pay; where everyday life and liturgy was modeled upon that of Europe – and much infighting between the

42

43

44

45

A long bibliography could be given in this regard. Suffice it to mention here just some innovative authors who write about post-modern methods of mission from the perspective of liberation theology, ecumenical and religious dialogue. Gustavo Gutiérrez, En Busca de los Pobres de Jesucristo (Salamanca: Ediciones Sígueme, 1993). James A. Scherer and Stephen B. Bevans (eds.), New Directions in Mission and Evangelization. Vol. 1: Basic Statements 1974-1991; Vol. 2: Theological Foundations (New York: Orbis Books, Maryknoll, 1992, 1994); Jacques Dupuis, S.J., Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism. (New York: Orbis Books: Maryknoll, 1997); Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and the Other Names: Christian Mission and Global Responsibility (New York: Orbis Books, Maryknoll, 1996). For a deeper understanding of the term model see, Avery Dulles, Models of the Church. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Image Books, 1975). David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission. 181. Bosch uses the term paradigm in order to express the reality of mission as a process of continual shifting, testing, reformulating, and discarding. Moreover Bosch, following Hans Küng’s use of the word paradigm, establishes six different ways of doing mission. These are: the apocalyptic paradigm of the primitive Christianity; the Hellenistic paradigm of the patristic period; the medieval Roman Catholic paradigm; the Protestant (Reformation) paradigm; the Modern Enlightenment paradigm; and the emerging ecumenical paradigm. These paradigms, Bosch affirms, although can be identified as characterizing a particular historical period, in most of the cases they are overlapping realities. Robert J. Schreiter, “Changes in Roman Catholic Attitude toward Proselytism and Mission” in James A. Scherer and Stephen B. Bevans (eds.), New Directions in Mission and Evangelization 113. Clifford Geertz, “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretative Theory of Culture” in The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973) 3–30.

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different protagonists of missionary work often obscured the efficacy of the Word of God and the implantation of the church.46 Missionaries were seen more as politicians than the servers of the God of heaven. In these circumstances what was the image of God and the Church these missionaries were carrying in their minds? How did they understand their partners in dialogue, particularly their religious worldview? How could the native people recognize the face of God and the Spirit operating in their midst? It is impossible to doubt the genuine religious zeal of many Spanish and Portuguese rulers in this historical period. They were men of strong and ardent faith with a high awareness of their obligation to extend the Kingdom of God, identified for all practical purposes with the Catholic Church. There also was a strong feeling of nationalism between the missionaries of Spain and Portugal, which increased in intensity after Philip II annexed Portugal to the Spanish crown in 1585. To the Portuguese, Christianity in any but a Portuguese form was out of the question, and the same was true of the Spaniards. The missionaries who arrived in Siam during the second half of the 16th century did have an entire constellation of beliefs proper to the time, including, the superiority of European culture, and a concrete mission method, which was widely shared. They knew they were called to make Christians of all the peoples they met, for that was the only way all could be accounted as persons on their way to salvation. Missionaries viewed God as the Supreme Being who demanded total surrender to the Church, the worldly expression of the Kingdom of God.47 With the Reformation movement in the 16th century – and later the enlightenment in the 18th century – taking its roots in Europe, a new vision of the church was emerging that demanded also new missionary methods be put into practice. During the later period two courageous and insightful Italian missionaries, Matteo Ricci in China and Roberto de Nobili among the Madurai (India) applied a new method of doing mission, somehow similar to that used during the early centuries of Christianity. This is not to say that, prior to Mateo Ricci, efforts at practicing approaches to missionary adaptation were not applied by missionaries in other places. On the contrary, missionaries, particularly in Latin America – and well before Spain forced Castilian to be the only official language on the West side of the Atlantic territories from the eighteenth century on – made commendable efforts to learn local languages and to write scholarly books using them.48 The method of adaptation was particularly successful in

46 47 48

Jean Comby, How to Understand the History of Christian Missions. (London: SCM Press, 1996). 66. Stephen Neill, History of Christian Missions (London: Penguin Books, 1991). 120. Mariano Errasti, América Franciscana, 2 vol. (Santiago de Chile: Pía Sociedad de San Pablo, 1986) offers an extensive study of the efforts of missionaries to adapt to local cultures and demark themselves from the interests of the crown of Spain.


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New Spain, where the missionary enterprise’s basic structure and system were put in place. Respect for the Indians and their human dignity as well as their traditions, culture and language were, according to Comby, the beginning of a new style of mission endeavor, namely the adaptation or inculturation model.49 I turn to Matteo Ricci for his innovative missionary method whose influence went beyond the borders of China. Sixteenth-century China, under the rule of the Ming dynasty, seemed to pose an insurmountable challenge to Christian mission understood as implantation and expansion of the Roman Catholic Church. Not only was China on a par with the intellectual level in Europe, but it also possessed a unified and centralized political system that made it a self-contained country.50 A scholar-official class, who controlled the political and cultural life and ruled the country, devoted itself to a particular school of Confucian thought, the school of Chu Hsi (1130–1200), the interpretation of which brought to light what is called as the Sung school of Neo-Confucianism.51 These scholar-officials had succeeded in obtaining their powerful positions only through a competitive civil service examination system and a centuries-long struggle with other similar powerful figures, such as the eunuchs’ institution.52 These scholar officials came to know almost to the letter the Confucian texts, which became the basis of the state examinations, thus acquiring a total cultural monopoly, which assured them political and social predominance. In these circumstances orthodoxy and fidelity to the text became the only criteria of truth, a guarantee of being faithful to Chu

49 50 51

52

See Jean Comby, How to Understand. 60. George H. Dunne, S. J. Generation of Giants (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1962). 17. Daniel K. Gardner, Chu Hsi: Learning to Be a Sage (Selections from the Conversations of Master Chu, Arranged Topically). (Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 1990), 57-60. Although Chu Hsi was considered to be the holder of the right interpretation of Confucian doctrine, there were voices that opposed his interpretation and even dared to bring to public discussion opinions contrary to his. One of them was Wang Yangming (1472–1529 CE) who initially studied the philosophy of Chu Hsi and founded his own School of Neo-Confucianism, and was to influence intellectual community of the late China Ming Dynasty period, and also the Korean intellectuals who became Christians. It was during the latter part of Ming dynasty that Wang Yang-ming school was very popular among the intellectuals, and because of its more free and open atmosphere Matteo Ricci could have been accepted as peer scholar by the Chinese Confucians and he was able to carry on many dialogues with them. The common characteristic of Wang Yang-ming’s School of NeoConfucianism, and the Korean intellectuals tuned Christians was the need of returning to the original thought of Confucius and to put aside the fixed and orthodox interpretation of Chu Hsi who seemed made to serve the state’s structure of an absolute monarchical system (Ki-baik Lee, A New History of Korea, 223, 242, 243). The excessive power of the eunuchs, especially under the later Ming kings, challenged the predominance of the scholar-officials.

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Hsi’s school of interpretation.53 The scholar-officials had no intention of imperiling their position by tolerating new ideas. This was the China which the Basque missionary, Saint Francis Xavier, tried in vain to enter. The task of introducing new ideas, particularly unheard of Christian ideas was difficult and it was even more difficult to obtain a sympathetic hearing and someone ready to help in the task. Matteo Ricci had no choice but to start from an experience within Chinese culture of an “opening to a new world view where he was aware of new patterns of meaning embodied in symbols capable of development and change.”54 At the same time he also offered his own worldview of symbols and meanings, which eventually transformed the lives of millions of women and men in China and beyond. The task demanded much patience. For Ricci, however, there was no doubt about the superiority of the Gospel message he was bringing to China. In his dialogue with a native scholar as outlined in Tianzhu Shiyi or The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, Ricci valued Chinese culture positively as having preserved the primal revelation of a monotheistic God.55 Ricci was also demonstrably the first author – even among Chinese scholars – to have noticed a conceptual development in Confucian thought concerning God or Heaven from the Confucian classic proper to the Neo-Confucian philosophers, as expounded by Chu Hsi and his followers.56 Ricci arrived at a quite accurate assessment of the Chinese different major philosophical schools or currents in China.57 He seemed to accept that there was in Christian message a kernel, which could be separated from the accessory husk,58 and corresponds in many ways to Confucianism, as can be seen e.g. in Ricci’s struggle to choose the proper Chinese term to designate the Latin Deus. In this, as in many other examples, Ricci can be considered a missionary who tried to translate59 Christianity into Chinese. Ricci believed deeply that the kernel of Christianity could be expressed by means of Chinese cultural mediation. This in itself was a dramatic departure from the method of conquest – aggressive disqualification of the religious convictions of others, as practiced in Thailand – but stopped short of seeing Chinese

53 54 55

56 57 58 59

George H. Dunne, S. J. Generation of Giants. 12. Richard G. Coté, OMI, Re-Visioning Mission: The Catholic Church and Culture in Postmodern America (New York/Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1996). 111. Matteo Ricci, S. J. Tianzhu Shiyi, The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven. Trans. Douglas Lancashire and Peter Hu Kuo-chen, S. J., edited by Edward J. Malatesta (Saint Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1985), n. 21. 67. Andrew C. Ross, A Vision Betrayed: The Jesuits in Japan and China 1542–1742 (London: Esinburgh University Press, 1994) 146. Jonathan D. Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (New York: Penguin Books, 1983) 117. Stephen B. Bevans, Models of Contextual Theology (New York: Orbis Books, Maryknoll, 1992). 33. Ibid. 30–46.


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culture as a place of God’s presence. He also failed to offer the Christian message as good news that could also have a transforming element for the social and political structures that had masses of poor people living under a feudal and strict political and social structure.60 For these reasons, I call Ricci’s mission method accommodation; it could also be characterized as translation.61 It can be argued that given the intellectual framework of the time, Ricci could not have gone further. I will argue, however, that around the same period, a group of Korean intellectuals – free from European discussions and imperial greed – were able to notice God’s presence in their midst, and tried to make Him more visible among their co-citizens by trying to transform, out of compassion, the lives of the poor: they aimed at social transformation. To go beyond Ricci, indeed, was the deep insight of the Korean scholars who fully engaged in a transforming intercommunication with their own culture and people, thinking of gospel values from within: this is called contextual theology.62

60

61 62

Matteo Ricci praised the person of Saint Francis of Assisi for his holiness, and had also a high esteem for his followers; but in some of his writings Ricci also expressed no admiration for the missionary tactics utilized by the Franciscans, and saw them even as enemies, because of the latter’s forceful approach to preaching to the poor so irritated the Chinese that the Jesuits inevitably felt the backlash. (For Ricci’s praise of Saint Francis of Assisi, see Matteo Ricci, S. J. Tianzhu Shiyi, The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven. Trans. Douglas Lancashire and Peter Hu Kuo-chen, S. J., edited by Edward J. Malatesta (Saint Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1985. 315 (Quoted in Jonathan D. Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. 52). I have always wondered if a reason behind the Franciscans’ positioning against the Jesuits in the rites controversy had not to do also with the mission method: poor people and social issues seemed to be neglected on the ground of not causing problems to the scholar-officials. This fact needs further research. Stephen B. Bevans, Models of Contextual Theology (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1992). 30–32. See further in Chapter I, section 1.2.8.6. The terms “contextual,” “dialogue” and “inculturation” cannot be applied to Matteo Ricci with the same scientific rigueur with which we use them in theology today. I believe it is unfair to use these relatively new terms in mission theology together with their modern meaning and applied them to Matteo Ricci’s mission method. Ricci was a child of his own time and, as a product of the Council of Trent, his mission methodology basically was the application of Cuius regio illius religio, with the exception that Ricci applied this axiom to Chinese intellectuals primarily and non-violently. See A. Camps, Studies in Asian Mission History 1965–1998 (Leiden-Boston-Koeln: Brill, 2000) 105–210. It is Professor Camp’s insight, corroborated by Professor Nicolas Standaert, (Yang Tingyun, Confucian and Christian in late Ming China, Leiden-New York-Kobenhavn-Koeln: Brill, 1988. 220) that Ricci was an adaptation-theologian, and neither an inculturation- nor dialogical theologian in the modern meaning of these terms. Ricci was a clever person and was able to wisely use the intellectual gifts he was endowed with, but basically he always remained a scholastic, Thomistic theologian. Obviously Ricci’s method was a dramatic improvement from the conquista method used by missionaries in Thailand. See also A. Camps, “The Theology of Religions as Pilgrim Theology” in Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 7 (Leuven 1997). “Interreligious Dialogue: A Task with many Challenges” in Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 10 (Leuven 2000).

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The study of contextual theology will be undertaken in Chapter III: Korea, a Missionary Vision with a Political Thrust: Kenotic Model. Koreans let themselves be instruments – in the hands of the Spirit – for change and social transformation. That was the good news. However, the mission method of adaptation put into practice by Matteo Ricci can well be considered a transition from the conquista mission to the kenotic mission method. I am reserving for the Korean scholars’ evangelizing work the term mission on the kenotic model. For the use of the term kenosis, I have been inspired particularly by two texts from the New Testament. The first is taken from the Gospel of John that narrates the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples (Jn 13:1-20). The second is a text from Paul, Phil 2:6-10 in which he reproduces an ancient Christian hymn, in which Jesus is confessed as someone who is God and who did not deem equality with God to be something to be reached for – rather, He became slave to the point of giving His life on the cross. To describe this action of Jesus, Paul uses the word kenosis. Kenosis is a Greek term [ekenosen] which in church tradition has been applied to Jesus’ emptying from his divinity, being made in the likeness of a human being, and, more radically, taking the form of a servant to the point of giving his life on the cross.63 By using this rather loaded word, I am not referring to the abasement of the Word of God in assuming humanity and at the same time occulting his Divinity or to other theological issues, such as whether His abasement as a human being actually compromised the Divine sanctity and justice or if Christ was excluded from certain bodily pains and/or corruption after death. I use kenosis in an allegorical way, much in the way it is used in spiritual theology: thus, self-emptying and becoming a servant connote becoming void of power64 and crucified like Jesus who “did not wish to force himself or his message upon people.”65 Applying this interpretation in the context of mission in Asia, Aloysius Pieris writes that the true local churches of Asia are those prophetic basic communities (made up of Christians and others) that “have been baptized in the Jordan of Asian religion and the Cavalry of Asian poverty.”66 Pieris affirms that any missionary endeavor in Asia will need to take into account the two most noticeable realities, namely religious diversity and the extreme poverty of masses of people if the church’s missionary sincerity is to be credible. Mission, thus, will have to enter into humble and

63 64 65 66

Robert C. Broderick and Virginia Broderick, Catholic Encyclopaedia (Nashville, Tennessee: Nelson Nashville Publisher, 1976), word: Kenosis. J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam. Xii. Alan Neely, “Mission as Kenosis: Implications for Our Times” in The Princeton Seminary Bulletin, vol. 10. 202–223. Aloysius Pieris, Asia’s Struggle for full Humanity (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1983) 50.


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powerless dialogue with diverse religions and improve the livelihood of the poor. The deepest example of kenosis in the life of Jesus can be seen in the Cross, “The Cross is the paradigm of a twofold love: God’s love for humans and the human response to that love.”67 Kenosis is, then, that life-style in which one identifies with powerlessness, service, and love to the extreme of accepting the cross of Jesus of Nazareth, capable of creating – rather co-creating with God – a new being in a new heaven and earth. It can be said that kenosis consists of a triple movement – succession not in time and space – of exodus (abasement), incarnation (entering into human history and taking the form of a servant), and transformation (creating a new heaven and a new earth by dying on the cross).68 This kenotic way of doing mission in its three-fold dimension can clearly be seen among the Korean intellectuals of the 18th century that I propose as a model to be followed today.69 With no foreign missionaries in the country, and with the help of some books on the life of Jesus to go by, Christianity nonetheless quickly sprung deep roots. What were the conditions, which helped the rapid growth of Christians in a country with no hierarchy and no foreign missionaries? How did they understand God and Jesus’ message to liberate the poor? What concrete steps did they take to lead a life-style that was coherent with the life of Jesus? How were they able to transmit their faith to their own citizens far from Roman-European language and political interests? What challenges did they meet? How did they respond to them? During the period of intellectual exchange between Western and Korean culture, the socio-political and economic situations were difficult. Korea was politically closed to any foreign country other than China, and society was strictly divided into classes.70 Cross-fertilization between social groups was virtually impossible. The social status quo was defended by a narrow interpretation of the concept of filial piety,71 which the ruling class applied strictly. It was in that very

67

68 69

70 71

Jacob Kavunkal, Ministry and Mission in in James A. Scherer and Stephen B. Bevans, eds., New Directions in Mission & Evangelization (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1992) 94. Antonio Egiguren Iraola, “Mission for Social Transformation: With a Political Thrust” in Mission, vol. XI (2004), 1. 73-100. See note 3 in page 74. The seven-point headings on The Thrust of a Missionary Commitment of Chapter III follow, although not exactly, the nine heading on the Contours of Mission as Transforming Coherent Life-style of Chapter I. Wi Jo Kang, Christ and Caesar in Modern Korea: A history of Christianity and Politics (Albany: State University of New York, 1997) 1–8. Filial piety is the English translation of the Korean word Hyo-Do . The translation, however, can prove ambiguous and misleading. The English word immediately leads the reader to think about the Fourth Commandment: ‘You shall respect your parents’ and in theological terms it immediately evokes the filial relationship of Jesus to the Father, whom he

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environment that Korean scholars, women and men, decided to offer their knowledge, status and economic resources with all their hearts, to open their country to recognize the Christian way, accepting even a martyr’s death, in order to be faithful and adhere to the teachings of Jesus. At the outset it can be said that the answers Korean scholars tried to give to the above questions reside in the kenotic model – exodus (abasement, getting out from privileged social positions to share the fate of the outcast), incarnation (entering into human history and taking the form of a servant) and transformation (proposing, in spite of personal losses, a way for social justice) which was seriously implemented by Korean intellectuals. The new intellectual sources they found in dialogue with the Western culture were a challenge for them to enter into a new world-view from out of the stuffy, oppressive, selfcentered Chinese and Neo-Confucian culture in which they were forced to live. Contact with Western philosophy and religion became liberating sources. They found the rituals and the yangban ’s (the noble class’s) interpretation of filial piety to be oppressive and too closely linked to political servility. It was too formalistic and insincere. Soon after the first group of intellectuals was baptized, the community took the critical decision to move away from the protected, peaceful, and quiet tem72 ple in the forest of Cheon-Jin-Am right down to the walls of the city of Seoul where the most underprivileged people had to live. The first Christians set out to establish their earliest community right among the poorest of the poor. Poor people too needed to be liberated from their seemingly neverimproving fate. The liberating gospel the intellectual group was blessed to receive was to be announced to the poor; and to do so, they decided to live with them. Of course, this was their kenotic option: converting from the peaceful, comfortable, and respectable life-style in a monastery to one where threats, humiliation and ridicule, even the very risk of losing their lives, would be the norm. It was there among the poor that they learnt to be disciples of Jesus Christ, whose Father they came to know only through books and meditation.

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referred as abba. The Korean term Hyo-Do (Hyo ⫽ filial and Do ⫽ a way of duty, obedience, and loyalty) implies more than just respect to parents. The term refers to the Confucian five relationships (ruler, ancestor, parent, spouse and friend), which were intertwined with political, and ritual connotations, as it shall be further explained in Chapter III, sections 3.1.3. 3.2.6.4., and 3.3.1.1. In this sense, by the time of the last quarter of the 18th century Yi dynasty, Hyo-Do became in real life an unbearable burden to the society under the rule of the yangban or Korean literati who were the scholar-officials of the political administration, and the guardians of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy. For a better understanding of the meaning and historical transformation and development of the concept of Filial Piety see Charlotte Ikels, ed. Filial Piety: Practice and Discourse in Contemporary East Asia (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004). Charles Dallet, Histoire de l’Eglise de Corée. Vol. 1. 19–20.


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The first Korean Christian martyrs knew well that the Christian message they tried to live and pass on to the citizens at large was a challenge to the status quo imposed by the ruling class. Nevertheless, they believed it was much more important to obey and show filial piety to God rather than to human institutions.73 A word needs to be said regarding the rather narrow historical period of my work, which I have decided to confine myself to, although I take the liberty of extending it when the explanation of a point so requires. In regard to Thailand, it aims to describe the missionary method used from the arrival of the first missionaries during the second half of the 15th century up to the creation of Propaganda Fide in 1622. The creation of Propaganda Fide did not mean an immediate drastic change in the mission methodology used hitherto. It did, however, control the missionary activity carried out by missionaries belonging to religious orders, because it created a hierarchy closely monitored by the Vatican, which was to have ordinary authority in all mission territories, and to which all missionaries were accountable. Despite the aversion of the religious orders to the French missionaries attached to Propaganda Fide in the southeastern countries of Asia, and the centuries-long infighting over the issues of canonical jurisdiction, the creation of Propaganda Fide may be considered a milestone in the history of the missions of the Church. Pope Gregory XV was the initiator of the project. According to Camps, [The] instruction of 1659, sent by the Congregation to the apostolic vicars of Indochina, best reflects the program of the Congregation. It states that the church must distance itself from colonialism, to give the missions a purely spiritual character, that missionaries must abstain from politics and trade, that they are to receive adequate spiritual and academic formation, that an indigenous clergy is to be trained, that Europe is not to be exported to the mission field, and that other cultures and local customs are to be respected.74

Through the context of the paragraph quoted it is easy to point out the hidden criticism of some of the mission methods in use, which were considered inappropriate. Matteo Ricci is placed in the same historical period in order to highlight the new missionary rationale that was formally adopted by the Roman Catholic Church through the establishment of Propaganda Fide75 together with the influence he had among the Korean Christians.

73 74

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Ri Sangbae, J. Confucius et Jésus Christ 39. A. Camps “The Catholic Missionary Movement from 1492 to 1789” in F. J. Verstraelen, ed., Missiology and Ecumenical Introduction (Grand Rapids, Michigan: WM. B. Eerdmans, 1995) 220. Although Matteo Ricci died (⫹1610) a dozen years before the establishment of Propaganda Fide, his mission method followed the new winds that were already blowing in the Catholic Church regarding mission.

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Regarding Korea, the historical window will basically be reduced to the period 1783 to 1801 and to some extent more broadly up to 1836. The extraordinary development of Christianity in Korea during the last quarter of the 18th century highlights one aspect that needs to be explicitly acknowledged, namely the role of the laity. The Christian community of Korea prior to 1836 – the year of the creation of the Korean Vicariate,76 that is to say, with a Roman hierarchy – was lay. There were no priests and foreign missionaries, except for a Chinese priest, Zhou Wen-mo James77 in the period 1795 to 1801.78 In this work I emphasize the lay aspect of the Korean Christian community together with its clear prophetic, martyr’s and missionary dimension. I believe to be unfortunate that among the 103 Korean Martyrs John Paul II proclaimed “saints” in 1984, none of the first generation Christians could be found. The fact that some of the first Christians abandoned their faith repeatedly, such as Lee Seong-hun , or the self-induced death of Yi Byeok , does not diminish their merits and the qualification “missionary” or my high esteem of them. The families, social, and political pressures endured by Christians in high political positions were not easy to bear. I consider also unfortunate that the implementation of the Korean Ecclesiastical vicariate (diocese) in 1836 meant de facto an abrupt end to the leadership role of the laity, now taken over by foreign bishops and priests: the Korean church returned to a missionary method that resembled that of conquista79 based on ecclesiastical expansion. It is true that, right from the beginning, Christians in Korea adopted a fully hierarchical structure, where the community and senior members in it distributed roles or services among its members, so that they could celebrate the sacraments and the Word of God could be explained by people of knowledge. The role of priests and bishops bestowed upon some of the members of the community by the first Christians had nothing to do with the paraphernalia that the Episcopal or priestly dignity emanating from a formal ordination rite give in today’s ecclesiastical structures. The majority of Korean Christians had never seen a bishop or a priest, much less witness the

76

77

78

79

For information on the historical process of the creation of Catholic hierarchy in Korea see Choi Suk-Woo, L’Erection du Premier Vicariat Apostolique et les Origines du Catholicism en Corée (Suisse: Schoneck-Bekenried, 1961; Doctoral Dissertation) 76. Zhou Wen-mo Korean transliteration of his Chinese name. Once in Korea he received the Korean name Ju Mun-mo . His Portuguese name was Jacques Velloso. See Choi Andreas L’Erection du Premier Vicariat Apostolique et les Origines du Catholicism en Corée (Suisse: Schoneck-Bekenried, 1961) 48. The Catholic Bishops of Korea, Special Episcopal Commission to Promote Beatification and Canonization, Servants of God: Paul Yun Ji-chung and 123 Companions (Seoul: Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea Press, 2004). 51–53. Choi Suk-Woo, L’Erection du Premier Vicariat Apostolique. 76.


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performing of the sacraments. Korean Christians learnt about them from the Missale Romanum,80 one of the many books that crossed the Chino-Korean border. The function of priests or bishops was diaconal in character, a brotherly service to explain Christian teachings and to help members grow spiritually and intellectually and encourage living the Christian way, to express filial piety to God amid persecution and martyrdom. From 1836 on, the Christian communities continued to endure persecution and martyrdom, but the leadership was hierarchical and foreign. The three mission methods I outline, namely, conquest, accommodation, and kenosis – although corresponding to concrete historical periods of the past – are still very much alive in the minds and attitudes of many Christians today in the Catholic Church. One of the human characteristics clearly manifested in the process of dialogue between Christians as missionaries and the people with whom they shared their life is cultural diversity, and then the challenge remained about always how to live in harmony amid diversity. This is still the case today. Whether or not cultural and religious differences are accepted with a positive and open mind, we will always find ourselves in dialogue with diverse worldviews and definitely with people who hold to strong religious convictions. How should we deal with differences? We live in Europe today in challenging times. As Christians in general and church leaders in particular debate today in Europe about the economic and political model capable of bringing about a coherent, just, and stable society, about how to deal with issues such as interreligious dialogue, particularly with Islam, the Catholic education in public institutions, moral and ethical problems regarding the treatment of embryos for eugenic purposes and issues concerning the end of life, without mentioning ongoing social debate about same-sex marriages and their right or not to adopt children, we can still identify some of the attitudes I have described as hidden in the three methods of doing mission, namely, conquest, accommodation, and kenosis. I am firmly convinced that in today’s European religious map, the spirit and attitudes these three methods imply are being used widely in dealing with religious difference. I propose that we need – by virtue of obedience to our founder – to return to kenosis as our mission praxis in Europe. We may not be able to establish clear and well-defined borderlines between the different mission methods because they overlap and even coexist simultaneously. And they do so, not only at an institutional level, but also at the personal level of our thoughts, criteria, and way of speaking. One method may be more clearly defined and noticed than the others. This also happened in the past when a more prophetic model was prefigured or announced and practiced

80

Missale Romanum, was a liturgical book which contained the Biblical readings for the liturgical celebrations in the Roman Catholic Church and the rubrics on how to conduct liturgies.

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by visionaries or people with sharp historical perspective and imagination. Examples of this – among the classic missionaries who went to expand the Church in other lands and cultures – include Bartolomé de las Casas81 in Latin America and Matteo Ricci in China: their mission methods were viewed as too advanced by the standards of the mission practices of their times. And yet they were able to point to the kenotic model, fully lived by the Korean community, although not capable of practicing it. As regard the methodology to be applied in this work, I have chosen an historical descriptive approach in order to trace different mission methods, from the conquista method applied in Thailand, to the attempt at accommodation in China used by Matteo Ricci, which then finally influenced and lead to the kenotic model of the Korean Catholics. In Chapter I, my aim is to emphasize the sense of crisis about mission given the new challenges to mission praxis from other religions, which also claim to hold absolute truth. The present crisis in missionary endeavor is historically motivated, which I try to outline without the pretension of being complete or exhaustive. There follows the emerging of a new missionary consciousness, which I complete with some suggestions (contours), based on my personal experience, of how Christian mission could go forward. Chapter II, divided into two parts, again adopts the historical narrative to illustrate two mission methods. Chapter III is also a historical contextual walk about Korean Christians from 1783 to 1802. This historical walk does not seek to uncover new historical data – because historical research is not the aim of this work – but rather to bring to light the rationale – both theological and philosophical – that led different actors to behave as they did. The question the three mission methods answer is how they were to make visible – or were hindered by – the presence of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the peoples in which these methods were applied and how the same methods are applied in our present-day challenges in Europe. To describe the historical events as they took place, or at least as they have been passed on to us by the sources consulted, and the implications they could have for the role of the laity in today’s church, is the most important aim of this work. David J. Bosch, when analyzing the different models for doing mission, points out that the ecumenical missionary paradigm is the new thrust that gives credibility to the Good News and mission of Jesus Christ in establishing the kingdom of God.82 Bosch is, however, afraid that the emphasis mission puts in context can result in jeopardizing God’s revealed Word.83 This is one of the 81 82 83

Gustavo Gutiérrez, trans., from Spanish by Robert R. Barr. Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1993). David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shift in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1996) 372. Ibid. 188.


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shortcomings of Bosch’s otherwise magnificent work. As Frans Verstraelen states, Bosch has difficulty in giving “context” a central place in his way of theologizing. This appears the case when one considers his methodology (which… assumed its basic form in “pre-contextual” modes of doing theology in the 1980s)… Bosch, in final analysis, continued to belong to the category of theologians who theologize from above rather than from below… following an idealist approach.84

Thus, the methodology applied in this work is to begin from below, from the very historical life-style and the intellectual reasons why Korean Christians chose the life-style that can be found in the writings of some of their most outstanding intellectuals. The historical primary sources I have used to study the kenotic mission of the Korean Christians during the last quarter of the 18th century are based on the work of Charles Dallet.85 The value of Chales Dallet’s86 work is still valid, complete, comprehensible and generally accepted as a basic tool in coming to know the early history of the Korean Christians from 1784 onwards. The reliability, seriousness, and scientific precision of Dallet’s work are never questioned. The sources of Dallet were concentrated mainly in the offices of MEP in France and in the archives of Propaganda Fide in Rome. Dallet himself gives enough clues about the time and origin of his sources. For the historical period 1777-1836 he used the writings and historical biographical data offered by Cheong Yak-yong , Dasan (1762–1836).87 Dallet writes about Dasan: “He left many religious texts, and especially the records about the introduction of the Gospel in Korea, in which we find collected most of the facts related to our history.”88 Dallet also made

84

85

86

87

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Frans J. Verstraelen, “Mission in Bold Humility” in A. Saayman Willem and Klippies Kritzinger, eds. Mission in Bold Humility. David Bosch’s Work Considered (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1996). 33. Charles Dallet, Histoire de l’Eglise de Corée. 2 Vols. (Paris: Librairie Victor Palmé, Éditeur, 1874), French Version and the Korean translation of it, Hanguk Cheon Jukyohwesa or History of the Catholic Church of Korea. Translated by An Eung-ryeol and Choe Seok-sa (Waegwan, Korea: Benedictine Press, 1979), which includes the documentation of the latest historical discoveries. Charles Dallet was born on October 18, 1829, in Langres, France and joined the congregation of the Missions Étrangers de Paris (MEP) on October 10, 1850. He wrote his historical book in 1872. He visited China, Japan and died in Annam on April 25, 1787. This information is provided in the introduction of the Korean version of the history of Dallet. Dasan was the younger brother of Jeong Yak-jong, Augustine, who wrote a catechism in 1795 and was martyred in 1801 during the Shinyu Persecution. During the same persecution Dasan, due to his outstanding relationship to the king on ground of his intellectual accomplishments, was sent into exile. Charles Dallet, Histoire de l’Eglise de Corée. Vol. 1. 120. 369.

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use of the notes of Bishop Laurent-Joseph-Marie Imbert (1797–1836),89 who had been responsible for gathering data about the first generation of Korean Christians, which he then sent to his headquarters in Paris. Another source of information for Dallet was Bishop Saint Marie-Nicolas Daveluy (1818–1866).90 Bishop Daveluy interviewed all of the living witnesses, collected oral traditions and wrote bibliographical notes about the martyrs in two books: Notices des Principaux Martyrs de Corée, 1858 and Notes pour l’Histoire des Martyrs de Corée, 1860.91 During the persecution period, and because the authorities were torching libraries and all sorts of books found among Catholics, Bishop Daveluy sent his material to Father Libois in Hong Kong, in 1862.92 These are the materials Dallet used to write his history of the Korean Christians.93 As regards the intellectual reasons why Christians chose to follow the path of Christian faith, I will make use of Jeong Yak-jong Augustine Jukyo Yoji94 or Essentials of the Lord’s Teaching, written circa 1786–1794.95 This text was

89

90

91 92

93 94 95

1796 Fr. Imbert was born at Marigane, south of France, to poor farmers. 1820 He left for China after his ordination. 1821 Bishop Florens, Vicar Apostolic of Siam, sent him to Singapore and he could be considered the first priest to celebrate mass in modern Singapore. On his way back to Siam he was asked to replace a sick professor in College General, Penang where he taught for ten months. 1822 He sailed for Macao but unable to go directly there. He spent 2 years in Tonkin, North Vietnam. 1825 He arrived in Sichuan where he spent 12 years as a missionary and established a seminary in Moupin. 1837 He was appointed Vicar Apostolic to Korea and ordained Bishop. He crossed secretly from Manchuria to Korea. 1839 To spare his flock from further hardships under persecution, he surrendered to the authorities. He invited two other priests to surrender also. Bishop Imbert refused to renounce his faith and was beheaded at Saenamt’o near Seoul. Bishop Saint Marie-Nicolas Daveluy was born in Saint-Leu, France on 16 March 1818. Ordained a priest for the MEP on 18 December 1841. Appointed coadjutor bishop Vicar Apostolic of Korea in 1857 and in the same year was consecrated bishop and appointed titular bishop of Korea. He died on 30 March 1886 and declared a saint by John Paul II in May 1984. Both of which are to be found at the Catholic Church History Research Centre of Seoul. Charles Dallet, Histoire de l’Eglise de Corée. Vol. 2. 454. This action was almost an inspiration, because in 1863, a fire destroyed Bishop Daveluy’s residence, where all the Chinese and Korean originals for his work about the history of the Korean Church, a list of Korean kings and different dynasties, and other important Korean books and documents were totally burned. (Charles Dallet, Histoire de l’Eglise de Corée. Vol. 2. 455. 462). Ibid. 455. 462. I offer the English translation of all titles of books and/or articles, which are originally written in Korean. Critical edition of the document presented by DIAZ HECTOR, M. G. A Korean Theology: Chu-Gyo Yo-Ji : Essentials of the Lord’s Teaching by Cheong Yak-jong Augustine (1760–1801). Immense, Switzerland: Imprimerie Saint-Paul. 1986.


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used as the official catechetical tool among Christians and had the approval of the Chinese priest Father Zhou Wen-mo James.96 With all this data in hand, the objective of this study is a simple one, namely to affirm that the missionary activity of the Korean Christians was one that was inspired by the gospel, and this inspiration challenged them to act according to gospel values, serving, in a kenotic manner, out of compassion, the poorest of the poor in their country by inviting the political rulers to transform society into a better place to live. The need to move towards kenotic mission praxis seems to be “natural” and to be the Christian mission method for the third millennium, as outlined in Chapter I. What is striking is to observe that two hundred years earlier the Korean Christians already realized it as their “natural” way of being Christians and they put it into practice. Often one still observes in our Christian communities a die-hard clericalism, in which general principles are placed before gospel values that should inform our human relationships. Often lay Christians seem to be present in the Church as spectators of missionary activity carried out largely by religious priests and sisters. As the number of priests dwindles, and their average age surpasses that of mandatory retirement in our Western society, is it not time to encourage the laity to take on a more creative, active, and responsible role as servants and leaders of the Christian community, much the way it was done in Korea over two hundred years ago? The interest in intellectual and practical analysis and synthesis between the trends of the modern world and the liberating message of Jesus Christ needs to continue to be the modus operandi of the Church in the world today. Korean intellectuals turned Christians are proposed as a model for today’s laity, who will also do research on the causes of modern social suffering afflicting the most disadvantaged people and find inspiration to follow the Lord by serving their fellow brothers and sisters. The reader will notice that I have placed two mission methods – conquista and accommodation – in a single chapter, smaller in size in comparison with the kenotic model outlined in Chapter III. The reason for this lies in the fact that I wish to emphasize the kenotic model of the Korean Christians as a possible – or the only possible – and credible way to do mission praxis today and use the previous two in order to mark the sharp contrast between the models. I am convinced that the kenotic model better articulates the environment in which God’s pervading presence is visible. I firmly believe that the method Francis of Assisi asked his followers to practice is the message which can be summarized “preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words.”

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The Catholic Bishops of Korea, Special Episcopal Commission to Promote Beatification and Canonization, Servants of God: Paul Yun Ji-chung and 123 Companions (Seoul: Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea Press, 2004). 51–53.


Chapter One

Mission: a transforming, coherent lifestyle

Introduction In the early hours of 16 November 1989 eight savagely assassinated human bodies were found lying under tropical palm trees on the green lawn of the campus of the Universidad de Centro América in El Salvador (UCA). One of them was that of the rector, Ignacio Ellacuría, architect of the great transformation that made the tertiary institution an instrument, both scholarly and practical, for social transformation.1 His work, both as an academic scholar and as a missionary priest, was powered by his profound conviction that any missionary task – be it that of a university, parish, diocese, province of a religious order, convent or friary – needs to be aimed at social transformation, understood as the creation of humane living conditions for the poorest of the poor, otherwise these institutions risk becoming mere transmitters of empty ideologies.2 Ignacio was simply following in the footsteps of Jesus, the first missionary sent by the Father into the world, who sought, through powerful words and actions, to establish God’s kingdom on earth. From his followers Jesus demanded a change (metanoia) of heart and mind so as to articulate new human relationships based on “the service of the faith and the promotion, in society, of evangelic justice”.3 This change of heart and mind was the condition for entering God’s kingdom. Pursuing Jesus’ vision, his followers, coming together in community (what we call the church), established a movement with the same goal of building the kingdom of God and a community (church) that would be its symbol and servant.4 Mission proceeds, then, from a personal experience of ‘falling in love’ with this Jesus, who presents both a utopian project to create a new world and concrete personal demands – in

1

2 3 4

This does not imply diminishing or denigrating the meaning of mission as proclamation of Jesus’ good news to all people. For more detailed information on the University as well as on the personality of Ignacio Ellacuría, see Charles J. Beirne, S.J. Jesuit education and social change in El Salvador. New York/London: Garland, 1996. Jon Sobrino, The companions of Jesus: the Jesuit martyrs of El Salvador. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1990. Ignacio Ellacuría & Jon Sobrino, Fé y justicia. Bilbao: Desclée de Brouwer, 1999, 50–51. Letter from father Kolvenbach to the whole Society of Jesus on 24 January 2000, quoting from the Normas Complementarias, n. 245, 1 and 2 (my translation). See Michael Amaladoss S.J., “Le royaume, but de la mission”, in Spiritus 36, 1995, 291–304.

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effect, a coherent lifestyle. Thus one could say that mission is about a coherent lifestyle with power to transform individual persons and societies. This chapter gives a short overview of where both the theology and praxis of mission stand today. The aim is to identify some attitudes that I believe Christians, as missionary followers of Jesus’ mission, need to adopt today in the interaction between people of different creeds, deeply convinced as I am that mission is still the raison d’être of the church in the world. Never before has the Catholic Church manifested such interest in, and preoccupation with, holistic reflection on what constitutes its true mission.5 Missionary concepts, moreover, are profoundly influenced by the overall context in which the church and Christians live and work. The old presuppositions underlying the church’s missionary activity, namely the superiority of the Christian faith6 – indeed, of the European way of living, thinking, and acting – are no longer believed or accepted in a culturally diverse, pluralistic world. In spite of the apparent weakness besetting the European Catholic Church, I still believe Christians and Christian mission can once again, humbly yet resolutely, present the vision of God’s reign, which “Jesus had already inaugurated”7 and declared to be among us, not as pie in the sky, but – as Ellacuría8 and the whole tradition of liberation theologies argue forcefully – an eschatological reality in our midst while we try to balance proclamation of the gospel with social transformation.9 This chapter attempts a succinct analysis of current theological reflection on mission as a theological discipline and praxis so as to delineate some basic mental attitudes that I believe missionary praxis today needs to include. The analysis, based on my personal experience as a missionary in Asia, does not offer a hermetically self-contained, restrictive view of missionary praxis but

5

6

7 8 9

Calvert Alexander, S. J. The missionary dimension: Vatican II and the world of apostolate, Milwaukee: Bruce, 1967, v: “Pope Paul VI in his Christmas message of 1965 proclaimed that the church gained a new insight into the tremendous exigencies involved in the term ‘Catholic’ which is her distinguishing mark. This ‘insight’ was about what universality of the mission of the church implies, namely, the act of going out and meeting modern people in the variety, richness, and challenges of the historical developments.” Christianity was propagated as a unique religious experience, as something for individual life and consumption with no repercussions in the external world, based on a rationale of dubious presuppositions, and was believed to be capable of governing all societies and to have the exclusive ability to make all people free and good. Lamin Sanneh, “Theology of mission”, 556. I make several references to him in the general introduction (xxxv). James A. Scherer & Stephen B. Bevans (eds), New directions in mission & evangelization I: Basic statements 1974–1991. Also see “Dialogue and proclamation: reflections and orientations on inter-religious dialogue and the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ” by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, in Origins 21, 8, 1991, 122–135; William R. Burrows (ed.), Redemption and dialogue: reading Redemptoris Missio and Dialogue and Proclamation, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994, 93–118.


49

emphasises contours that any missionary reflection and praxis should take into account. I focus on three areas: the crisis of mission, the history of the crisis that has led to a new awareness of mission, and the contours of a new praxis that I deem important for mission in the third millennium. Thus the first section deals with theological reflection on mission in view of the great challenges the church faces from other religions, societies and cultures; how missionary praxis has dealt with those challenges; and what kind of self-understanding it showed others through its praxis. The first aspect of the reflection on mission, then, is crisis. There is a deep sense of crisis in the church10 regarding the understanding, praxis, and urgency and/or relevance of mission: what is mission all about? To this end we take a short historical walk through missionary praxis from the age of discovery up to the present. In the course of the history of the missionary church different Christian communities have come to realise that building God’s kingdom makes concrete personal and communitarian demands that go beyond mere proclamation of the gospel and church expansion.11 In announcing the good news the church feels called to usher in a new world, namely the kingdom of God, which is both an eschatological gift and a human project.12 In the third section I sketch the contours of a new missionary enterprise. The chapter ends with some concluding remarks.

1.1 Is mission in crisis? An intellectual reflection on missionary activity is necessarily based on one’s own vision13 of what mission is and how the Christian community should implement it.14 In many theological faculties the study of mission was treated as one discipline among many within the broad framework of the theological curriculum. David Bosch summarises the different ways in which missiology 10 11

12 13 14

In this chapter, and indeed throughout the text, I refer mainly to the Roman Catholic Church. The understanding of mission as both proclamation of the good news and building the kingdom of God in history was initiated by Vatican II and subsequently stressed by pope Paul VI in the encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi, where the issues of justice and peace emerge more clearly than before. See Karl Müller et al. Mission theology: an introduction. Nettetal: Steyl Verlag, 1987, 45. Donald Senior, C. P. & Carroll Stuhlmueller, C. P. The biblical foundations for mission, 158. Hence what I say about mission will necessarily reflect my own personal experience of 20 years as a missionary in two very different Asian countries: Korea and Thailand. There is a rich bibliography on the subject, both from the perspective of scientific reflection on mission and that of its application. Suffice to mention a few works: Johannes Aagaard, “Trends in missiological thinking during the sixties”, in International Review of Mission 62, 1973. F.J. Vestraelen et al., Missiology. An ecumenical introduction, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. David J. Bosch, “Theological education in missionary perspective”, in Missiology X, 1, 1982. Karl Müller et al. (eds), Dictionary of mission: theology, history, perspective, in American Society of Missiology Series 24, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1997.

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came to relate to academic theology.15 Under the influence of Schleiermacher, missiology was regarded as both a branch of applied theology and a reflection of the implantation of the church in mission territories, in the sense of places where Christ was not heard and the church was not established. In this respect missiology could equally well have become part of church history: the study of the implantation of the church over time. The term ‘mission’ and its Christian interpretation has, as Bosch explains, quite a short history.16 It referred to the sending of missionaries to territories where the word of Jesus Christ had not been preached, where the church had not been planted or its presence was weak. Mission also referred to the whole range of pastoral, educational, and health-related activities carried out by missionaries. Missions were geographical areas where missionaries worked. Many missionary religious congregations were created for the sole purpose of sending their members to distant territories to preach the gospel and establish local churches; in the same sense some older religious congregations had territories under their care, which were also called missions. Theologically mission meant propagation of the faith, expansion of the reign of God, conversion of the heathen and the founding of new churches. Consequently the term ‘mission’ is unavoidably marked by a certain ambiguity. In a restricted sense it refers particularly to the work of implantatio ecclesiae in areas where Christian communities have not yet been established or fully developed.17 But it also has the more general connotation of “a sense of being called to undertake some important enterprise, with a corresponding attitude of willingness to break new ground and to work on a new frontier, outside the established structures”18 in the process of being faithful to Jesus’ great commandment to announce the good news to all (Matt 28). How does one bridge the gap between the narrow meaning of mission as the planting of the church and the broader meaning of breaking new ground? This is the fundamental question that this study seeks to answer. After analysing three historical, concrete methods of missionary activity in both senses of the word (implantatio ecclesiae as carried out in Thailand, the accommodation method as applied in China, and announcing a gospel of social transformation by opening up new

15

16 17

18

David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 490–493. Also see J. Verkuyl, Contemporary missiology: an introduction, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978, 6–17; Jan Jongeneel, Philosophy, science, and theology of mission in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Part II, Frankfurt: Lang, 1997, 9ff. David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 1. This type of missionary activity was basically a European and North American enterprise, coinciding with the political and economic expansion of those continents. See David J. Bosch, Witness to the world, London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1980, 5. Donal Dorr, Mission in today’s world, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2000, 7.


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ground or frontiers in uncharted territories as in Korea), we will suggest that the Korean method offers the most coherent response to Jesus’ great commandment. Korean lay missionaries aimed at establishing a coherent Christian community that would respond to both the intellectual questions arising from their dialogue with neo-Confucian peers and the concrete needs of the populace of their times. It is obvious that many Christian communities today are immersed in a profound crisis as a result of their inability to properly articulate the tension between proclamation and the building of the kingdom. 1.1.1 Sources of crisis In his encyclical, Redemptoris Missio: on the permanent validity of the church’s missionary mandate,19 pope John Paul II calls for renewed missionary zeal in the church, quoting extensively from the Vatican II documents.20 Briefly, the pope reflects on the broader picture of what mission should be like in today’s world and which tools should be used. He ends his reflection with an appeal to missionary spirituality. The pope insists – and this could be one of his chief contributions to missionary reflection – that the church’s most urgent task is to consider all aspects of missionary activity. As the text progresses one cannot fail to realise the pope’s great concern about what he believes to be a decline in missionary interest and motivation in recent years. That the pope himself felt the need to write an encyclical only fifteen years after Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi21 is proof of his concern. There is no doubt that the objective and the raison d’être of mission was widely discussed and challenged in the course of Vatican II. The 1960s and 1970s saw a whole range of new political, economic, social and religious developments that directly challenged traditional missionary activity22 and its intellectual foundations. These challenges seemed to demand, if not an outright stop to all missionary activity in the traditional sense of sending missionaries to Third World countries, at least a rethink and a new rationale based on the new ecclesiology shaped by Vatican II.23 Advances in science and technology brought a sort of aggressive secularisation in the form of a belief that faith in God

19 20 21 22

23

Published in December 1990. See Origins 20, 1991, 541–569. Also William R. Burrows (ed.), Redemption and dialogue, 93–118. About 25% of the quotations in the encyclical are from the decree on the missionary activity of the church, Ad Gentes Divinitum. 8 December 1975. Austin Flannery, O. P. Vatican Council II, vol. 2, Northport, NY: Costello, 1982–1998, 711–761. Mission understood as an activity primarily concerned with approaching those who do not yet know the gospel and thus were not part of the visible people of God. Karl Müller et al., Mission theology: an introduction, 47. David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 6.

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was something one could live without. Europe appeared to have become a deChristianised continent, which many were only too happy to blame on Vatican II. The world was no longer divided between Christians and non-Christians, not even between West and East: emerging liberation theologies made us aware of the widening gap between poor and rich,24 a gap which by and large was most glaring precisely in so-called Christian countries. Mission churches started voicing their rejection, not only of the seemingly deductive theological epistemological method of the ‘sending’ churches in the First World, but also of the latter’s authority in matters of ecclesiological order. The cogency of other religions’ and religious cultures’ claims to equality and their insistence on the basic goodness of all religions challenged the Catholic Church’s former insistence on converting other people to Christianity. After all, everyone could be saved via their own religions. All these social developments and altered mindsets conveyed a clear feeling that something was wrong with Christians’ exclusivist vision of their faith, which called for urgent reflection if not change. The need for such reflection was highlighted during the SEDOS25 symposium of 1981, where it became obvious that the focus was more on the methodology of mission26 than on expansion proper. In 2000 there was another SEDOS symposium, which revealed a shift from the how of doing mission today to analysis of major social challenges (e.g. unequal distribution of wealth, religious diversity) to those who seek to carry out the Lord’s mandate to go and preach and make disciples.27 1.1.2 Foundation, aim and nature of mission The contemporary crisis in mission manifests itself – although not exclusively – in three areas: the foundations, the motives and aim, and the nature of mission.28 Traditionally the foundations of mission were found in the great commandment 24

25

26 27

28

Second General Conference of Latin American Bishops (CELAM), The church in the presentday. Transformation of Latin America in the light of the Council, Bogotá, Colombia: Secretariat of CELAM, 1970, v.1 (position paper) and v. 2 (conclusion). Servizio de Documentazione e Study, or Centre for Documentation and Study (SEDOS), is an organisation sponsored by some one hundred male and female Roman Catholic missionary congregations. It was founded in 1966 in the wake of Vatican II. It held international congresses in 1969, when the why of mission was a key issue of debate in the church; another congress in 1981 discussed the future of mission and how to do it. Documents of this symposium may be found in Mary Motte & Joseph Land (eds), Mission and dialogue, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992. The 2000 SEDOS symposium adopted a more global view of the modern challenges to mission. The materials and keynote addresses of this latest symposium are collected in Robert J. Schreiter, Mission in the third millennium, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2001. Schreiter wrote the last chapter of the book, “Epilogue: mission in the third millennium”, 149–161, on which this section is based. David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 4.


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in Matthew 28:18-20, which led the church to propound the absoluteness and superiority of the Christian religion. It also believed in its capacity to adapt to all parts of the world by inspiring major social projects wherever Christianity was accepted and by creating church structures that showed it to be more powerful than all other religions.29 It was this display of power, force and organisational skills, which missionaries managed so effectively, that made the church suspect to people of other cultures. Ambiguity was also evident in theological reflection on mission and its practical implementation. Some motives were political, such as the imperialist motive that sought to turn natives into docile subjects serving the colonial rulers and their economic interests; some were cultural, such as the transmission of a superior culture and language to underdeveloped peoples. Missionaries were not exempt from a type of romanticism that drove them to distant lands as new martyrs, enduring all kinds of difficulties and perils to save their own souls by saving those of the heathen. Another motive was implanting the church in order to expand the central sending church and its religious congregations; mission territories were a fertile source of new members. All these motivations were subtly blended with theological or spiritual reasons: by seeking the conversion of all people to Christ his kingdom on earth, the church, would become greater, and this in turn could hasten the final coming of the Lord. Because of these flaws and ambiguities missionary praxis followed the same ideological pattern: a strictly clerical church structure, with imported liturgical practices of purely sacramental pastoral activity. In the end the success or failure of mission was measured by the number of baptisms and other sacraments that were administered. Obviously all this led to general unease, not only round the time of Vatican II but to this very day. It seems we still have difficulty defining what mission is. This is further complicated by the fact that defining mission requires reading the scriptures in a new spirit, which will necessarily lead to new vision in the areas of ecclesiology, dogmatic theology and pastoral theology. 1.1.3 The way forward In the midst of this crisis, which is always “the point where danger and opportunity meet”,30 new reflection and praxis are needed: not just a reversion to the missionary consciousness and praxis of the past, but a vision that will bring about in creative, bold ways, together with all men and women of good will, a new society, a vision that will inspire renewed activity and creative new church

29

30

Christian missionary churches established large institutions for education, health, rural development, promotion of women, etc., and were efficient administrators. These missionaries’ organisational skills gave many people at grassroots level a sense of security. David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 7.

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structures.31 The social realities in which we live urge us to re-conceptualise and reformulate the church’s mission in creative and humble dialogue with them. There is no doubt about the intrinsically missionary character of the Christian faith, even though it may be a characteristic shared with several other religions, particularly Islam and Buddhism.32 These religions also lay claim to an ultimate truth believed to be of universal import.33 Because of the way religions perceive themselves and their claims to universality, they do not adopt a neutral position, but demand from their followers a practical commitment to their faith in terms of which they look at the world and evaluate it. Thus “the church on earth is by its very nature missionary” (Ad Gentes 2), that is to say, it demands practical commitment of its members. Mission cannot be strictly and narrowly defined; only its contours can be delineated. For Christians mission has to do with our understanding of a trinitarian God and how that God relates to the world.34 The relationship is inferred from the biblical accounts, first that of the covenant with the people of Israel, and then the story of the historical Jesus of Nazareth. Mission cannot be done without constant reference to our past, in which we become aware of God’s selfcommunication through Jesus Christ, hence it must be grounded in the gospel. Mission, then, is first of all about a religious experience, and missionary reflection and praxis must be based on that experience bypassing all dogmatic rationalisation. This does not deny the need for dogmatic rationalisation as well. What, then, are the great challenges mission faces today? Referring to the challenges posed by mission ad gentes today, Schreiter35 maintains that we need to reflect on the causes of the present confusion about mission. Why, he asks, do we assume that the mission the church should undertake in the immediate future must have a different orientation from that of mission up to now? Then he proceeds to outline historical missionary praxis. In view of the present confusion about what mission is, the brief historical overview I provide reveals the church’s self-understanding in its relationship with other religions and cultures (those of Thailand and China, to mention only two) and unmasks an air

31

32 33 34 35

Gustavo Gutierrez, Teologia de la liberacion. Perspectivas. Salamanca: Sígueme, 1994, 292–295. Structures that will help to decentralise the church as a powerful institution and enable Christians to witness to a powerless Jesus: there is no place for superior attitudes. J. A. B. Jongeneel, Het Christendom als wereldzendingsgodsdienst (inaugural lecture). The Hague: Boekencentrum, 1986. Max Stackhouse, Apologia: contextualization, globalization, and mission in theological education. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988, 189. Donald Senior, C. P. & Carroll Stuhlmueller, C. P. The biblical foundations for mission, 280. Robert Schreiter, C.PP.S. “Los retos actuales para la misión ad gentes”. Paper read at the symposium, “Misión para el tercer milenio”, in México D.F., 14 September 1999, published on www.sedos.org/spanish/shcreiter.htm


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of superiority36 that has led to the rejection of the gospel in many parts of the world. This rejection has been deeply distressing to many Christians in both the ‘sending’ and the ‘receiving’ countries. True, there have also been missionary endeavours that, for various historical and political reasons, were genuine cultural incarnations of the gospel by lay people almost completely cut off from European institutional churches, for instance in China and Korea. From this one infers that the rationale of doing and reflecting on mission in one part of the world has not necessarily determined (it was not carved in stone) the way mission was done in other parts of the world. We need to look at the historical manner of doing mission from the Middle Ages up to just before Vatican II, because it dramatically influenced the position today. We still have great difficulty stepping outside our Eurocentric frame of reference – and the term denotes more than geography. It is an attitude about the superiority of a particular culture, religion and social achievements that diminishes the capacity to accept the other as a subject and dialogue partner on an equal footing. Hence before considering how the challenges of the modern world affect the church’s missionary activity today, I first give a brief overview of its history, divided into four periods: the first from the age of the great discoveries up to 1801,37 the second the period up to Vatican II, the third the period of new awareness triggered by Vatican II, and finally the adjustments and nuances since Vatican II, both in theological reflection on mission and in missionary praxis.

1.2 Brief historical overview of missionary praxis 1.2.1 Medieval missiology in modern garb: the age of ‘discovery’ (1492–1801) The Portuguese capture of Ceuta in North Africa in 141538 triggered a series of exploits, which made the 15th century one of the most remarkable epochs in the history of the world as well as that of the Roman Catholic Church. It has been called the Age of Discovery,39 an age with incalculable consequences for the

36 37

38 39

J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam, xii. I have chosen this year as the limit for the first period, because that was the year of the massive, general persecutions of Korean Christians, which changed the configuration of the nascent community, and the spread of the European Enlightenment that was prompted by the French Revolution in 1789. Enrique Dussel (ed.), The church in Latin America: colonialism to liberation (1492–1992), Maryknoll, NY: Orbis; Tunbridge Well: Burns & Oates, 1992, 5. For Mario A. Rodríguez León it was more of an invasion. See “Invasion and evangelization in the sixteenth century”, in Enrique Dussel (ed.), The church in Latin America: colonialism to liberation (1492–1992), 43: “The violent cultural clash between the European world and the societies and civilizations of the ‘New World’ brought about a profound change that was to have

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future of humanity. In the years that followed the capture of Ceuta other intrepid Portuguese explorers voyaged further down the African coast, making new discoveries. By 1499 Vasco da Gama had reached Goa, which meant that Europe had found a sea route to India. These achievements had far-reaching implications for Christianity. The horizons of the known world now seemed limitless. Almost overnight innumerable peoples and widely divergent cultures opened up before the eyes of astonished Europeans. It was an apocalyptic revelation of Christianity’s world mission. At the risk of oversimplification, “the history of the missionary enterprise of the Church might be divided into three stages: the conversion of the Roman empire; the conversion of Northern Europe; the modern age of the foreign missions which began with the discoveries of the fifteenth century.”40 Since then, however, the Christian churches have faced the daunting task of placing these new cultures and religions in the perspective of salvation history. The title of this section tries to express the radical contrast that became apparent during the Middle Ages. On the one hand dramatic economic, political and social changes were reshaping European society; new countries emerged and new discoveries transformed the world. On the other hand, the church seemed fixed in its old theology; it still saw itself as the sole mediator between the world and the kingdom, a view that encouraged enforced conversions. The historical review that follows, without claiming to be exhaustive, sketches the sociological context in which a particular mission methodology was applied: that of conquista, which was extensively used by missionaries in Thailand and during the first encounter between Christianity and Koreans during the last decade of the 15th century.41 How did the church deal with this encounter? 1.2.1.1 Christian encounter with the New World The Christian faith experienced worldwide expansion42 for the first time in the period from 1492 to 1801. Before that Christianity had put down firm roots

40 41

42

dramatic consequences in the history of the American peoples. The military superiority of the European led to the rout of the indigenous people, despite their revolt against the conquistadors. While it is true that the Crown of Castile had a genuine evangelizing intent with regard to the new lands, it is no less true that the conquest of America was inspired with commercial gains.” George H. Dunne, S. J., Generation of giants, 3. Korea’s first encounter with Christianity took place during the Japan’s Toyotomi Hideyoshi war of invasion of the Korean peninsula in 1592. At that time a Spanish Jesuit priest, Gregorio Céspedes, along with a Japanese confrere, offered his services as chaplain to the Catholic soldiers. More information can be found in chapter 3. This historical section is based on A. Camps, “The Catholic missionary movement from 1492 to 1789”, 213–221; Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, chapter 5 “The Age of Discovery, 1500–1600” and chapter 6 “The Roman Catholic missions”, 140–176, 177–209; and J. Comby, How to understand the history of Christian mission, London: SCM, 1996, chapter 4 “Conditions and motivations for the great missionary upsurge in modern times”, 55–70.

Lisbon Beijing

Azores Islands

Macau

Seville Goa Pacific Ocean

Strait of Malacca Pacific Ocean

Sumatra Brazil

Atlantic Ocean

Mozanbique

Cape of Good Hope

Map 1: This map gives a general picture of the voyages of the Portuguese and Spanish sailors around the world. Portuguese sailors succeeded in sailing from Lisbon around the Cape of Good Hope, reached Goa in India, and then proceeded through the Strait of Malacca to Siam and Macau. The Spaniards sailed from Seville to the Americas and on to the Philippines. The demarcation line that divided the world into two halves (giving Portugal and Spain sovereignty over their respective domains) ran west of the Azores.

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mainly in Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa, with offshoots in southern India, central Asia and China. In the period in question, however, the Christian faith travelled to all the continents of the world, although it was not spread evenly. The second surge of missionary activity43 took off in two directions: into Asia and Latin America. Asia (apart from the Philippines) fell under Portuguese influence, and America (excluding Brazil) was under Spanish mission. The rationale behind the respective activities was obviously equally different. Although both countries were enjoined by the popes to evangelise the lands they discovered, and both complied with this injunction, their missionary strategies were not the same. First, however, we need to outline how the division or distribution of mission territories came about. Before Christopher Columbus’s arrival in America in 149244 Portugal was known to have taken peaceful possession of some territories in Africa. Following new discoveries in navigational techniques, Venice and Genoa, like Spain, entered into the profitable business of discovering new territories. In 1454 the conflicts caused by this rivalry between the various countries led pope Nicholas V to issue the bull Romanus Pontifex. It gave Portugal authority over the territories it discovered and occupied as well as the right of cura animarum. A few years later Spain discovered the vastest territories yet known. The pope at the time, Alexander VI, was of Spanish origin and issued three bulls, recognising the exclusive authority of Spain over the territories beyond the Atlantic Ocean. That included both mission obligations and colonisation rights. Furthermore, in his bull Inter Coetera the pope went so far as to establish a demarcation line between the Portuguese and Spanish spheres of power. Drawing an imaginary line from the North Pole one hundred leagues west of the Azores and on to the South Pole through the Cape Verde islands, the pope, by virtue of his secular authority, gave the western half of the globe to Spain and the eastern half to Portugal. However, since Spain had already overstepped the boundary by colonising the Philippines (later Portugal did the same by colonising Brazil, discovered in 1500 by Pedro Alvares Cabral),45 a new accord had to be signed. The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, ratified by pope Julius II in 1506, moved the previous frontier line 270 leagues to the west. Thus the new reality was officially accepted. All the rights and privileges hitherto granted to the king of Portugal in his domain were enjoyed equally by the Spanish king in his. Subsequent papal bulls confirmed the status quo, and the two countries were asked to Christianise the people they ruled. Baptism was the only way for native

43 44 45

The first period of missionary activity was a continuation of the apostles’ mission by missionaries during the first seven centuries of the Christian era. Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, 120. Mario A. Rodríguez León, “Invasion and evangelization in the sixteenth century”, 51.


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people to be considered human beings at all. A papal bull in 1508 gave Spain the right to establish the Patronatos system46 and in 1514 Portugal was allowed to establish its Padroado system. The problem, according to Neill, was that the pope failed to establish a dividing line in the Pacific as well, an oversight that contributed to many disputes and controversies among Portuguese and Spanish missionaries in Asia.47 1.2.1.2 The colonial background How did Spain fulfil its spiritual role, mandated by the pope, in the newly ‘discovered’ territories? 1492 was an eventful year for the crown of Castile. First the royal marriage between the contenders to the throne of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, Ferdinand and Isabella, unified these two peninsular kingdoms. All the other free kingdoms and territories in the Iberian peninsula except Portugal were soon subdued into forming a single, national political entity. Secondly, in the same year – after the fall in 1494 of Granada, the last Arab bastion in the Iberian peninsula to be conquered by the Christians – the so-called ‘Catholic kings’ expelled Muslims and Jews from the national territory, thus bringing to a final and bitter end the centuries-old struggle between Christians and Moors. Finally Christopher Columbus, under Spanish royal protection, found new territories, which were incorporated into the realm. Spain became the kingdom on which the sun never set. Against this background, Spain took up the pope’s mandate as the continuation of its peninsular conquest of the Moors.48 With this idea in mind, Spain tried to take possession of the whole American continent.49 Portugal, on the other hand, had strived for a long time to find a sea route to Asia around Africa, and it finally succeeded by sailing round the Cape of Good Hope. Its purposes were to attack the Islamic countries in the Middle East from another direction than that used by the Crusaders, and to take over the businesses of the Islamic traders. They failed to achieve the first goal but were successful in the second.50 As a result Portugal did not conquer territories in Asia but satisfied itself with establishing coastal trading posts and forts, such as Macao in China and Ayutthaya51 in Thailand. Consequently 46

47 48 49 50 51

The Patronato (Spanish) or Padroado (Portuguese) system was a legal clause, in terms of which the pope authorised the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs to relocate the Indians, place them under their political and economic control, and force them to become Christians. In practice it meant that Indians could be enslaved in their own land by the invading Europeans. Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, 122. Mario A. Rodríguez León, “Invasion and evangelization in the sixteenth century”, 43–44. For more on the conquista method of mission applied in Latin America, see Leonardo Boff, Nueva evangelización: perspectiva de los oprimidos, Mexico: Palabra, 1990, 120. Ibid., 123. Ayutthaya was the capital of Siam (Thailand) at the time of the arrival of the Portuguese merchants in the mid-16th century.

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indigenous powers in Asia remained stable and Western influence was weak. The reverse happened in America: the missionary perspective of the time was conditioned by both advances in navigation and commercial capitalism. Whereas the former promoted discovery and assured military success, the latter subordinated the missionaries to the kings, who paid for the expeditions. It implied, moreover, that ecclesiastic decisions regarding the conquered lands were taken in Europe, and the delay in communication only worsened matters. As for the missionaries, a voyage to the Americas often meant a trip with no return. However, the motives for going abroad were not always missionary ones. 1.2.1.3 Missionary and vested interests The motives for the voyages of exploration to America and Asia were mixed: politico-economic, religious and cultural. On the economic side the European lifestyle required more land and resources to feed its population and more manpower to till the fields. Slaves were needed for jobs that Europeans were reluctant to take, hence conquest was also a way to secure cheap labour. In fact, the slave trade was encouraged by exploration. Jean Comby writes: “From the middle of the fifteenth century, the slave trade provided workers for Portugal; historians reckon that around 1500, ten per cent of the population of Lisbon was made up of slaves.”52 Figures for Spain could be similar. Gold to purchase exotic goods was in short supply. Conquest enabled both Portugal and Spain to appropriate land, people, spices and gold. It also provided an opportunity to verify the marvels described in the travelogues of Marco Polo, Jean de Mandeville and others.53 Although the crusades had been an outright failure, Western Christendom never gave up the hope of organising new ones; the victory over the Muslims in Granada fuelled this hope. Moreover, making new Christians became an even more urgent task, as the Turks were already advancing across the Balkans and threatening to take over Europe. Especially during these years of conquest, Christianity cherished the hope of locating the legendary Christian king Prester John54 and entering

52 53

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Jean Comby, How to understand the history of Christian mission, 56. The most popular books in this period were the Navigation accounts of Brendan (an Irish writer) describing the amazing adventures of the Polo brothers, and the navigation diaries of Jean de Mandeville. There were also several books with more scientific reflections on the universe written by Petrus de Aillico and Enero Silvio (Pius II). Who was Prester John? A Hebrew book by Ben-Sira was published in Constantinople in 1519 and its appendix includes “a copy of the letter that Prester John sent to the Pope in Rome”. Although this story has several versions, its main theme is as follows. Once upon a time, in a very remote land, there was a monarch who was not only a great king but a Christian priest as well. The name of that king was Prester John, and he ruled over 72 countries. His land was rich in silver and gold, and many wonderful creatures lived there. That


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into an alliance with him to fight against the infidels. Consequently there was always a crusading touch to evangelisation, the idea being to extend God’s kingdom, if necessary by force. This explains certain modes of behaviour towards the peoples who were encountered: the papal bulls addressed to the conquering nations asserted that infidels could be enslaved and their goods confiscated by Christians, who would ‘make good use’ of them. At the same time there was clearly an honest desire to introduce Christ to the pagans and bring them salvation. The most common view of salvation at the time was that pagans and even heretics were damned: “Outside the church there is no salvation.” Another reason for the urgency of evangelisation was that many people believed that the end of the world was near. Here we discern the legacy of the speculations of the Calabrian monk Joachim of Fiore (1130–1202),55 whose doctrines were passed on by the spiritual branch of the Franciscan order, with which Christopher Columbus had been in contact. Columbus calculated in 1501 that the end of the world would be in 1656. The kingdom of God would finally be established on earth, in conjunction with a new world in which everyone would be Christian and a restored Jerusalem in which the Jews would be converted. The gold that was discovered would be used to recapture the holy city. For the 16th century it was the eleventh hour. This explains not only the mass baptisms but also the use of force, based on the parable of the guests invited to the wedding banquet (Luke 16:23), a passage that had already been used to justify the Inquisition. In American territories it was common practice to compel people to hear the preaching of the gospel; for conversion to happen, conquest was necessary. In addition Catholics thought that the conversion of pagans was compensation for the losses due to the Reformation.

55

king wrote letters to several popes in Rome, telling them that he was a faithful Christian and was acquainted with all kinds of unknown beasts, such as men with horns on their foreheads and three eyes, women who fought on horseback, men that lived 200 years, unicorns, etc. This legend, like many others, can be interpreted, though not without difficulty. Indeed, early scholars who studied the subject proved that the legend has a historical nucleus and it is possible to distinguish between fiction and history. The story of Prester John is known today from almost 100 manuscripts, written in several languages, which are scattered throughout the libraries of Europe. It is believed that the historical nucleus is rooted in the coming of one ‘John, the Patriarch of the Indians’ to Rome in the pontificate of Calixtus II in 1122. From the mid-12th century onward it was accepted in Europe that Prester John, king and priest, ruled over territories in the East, though the area of his realm was not precisely defined. See Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, 120. For more information on Joachim of Fiore and the movement he started, see Scott H. Hendrix, “Quest of the vera ecclesia: the crisis of late medieval ecclesiology”, in Viator, 7T, 1976, 247–378. Cf. also Marjorie Reeves, The influence of prophecy in the late Middle Ages: a study of Joachimism, Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1993.

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1.2.1.4 Foundations of conquest and the organisation of evangelisation During this period of conquest and evangelisation the two superpowers were often at loggerheads and were in constant rivalry. To arbitrate their conflicts they turned to the pope. In a bull of 1454 Nicholas V affirmed Portugal’s right to peaceful occupation of all lands of unbelievers that might be discovered along the west coast of Africa. Pope Calixtus III supplemented the bull in 1456, when he added the spiritual care of the subjects of these lands to Portugal’s responsibilities. According to a widely challenged medieval conception, the pope had universal power over the world, which he could delegate to rulers for the salvation of the peoples set under them. From this perspective only baptism conferred a legitimate right to property. As a result evangelisation was seldom carried out peacefully. On the basis of this division of labour between the two Catholic countries, new agreements resulted in the legal definition of the Spanish and Portuguese patronages. The main bulls were issued in 1508 for Spain and 1514 for Portugal. According to the patronage system the king was the sole authority in mission lands, in both spiritual and temporal matters. Although the agreement was advantageous for this historical period, its deficiencies became evident when other colonial powers came on the scene and economic interests prevailed over religious ones. The entire missionary movement56 that began with the age of discovery grew from the matrix of the medieval concept of unity between worldly powers and the papacy. God had to be preached at all costs. The pope believed his task to be one of bringing all people under his glorious power, and the political powers were mere instruments at his service to carry out his divine task. In this theocentric structure humans were considered servants that had to obey God, whose representative on earth was the pope. Missionaries, all members of religious orders, were the new crusaders, full of faith in God, but also hungry for adventure and anxious to participate – along with soldiers – in the process of Christianising the newly discovered territories. Whilst there are examples of outstanding missionaries who showed exceptional concern and love for the Indians,57 defending them against the abuses and exploitation of the European 56 57

Jean Comby, How to understand the history of Christian mission, 70. Also see Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, 130. Mario A. Rodríguez León, “Invasion and evangelization in the sixteenth century”, 52, adds: “The brutal situation, the product of the conquest, was condemned by some missionaries, who saw that the cross and the sword could not go hand-in-hand, if there was a real desire for genuine evangelization … Two evangelizing programs were on a collision course. That of the crown, on the one hand, supported by eminent scholars, who legitimized imperialism and war against Indians, such as Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who taking his stand on Aristotle, upheld the principle of the inferiority of the Indians and declared that it was right for them to be governed by Spaniards, and on the other hand, the missionary program of many missionaries, such as Las Casas who defended that an atmosphere – and an order – of freedom were an essential condition for preaching the gospel.”


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invaders, most of them remained intolerant when it came to religion. The only God was that of the Christians. In due course this system of integrated administration of spiritual and worldly affairs started to crumble. It is to this period that we now turn: the one that came in the wake of the Enlightenment. 1.2.2 Missionary movement from 1801 up to Vatican II The 19th century58 starts with Catholic missionary activity at a nadir following the French Revolution, which put almost a complete stop to sending missionaries abroad. In spite of the decline of mission Napoleon decided in 1805 to revive three French missionary congregations with a long history: the Fathers of the Holy Spirit, the Paris Society of Foreign Missions (MEP), and the Lazarists.59 The two cardinal geographical areas of missionary activity were Asia, particularly the Philippines, and Latin America. The number of missionary personnel appeared to have dwindled to a mere trickle. The church had to contend with the powerful influence of the Enlightenment as well as the split caused by the Protestant Reformation. Medieval cosmography was structured around God, the church, the secular political powers and the people. This was believed to be a divinely willed order, in which the pope exercised supreme power on God’s behalf. No one was supposed to challenge it. During the Enlightenment the role of the church was challenged. The political states and their rulers appeared to have usurped the power hitherto wielded by the church. No room was left for any institution to stand between humans and God. The supreme value during this period was human reason, which was now set up as the sole avenue to intellectual and scientific knowledge. Reason would prove that human destiny was not governed by God, but that everything was subject to the principle of causality. Humans also acquired tremendous self-confidence, as they were capable of creating progress through new sciences and technologies. As a result they felt no need for external appraisal or confirmation, because reason alone was enough to verify their achievements. Humankind became completely emancipated.60 Obviously this new mindset dramatically affected the discourse between Enlightenment thought and theology. Anthropocentrism and acceptance of all religions, beliefs and practices became a common denominator.61 With reason established as the epistemological tool, religion became a private matter, giving rise to personal spirituality and pietism. God was a spectator of human progress,

58 59 60 61

A. Camps, “The Catholic missionary movement from 1492 to 1789”, 213–221. Stephen Neill & Owen Chadwick, A history of Christian missions, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986, 335. David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 262–274. Ibid., 268.

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the consequence of human planning. Moral values were no longer carved in stone; educated people could choose freely. All these factors not only had enormous consequences for the motives and methodology of doing mission, but also changed the relationship between church and state. 1.2.2.1 Church and state The Middle Ages were characterised by interdependence of church and state, of the pope and political rulers. The Protestant Reformation did away with this symbiotic relationship, although Protestantism could not free itself from its symbiotic relationship with the political powers and states any more than the Catholic Church could earlier.62 Missionary activity was no longer entrusted by the pope to temporal rulers who pursued their own political ambitions, hand in hand with the missionaries’ goals of making all people children of God.63 In spite of the nadir in missionary activity and the papacy’s apparent loss of its former glamour and power,64 different religious congregations took on the responsibility of conducting mission: new religious congregations burgeoned with the sole aim of providing missionaries,65 such as the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (1805), the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny (1807), the Oblates of the Immaculate Virgin Mary (1816) and the Marists (1824).66 No sooner had pope Pius VII been freed from Napoleon than he returned to Rome, where one of his first actions was to re-establish the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1814.67 These developments to give fresh impetus to missionary activity brought a new rationalisation of mission and its motivation. According to Camps “the first thing Gregory XVI did was to depict clearly to the church of the West its task in regard to the propagation of the faith, which until that time had been carried out mainly by the patronage powers of Portugal and Spain”.68 To this 62 63 64

65 66 67

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Stephen Neill & Owen Chadwick, A history of Christian missions, 223–224. Ibid., 335. In 1808 Napoleon humiliated pope Pius VII (1740–1823) by sending French troops to Rome and making the pope virtually his prisoner. Earlier Napoleon had annexed the papal states that were under Spanish and Portuguese authority, and the pope seemed to be unsure whether he should take refuge with Napoleon or the British. Stephen Neill & Owen Chadwick, A history of Christian missions, 336. Arnulf Camps, Studies in Asian mission history 1956–1998, 20. Ibid., 23. This despite the declaration of his predecessor, Clement XIV (1769–1774), in his bull of suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, that no subsequent pope should ever at any future date undo what he had done. Stephen Neill & Owen Chadwick, A history of Christian missions, 336. Arnulf Camps, Studies in Asian mission history 1956–1998, 24.


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end pope Gregory published what can be considered the first papal mission encyclical, Probe Nostis (1840). Besides creating new judicial circumscriptions,69 he established mission territories and distributed them to different religious congregations, appointing bishops from those congregations. These congregations provided the personnel, hierarchy and financial resources. Pope Gregory also promoted awareness of new areas of missionary work, both in mission territories and in the universal church, such as the movement for the Holy Infancy, founded by bishop Forbin-Janson of Nancy in 1843. Anxious to avoid head-on confrontation with Portugal and even England, the pope used the legal person of apostolic vicar70 to install his own bishops in mission territories, bypassing the Portuguese authorities. This proved a particularly thorny issue in Portugal’s colonial territories in Asia and in British India. Because most local church hierarchies were members of religious congregations, it facilitated good working relations between bishops and clergy and it got rid of old tensions between religious congregations and state appointed diocesan bishops. Two successive, long-reigning popes, Pius IX (1846–1878) and Leo XIII (1878–1903), established solid, centralised control of all missionary activities around the world and encouraged not only religious congregations but also dioceses in Europe to think beyond Europe’s borders and send missionaries to evangelise the world. The new missionary thrust also led to lay involvement in church and development activities in mission territories, which strengthened a new missionary spirituality. Roman Catholic mission was completely in the hands of Rome and the Vatican, as well as those of the superior major of religious orders, which also had their headquarters in Rome, and the various states were left out of the process. The new missionary thrust, equipped with it own spirituality, brought fresh insight into the motives and methods of doing mission. 1.2.2.2 Missionary motives When Pius VII restored the Society of Jesus in 1814 there is no doubt that fervour71 for the glory of God became one of the principal reasons for the

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He supported the mission societies in France, Germany and Austria and sought to place them under the direction of pope Gregory XIV. An apostolic vicar is a bishop, but different from a bishop in charge of a diocese (residential bishop), whose appointment would need the approval of the political rulers. Hence the pope created the figure of an apostolic vicar, an ordained bishop with ordinary jurisdiction over a diocese and acting on behalf of the pope. With this new legal figure the pope was assured that his appointee would, in most cases, be loyal to the Apostolic See and free from the political snares of the rulers. David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 334.

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missionary enterprise. God and God alone could take the initiative in saving all people. Pursuit of the ideals of the Enlightenment – that is, bringing progress and civilisation to impoverished countries – should be the concrete expression of God’s glory. Consequently the newly created missionary orders, as well as the traditional religious orders, stressed education and charitable work alongside preaching the gospel as means to salvation. Evangelisation and humanisation should be seen as an integral reality.72 Progress and preaching had to go hand in hand. Religious congregations went all out to advertise their missionary work to get financial support from both individual Christians and industrial corporations in the West.73 This resulted in enormous awareness and personal relationships between missionaries and people at home, who pitied the ‘poor’ people in mission territories. Christians in the sending countries had to show compassion for these ‘poor’, suffering people and patronise them. There was a fair amount of condescension in attitudes towards the people in mission territories: they were heathen that had to be saved.74 As a result of the new mission spirituality, missionaries were going into the field “constrained by the love of Jesus”.75 Love of Christ and people was often manifested in a remarkable degree of personal commitment and dedication. Stories of outstanding missionaries were widespread and served as substitutes for the travel stories of the Middle Ages. Missionaries in general went beyond scientific and technical development projects by sincerely sharing their lives with the poor – often driven by a sense of duty to the point of self-immolation – because their love of Christ inspired in them true compassion for all people doomed to eternal condemnation. Missionaries were children of their time. Shorter writes about them almost nostalgically: If the early missionaries had not been spiritual giants they would not have got away with what they did, but they were holy men, of immense courage and personality. Their goodness was transparent, and their intolerance, though completely baffling to non-Christians, was nevertheless forgiven.76

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75 76

Stephen Neill & Owen Chadwick, A history of Christian missions, 223. The aim was to proclaim the kingdom of Christ to the ends of the earth and make it visible though concrete works. Learning institutions, health centres and industrial facilities had to be established. In my childhood missionaries came to our parishes and schools relating stories about their work among the ‘poor’ Chinese, Japanese or Korean children. Missionaries from Africa and South America shared similar stories. These gatherings were aimed at arousing compassion for those people who were poorer than us and inferior, and also to make us participate in the general missionary activity of the missionaries. As a child I was awed by their courage and hard work. Every Sunday we children put small coins in a box in the church to support missionary activities in far away countries, so that the children of those countries would not be condemned to eternal fire. David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 336. Aylward Shorter, W. F., Theology of mission, Cork: Mercier, 1972, 24.


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In spite of many shortcomings, missionaries were moved by compassion for the souls of the poor unbelievers, as this was the church’s spiritual culture and message at the time. 1.2.2.3 Gospel and culture Most Christians did not doubt that their own faith and culture was superior to all others. Religious and cultural superiority seemed to go hand in hand. The Enlightenment affirmed this perception, since all of a sudden a handful of nations owned the intellectual and technological know-how and the necessary tools that made them masters.77 It was the duty of the West to spread not only the true religion, which all heathen had to embrace if they were to be saved, but also the culture and technology that were the key to civilised living and progress.78 The Christian West believed it had a right to impose its views on other cultures. This, again, had implications for the way mission was rationalised and practised. Christian civilisation alone could rescue the heathen from underdevelopment and sure damnation. Bringing health, education, agricultural techniques, and having people learn the language of the missionaries were considered part of the same mission and evangelisation scheme. This resulted in enclave-type communities in mission territories, as well as the acquisition of huge tracts of land in order to ‘teach’ people how to cultivate and till the soil.79 Missionaries built churches and chapels, but these were modelled on the churches and chapels in their countries of origin. They made the effort to learn local languages and Bible translations into many languages proliferated – more in Protestant missions than among Roman Catholics. However, all this was not so much a way of becoming one with the heathen as of welcoming them to the ways of the West. The ethnocentrism practised by missionaries was given different names. For Catholic missionaries the key term was ‘accommodation’, which in reality meant that the missionary church must reflect in every detail the Roman custom of the moment, for instance altar boys in Asia and Africa had to learn Latin. Missionaries created church structures that were completely dependent on the financial system in place in the West.80

77 78 79

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Ana María Bidegain, “The church in the emancipation process (1750–1830)”, in Enrique Dussel (ed.), The church in Latin America: colonialism to liberation (1492–1992). David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 291. It is a commonly shared ironical joke in some parts of Africa that when the missionaries arrived, Africans possessed the land and the missionaries brought the Bible. In the end the Africans had the Bible and the missionaries got the land. Ibid., 295. This is still true in many other instances. As an illustration we can cite the tension in religious congregations regarding finances and administration. Indeed, Western countries lack vocations (new members entering religious orders), while the same congregations attract numerous new members in ‘mission’ countries. Money comes from the West. This causes considerable conflict between the different economic and social ‘classes’ in religious congregations. In this regard see, Michael Amaladoss, S.J., “Les institutes missionaires en Asie”, in Spiritus 167, 2002, 161–170.

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This meant that their eventual departure from a given territory would leave the local church in complete disarray. It is true that the gospel can only be transmitted in the cultural garb of the preachers. Gospel preaching cannot be isolated from the cultural vehicle that carries it. The missionaries’ task of teaching European languages through the Bible and the sterling efforts made by Western missionaries to bring development, better health conditions, education and civilisation to the poor need to be commended. Many missionaries opposed using force to assert themselves among the people and often clashed with the authorities from the colonial metropolis. 1.2.2.4 Mission and neo-colonialism The intertwined relationship between Christianity and power, mission and colonialism, gospel and culture was not confined to the Portuguese and Spanish patronage systems. After the Enlightenment we see new political powers entering the scene, including Germany, Holland, Russia, the United States of America and Belgium, and the missionaries of these countries, whether they liked it or not, became pioneers of Western imperialistic expansion. If it was understandable for states to recognise the value of mission work for their colonies, it was less understandable why missionaries often expressed similar views. An example of this was the famous French cardinal Lavigerie (1825–1892), who sent his congregation of White Fathers to Africa and reminded his missionaries, “Nous travaillons aussi pour la France”,81 thus making explicit the relationship between the interests of France and those of its missionaries. In almost all instances where missionaries became advocates of colonial expansion, they sincerely believed that their own country’s rule was far better than the local alternative. This sometimes led to aggressive and bloody confrontations between missionaries/colonisers and local authorities, as happened in India and China.82 Moreover, sometimes the motives for conversion were not purely spiritual: some local people soon learned that converting to Christianity gave them an advantage when doing business with the colonising states. This situation became particularly explosive during the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, when mandarins and scholars clashed bitterly in a bloody revolt.83 In 81

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Stephen Neill, Colonialism and Christian missions, 349. The French cardinal also fought for the abolition of the slave trade. The final document was signed in Brussels in 1889 in the Great Act at the end of the Conference for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Stephen Neill & Owen Chadwick, A history of Christian missions, 344. In China, for instance in 1844 and 1860, Catholic missionaries are known to have been martyred. The Boxer Revolution, known in China as I Ho Ch’üan or the Righteous Harmony Fists, arose from local resentment of foreign countries that had encroached on large areas of Chinese land and established themselves as completely independent enclaves. Because missionary presence was spread throughout the provinces of China, they were hardest hit during the revolution. Stephen Neill & Owen Chadwick, A history of Christian missions, 287.


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Korea, too, the French Foreign Missionaries sought military help from France in order to put an end to the persecution of Christians, and in 1887 freedom of religion was declared, along with an economic treaty between Korea and France.84 Imperial interests notwithstanding, the 20th century saw a great upsurge of missionary activity in Third World countries and missionaries from religious congregations flocked to the new mission territories. Leo XIII (1878–1903) focused more on sending missionaries to mission lands than on maintaining dialogue with eastern churches. So did his successor Pius X (1903–1914).85 To emphasise this shift of interest to mission territories, new missionary societies were established with the explicit aim of establishing higher education institutions to train local clergy. Thomas Aquinas’s tenets were taught at all seminaries, be they in Tokyo, Nairobi, Peking, Rome or Buenos Aires. Accommodation to local circumstances was also encouraged, but this was aesthetic rather than substantive. As we draw closer to Vatican II we observe greater emphasis on the education of local church leaders among the central leadership in Rome, both the pope and major religious superiors. 1.2.3 Vatican II: new understanding of mission As history drew closer to the time of grace – the Kairos that Vatican II was for the Roman Catholic Church, and indeed for the whole world – new aspects of both the theology and praxis of mission began emerging, which were enforced by the Council. It is to these aspects that I now turn. 1.2.3.1 New historical awareness The dominance of foreigners in the control of local churches, particularly in the so-called mission territories, could not last forever.86 New forms of nationalism were surfacing in many territories, together with anthropological studies, which uncovered the relativity and contextual bonds of all cultures, including Western culture, and the coming of age of younger churches. All this contributed to awareness of a need for change. According to Camps, clear changes in several areas of missionary awareness were evident as early as the aftermath of World War I. Camps highlights two basic points: there was a growing realisation, first, that missionary activity had to be separated from national political powers, and second, that control of local churches had to be removed from the central administration of religious congregations and fall directly under the Vatican.87

84 85 86 87

David J. Bosch, Transforming mission. 307. Arnulf Camps, Studies in Asian mission history, 27–28. Arnulf Camps, Studies in Asian mission history. 28. Enrique Dussel, “From the Second Vatican Council to the present day”, in Enrique Dussel (ed.), The church in Latin America 1492–1992, 166–168. Arnulf Camps, Studies in Asian mission history, 29.

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In his encyclical Maximum Illud (1919) pope Benedict XV began promoting the right of mission churches to cease being ecclesiastical colonies under foreign control and to have their own clergy and bishops. In a move to reorganise the central administration of the Vatican Pius X had created a new subdivision in its administrative body, the Congregation for Bishops, which included the countries supposed to be missionary givers, such as the major European countries, the USA and Canada, leaving the other ecclesiastic subdivisions – those in need of foreign missionaries and financial resources – under the umbrella of Propaganda Fide. This division of labour did serve the purpose of giving the Vatican direct control over mission territories, as many of their bishops were educated in the ad hoc seminary that Propaganda Fide had earlier established in Rome. In addition Pius XI wrote Rerum Ecclesiae in 1926, and Pius XII issued Evangelii Praecones in 1951, both giving a major boost to this trend of creating local churches.88 A drive to increase the role of local churches would have been meaningless if local clergy were not given leadership responsibilities. Local churches could not fully function as such if local people were not chosen to replace foreign missionaries at all hierarchical levels. The training of local clergy had been more enterprising during the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Jesuits led the way in educating local people for the priesthood in Japan and China. During the 19th century, although the effort to educate local clergy never completely ceased, it was not felt to be an urgent task. One reason was that most of the missionary religious congregations in Europe, the USA and Canada had large numbers of ordained ministers in their ranks. Thus, with an oversupply of labour, superiors of religious congregations made little effort to train local leaders.89 Besides, major learning institutions in Europe, such as Rome, Münster and Leuven, which already had centres of missiological study, increased their efforts, resulting in mission being seen as an essential task of the church.90 The study of missiology invigorated the notion that mission is an essential dimension of the life of the church, a universal activity to be carried out by all Christians. Pius XII offered both bold criticism and clear solutions in his writings on the church’s missionary activity. Mission needed to value other faiths more positively and be more sensitive to diverse cultures and peoples. Small wonder that Pius XII declared the strict interpretation of the Tridentine axiom “Extra ecclesia nulla salus” heretical.91

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Aylward Shorter, Toward a theology of inculturation, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988, 179–186. Stephen Neill & Owen Chadwick, A history of Christian missions, 385, 386. Arnulf Camps, Studies in Asian mission history, 29. Condemnation pronounced by Pius XII on the Jesuit father Leonard Freeney (1949) for adhering to the axiom in its rigid form. See Letter of the Holy Office to the archbishop of Boston (8 August 1949) in DS 3866-72; ND 854–57.


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1.2.3.2 Mission as dialogue The increasing Christian presence, particularly in Asia and Africa where missionaries encountered diverse cultural and religious views, triggered a process to fathom the difference. Missionaries gradually realised that other religions could not be treated simply as superstitions, but presented an opportunity for dialogue. Thus the way was paved for a new and vigorous understanding of mission – moving away from a Europe-centred world to a human-centred world, in which mission acquired a new dimension of mutual sharing – that was to emerge from Vatican II. It was obvious that local churches could no longer be copies of the Western churches and had to be ministered to by their own people, whether bishops or priests. It was again Pius XII who, on the threshold of Vatican II, began consecrating larger numbers of Chinese, Indian and Vietnamese bishops.92 The immense cultural and religio-spiritual wealth of Asia, Africa and America was also incorporated into the liturgical life of the church. Camps reflects: The first steps in the direction of indigenous theologies were taken. None of this came easily, but change was inescapable. Local churches were able to develop and increase in numbers and depth. The histories of these churches speak for themselves. One can only understand the influence of Vatican II (1962–65) by keeping in mind its main goal, which was to move from monologue to dialogue with the world, cultures, religions, and local churches.93

Living together with people of other religious beliefs, missionaries realised they needed to move away from the European perspective and locate themselves in local realities.94 Finally, the Enlightenment era brought many changes in society as well as in the church. The centrality of humans was often seen as opposed to God. Reason and amazing technical and scientific developments gave the West a sense of emancipation from God and led to exaggerated optimism that humans could solve all the problems of poverty and underdevelopment in the world. It was just a matter of time. Political empires sincerely believed that Europe provided the right pattern, which the rest of the world should imitate. Missionaries seemed to share this belief. Vatican II brought more searching reflection on the relationship between reason and faith, mission and technical and scientific development – in effect, between state and church, between human beings and God: the Council fathers saw these realities, not as mutually opposed, but as interrelated and intertwined.

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The first Chinese bishop was consecrated in 1926, while the first Indian bishops had already been consecrated in the 19th century. Arnulf Camps, Studies in Asian mission history, 30. Quoting Hubert Jedin & John Dolan, Handbook of church history, 1965–1970. London: Herder & Herder, 1970. Robert J. Schreiter, C.PP.S. Mission in the third millennium, 150.

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As the historical moment of Vatican II drew near fresh ideas on mission, the way to conduct it and new outlines of mission spirituality, with particular emphasis on human religious experience, took shape in missionaries’ minds. These concerns manifested themselves in sensitivity to other cultures, openness to dialogue with other religions and willingness to let local churches organise themselves according to their own cultural heritage. In fact, a new ecclesiology was being formed, one that Vatican II set out to articulate. The missionary movement in the century prior to Vatican II grew from the matrix of the Enlightenment. On the one hand it was marked by tolerance towards all people and a more moderate attitude towards other religions; on the other hand it was marred by an attitude of Western superiority and prejudice. This pattern had to be reversed. More and more missionaries began to realise that Christian missionary enterprise had to be rescued from the illusions of the Enlightenment and that new missionary concepts and praxis had to be put in place, a praxis in which the church begins by listening to the world rather than by telling the world what is wrong with it and what recipe it should follow. This was the task on which Vatican II embarked, in cooperation with the world. Vatican II’s new missionary thrust was underpinned by a strong desire to render service to fellow human beings.95 The concrete forms that this pledge to serve took were based on the world in which the Christian community was present. This was indeed a hitherto unheard of approach. 1.2.3.3 Mission, not missions In the course of the Council the fathers opted for the word ‘mission’ instead of ‘missions’, since the former conveyed a reality rooted in the very doctrine of the Trinity.96 “The Church on earth is by its very nature missionary since, according to the plan of the Father, it has its origin in the mission of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Ad Gentes, 2). The Council acknowledged that other religions displayed a similar pattern with God as the common origin, that they were at the service of all people (Nostra Aetate) and stressed values which are common to all. Thus Ad Gentes, the foundational Vatican II document on missionary activity, speaks of the “universal design of God for the salvation of the human race” (n. 3) and the “seeds of the Word” present in other religions. The Council’s Constitution on the

95 96

Ad Gentes, 1 in Austin Flannery, O.P. Vatican Council, The conciliar and post conciliar documents, Northport, NY: Costello, 3rd ed., 1996, 813. Arnulf Camps, “The evolution, involution and revolution of the concept and reality of mission and evangelization”, in Frans Wijsen & Peter Nissen (eds), ‘Mission is a must’. Intercultural theology and the mission of the church, Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2002, 107. Also see Calvert Alexander, S.J. The missionary dimension: Vatican II and the world apostolate, Milwaukee: Bruce, 1967, 1.


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Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes, n.1 and 9) moreover avers that God’s salvific action reaches out to all people in ways unknown to us. The same document encourages Christians to enter into dialogue with the world, which has its own autonomy. The Decree on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis Humanae) underlines the primacy of conscience and the social nature of its pursuit of truth. Finally, the dogmatic Constitution of the Church (Lumen Gentium) calls the church the sacrament of the unity of all peoples and the beginning of the reign of God.97 Vatican II moved away from the concept of implantatio ecclesiae98 and new fields of research such as inculturation, interreligious dialogue and liberation theology became integral dimensions of mission. In addition the importance of local churches as active agents of mission and evangelisation is stressed and they are urged to undergo a process of inculturation or contextualisation, resulting in a variety of theologies, liturgies, church structures, et cetera.99 Another major contribution of Vatican II was the acknowledgment that the so-called mainline churches or sending churches needed to go through a similar process of inculturation in view of the new challenges facing the church, such as postmodernity and secularisation. It is in this context that we speak about a new evangelisation. But the Council’s understanding of this new evangelisation was not unflawed. 1.2.3.4 Ambiguities concerning mission However important the shift from the concept of missions to mission as an allencompassing ecclesiastic activity carried out by all church members may be, it seems that the term ‘mission’ alone could never cover all the elements functioning in its praxis. There are still many ambiguities concerning mission, both in its theology and its praxis. Since Vatican II missionary praxis has taken the form, inter alia, of dialogue with other cultures and religions, as well as cooperation in development projects and in the fields of education and health. It was often overlooked, however, that mission must in the first place proceed from a heart converted by a real and personal encounter with Christ. It is to such

97 98

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M Amaladoss, S.J., Making all things new: dialogue, pluralism and evangelization in Asia, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1990, 179. The expression can be traced to René Lange (Le problème théologique des mission. Louvain: Xaverianne Louvain, 1924), but it was particularly following its use by the Belgian Jesuit Pierre Charles (1883–1954) (Corman, Abbé, Pierre Charles S. J. & P. Foca. Semaine de missiologie, 8e., Louvain, 1930, Les conversions: compte rendu de la huitième semaine de missiologie de Louvain, 1930. Museum Lessianum Louvain, 1930) that it became the basic thesis of the Leuven school, also known as ‘plantation theory’. For further details see Karl Müller, Mission theology. An introduction, 37. Arnulf Camps, “The evolution, involution, and revolution of the concept and reality of mission and evangelization”, 108.

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personal conversion that Paul VI refers in his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975, n. 18), already cited in the general introduction: For the Church, evangelizing means bringing the Good News into all strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new. “Now I am making the whole of creation new.” But there is no new humanity if there is not first of all new persons renewed by Baptism and by lives lived according to the Gospel. The purpose of evangelization is therefore precisely this interior change, and if it had to be expressed in one sentence the best way of stating it would be to say that the Church evangelizes when she seeks to convert solely through the divine power of the message she proclaims, both the personal and collective consciences of the people, the activities in which they engage, and the lives and concrete milieus which are theirs.100

It is obvious that for Paul VI evangelisation is an all-embracing activity, arising from personal conversion that demands a coherent lifestyle and engagement in Jesus’ utopia of establishing the kingdom of God. The ambiguity stems from the fact that for the pope a Christian presence alone is not enough. He is concerned particularly with bringing the good news to all, which can be accomplished in various ways such as liturgy, catechesis, preaching and sacraments; for the pope, proclamation and renewed proclamation are the sine qua non of mission.101 A further ambiguity is caused by the divorce between proclamation and social transformation. Leonardo Boff sees this as the reason why the institutional church aligned itself with the powers in control of history to the detriment of the interests of the poor. The church often believes itself to be working for the poor by educating the masses, but in fact the effect of this manner of functioning is “to provide for the church’s [own institutional] needs and guarantee her existence”.102 Boff believes that the credibility of the church’s missionary task – the real point of proclaiming the good news – is directly bound up with its praxis concerning integral human development. “The principal problems were not doctrinal or liturgical … [but those] linked to society: justice, social participation and internal development for everyone.”103 In Boff’s view the ambiguity of the church’s missionary praxis may end when the church not only stops to “denounce the abuses of the capitalistic system and the marginalization

100 Paul VI. Evangelii Nuntiandi, 1975. (Austin Flannery, O. P. Vatican Council II. Vols. 1 and 2. Northport, NY: Costello; Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1982, 711ff.) 101 The question whether a missionary praxis without any explicit reference to proclamation can rightly be considered mission is still much debated. An example is “Dialogue and proclamation: reflections and orientations on inter-religious dialogue and the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ” by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, in Origins 21, 8, 1991, 122–135. 102 Leonardo Boff, Church: charism and power, London: SCM, 1985, 4. 103 Ibid., 5–6.


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of the poor”, but is able to present an “alternative perspective by becoming a church of the poor”.104 1.2.3.5 Mission as service On the basis of the new insights developed by Vatican II, pope Paul VI’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi again emphasised the concept of mission, as opposed to that of missions. In addition he broadened Vatican II’s concept of mission at the service of the church to embrace the concept of mission at the service of the reign of God, implying that mission should also influence people’s everyday lives.105 Along with this idea of a servant church – with its logical movement from universal church to local churches – new concepts such as inculturation, dialogue and integral liberation emerged. As a result of this approach many missionaries even began questioning the need to make converts and believed that service meant primarily immediate, radical action in response to the many urgent problems in the world, particularly injustices in Third World countries.106 Those who wanted to shape their lives to the demands of the gospel found it increasingly difficult to accept vague, lyrical and paternalistic appeals for fellowship and Christian unity that did not take into account the causes underlying the oppression of millions of people.107 Even though Vatican II proclaimed that the church, like Christ, must carry out its redemptive work “in poverty and under oppression” (Lumen Gentium, n. 8), in practice this did not seem to be the image the church presented in many parts of the world. It is these concerns that John Paul II’s encyclical Redemptoris Missio attempted to address. This encyclical, subtitled “On the permanent validity of the Church’s missionary mandate”, was an eloquent appeal for renewed missionary fervour in the church. In the encyclical the Holy Father reiterated the theological foundations of mission as set forth by the Second Vatican Council (nearly 25% of the references in the encyclical are to the Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, Ad Gentes). He then expands on the horizons of mission today and the means to accomplish it, and concludes with a reflection on missionary spirituality. A submerged theme in the encyclical, which surfaces in the text from time to time, is that missionary motivation was flagging and missionary activity itself diminishing. Immediately after the Council the purpose of mission had been seriously questioned, even by missionaries themselves. The crisis of the 1960s and 1970s was not confined to theology; the de-colonisation

104 Ibid., 7. 105 Karl Müller, Mission theology: an introduction, 82. 106 Arnulf Camps, “The evolution, involution and revolution of the concept and reality of mission and evangelization”, 109. 107 Gustavo Gutiérrez, Teología de la liberación. Perspectivas, 73–79.

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and new statehood of many mission lands had led to calls, especially in Africa, for a ‘moratorium’ on mission. 1.2.3.6 Mission for the new millennium In the third millennium missionary praxis faces daunting challenges that demand bold and prophetic action. Mission will have to respond to new realities. We briefly summarise some of them. The first is globalisation. This phenomenon resembles the imperialist expansion of Europe from the 15th to the 19th century,108 although with some new nuances such as the shallowness of the interpersonal relationships it creates, the velocity at which information and capital are transmitted, and the permeability of its presence.109 In fact, in all areas of life – social, economic, political, cultural and religious – one observes a manifest greed for power and resources. Furthermore, un-elected,110 faceless people and corporate associations in bunker-like city buildings take crucial decisions about the welfare of society that dramatically affect the lives of millions of people. The option of the poor has to be an option for justice, and that may not be an option anymore. During my stay in Thailand – also in other countries in Southeast Asia – I observed an unprecedented influx of land-based agricultural and coastal people into the mega-cities, which had no proper infrastructure to enable them to lead decent, civilised lives. Most of them find neither a sustainable lifestyle nor an adequate income. Women and children are the worst hit in these situations. Cheap labour – men, women and children – is available in poor countries and they are also exported as contract labourers and economic migrants. The aids pandemic must be added to the list of scourges. Globalisation has produced a clash of values but has also posed other problems. Economic and media globalisation111 is effecting rapid socio-cultural and political changes in today’s world. While technical advances are welcome, the underlying values of the new economic order are eroding basic human and religious values. Secularism and consumerism seem to have become modern-day gods. The consumer ethic of the growing middle class results in deprivation

108 Robert J. Schreiter, C.PP.S. Mission in the third millennium, 150: “While contemporary globalization looks in many ways like the colonialism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there are some significant differences. Globalization […] [intensifies] the sense of the local, whereas colonialism tended to minimize its significance. Colonialism had clear, identifiable agents; globalization’s agents are often wrapped in anonymity.” 109 Manuel Castels, The rise of the network society, 102–106. For a better understanding of the genesis and development of globalisation, see David Held et al., Global transformations: politics, economics and culture, Paolo Alto, Cal.: Stanford University Press, 1999. 110 Consider, for example, the heads of the great banking institutions, news media moguls and military leaders, even in so-called democratic countries. 111 Gregorio Iriarte O.M.I. Moral social. Guía para la formación en los valores éticos, Cochabamba, Bolivia: Kipus, 1998, 137, 282.


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and suffering for countless millions. Ecology, though a newcomer to the theology and praxis of mission, is an inescapable challenge. Soil erosion and deforestation have become so cataclysmic that they threaten the well-being of future generations. Rampant global capitalism is creating a society where ‘to be is to consume’, where the great majority of citizens are being politically disenfranchised and economically disempowered, where everybody and everything, including religion, are being turned into commodities to be bought and sold or treated as objects for personal enjoyment. Even as the rhetoric of empowerment proceeds unabated, we see demographic imbalances and destructive cultural changes all around us. There appears to be a direct correlation between market forces, political instability and the rise of religious and cultural fanaticism.112 Social frustration is creating an angry generation and a culture of violence, fear and hatred. Women also need to become protagonists of mission. After many centuries of invisibility, silence and alienation in many forms and guises, women are gaining confidence and rediscovering their strength. Our understanding of the church needs to take this changing and challenging social reality more seriously. We cannot think of mission in the third millennium without awakening to the alienated experience of half the human family. In this context the church’s mission from the perspective of women is “one of reconciliation, the overcoming of the fundamental sin of alienation between female and male”.113 The unavoidable question is how we, as followers of Jesus and sharing his utopian dream of building the kingdom of God, respond to these conundrums. Poor and marginalised people, who represent almost two thirds of the world, need action aimed at their liberation and empowerment.114 Jesus’ ministry was one of self-emptying, kenosis, in order to empower the oppressed and the victims of the globalisation movement of his day, but without abandoning the rich – on the contrary, challenging them also to convert. Jesus conducted his ministry through self-emptying, the kenotic path demanding “an attitude of dynamic, nonviolent resistance, and the earnest struggle for justice or truth”.115 Self-emptying also implies that mission is not practised from a position of power or a pedestal of superiority.116 In a world fragmented by political, religious and economic forces Christian mission has to strive for justice and reconciliation. Reconciliation cannot happen unless its agents are personally committed to a process

112 Manuel Castels, The rise of the network society, 106. 113 S. S. Maimela, “Seeking to be Christian in patriarchal society”, in Voices from the Third World, 19, June 1996, 176. 114 Gustavo Gutiérrez, We drink from our own wells: the spiritual journey of a people. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1995, 19–25, 95–99. 115 Aloysius Pieris, S. J., Mysticism of service, Sri Lanka: Logos, 2000, 136. 116 J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam, 181.

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aimed at bringing peace, a process that can be long, difficult, at times frustrating and even dangerous. Bringing peace117 to others begins with personal conversion, with insight into the endemic, inherited and spiral nature of violence. The process of reconciliation cannot happen unless both victim and victimiser genuinely desire to be forgiven and to forgive, which requires a long process of inner healing and transformation. In addition restoration of lasting peace is possible only when issues of justice are squarely addressed and just and fair restitution is made; healing the inner wounds requires more than empty words.118 It is in this spirit that I proceed to sketch some contours, which I believe both the intellectual reflection on, and the praxis of, mission would need to assume if the church’s proclamation of Jesus’ salvific message is to have any credibility. To this end, in my view, the prophetic, kenotic life of the historical Jesus has to become the model for Christian mission once more. Jesus calls for conversion to the poor, a conversion that will transform us into a church characterised by visible solidarity with suffering people.119 The headings below indicate nine non-exclusive, closely interrelated areas or contours, without restrictive limits or boundaries, which form the essential basis for a missionary praxis that engages with the complex relationships of our time.

1.3 Contours of mission as a transforming, coherent lifestyle To visualise mission we need to look at the essence of Jesus’ announcement of God’s kingdom and how its proclamation enters into dialogue with each human being’s ever changing here and now. This scrutiny of the historical Jesus and the first Christians’ understanding of their missionary activity should be the turning point for the transition from the ‘old’ to a ‘new’ model of evangelisation. A prophetic, kenotic Christology must be incorporated into an understanding of church and mission, in which Jesus, the first missionary, urges us to side with the poor and the marginalised and urges us to live as servants who wash the feet of friends (John 13:1-11). Jesus calls us to seek justice by emptying ourselves in an attitude of dialogue rather than conquest. As followers of the master we cannot go about mission without first carefully looking at the events and challenges that shape our present historical social context. Mission needs to respond to these.

117 Miroslav Volf, Exclusion & embrace: a theological exploration of identity, otherness, and reconciliation, Nashville: Abingdon, 1996, 275. 118 For issues about reconciliation, see Gregory Baum & Harold Wells (eds), The reconciliation of peoples: challenge to the churches, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1997. 119 Ignacio Ellacuría & Jon Sobrino, Fé y Justicia, 50.


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1.3.1 Mission springs from personal encounter with Jesus One of the strongest personal convictions that grew from my years in Asia is that mission is the result of falling in love with the historical Jesus.120 It is this love that is capable of activating a missionary praxis that proceeds from compassion. This religious experience comes through a contemplative life in which “prayers, hymns, and poetry of Israel and the early church … [sic – give us a glimpse of] the awesome sweep of God’s saving love and the mystery of Jesus’ person”121 and also by contemplating the world around us. Bernard Lonergan maintains that religious conversion could be a new foundation for theological reflection, because it involves a radical transformation.122 Conversion “is basic to Christian living”.123 He proposes that theology should focus on existential rather than rational consciousness: “[M]y account of God’s existence and attributes made no appeal to religious experience … It treated God’s existence and attributes in purely objective fashion. It made no effort to deal with the subject’s religious horizon.”124 Lonergan wants us to give up rationalistic, Thomist rationalisation of faith and leap into the mystery of the person of God, because that is how we can “emerge as persons”.125 Religious experience of God is first of all an experience of a gift of limitless love: “[T]his complete beingin-love, the gift of God’s grace, is the reason of the heart that reason does not know. It is a religious experience by which we enter into a subject-to-subject relationship with God.”126 It is this experience of love that must underpin mission, otherwise it becomes meaningless. At this point I yield to the temptation of quoting the prophetic words of Francis of Assisi (1182–1226), who refers to such genuine experience of God as the foundation for the missionary activity of his brothers who laboured among the Saracens and other non-believers. He writes: 1. The Lord says: “behold, I am sending you as sheep in the midst of wolves. 2. Be therefore prudent as serpents and simple as doves” (Mt 10:16). 3. Therefore, any brother who, by divine

120 When the Franciscan community opened a centre for terminally ill aids patients in Thailand, some Buddhist monks who visited the place to provide spiritual care for Buddhist patients asked the friars why they were doing this work, which in Thailand no one else was willing to do. The monks wondered if this was a strategy to convert Thai people to Christianity. The friars answered that they were rendering the service out of love for Jesus, out of compassion. Compassion was the meeting point between Christians and Buddhists. 121 Donald Senior, C. P. & Carroll Stuhlmueller, C. P., The biblical foundations for mission, 342. 122 Bernard Lonergan, A second collection, London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1974, 65. 123 Bernard Lonergan, Method in theology, London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1972, 105. 124 Bernard Lonergan, Philosophy of God and theology, London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1973, 12–13. 125 Bernard Lonergan, Method in theology, 10. Also see Felix Wilfred, “Dogma and inculturation”, in Vidyajyoti 53, 1989, 345–353. 126 Bernard Lonergan, A second collection, 129.

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Chapter One inspiration,127 desires to go among the Saracens and other non-believers should go with the permission of his minister and servant. [….] 5. As for the brothers who go, they can live spiritually among [the Saracens and non-believers] in two ways. 6. One way is not to engage in arguments or disputes, but to be subject “to every human creature for God’s sake” (1 Pet 2:13) and to confess that they are Christians. 7. Another way is to proclaim the word of God when they see that it pleases the Lord, so that they believe in the all-powerful God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…128

The evangelical spirit of Francis in approaching the Saracens and other non-believers was not only a great innovation in the church’s missionary practices at the time but also a prophetic protest against the official church’s handling of its differences with the Islamic world. In his Francis and Islam J. Hoeberichts highlights Francis of Assisi’s attitudes and personal options regarding relations with Islam. While the popes, bishops, kings and local lords in Europe were preparing for crusades conducted in the ‘name of God’ and the Christian populace was duped by the military propaganda,129 Francis championed a new attitude and relationship with Islam that emerged from his experience of God as love. Against the advice of church and political leaders, Francis decided to visit the sultan al-Malek al-Kamil. While a guest at his court, Francis understood that, as a peacemaker, the gospel required him to be a humble servant and a powerless Christian; that he should live there spiritually, which meant in the first place “not to engage in arguments or disputes, but to be subject to every human creature for God’s sake [1 Pet 2:13] and to confess that they are Christians”. Francis did not go to the sultan seeking martyrdom130 but to retrieve and put into practice the spirit of the gospel in which Jesus washed his disciples’ feet (cf. John 13:1-15). Hoeberichts concludes: That is the reason why the brothers must exercise neither power over others, nor pride themselves above others, nor feel themselves superior to others. On the contrary, they were to be ‘lesser brothers’ who, in humble service, wash one another’s feet. Arguments and disputes did not fit such a way of life, however well they might have been intended by some brothers as a service in defence of the truth. For arguments and disputes mostly start from a certain feeling of superiority, when a person thinks him- or herself to be above the other and looks down on the other as being inferior. As such they cannot be reconciled with Francis’ understanding of the humility of God, which the brothers are to imitate in their lives.131

One senses the urgency that today’s missionary endeavour should recognise the importance of making the transition from dogmatic apologetics to a

127 My italics. 128 From chapter XVI of the early rule (Regula non bullata) of 1221 in Francis and Clare: the complete works, New York: Paulist Press, 1982, 127, 129. 129 J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam, 63. 130 On pp. 61–139 J. Hoeberichts gives a lucid analysis of Francis’s motives for going to visit the Saracens. The gesture was a prophetic call to both the Christian invaders and the Muslim troops. 131 J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam, 73.


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renewed experience of encounter with the person of Jesus and his utopian dream of the establishment of God’s kingship that leads to a life of humble service, willing submission and active tolerance. Basing our missionary task on the experience of personal encounter with God who is love (1 John 4:8)132 will make us accept and respect the religious experience of people of other faiths; that will unite us. Mission based on philosophical or theological presuppositions, on the other hand, will alienate and separate us from people. 1.3.2 God is the agent of mission If falling in love with the historical Jesus and his project (establishment of the rule of God) is the foundation of missionary praxis, it follows that God is the main agent of his own mission (his kingdom) and consequently Jesus’ followers are merely facilitators of God’s mission.133 It is true that there has been a shift in the understanding of the agents and goals of mission in recent times. Mission was often seen as missionaries’ task of offering salvation to individuals, freeing them, so to speak, from the prospect of the eternal fires of hell. It also had obvious cultural connotations as a way of introducing people into the Western/European enclave and lifestyle. The agents were missionaries, the vast majority of them ordained ministers, whose aim was to expand the church on the assumption that the sooner that happened, the sooner God’s kingdom would be realised on earth. These missionaries were driven by a heroic vocation to give their lives for the poor souls who lived in darkness. Sometimes they courted martyrdom as a way of saving their own souls. In all these instances and in often conflicting ways “the intrinsic interrelationship between Christology, soteriology, and the doctrine of the Trinity, so important for the early church, was gradually displaced by one of several versions of the doctrine of grace”.134 The goal was sociological integration with the Catholic Church. We need to revert to the traditional truth that God’s love (agape) is universal and that it is his will to embrace the whole world (cf. Tim 2:4) across boundaries of race, culture, sex, time and space. Reinstating God as the main agent of mission is not grounded in philosophical or metaphysical reflection or in abstract theories but in historical deeds135 performed by Jesus through powerful words and actions. God’s missionary activity is the irruption of infinite love in this world and everything in it, especially human beings. The Bible

132 Donald Senior, C. P. & Carroll Stuhlmueller, C. P., The biblical foundations for mission, 342. 133 Ibid., 144. 134 Gustavo Gutierrez, We drink from our own wells: the spiritual journey of a people, 14. 135 Orlando E. Costas, “Christian mission in the Americas”, in James A. Scherer & Stephen B. Bevans (eds), New directions in mission & evangelization, 5.

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witnesses to that love and the biblical narrative is based on this foundational statement. God’s intervention in history, which many liberation theologians feel should be highlighted afresh,136 brings something totally new: the creation of a new earth and a new heaven (Rev 21:1). The aim of God’s mission is to install a new kingdom, a different way of ruling, so to speak, where hatred, chaos and corruption will make way for a kingdom of love, justice and freedom. Jesus Christ was sent to the world by the Father to assure the suffering human race that something different is in the making and he provided “signs of the new order … amid contradictory situations”.137 Hence making God the main agent of mission in the world means that the church and Jesus’ followers are asked to be present in the kingdoms of the world as institutions and people that facilitate the establishment of God’s rule. This kingdom makes serious demands: For example, for dough to rise there must be yeast. The church of God is God’s yeast; therefore it needs to be present in the world to help transform it. So that political institutions may be agents of good, their citizens must cooperate. Christians are called to set examples by respecting all public institutions that work for the common good (that is, for the well-being of all, especially the poor and the oppressed). But they are also called to unmask and resist those institutions when they become possessed of the devil and turn into enemies of justice. The children of God are bearers of the hope for universal liberation. They are called to wait patiently not only for their own final liberation, but also for the liberation of all creation, by suffering the birth pangs of the world that is about to be delivered. Their own hope is directly related to the hope for the creation to be freed “from bondage to decay” (Rom 8:21).138

As a missionary community, then, Christians are called to bear, with God, the burden of the new creation throughout their lives. Viewed thus, the church has to renounce any claim to master-like control of history and salvation. The church is not the agent of mission but the place where God’s missionary activity takes historical form. This missionary endeavour must be placed in a trinitarian perspective. 1.3.2.1 Mission and the trinitarian God Mission needs to be radically grounded in the mystery of the triune God, whose whole being is self-communication and self-giving.139 We have said that God’s mission is not grounded in metaphysical speculation and theoretical abstractions. The people of Israel discovered God’s actions in concrete historical deeds: “I have seen the humiliation of my people in Egypt and I hear their cry when they are cruelly treated by their taskmasters. I know their suffering. I have come down to free them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from

136 Gustavo Gutierrez, We drink from our own wells: the spiritual journey of a people, 107–108. 137 Orlando E. Costas, “Christian mission in the Americas”, 8. 138 Ibid., 10. 139 Karl Müller, Mission theology: an introduction, 47.


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that land to a beautiful spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:7-8). It is following this experience of the people of Israel that Vatican II, in its Decree on Mission, defines missionary activity as “nothing else, and nothing less, than the manifestation of God’s plan, its epiphany and realisation in the world and in history” (Ad Gentes 2, 9). Mission is defined here in trinitarian, christological, pneumatological and ecclesiological terms.140 This shift in missionary awareness has far-reaching consequences when the church plans its strategies for missionary activity. Because God’s mission remains the decisive and primary point of reference for any activity, mission must be subject to God. In this regard some theologians, following the new insight of Vatican II, keep distinguishing between mission and missions: “The age of missions is at end; the age of mission has begun.”141 It follows that our missionary activities are only authentic insofar as they reflect participation in God’s mission. In its mission, the church must witness to the fullness of the promise of God’s kingdom and participate in the “ongoing struggle between God’s reign and the powers of darkness and evil”.142 Mission is, primarily and ultimately, the work of the trinitarian God who is creator, redeemer and sanctifier of the world, a ministry in which all Christians are privileged to participate. It is in the trinitarian faith that the missionary praxis of the church becomes clear. Reflection on the historical deeds of Jesus of Nazareth – who, following a long biblical tradition, was interested in the well-being of all but especially that of the poorest of the poor – gives the church both a sense of direction and the strength to continue, with historical commitment, Jesus’ activity of being an instrument for the realisation of God’s kingdom.143 Israel is the prototype of the new humanity God is determined to create, and the Bible expresses this determination in vivid metaphors: Hosea refers to Israel as Yahweh’s wife (2:1-23), son (11:1ff) and the partner whom Yahweh has chosen to give birth to a new people.144 In the New Testament Jesus of Nazareth is this new Israelite (Matt 2:15), the one who faithfully carries out the

140 Filipe Gómez, S.J., “The missionary activity twenty years after Vatican II”, in East Asian Pastoral Review 23, 1986, 31. 141 Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, 572. 142 J. A. Scherer, Gospel, church, and kingdom: comparative studies in world mission theology, Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1987, 84. 143 Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The church in the power of the Spirit: a contribution to messianic ecclesiology, trans. Margaret Kohl, New York: Harper & Row, 1977, 50ff. Also Lesslie Newbigin, The open secret, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978, 20ff; David J. Bosch, Witness to the world, London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott; Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1980, 239ff. 144 In this section I use Hendrik Berkhof’s concept of salvation history as God’s quest for a faithful covenant partner. Christian faith: an introduction to the study of faith, trans. Sierd Woudstra, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986, 225ff.

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mission entrusted to Israel (Mark 1:8-11; John 1:49ff), because he is God’s eternal word become flesh (John 1:14). Jesus is also the firstborn of a new humanity (Eph 2:14-18), the head of a new body (Eph 1:23) and as a result those who follow him are born to new life (John 1:12) and are incorporated into the people of God. It is this new people, the church – brought about through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ – that becomes the faithful spouse who continues the work of salvation with the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit. This is the same Spirit that moved over the waters and primordial chaos before the creation (Gen 2:7), which guided Israel’s leaders in times of national crisis and made Mary conceive a son (Luke 1:35) who was the Son of God. The Spirit of God is the one who manifests God’s love to women and men everywhere, who makes them members of the body of Christ and teaches all truth (John 16:8), keeping alive hope of the future total liberation of humankind (Rom 8:20-23). The Spirit is the agent of love that the Father revealed in the person of Jesus of Nazareth and its mission is none other than to reconcile all creatures under the lordship of the Son and to the glory of the Father (Eph 1:14). This understanding of the trinitarian foundation of the church’s mission was very dear to the first generations of Christians. 1.3.2.2 Mission founded in the biblical narrative Because mission can no longer be understood as a propagandistic activity to make converts, both the praxis and theology of mission should abandon any apologetic orientation and retrace its origins in the missionary character of Jesus’ ministry as recounted in the biblical narrative.145 The biblical narratives and metaphors “become the language of Christian hope”, which fill Christians with a new vision.146 Both the history and the theology of the early Christians as reflected in the biblical narratives were primarily history of mission and mission theology147 rather than a compilation of records of intra-ecclesial doctrinal struggle.148 Mission was first of all a genuine expression of the very life of the community rather than a mere function of the early Christian communities. As Ben Meyer puts it: “Christianity had never been more itself, more consistent

145 David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 15. For further study see Donald Senior, C.P. & Carroll Stuhlmueller, C.P., The biblical foundations for mission. 146 Donald Senior, C. P. & Carroll Stuhlmueller, C. P., The biblical foundations for mission, 343. B. Birch & L. Rasmussen, Bible and ethics in the Christian life, Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1976, 184–186 make a similar claim when they speak of the role of the Bible as a “shaper of Christian identity”. 147 Martin Hengel, “The origins of the Christian mission”, in Between Jesus and Paul: studies in the earliest history of Christianity, London: SCM, 1983, 53. 148 Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Aspects of religious propaganda in Judaism and early Christianity, South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 1976, 1.


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with Jesus and more evidently en route to its own future, than in launching of the world mission [sic].”149 Christians saw themselves as the frontrunners of a saved community and they genuinely believed themselves to be the yeast of the world whose mandate was to share the salvific message with the whole human family.150 They believed they were called to construct Jesus’ utopian dream of a world governed by God, that is to say, to establish the basileia of God.151 In this regard, then, the texts of the New Testament, particularly the Gospels, should be viewed not so much as “writings produced by a historical impulse for self-explanation, but rather as expressions of ardent faith revealing the person and message of Jesus to the Mediterranean world”.152 In the biblical narratives the believing community today can still “find the presence of God who comes, the power of the Word and the creativity of the Spirit […] and the march of the nations, liberation from every slavery and the call for universal gathering to the unity of divine love”.153 As the concrete realisation of this call to “universal gathering” mission will have to be all-inclusive. Thus the discourse of the missionary church will have to make feminist issues, for example, part of its missionary activity. It follows that the church, as a community of Christians engaged in mission, needs to reconcile itself to the diversity it finds in historical everyday reality. 1.3.2.3 Mission in diversity An important aspect of missionary praxis and theology in the early Christian communities was the variety of religious views – what Lucien Legrand calls their diversity.154 The writings of the early Christians do not reflect a uniform view of mission and theology of mission: both are adapted to the circumstances and challenges in which Christian communities lived. Consequently the Gospels, instead of defining concepts, use a variety of metaphors such as salt of the earth, light of the world and a city on a hill to describe the modus vivendi ac operandi of the Christians.155 The same challenge confronts missionary praxis

149 Ben F. Meyer, The early Christians: their world mission and self-discovery, Wilmington: Glazier, 1986, 18. 150 Karl Müller, Mission theology: an introduction, 46: “God wishes to free men from guilt and make them share in his [trinitarian] life… The salvation God brings is an integral one… Promotio humana and the striving for justice and peace in the world are not identical with mission but they are integrally part of it.” 151 Ben F. Meyer, “The establishment of the kingship of God”, in The early Christians: their world mission and self-discovery, 92. 152 E. Schüssler Fiorenza, Aspects of religious propaganda, 20. 153 Lucien Legrand, Unity and plurality: mission in the Bible. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1990, 159. 154 Ibid., 149. 155 Hubert Frankemölle, Jahwebund und Kirche Christi: Studien zur Formund Traditionsgeschichte des “Evangeliums” nach Matthäus, Münster: Verlag Aschendorff, 1982, 96.

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in today’s world. In this regard I quote bishop Lesslie Newbigin: “To be baptized is to be incorporated into the dying of Jesus so as to become a participant in his risen life, and so to share his ongoing mission to the world. It is to be baptized in his mission.”156 Thus the followers of Jesus claim no masterful control of religious truths but carry on humbly bearing witness to the real meaning of his life – as Paul says: “carrying always in their bodies the dying of Jesus, where the risen life of Jesus is made available for others” (cf. 2 Cor 4:10). In a chapter entitled “Addressing the other names” Paul F. Knitter sketches three basic aspects to be considered when doing mission in a diversified religious environment. These are an attitude of dialogue, a humble and respectful look at religions, and a look at the world.157 Mission in a diversified religious environment begins with respectful awareness of other religions:158 an existential awareness that reaches feelings, hearts, sensibilities and experiences that go beyond reason, that is happy and at home among believers of other religions. From this interpersonal relationship that enters the affective world one needs to look at both the positive and negative sides of religions. Religions liberate, it is true, and help believers move beyond the present reality. But they can also hide a corrupt, ugly, manipulative and exploitive power.159 Finally, mission in diversity will make us look at the world, the concrete history in which we are caught up. How can we liberate our brothers and sisters from bondage, exploitation and poverty?160 The aim of mission in dialogue amid diversity is still to let God’s kingdom shine in our midst. 1.3.3 Mission by a community of prophets In his Models of the church161 Avery Dulles indicates that we can speak about the church emphasising certain pastoral characteristics, which underline specific trends in theological self-understanding. Thus Dulles speaks of the church as institution, as mystical communion, as sacrament, as herald and as servant. Each of these models reveals a distinct way of understanding the mystery of the church. Dulles identifies the implications of each model for eschatology, ecumenism, ministry, and revelation – and, I would add, for mission and missionary activity. Catholics have always held the church in high esteem, which explains why Dulles’s first two models have tended to predominate in 156 Lesslie Newbigin, “The logic of mission”, in James A. Scherer & Stephen B. Bevans (eds), New directions in mission & evangelization, 17. 157 Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and the other names: Christian mission and Christian responsibility, 23ff. 158 Ibid., 27. 159 Ibid., 28. 160 Ibid., 30. 161 Avery Dulles, Models of the church. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Image, 1975.


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the Catholic Church’s self-understanding. According to Neill, from the time of the Counter Reformation up to the second half of the 19th century the church has emphasised the external, legal and institutional aspects.162 These different approaches to the church’s self-understanding indicate that it sees itself essentially as a missionary community; it exists in the process of being sent and in creating institutions for the sake of its mission163 carried out largely by ordained ministers endowed with hierarchic authority. The time has come to rethink the dimension of the church as herald and servant. For Michael Amaladoss it is clear that the mission of the community of believers is one of service.164 That community demands no privileges of any kind – on the contrary, it concentrates all its energy on service to the kingdom, building a new heaven and a new earth where God will be lord over all. Amaladoss calls this communitarian mission prophetic service.165 He argues: “Prophets arise whenever the poor are oppressed, injustice is widespread, and pleasure, money, and power become idols.”166 When mission is spoken of as prophecy there tends to be general alarm about the risk of identification with liberation, with the further misconception that liberation itself may be reduced to its economic and political aspects. True, looking at the reality in today’s world one could say that this is happening right now. The gap between rich and poor continues to widen, and the so called preventive wars against terrorism – which hide other, unspoken interests – take a heavy toll among the weak: women, children and civilians generally. Of late ethnic and racial problems have manifested tragically in ethnic cleansing. Often religion seems to have become just a tool that offers a rationale for unspeakable social, political, economic and military atrocities.167

162 Stephen Neill, The church and Christian union, London: Oxford University Press, 1968, 74. 163 Karl Barth, Church dogmatics IV/1, Edinburgh: Clark, 1956, 725. 164 Michael Amaladoss, “Mission as prophecy”, in James A. Scherer & Stephen B. Bevans (eds), New directions in mission & evangelization, 68. 165 Ibid., 71. 166 Ibid., 72. 167 Miroslav Volf, Exclusion & embrace, 88: “In extraordinary situations and under extraordinary directors certain themes from the ‘background cacophony’ are picked up, orchestrated into a bellicose musical, and played up. ‘Historians’ – national, communal, or personal interpreters of the past – trumpet the double theme of the former glory and past victimization; ‘economists’ join in with the accounts of present exploitation and great economic potentials; ‘political scientists’ add the theme of growing imbalance of power and steadily giving ground, of losing control over what is rightfully ours; ‘cultural anthropologists’ bring the dangers of the loss of identity and extol the singular value of our personal or cultural gifts; ‘politicians’ pick up all four themes … finally the ‘priests’ … give assurance that God is on our side and that our enemy is the enemy of God and therefore an adversary of everything that is true, good, and beautiful.”

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This is the society in which the missionary Christian community is called to serve in a prophetic manner (i.e. the manner of Jesus who gave love of God and our neighbour pre-eminence over all other values), to be yeast and light to the world, and to witness to the kingdom’s values. Prophets, through their closeness to the people, are keenly aware of their pain and have a sharp eye for the causes of their suffering. At the same time, through their closeness to God, prophets bring the people’s cry to God, who answers the prayers of the poor by way of prophetic criticism of the oppressors and by inspiring people to communitarian acts of liberation and surrender to God. This prophetic activity is carried out in different areas of life and together with all men and women of good will.168 1.3.3.1 Community of prophets: solidarity with the marginalised Being a church, a community of believers, does not precede mission, because the latter is a duty that “pertains to the whole Church” (Ad Gentes 23). Consequently mission is carried out by the pilgrim people of God, among whom the poor are the privileged group of God’s presence.169 As the poor are outcasts in the modern global scheme, the church is invited to become a pilgrim in the world in complete and utter companionship and solidarity with the poor.170 That is the new ecclesial consciousness and redefinition to which it is called. Gutierrez speaks of the church as a community in need of ‘un-centring’, for the church “must cease to consider herself as the exclusive place of salvation and orient herself toward a new and radical service of people. … [This new attitude] presupposes a new awareness that the action of Christ and his Spirit is the true hinge of the plan of salvation.”171 This was the spontaneous self-understanding of the first Christian communities, since they were used to being a persecuted minority with no political role, a perspective which obviously changed with the passage of time. Louis-Marie Chauvet172 explains succinctly what happened when the church became a power to be reckoned with. The church saw itself as coextensive with the world, almost to the point of identification. If one wanted to be of the world, it was necessary to be fully of the church. It was the era of Christendom. It was

168 See Abraham J. Heschel, The prophets: an introduction, New York: Harper & Row, 1955, 3–26. 169 Gustavo Gutierrez, A theology of liberation, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988, 143. 170 The church as ek-klesia, ‘called out’ and sent back into the world. Being a foreigner is an element of its constitution. See Carl E. Braaten, The faming centre, Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977, 56. 171 Gustavo Gutierrez, A theology of liberation, 144. 172 Louis-Marie Chauvet, Symbol and sacrament. A sacramental reinterpretation of Christian existence, Collegeville, Min.: Liturgical Press, 1995, 410.


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thanks to the church and its activity that the world could gain admission to the kingdom. The church offered the necessary tools and mediation for that admission to take place. Clearly this view had practical implications for the mode of doing mission: the view that identified church and kingdom, church and world was, as Bosch points out, a misinterpretation of Augustine’s De civitate Dei.173 The historical context of Augustine’s book was that of the destruction of Rome by the Goths in 410. As several authors have pointed out, the whole of Christianity felt completely devastated and traumatised. A century had elapsed since the Roman empire adopted Christianity as its official religion. With the grandeur of Rome to protect them Christians felt secure. For many the empire was like a sacrament of the kingdom of God, which would be like a continuation but in all its divine glory and power. Consequently the fall of Rome was cataclysmic for Christians. On the other hand, those who had never been happy with Rome’s official acceptance of Christianity attributed its fall precisely to the empire’s abandonment of the traditional religion and acceptance of Christianity. In his masterpiece Augustine tried to answer both questions. Here I confine myself to aspects directly related to mission. In volume 15 of the book Augustine wrote: I classify the human race into two branches: the one consisting of those who live by human standards, the other of those who live according to God’s will… By these two cities I mean those societies of human beings, one of which is predestined to reign with God from all eternity, the other doomed to undergo eternal punishment with the Devil.174

The two societies or cities, then, exist simultaneously. In Augustine’s view the city of those living according to God’s will is to endure forever, although it will never reach perfection in this world. This is a pilgrim church, en route to its heavenly and eternal home. As Bosch insists, it is important to note that Augustine never identified the church in its struggling way through this world with the reign or kingdom of God. That identification took place in later centuries and affected the whole way of doing mission. It was “Thomas Aquinas who fixed in his work that reason was lower than faith, nature than grace, philosophy than theology, and the state (the emperor or the king) than the church (the pope).”175 The identification of church and kingdom, which every other human power had to serve, caused endless conflict between popes, emperors and kings, and these conflicts always underlay the church’s missionary endeavour, as its interests clashed with those of kings. Bosch, Transforming mission, 220. Augustine’s monumental 22-volume work was written between 413 and 427. 174 Quoted by Johann Schmidt, “Die Missionarische Dimension der Theologie”, in Horst Balz & Sigfried Schulz (eds), Das Wort und die Wörter. Festschrift Gerhard Friedrich, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1973, 193–201. 175 Bosch, Transforming mission, 221. 173

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Vatican II provided a new basis for the church’s self-understanding and the core of its mission by describing it as a sacrament and as the people of God.176 As a sign of God’s wish to reign over the world, a sacrament has to be clear and understandable; the church’s missionary activity needs to demonstrate its ability to transform the hearts of people and the society in which they live. In some parts of the world the church may see its own survival as a priority, but survival is not at issue (it is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit). It must serve, and the rest shall be given. At the same time, with the concept of the people of God (already found in the Old Testament) the Council fathers abandoned the notion of the church as societas perfecta, structured like a pyramid, in which the hierarchy possessed absolute truth and the people of God is taken as the basis of the church. For Gutierrez this new awareness fell short of what the model of the church should be, namely a church of the poor as the pivotal place (theological locus) where people may experience God. It is a church thus conceived that can become a place for a self-transforming and transforming community of prophets – indeed, a servant community that brings life, love and justice.177 1.3.3.2 Universality of prophecy Catholic mission has always had significant lay involvement, but however significant their activity, lay people were clearly considered an auxiliary taskforce, firmly under the control and jurisdiction of the clergy, particularly after the hierarchical institutionalisation of the church was completed. In this scheme the role of lay people was reduced to that of mere observers of the church’s mission; women had an even more subsidiary role. In various ways Vatican II expressed the new theological and ecclesial mood and showed keen awareness of the laity’s vital role in the church, particularly in regard to its missionary calling. Yves Congar has noted that some key words used time and again in Vatican II were never used by Vatican I, such as amor (love), 113 times, and laicus (layperson), 200 times.178 Lumen Gentium 33 states: “The apostolate of the laity is a sharing in the salvific mission of the Church. Through Baptism and Confirmation all are appointed to this apostolate by the Lord himself.” It adds that the laity have “the exalted duty of working for the ever greater spread of the divine plan of salvation to all people of every epoch and all over

Lumen Gentium, 1 and 48, also see 9 and 59; Gaudium et Spes, 45; Sacrosanctum Concilium 5, 26; Ad Gentes, 9. For the double meaning of the term ‘sacrament’ as mystery (fulfilment of God’s plan of salvation) and sign (the external rituals in which the church expresses itself), see Gustavo Gutierrez, A theology of liberation, 145–148. 177 Gustavo Gutierrez, A theology of liberation, 110, 116. 178 Filipe Gómez, S.J., “The missionary activity twenty years after Vatican II”, in East Asian Pastoral Review 23, 1986, 26–57. 176


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the earth”. Lumen Gentium 12 urges every member of the church to “cooperate in the work of the Gospel, each according to his opportunity, ability, charisma, and ministry”. Ad Gentes 21 categorically states that “the Church is not truly established and does not fully live, nor it is a perfect sign of Christ unless there is a genuine laity existing and working alongside the hierarchy”. Most important, Vatican II produced Apostolicam Actuositatem, the Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People, which describes the laity first of all in terms of the church’s mission as having the “right and duty to be apostles” (3). Historical clericalism did not die out with Vatican II, however. Gómez mentions that many documents in the Catholic Church refer to the laity as ‘auxiliaries’ of the ‘sacred ministries’.179 The old dichotomy between sacred and profane, laity and ordained ministry, seems to be firmly upheld to the point that, in spite of Vatican II, full lay participation in decision making remains largely truncated. Boff believes that the tension between ‘acme’ and ‘base’ has been increasing rather than decreasing during the last quarter of the 20th century.180 In his view the hierarchy is apprehensive of the consequences of according the laity greater and more decision-making power. The old ecclesial model of the ‘teaching’ church and the ‘learning’ church (ecclesia docens and ecclesia discens), active mediation of grace and passive receiving of grace, seems to be too deeply rooted to be demolished by a few brilliant documents. Nonetheless a shift is noticeable. Lay people in many parts of the ecclesiastic world act in a way which clearly demonstrates the precedence of the mission of God, since the whole believing community is the primary agent of God’s missionary activity.181 Mission does not proceed primarily from the hierarchy or missionary orders or societies, but from a community gathered around the word and the sacraments.182 This has unforeseen consequences. It demands a change of methodology, one that presupposes a change in the current church model from a vertical, hierarchic and deductive approach to a horizontal, popular, inductive one, which does justice to the new social realities in which modern Christians live.183 Even more important is the awareness that all are called to reproduce in our lives the very options of Jesus, who proclaimed that “this is the time of fulfilment; the kingdom of God is at hand. Change your ways and believe in the Good News”(Mark 1:15).

179 Filipe Gómez, S. J., “The missionary activity twenty years after Vatican II”, 51. 180 Leonardo Boff, Ecclesiogenesis: the base communities reinvent the church, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1986, 30. 181 Donald Senior, C. P. & Carroll Stuhlmueller, C. P., The biblical foundations for mission, 334. 182 William R. Burrows, New ministries: the global context, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1981, 62. 183 Gustavo Gutiérrez, Teología de la liberación: perspectivas, 225.

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1.3.3.3 Prophecy in communion The missionary dimension of a Christianity thus caught up in history manifests itself, among other ways, when it is truly a worshipping community. Such a community is able to welcome outsiders (people of other faiths) and make them feel at home; it is a community in which ordained ministers do not have the monopoly and the members are not mere objects of pastoral care but agents actively fulfilling their call to announce the gospel and transform society. In mission the community of believers is first of all a local church planted in a historical situation in the world. This fact was often ignored in the Catholic Church which, as we have seen, became increasingly hierarchy-centred. The Western church saw itself as an agency for others and an instrument for instilling its principles and culture. As Vatican II drew closer the church increasingly conceived of itself as a community of believers with others, because mission could not be seen as a one-way traffic from the West to the Third World. Vatican II realised that the universal church actually finds its true existence in local churches, and that these – and not only the universal church – are its genuine expression (Lumen Gentium 26). Thus every Christian community is a missionary community. In 1969 pope Paul VI told Christians in Kampala, Uganda: “You are missionaries to yourselves!” And in 1985 John Paul II declared in different parts of the world: “Like the entire Church, you are in a state of mission.”184 Following this new consciousness, the Catholic Church abolished the ius commissionis, which meant that foreign missionaries orders and societies could no longer dictate the pattern of evangelisation in so-called Third World countries. But how do local churches and the universal church relate to each other? Although the church may perceive itself as the sole messenger of salvation, of which it has a complete monopoly, it still has to realise that it is at best an illustration – in word and deed – of God’s involvement with the world. When universality is accentuated, elements of patriarchal and paternalistic mission behaviour, together with rigid centralism, greatly damage the church’s credibility by blurring its universal mission. When the identity of the particular community is accentuated, the church’s mission to humanise the whole world may be obscured. This tension is clearly manifest in the respective ecclesiological approaches of Ad Gentes and Lumen Gentium.185 Both models – the church’s universal mission and the need to translate it into the here and now – should be in balanced tension, so that the universal church takes on the ethical task of totally transforming the local communities and local communities can always

184 Filipe Gómez, S.J., “The missionary activity twenty years after Vatican II”, 47. 185 Edmond Dunn, Missionary theology: foundations in development, Washington: University Press of America, 1980, 58–64.


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look at the broader soteriological picture.186 The universal church is credible if local churches perform a missionary task that humanises the everyday lives of concrete persons here and now, help local churches look beyond the particularity of their activity, and place it in the context of God’s general plan to bring salvation for all humankind. Christians are aware through faith that even if oppressive and sinful circumstances are not completely obliterated, the whole of humanity has already been brought under God’s reign.187 1.3.3.4 Prophecy and celebration The mission of the community of believers happens when the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and the establishment of human fellowship are inseparably joined.188 It is this human fellowship that the church – as sacrament, sign, people of God and church of the poor – must accomplish. Its first task, then, is to joyfully celebrate the gift of God’s salvific act for the benefit of humanity, which took place in the death and resurrection of Christ.189 Thus the Eucharist is both a memorial and thanksgiving. As a memorial Jesus’ life reminds us of God’s limitless commitment to life, a life for others; and we as a community give thanks to God. The community of believers celebrates the Eucharist, which in its turn builds the community.190 In the church, writes Schillebeeckx, “we celebrate that which is achieved outside the church edifice, in human history”.191 The church’s missionary praxis is inspired by and rooted in the meaning that the Eucharist symbolises: the mystery of the Trinity, in which we contemplate God’s love for his creation, when human beings were created without sin. The Eucharist also becomes the place of communitarian commitment to strive for the realisation, in solidarity and human fellowship, of that pristine paradise that God created for his creatures. To my mind this has two logical consequences for missionary praxis here and now. Liturgical celebration needs to be an occasion that challenges participants to take a clear stance regarding the present state of social and human injustice in which millions of people live, and a clear commitment to constructing a new order ruled by God. Today we witness major marginalised sections of society becoming more conscious of their human dignity and rights. They are asserting themselves against the dominant powers, which keep

186 Orlando E. Costas, Christ outside the gate: mission beyond Christendom, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1982, 80. 187 Jan M. Lochman, “Church and world in the light of the kingdom”, in Limouris, 1986, 67. 188 Message of pope John Paul II on World Mission Sunday, 2004. 189 Donald G. Bloesch, The church: sacraments, worship, ministry, mission, Madison, Wis.: InterVarsity Press, 2002, 32, 160. 190 Karl Müller, Mission theology: an introduction, 149. 191 Quoted by Gustavo Gutierrez, A theology of liberation, 149.

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them in perpetual subjugation, often with the acquiescence of church leaders. Liturgical celebration must address this anomaly. Gutierrez calls it denunciation.192 When we offer bread and wine in the Eucharist we are reminded of the human hands that were active in making them and the concrete social conditions in which they have to toil. Denunciation, then, is not just a generalised protest against injustice but also a prophetic event, which outlines that which is counter to the gospel values of life, fellowship, justice and liberty. The Christian community gathered around the table where the body and blood of Christ are dispensed denounces that dehumanising behaviour which Christ was executed for opposing. Such denunciation would, however, be just a political tool if it were not accompanied by what Gutierrez calls annunciation. Communitarian celebration and the missionary praxis arising from it have to announce the love of God that calls all persons in Christ and through the Holy Spirit to trinitarian communion. To announce the gospel is to announce that the trinitarian community is already present in our history and that all are invited to participate in it fully. To evangelise should not be primarily about expanding the church, but about making God’s kingdom present among us. Mission, then, is about a lifestyle that transforms and liberates. 1.3.4 Mission that transforms and liberates Christian missionary activity is aimed at salvation. However, in Catholic missionary thinking, particularly after Pope John XXIII declared Vatican II open, salvation could not be defined only in ‘religious’ (or ‘ecclesial’) terms, but also in terms of what happened to others elsewhere. Thanks to liberation theology the term ‘salvation’ has acquired a broader meaning. Thus Gutierrez inquires into the relation between salvation and human liberation. More concretely, “what is the meaning of the struggle against an unjust society and the creation of a new humanity in the light of the Word?”193 Acknowledging a lack of courage in tackling these social issues (the meaning of salvation and the way it works in practical actions are considered obvious in traditional Catholic theology), Gutierrez criticises the classical axiom of the salvation of pagans, which he sees as a quantitative question. In this context, who was saved how, and how many of them, were the standard questions, together with the church’s role in the salvific operation. Besides, the emphasis was on the life to come, which prompted a moralistic, individual spirituality and a selfish (“I need to save my own soul”) type of Christian life.194

192 Gustavo Gutierrez, A theology of liberation, 151. 193 Ibid., 83. 194 Ibid., 84. Also see Gustavo Gutierrez, We drink from our own wells, 13–15.


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A transition from this kind of thinking to a more qualitative concept of salvation is needed. There are no two juxtaposed or closely linked histories, Gutiérrez observed,195 one profane and the other sacred. Rather there is a single human destiny, irreversibly assumed by Christ, the Lord of history. Christ’s redemptive action embraces all dimensions of existence and brings them to fulfilment.196 The history of salvation is the very core of human history. All reflection, any distinctions one wants to make in regard to salvation, must be based on the fact that God’s salvific act underlies all human history. The historical destiny of humanity must be placed definitively in a salvific perspective. This is a must for missionary endeavours. A holistic approach to God’s universal salvation implies political action as well. Gutiérrez emphasises that God’s liberation of Israel by rescuing them from the hardships of Egypt was a political act, because God wanted to free his people from a situation of deprivation and misery.197 In the New Testament Christ is presented as liberator, because he frees us from sin and its consequences, such as exploitation, injustice and hatred. This view has challenging consequences for the mission of Christian communities, since they are called to carry out a very specific task in the process of establishing a new order. Yes, Christians do offer an alternative for the construction of a better world. This is not to say that human hands, even Christian hands, will bring final salvation, but to affirm that God will provide it by way of personal repentance and personal faith commitment. A quotation from Bosch is pertinent: Those who know that God will one day wipe away all tears will not accept with resignation that the tears of those who suffer are oppressed now. Anyone who knows that one day there will be no more disease can and must actively anticipate the conquest of disease in individuals and society now. And anyone who believes that the enemy of God and humans will be vanquished will already oppose him now in his machinations in family and society. For all of this has to do with salvation.198

Mission, then, means being sent to proclaim in deed and word that Christ died and rose for the life of the world, that he lives to transform human lives (Rom 8:2) and overcome death – not in some future time but here and now. The proclamation of the gospel may never simply be equated with working for justice, but at the same time it cannot be divorced from it. This is clearly affirmed by pope Paul VI, who, acknowledging the major advance in Catholic thinking since Vatican II, refuses to limit the church’s missionary ministry to the dimensions of economics, politics and cultural life, but insists that salvation most 195 Gustavo Gutierrez, A theology of liberation, 86. 196 Anthony Bellagamba, Mission & ministry … In global church, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992, 53. 197 Gustavo Gutierrez, A theology of liberation, 88–89. 198 David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 400.

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certainly begins in this life to find its fulfilment in eternity (Evangelium Nuntiandi 27). There is no return to the pre-conciliar view that disassociated this world from the world to come and emphasised a private, spiritual model of salvation. 1.3.5 To be church and to practise justice: raison d’être of mission In both the Old and the New Testament faith in one, all-powerful God has the corollary of a divine domain, namely the reign of God.199 This love needs to be experienced and lived as a historical event and must extend to the entire world, to every creature. “The ultimate theological foundation of mission is this movement of God toward creation. Mission is first and foremost God who comes and irrupts in our history.”200 In this regard Legrand emphasises that mission is about creating a people of God, Israel in the Old Testament and the church in the New Testament. Thus it is more than propaganda, the recruitment of new Christians or simply spreading truth: “It is an ingathering.”201 This ingathering, represented by the image of unity (Jesus prays for the unity of his disciples, John 17), emanates from the oneness of the divine trinity. If this is so, then mission needs to be exercised for the benefit of a people, not of an institution, creating this people and in its turn developing through that body. Believers in Jesus know that mission belongs to him, and that they are gathered round his word that calls people, gathers people, judges people and ultimately guides them. It is important to see this word becoming flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who calls and gathers his messianic people. It means that mission needs to be carried out not only by the efficacious word, but also by signs and power, actions and attitudes, by the very life and death of Jesus and his followers, which are capable of transforming people and societies. Mission is as concrete as the life of people, not only its ‘religious’ aspects but the entire social, cultural, economic, political and ecological conglomerate of human existence. It is not merely individual ‘souls’ but people as groups or cultures, which are judged and called to conversion, loved and saved, set apart and gathered in unity.202 The solidarity and communion of this people, manifested even at the level of socio-economic exchange, is where mission creates new people. For this vision to be credible demands authentic conformity to the Bible, together with a coherent lifestyle. But what is the key element of Christian life in relationship with other human beings? How are Christians impelled to conform to a historical praxis that is credible? We are urged to look at the signs of

199 See Gustavo Gutierrez, A theology of liberation, 291. 200 Lucien Legrand, Unity and plurality, mission in the Bible, 152. 201 Ibid., 152. 202 Ibid., 156.


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the times. Pope John XXIII used this expression in his address at the opening of Vatican II, and its implementation poses problems. Missionary reflection and activity cannot ignore the fact that two thirds of the human race live in situations of extreme poverty, unable to satisfy even the most basic human needs – more than half of all Catholics live in such dreadful conditions. Faith and justice need to go hand in hand. The Dogmatic Constitution of Vatican II, several encyclicals, two Extraordinary Synods of bishops,203 and provincial as well as general chapters of many religious congregations have devoted much time to reflecting on the relation between faith and justice in missionary praxis. The gathering of the Latin American Episcopate in Medellin in 1968 connected missionary praxis with the historical liberation of the poor. However, a praxis that professes to be an effective tool for fostering social justice and holistic human liberation must not ignore the theological virtues of faith, hope and love, which force us to look beyond present social realities to the causes of the suffering that reside in the human heart.204 Mission, then, is dialogical. 1.3.6 Mission and the other religions Mission is about a constant dialogue between faith in Jesus, who said that the kingdom of God was already among us, and a world that seems to offer little evidence that this is the case. In this section, however, I consider mission as dialogue with people who profess other religions. The issue of what attitude Christian missionary praxis should adopt towards followers of other religions is an old one, with roots in both the Old and the New Testament.205 1.3.6.1 Is Christianity essentially unique? There has been a lot of debate in recent times about dialogue with other religions. Are all religions basically the same? In 1302 pope Boniface issued a bull entitled Unam Sanctam (One and holy), which proclaimed the Catholic Church as the only institution that guaranteed salvation. Various church councils, episcopal synods and church documents kept reiterating the same basic principle. On this theological premise Christian missions for many centuries used conquest as the normal method of church expansion. Crusades were justified with the same intellectual rationale. Christianity was understood to be unique, exclusive, superior, definitive, normative and absolute, the only religion

203

The Extraordinary Synods of bishops in 1971 and 1972 produced two important documents in this regard, “The justice in the world” and “The evangelization of the modern world”. 204 Ignacio Ellacuria & Jon Sobrino, Fé y justicia, 119. 205 Aloysius Pieris, “An ecumenically biblical approach to inter-religious dialogue and interhuman justice”. Rev. Soma Perera Felicitation Address delivered at Scots Hall Methodist Church, Colombo 3, on 14 November 2001.

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that had a divine right to exist and extend itself without external opposition.206 Missionary activity, at least in some parts of the Asian world, was marked by constant fighting and aggression, particularly against the formidable force of Islam. The Enlightenment brought a more temperate attitude towards religions, which, together with more democratic feelings and amazing technological advances, led to the assumption that interest in religion was waning. Today, however, the contrary seems to be the case. We are witnessing a revival of many religious movements. One need merely look at the increased interest in Europe in Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. According to Bosch the two biggest “unsolved problems for the Christian church are its relationship to the worldviews that offer this-worldly salvation and to the other faiths”.207 This twofold problem confronts Christianity with the excruciating dilemma of deciding whether Christianity is indeed essentially different from other religions. From this perspective, the missionary praxis and attitudes of the church towards other religions can be analysed under three headings – ecclesiocentric, christocentric, and theocentric – resulting in three different attitudes: exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralistic.208 Without exhaustively analysing the issues involved, it can be affirmed that these distinctions correspond with a changed perception of the relation between the mystery of salvation and the Christian mystery. Ecclesiocentrism or exclusivism holds that salvation is possible only through explicit faith in Jesus Christ as professed by the church community. Christocentrism or inclusivism affirms the possibility of salvation in Jesus Christ without explicitly professing faith in him and in the church. The theocentric or pluralistic view holds that all religions are equally capable of securing their members’ salvation without assigning Jesus Christ and Christianity a normative or constitutive role. Theologians have been reflecting on these ways of discerning the diversity of religions in the world in which Jesus calls his followers to act as the salt and light of the world or like small seeds that will grow big. Vatican II made a notable

206 Paul F. Knitter, No other name? A critical survey of Christian attitudes toward the world religions, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1985, 18. 207 David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 476–477. 208 Jacques Dupuis, Toward a Christian theology of pluralism, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1997, 280–294. Also see Alan Race, Christians and religious pluralism: patterns in the Christian theology of religions, London: SCM, 1983; Harold Coward, Pluralism: challenge to world religions, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1985. Aloysius Pieris makes an equivalent distinction: Christ against the religions, Christ of the religions, Christ among the religions; “Speaking of the Son of God” in “Jesus, Son of God” in Concilium 152, 3, 1982, 65–70. Other classifications are more complex. See Paul F. Knitter, Introducing theologies of religions, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2002.


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contribution to the theology of religions. In Lumen Gentium 16 it spelled out God’s universal salvific will (Tim 2:4) and acknowledged the good and the truth in the lives of all people. Furthermore, in the same paragraph the document sees the plan of salvation at work in those who “recognize the Creator”, who seek the unknown God “in shadows and images” and who “not without grace, strive to lead a good life”. Nostra Aetate (the Council’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions) works out the same view in more detail, emphasising what people have in common and what tends to promote fellowship, and regards religion as something that provides answers to life’s unsolved riddles (1). It adds that the Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in other religions, not least since these often reflect a ray of the church’s own truth (2). However, the Council’s reflections seem still to be based on a general theory of religions and its arguments are sociological and philosophical rather than theological. Karl Rahner and other theologians brought a shift from an ecclesiocentric to a christocentric approach. Rahner never abandons his christological premise, although he recognises supernatural elements of grace in other religions, which have been given to human beings by Christ. Accordingly he calls good people from other religions ‘anonymous Christians’. For many theologians these categories betray a Western mindset, which cannot ultimately offer a satisfactory idiom. Aloysius Pieris has explicit misgivings about the Western classification: “I have found myself gradually appropriating a trend in Asia, which adopts a paradigm wherein the three categories mentioned [exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism – AE] do not make sense.”209 Felix Wilfred likewise sees uniqueness as a Western problem: “The debate around the issue is mainly a debate of Western factions – the dogmatic, and the reactionary liberals who try to relativise the claim of uniqueness. This language … has its presuppositions and epistemological background, and it is not clear that [it] could be extrapolated to other cultural areas … Seen from the Indian perspective, tradition, and frame of reference, the need to use the language of uniqueness does not arise.”210 1.3.6.2 Truth to be discovered in dialogue How is mission to be thought and practised in the midst of these seemingly irreconcilable positions? Michael Bernes argues that a solution must be sought outside the rigid trichotomy. The answer should be found, not in a shift from

209 Aloysius Pieris, “An Asian paradigm: interreligious dialogue and theology of religions”, in The Month 26, 1993, 129–134. 210 Felix Wilfred, “Some tentative reflections on the language of Christian uniqueness”, in Pro Dialogo Bulletin 85–86, 1, 1994, 40–57.

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christocentrism to theocentrism, but beyond pluralism.211 This implies that missionary theological reflection and praxis should both be conducted in such a manner that Christian communities, while holding on to their religious identity, engage in a theology of dialogue and not merely a theology for dialogue.212 There must be a place for a theology in and of dialogue, which will do full justice to the distinctive character of each religious tradition with its irreducible identity and difference, instead of making other religions or traditions fit into a Christian schema. In this regard Robert Schreiter makes a highly pertinent point: Popular religion is sometimes contrasted with official religion. If we take official religion to be those prescribed beliefs and norms of an institution promulgated and monitored by a group of religious specialists, then popular religion becomes those patterns of behavior and belief that somehow escape the control of the institutional specialist, existing alongside (and sometimes despite) the efforts at control of these specialists. In this sense popular religion is seen as deviation from a norm.213

Sincerity of dialogue requires that all parties enter into it with the integrity of their own faith. Let the members of each religious faith live their faith in such a manner that it challenges practitioners of other religions to live theirs with total commitment and integrity.214 As Dupuis remarks “More divine truth and grace are found operative in the entire history of God’s dealing with humankind than are available simply in the Christian tradition. As the ‘human face’ or ‘icon’ of God, Jesus Christ gives to Christianity its specific and singular character.”215 1.3.6.3 Is there any place for announcing the kerygma? Granting all this, Christians still face the daunting dilemma of unfailingly proclaiming Christ as the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6; Nostra Aetate 2).

211 Michael Bernes, “Theology of religions in a post-modern world”, in The Month 28, 1994, 270–274; 325–330. Under the influence of interfaith encounters he argues that theology of religions is in fact shifting “from the pluralistic to a post-modern mode”. 212 Theology of dialogue emphasises dialogue with other religions with no preconditions. This dialogue is a conversation in which God is already assumed to be present among the dialogue partners. Theology for dialogue implies that we expect the other religion to recognise our uniqueness as a precondition for dialogue, without reciprocally extending the same recognition to the other religion. 213 Robert Schreiter, Constructing local theologies, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1985, 125. 214 Paul F. Knitter, No other name?, 222. Knitter holds that the goal of mission has been achieved when announcing the gospel has made the Christian a better Christian and the Buddhist a better Buddhist. But that is just one side of the dialogic aspect of mission, because I believe that mission is more than just dialogue. 215 Jacques Dupuis, Toward a Christian theology of religious pluralism, 388.


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How is proclamation possible in this context? How does one combine dialogue and proclamation? Bosch puts it in a nutshell: The Christian faith cannot surrender the conviction that God, in sending Jesus Christ into our midst, has taken a definitive and eschatological course of action and is extending to human beings forgiveness, justification, and a new life of joy and servanthood, which, in turn, calls for a human response in the form of conversion.216

Whilst fully acknowledging that there is no easy way out of the dilemma, I offer some guidelines on how to reconcile proclamation and dialogue in missionary praxis. Mission as dialogue has to be accompanied by certain necessary human attitudes. It must proceed from willing, not grudging, acceptance of the coexistence of different faiths. Such peaceful coexistence implies commitment – on the Christian side, commitment to the gospel. Dialogue requires the belief that we are all moving towards God, who has preceded us and has prepared a path for us in the context of our own cultures and convictions.217 We need to recognise that religions are worlds in themselves, framed by their own cultural values, and that they relate to other religions in diverse ways, because each religion has its own questions and answers. All this requires a healthy dose of humility. For Christians faith is a gift of grace from God; for other people their faith is also a gift of grace from God. The only difference may be that Christians find Christ – God made man – hanging on a cross. It is here – on the cross, in the kenotic image of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet – that missionary praxis must be clear and unmistakable. There is no way that different religions can come together, not even to talk to each other, as long as doctrine is the framework for dialogue. A coherent, kenotic lifestyle seems to be the only way. Proclamation will happen when “they see that it pleases the Lord”.218 To my mind Prof. Camps offers an excellent way out of the impasse: The theology of religions should be a pilgrim theology. All people have been created by the word of God and therefore understand themselves as creatures that follow a way that corresponds with the way of God with the creation. The auto interpretation of the Christian community testifies that this view of people is true at the deepest level and that through history it leads to one single divine way. In solidarity with all pilgrims Christians will look upon themselves as fellow pilgrims. Herein lies the community. If discontinuity must be established, one should observe that wise people can learn something from others, who like ourselves are imperfect and have inadequate perceptions of the truth…Jesus is the way, but he is not in competition with other ways.219

In the process of missionary dialogue with other religions there is a still more pressing task which, if not properly addressed, may blur the credibility of

216 David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 488. 217 See J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam, 190. 218 Ibid., 94. 219 Arnulf Camps O.F.M., “The theology of religions as pilgrim theology”, 138.

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Jesus’ message in the eyes of the world: the task of engaging in dialogue with communities who profess faith in the same Lord Jesus Christ. 1.3.7 Mission and ecumenical dialogue Since Vatican II the language used in the Catholic Church to refer to Protestant communities has changed dramatically, not as a result of more refined social etiquette but because of a new understanding of the Christian message. Thus from being called ‘children of Satan’, ‘heretics’ and ‘schismatics’, Protestants have come to be known as ‘dissenters’, ‘separated brethren’ and, more recently, ‘brothers and sisters in Christ’.220 The Decree on Ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio) in particular clearly spelled out the need for improved relations and mutual acceptance among all Christian churches. The first paragraph of the document describes the restoration of Christian unity as one of the Council’s principal concerns and states that division among Christians “contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages that most holy cause, the preaching of the Gospel to every creature”. Ad Gentes 6 takes up the same theme and intimately links the unity of the church to its mission. Certainly divisions between Christian churches, sometimes articulated in fiercely aggressive language, greatly scandalise many people in so-called ‘mission’ lands. In my many years of missionary work I always felt challenged when people expressed their frustration at Christianity for dividing their families, as baptism into different Christian churches led to animosity. With a view to ecumenical dialogue, too, we need a basic acceptance of differences. Regarding such acceptance of differences among different Christian communities, I propose some reflections that will heighten our consciousness that we are all participating in the single mission of Jesus, although we may express it in different ways. First let us consider common witness. Evangelii Nuntiandi 77 insists on “a collaboration marked by a greater commitment to the Christian brethren with whom we are not yet united in perfect unity”. Dialogue between different Christian churches needs to be part and parcel of missionary praxis. In 1980 John Paul II called Martin Luther “a witness to the message of faith and justification” and in 1983 he again praised this German Christian in a Lutheran church.221 Thus historical controversy and confrontation have made way for ecumenical encounter. This encounter needs to be concretised in the everyday life of Christians around the world at the local level. What is called for today is common witness.222 220 Quoted by David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 461. 221 25 June 1980, John Paul II’s speech on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the Confessio Augustana, which marked Luther’s official rupture with Rome. 222 Common witness: study document of the Joint Working Group of the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches. Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1984 (first published 1982).


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Such common witness has nothing to do with a strategy to win new Christians, but indicates “awareness of the communion with Christ and with each other” as a force that generates a dynamism which drives Christians to overtly witness to Jesus Christ together.223 Christ is the centre and Christ demands obedience. This common witness will unite us with Christ in establishing God’s kingdom among the poorest of the poor, and thus make our Christian mission credible. A second requirement is awareness that the division of churches is sinful.224 From the foregoing it follows that the lack of ecclesial unity is more than just an impediment to effective expansion of the Christian faith. Division between churches is a sin and a scandal. In the midst of this sin we hear the voice of Christ urging us to unite. We are called to be one and to strive for what remains the utopia: the final, eschatological encounter in the Holy Trinity. Thirdly, there is but one mission. Since Vatican II it has become impossible to say ‘church’ without at the same time saying ‘mission’, and this mission is one for the whole church – the mission of God (missio Dei). It is absolutely essential to restore God to the centre of Christian missionary praxis. It is God’s plan that God seeks to accomplish in the world through human mediation. The people of God are also one. The messenger must diminish so that the message grows bigger. Fourthly, we must accept a constructive tension between aspects that unite us and then give us a distinctive character. In the process of mediating God’s design of salvation for all his people we find diverse ways of accomplishing it. This naturally causes tensions between churches, since there is no call for uniformity. Differences should be seen as challenges to conversion, repentance and self-criticism, in which Christians analyse attitudes, motives and the quality of their human dealings with non-Christians. Ecumenism is only possible if we are capable of accepting each other in our differentness.225 In the midst of diversity the centre remains Jesus Christ. When opening Vatican II on 11 October 1962 John XXIII insisted on a pivotal belief in the hearts of all Christians, namely that Jesus Christ is still the centre of the community and of life. Fifth, the church’s existence is one of perpetual mission. Its mission will never end. The church used to believe that the baptism of the last unbeliever would make mission irrelevant. This view betrays a quantitative understanding. We can never say ‘mission accomplished’ as long as our fellow humans are oppressed and live in humiliating poverty. Sixth, there is no room for notions of ‘sending’ or ‘receiving’ churches. It is essential that we develop new relationships between Christian communities. Moving beyond the old mindset of ‘sending’ and ‘receiving’ churches, we

223 David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 463. 224 Ibid., 467. 225 James Crumley, “Reflections on twenty-five years after the Decree on Ecumenism”, in Ecumenical Trends 18, 1989, 147.

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need to develop relations based on mutual responsibility, accountability and interdependence (as opposed to independence). We can no longer speak of Western and Third World churches, not even if financial resources are still being channelled from the former to the latter.226 Faith in the mystical body of Christ needs to inform a relationship of interdependence. Finally, Christians are here to serve humankind. The mission of the church includes service to the whole of humankind and seeks the final kingship of God. God’s reign is not only the church’s final fulfilment but also the world’s future.227 This service should be the common task of all Christian churches, and Christian communities need to look at the concrete cultures and historical contexts in which the task of serving humankind for God’s sake has to be performed. 1.3.8 Contextual and inculturated mission This section responds to a real challenge faced by many religious missionaries, who made the choice to live their Christian witness in countries very different from their own. On the one hand we went to those countries carrying our own cultural ‘luggage’.228 We entered a church that has its own view of how the gospel should be proclaimed and lived. Often one hears people say that local clergy, after returning from their studies in Rome, become more Roman (European, American) than the Romans, or that “foreign missionaries want to impose on us some local symbols in the liturgy that strike us as pagan”. On the other hand we have discovered so much common ground with the cultures that welcomed us that the urgency of proclamation is questioned. This is nothing new. From the very beginning of Christian history the church’s missionary message incarnated itself in the life world of those who had embraced it. However, the essentially contextual nature of the faith has only recently been recognised. Thus Bevans writes: Contextual theology can be defined as a way of doing theology in which one takes into account: the spirit and the message of the gospel; the tradition of the Christian people; the

226 Michael Amaladoss, S.J., “The mission institutes in the new millennium”, in Nijmegen Institute for Missiology 3–4, revised version of “Les institutes missionaires en Asie” in Spiritus 167, 2002, 161–170. 227 Gennadios Limouris (ed.), Church-kingdom-world: the church as mystery and prophetic sign, Geneva: World Council of Churches, Faith and Order Paper N. 130, 1986, 169. 228 Nicolas Standaert, “The transition of Renaissance culture in seventeenth-century China”, in Daniel Carey (ed.), Asian travel in the Renaissance, Bodmin, Cornwall: Blackwell, 2004, 43. This ‘luggage’ comprises “the resources available in one’s culture of origin, the mobility and amount of material that one can carry, and one’s imagination of the climate and culture on the other side, generated by the available information about that other culture [plus, I would add, the capacity to assimilate it – A.E.].” This luggage, moreover, “is not only material, but also consists of cultural, intellectual, and educational background in which one was enculturated in one’s place of origin”.


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culture in which one is theologizing; and social change in that culture, whether brought about by western technological process or the grass-roots struggle for justice and equality, justice and liberation.229

In its reflection on faith contextual theology undoubtedly draws on traditional sources (scripture, tradition), but it also takes into account the presentday reality of the people. Thus theological reflection recognises that culture, history and contemporary thought need to be considered alongside scripture and tradition, since the aim is that the gospel must speak to every aspect of human life. This logically implies the validity of human experience, from which we discover God’s presence in all cultures. The reality in which we all live is mediated by meaning,230 a meaning we give it in the context of our own culture and our historical period, understood in terms of our own thinking patterns. That is why I emphasise that missionary praxis has to respond to the challenges and concerns of the relevant historical period. Before proceeding to outline an improved missionary praxis for different contexts I need to explain some terms. 1.3.8.1 Some hermeneutic clarifications Without pretending to offer an exhaustive exposition of terms that are widely used in this text, and in theology generally, some clarifications are called for. I do not elaborate on them in detail, but merely indicate what they entail in relation to the three missionary methods analysed in this study. My hermeneutic clarifications cover two aspects: (1) culture, enculturation, acculturation and inculturation, referring to socio-anthropological issues, and (2) contextualisation/inculturation, referring more directly to theological and missionary issues. 1.3.8.2 Culture231 Aylward Shorter cites the following definitions of culture:232 “That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of a society” (Sir Edward Taylor).

This definition, which takes human society as the point of reference, emphasises the ‘learning’ process as opposed to, or different from, ‘acquired’. Human

229 Stephen B. Bevans, Models of contextual theology, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992, 1. 230 Bernad Lonergan, Method in theology, 28, 76–77, 238. 231 For further analyses of culture, see Ducruet et al., Foi et culture. Le rôle de l’Université Catholique, Rome/Paris: Gregorian University Press, 1989, 73–87. The authors offer an overview of major modern issues regarding culture and its relationship to faith. The book has an extensive bibliography. 232 Aylward Shorter, Toward a theology of inculturation, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1995, 4–15.

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interaction is the place of learning. Another definition stresses the inherited aspect of mental learning and that culture is not only about behaviour: “A system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which human beings communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about, and their attitudes toward, life” (Clifford Geertz).

This definition underlines the symbolic aspect as well as the intellectual process of learning. This does not rule out the previous definition. The next one accentuates the religio-symbolic aspect: “A set of symbols, stories, myths and norms for conduct that orient a society or a group cognitively, affectively and behaviorally to the world in which it lives” (P. Schineller).

Culture, then, is a transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a pattern that is susceptible to development and change, and intrinsic to human nature. Religion is affected by culture and at the same time affects it. Consequently we may affirm that missionary activity, as a coherent lifestyle that strives to transform the lives of the most disadvantaged, takes place in an already existing context of beliefs, morals, laws and customs that are both acquired and learnt. Those existing beliefs, morals, laws and customs are expressed in symbols, literature, art and other cultural manifestations. This raises the question of how the message of Jesus, the proclamation of the good news, and the community of believers that gather around it coexist in a given cultural context. 1.3.8.3 Enculturation Often spelt ‘inculturation’, theologians nowadays use the terms with reference to two different realities: enculturation refers to a sociological context, whereas inculturation is used in a theological context.233 Enculturation refers to the learning process which inserts a person into his/her culture. In his studies in cultural anthropology Herskovitz defines enculturation as the process in which individuals acquire competency as members of their culture. He writes: “This is in essence a process of conscious or unconscious conditioning, exercised within the limits sanctioned by a given body of custom.”234 The meaning conveyed by the term ‘enculturation’ is very close to socialisation, which also refers to the process through which society educates individuals. Although learning includes formal teaching/learning, it is largely informal and often unconscious. In addition the images, symbols and myths of any culture have a didactic dimension,

233 For enculturation, also see the following authors: Melville Jean Herskovits, Man and his works. The science of cultural anthropology, New York: Knopf, 1970, 37–40; Valeer Neckebrouck, De stomme duivelen. Het anti-missionair syndroom in de Westerse kerk, Brugge: Tabor, 1990. 234 Melville Jean Herskovits, Man and his works, 39.


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which inculcates values, priorities, religious beliefs and a way of being-in-theworld and of communicating with others. Herskovitz distinguishes between culture and society, emphasising that even though humans are social beings among other social animals, they are the only creatures capable of creating culture. In the process of creating culture Herskovitz points out the importance of the experience of previous human generations, articulated through languages, rituals and other means of expression that stimulate and determine individual human conduct.235 Enculturation is a process, then, that allows a person to become a person, capable of interacting meaningfully with others and with his/her culture. Missionary praxis, consequently, has to take into account that most people hold their religious convictions as a result of having been born into them rather than out of personal choice. This is of great importance in missionary endeavour. Forced conversions, even freely accepted ones, can dramatically alter the whole system of myths, traditions and values into which one has been enculturated.236 1.3.8.4 Acculturation The term ‘acculturation’ is closely related to the theological concept of inculturation. Some authors even use the two words interchangeably.237 It must be said at the outset, however, that although acculturation is a necessary condition for inculturation, it is a distinct sociological concept. Acculturation refers to the encounter between cultures,238 which often triggers cultural change. In the process of encounter with others human beings have the freedom to learn new things and modify particular aspects of their own cultural traditions. The result of the encounter between two cultures goes beyond the control of individuals

235 Ibid., 37. 236 This happened to Thai converts of the Portuguese and Spanish missionaries in the 15th and 16th centuries. Converts lived in a sort of enclave situation (hybrid culture: concept used by N. García Canclini, Culturas híbridas: estrategias para entrar y salir de la modernidad, Grijalbo, México, 1990, 14–15), in which they were no longer considered Thai yet never fully accepted as Europeans, as we shall see in chapter 2. The same phenomenon resurfaced among 18th century Korean Christians, who were accused of despising traditional values and the authority of the king, as will be shown in chapter 3. 237 The interchangeable use of the terms ‘inculturation’ and ‘acculturation’ is evident in several Catholic Church documents of the 1970s. The term ‘inculturation’ was used by the 1974 Synod of Bishops in their discussions. John Paul II also used it, although somewhat ambiguously, in his message to the Pontifical Biblical Commission on 26 April 1979 (Acta Apostolica Sedis 71/1, 1979, 606–609). In the same year the Pope used the term again in his encyclical Cathechesis Tradende (AAS 71/2, 1979, 1277–1340), where he wrote: “Le terme ‘acculturation,’ ou ‘inculturation’ a bien être un néologisme…” And in the same encyclical he continued referring to ‘aculturation vel inculturation’. 238 As defined by Robert Redfield, Ralf Linton & Melville Jean Herskovits, “Memorandum for the study of acculturation”, in American Anthropologists, 1936.

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and small groups within the culture.239 Different sets of myths, narratives and symbols can yield different interpretations of experience and different social identities. The encounter between two cultures is always complex: it takes place in a concrete historical situation with its own vicissitudes and circumstances, and the results can only be seen in the perspective of several generations. It is absolutely necessary, however, to critically analyse the relationships between cultures, particularly when there is an asymmetrical and abusive relationship characterised by domination or superiority240 between one culture and another. If one accepts that any culture is free to cross and transcend the limits of its own identity, the process in which this interaction takes place has far-reaching consequences for missionary praxis. The Christian faith, which comes already dressed in a particular cultural garb, has the ability to pass from culture to culture and to get absorbed into history. For missionaries this poses a challenge: no matter how hard they try to acculturate to another culture so as to transmit the gospel, they must always be careful not to pass on their cultural trappings as gospel, for this was the method of mission as conquest. 1.3.8.5 Inculturation241 Faith in Jesus Christ was always explained and rationalised in terms of the language and knowledge of the times. This implies that faith is historical, rooted in the everyday experience of the people to whom it is transmitted.242 Such historical consciousness indicates that biblical faith is incarnational. It is “the reality of God entering into human affairs”.243 Naturally this has determined the way mission was conducted by the church in the course of its history. The word ‘inculturation’244 is one of those buzz words that we have come to accept as possessing “power to awaken and fire the staid imagination of the 239 Melville Jean Herskovits, Man and his works, 523. 240 Valeer Neckebrouck, Fé y cultura. Voces del tercer mundo, Misioneros de Guadalupe, Mexico: Universidad Intercontinental Press, 1996, 19. 241 Johann Baptist Metz, “Unity and diversity: problems and prospects for inculturation”, in Concilium 204, 1989, 79–87. Also see Ignacio Ellacuría & Jon Sobrino, Mysterium liberationis: conceptos fundamentales de la teología de la liberación, Madrid: Trotta, 1990. 242 Gustavo Gutiérrez, A theology of liberation. 15th anniversary edition with a new introduction by the author, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988, 5–8. 243 David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 181. 244 A detailed etymology of the term ‘inculturation’ is not relevant to the present work, but a few remarks are in order. Little is known about the author who first used the term. Yves Congar mentions that it was first used in Japan and Peter Nemeshegyi affirms that Eastern theologians were the first to use it. For more details about the origin and further development of the term, see L. E. Espinosa González, “Los primeros pasos de la inculturación. De Lovaina a Roma”, in Voces. revista de teología de la Universidad Intercontinental 10, 1997, 133–151. The author provides an extensive bibliography.


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church at a given time in history. It is a word that suddenly appeared in the church’s discourse, unannounced yet charged with potent meaning, and like such ‘visitations’ from on high, it has kept theologians busy ever since.”245 The actual word cropped up for the first time in 1959 during the 29th Week of Missiology in Leuven,246 but then it was used virtually synonymously with the word ‘adaptation’. Since then theologians have struggled to probe its meaning and nature. Jesuit superior general Pedro Arrupe introduced it at the Synod of Bishops in Rome in 1977 and it was later clarified by the French Dominican theologian Yves Congar 247 who, in a note to Monsignor Coffy, writes: “Inculturation means that Christianity, the faith, must be sown like a seed in…a certain sociocultural human space, wherein it must find its own proper expression from that culture itself.”248 By using it officially in a papal document John Paul II firmly entrenched it in the Catholic Church’s vocabulary.249 Since then the term has become a pivotal point of discussion among scholars of mission. Despite the vast literature on the subject250 there is still considerable confusion and lack of clarity about the actual process of inculturation and what it entails. It clearly does not mean the same thing to everybody. It is possible, however, to trace some basic traits in current usages of the term ‘inculturation’, as distinct from earlier terms such as ‘accommodation’, ‘indigenisation’ and the

245 Richard G. Cote, Re-visioning mission: the Catholic Church and culture in post-modern America, New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1996, 37. 246 See the conference paper by Fr Segura, “L’initiation, valeur permanente en vue de l’inculturation”, in Mission et cultures non-Chrétiennes. Rapports et compte rendu de la XXIXe Semaine de Missiology, Louvain, 1959, Bruges: Desclée de Brouwer, 1959, 219–235. 247 Yves Congar, “Christianisme comme foi et comme culture”, in Autores Varios, Evangelizzazione e culture, atti del Congresso Internazionale Scientifico di Missioloia, Roma, 5–12 Ottobre 1975, vol. I, Roma: Pontificia Università Urbaniana, 1976, 99–100. Also see, VaYir Neckebrouck, Paradoxes de l’inculturation: les nouveaux habits des Yanomami, Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1994; also by the same author on inculturation, “Théologie progressiste et inculturation de la liturgie”, in Questions Liturgiques 77, 1–2, 1996, 52–76. 248 Quoted by Monsignor Coffy in Documentation Catholique 1731, 4 December 1977, 1036. 249 Particularly in Catechesi Tradendae (Apostolic Exhortation of Pope John Paul II, 1979). For an extensive review of John Paul II’s magisterium on faith and culture, see Francis George OMI, Inculturation and ecclesial communion, Rome: Urbaniana University Press, 1990; Joseph Gremillion (ed.), The church and the culture since Vatican II, Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1985. For the genesis and early interpretation of this term, see P. Arrupe “Lettre et document du travail sur l’inculturation”, in Acta Romana Societatis Jesu XVII, 1–2, 978, 282–309. Also see Crollius Roest, “What is so new about inculturation? A concept and its implications”, in Gregorianum 59, 1978, 721–738. 250 Stephen B. Bevans, Models of contextual theology; Robert Schreiter, “Faith and cultures: challenges to a world church”, in Theological Studies 50, 1989, 744–760; L.J. Custodio “Understanding culture”, in Philippiniana Sacra 25, 80, 1992, 279–292. These authors provide an extensive additional bibliography.

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like. How does the term ‘inculturation’ differ from these earlier terms? Bosch mentions six major discrepancies.251 First, it differs as regards the agents,252 who, with financial resources, vested with sacred authority and benevolent paternalism, supervised, controlled and legitimised their understanding of how the encounter between Christian faith and local cultures was to unfold. This was what the terms ‘accommodation’ and ‘adaptation’ suggested. Inculturation, by contrast, invokes a new set of agents, namely the Holy Spirit and the local community, particularly the laity, proceeding from their own experience. In this local community the hierarchy and the clergy are not irrelevant but become the channels for rationally articulating the experience of the people and join forces with them in solidarity. A second discrepancy has to do with local languages. Language refers to the local situation. Vatican II emphasised that the universal church finds its true existence in particular churches (Lumen Gentium 23). “At this local level, inculturation comprises much more than culture in the traditional or anthropological sense of the term. It involves the entire context: social, economic, political, religious, educational, etc.” (p. 453). In an inculturated milieu the gospel becomes both a source of inspiration and a prophetic critic of the accomplishments of a culture. The relation between the Christian message and culture must be creative and dynamic. Just as Western theologies cannot be considered to hold the whole truth of the gospel, so local cultures cannot be perfect and absolute in themselves. All cultures must be open to criticism and challenge from the gospel.253 Thirdly, inculturation transcends the local setting, because it is also interested in regional, national, international and global realities. In view of this, inculturated praxis adopts different models in different concrete realities, but with an impact on macro-realities as well. Core writes: It is noteworthy, for instance, that black Americans…still retain a unique religio-cultural identity. … In Latin America, inculturation takes the form of solidarity with and among the poor; in Africa it may be solidarity and communion within and across autonomous cultures; and in Asia they search for identity amid the density of religious pluralism. If we want this global view, then inculturation has also to come out from the assumption that it concerns mostly with young churches in the non-Western world, if not, we would still be immersed in the vicious circle of paternalistic mission from which we wish to move away. Inculturation must not become a mission priority somewhere in Asia or Africa or Latin America, but an endeavor that affects and challenges the Christian community wherever they exist.254

251 I follow David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 453ff. Specific pages will be quoted in the text. 252 P. Charles, S. J. “Missiology and acculturation”, in Nouvelle Revue Théologique 75, 1, 1953, 15–32. At the time of the missiological discussion at Leuven University the term ‘inculturation’ was oriented to the foundation of local churches, adapting the message to native recipients, and the urgent need to train local pastoral leaders. 253 David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 456. 254 Richard G. Cote, Re-visioning mission, 40.


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Fourth, inculturation needs to take the form of incarnation (kenosis), drawing inspiration from John 17:18 and Philippians 2:6-11. This implies a sense of being born a new, a never ending incarnation process rather than a search for expansion and enlargement. It follows, fifthly, that there must be interaction between gospel and culture, suggesting a two-way movement: “there is at once inculturation of Christianity and Christianisation of culture. The gospel must remain Good News while becoming, up to a certain point, a cultural phenomenon, while it takes into account the meaning systems already present in the context.” John Paul II wrote that the gospel offers cultures “the knowledge of the divine mystery”, while cultures articulate that knowledge in their original, living traditions of Christian life, celebration and intellectual reflection (Catechesi Tradendae 53). Concepts of accommodation or adaptation had a way of speaking of faith and culture in terms of ‘kernel’ and ‘husk’, implying a Western, dualistic notion of form and content, which many cultural groups find unthinkable and unacceptable. Finally, inculturation must be an all-embracing reality, since that is what culture is. Only where the encounter between faith and culture is all-inclusive will the experience of such an encounter become a force that animates and renews culture from within.255 These six discrepancies between the earlier understanding of the relation between faith and culture as accommodation or indigenisation and as inculturation still do not tell us how faith and culture can coexist peacefully. Which is to play the dominant role – gospel or culture? Fr Pedro Arrupe gives an important clue to how gospel and culture can interact: The incarnation of Christian life and of the Christian message in a particular cultural context, in such a way that this experience not only finds expression through elements proper to the culture in question (this alone would be no more than a superficial adaptation) but becomes a principle that animates, directs and unifies the culture, transforming it and remaking it so as to bring about a ‘new creation’.256

For Arrupe the proclamation of the gospel clearly needs to have two axes, so to speak. On the one hand it must take local culture as a means of transmitting the gospel and its values; on the other hand it needs to conceptualise those gospel values from within the particular culture. It is not a relationship of the superiority of one to the other, or of exclusion or inferiority. In the final analysis overemphasising the autonomy, transcendence and sovereign power of the gospel over any culture – thus according the gospel paramount power and the capacity to purify, transform or ennoble that culture and save it from certain destruction – makes Christian faith irrelevant to the people concerned. It becomes

255 K. Müller, Mission theology: an introduction, Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1987, 178. 256 Acta Romana Societatis Jesu XVII, II, 1978, 261.

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an aggressive ideology, as happened frequently in the case of the conquest method of mission. The reverse is also a risk: an approach which overemphasises the dynamics of culture, thus reducing the gospel to one among many worldviews or making it the prisoner of the culture – an approach “in which the presentation of the gospel is gradually disengaged from its previous embeddedness and is allowed to take on new forms consonant with the new cultural setting”.257 The result would be the divinisation of culturally bound principles and cultural imperialism. Neither should the two be identified: Christ is not Jewish, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai or Korean, but incarnates in all of them to transform them and empower the birth of a new creature (cf. Gal 3:26-29) and a new heaven and earth (Rev 21:5). The focus is on the ‘new creation’, the transformation of the person, society, and the holistic cultural garment that envelops the person. Inculturation refers to this ongoing historical dialogue between faith and culture(s). Thus it refers not only to dialogue between the Christian faith and a hitherto non-Christian culture, but also to dialogue with a culture in which the Christian message is accepted. Because culture is always evolving, the dialogue between gospel and culture is never ending. In this sense inculturation is as relevant in so-called Christian countries as in ‘mission’ territories. There is a real danger that Christian countries will freeze gospel values and divinise their culture, thus silencing the gospel’s prophetic voice that calls for conversion.258 That would amount to slotting gospel into culture, rather than letting it illuminate culture. On the other hand Christian faith cannot exist outside a culture.259 This implies that in mission fields there is already a vital dialogue between

257 Robert Schreiter, “Inculturation or faith or identification with culture?”, in Concilium 2, 1994, 16. 258 To avoid this danger, “[the] doctrinal development for the overall community of faith [no matter in what historical context – AE] must reverse the Gospel’s habituating alliance with one culture [to] help us to distinguish what is relative in our practice of faith from what is basic. The dynamics of this type of development are the dynamics of conversion.” See W. Reiser, “Inculturation and doctrinal development”, in The Heythrop Journal XXII, 2, 1981, 140. In the West culture and faith have often become distinctive qualities to the point of identifying countries (Catholic Spain or France; Western values) with Christianity and even the naming of political programmes (Christian Democratic Parties); in that case both gospel and culture become exclusive and exclusivist forces. 259 P. Schineller puts the problem of inculturation into perspective: “The question arises: What is at the centre, who is so important that all Christians must hold and believe it? Is there a core or kernel or centre that must be believed if one is to be considered Christian? To put it in terms of mission and inculturation, what gospel values, what part of the gospel, what aspects of the Christian community? Do we bring in all the details of canon law and liturgical law? De we bring a westernized form of Christianity, or do we more simply bring the gospel and let the Christian faith evolve and develop at its own pace?” A handbook on inculturation, Mahwah, NY: Paulist Press, 1990, 57.


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cultures – the receiving culture and the one in which the gospel brought by missionaries is swathed. Many have come to know the gospel through enculturation. An important issue here is how the gospel can interact with cultures which have had no prior dialogue with it. The answer to this question, to my mind, illustrates a difference between inculturation and contextualisation. Inculturation emphasises the gospel and its irruption in other cultures, which creates a dynamism of emerging gospel values that may be hidden in that culture. 1.3.8.6 Contextualisation Contextualisation emphasises the religious values already existing in a given culture and considers them as valid ways leading its members to salvation. Inculturation gives the upper hand, so to speak, to the gospel (robed in the culture of its bearers) transmitted by missionaries as it enters into dialogue with another culture, whereas contextualisation sees the gospel values already present in the culture prior to any contact with missionaries. Theological reflection on mission and its praxis had come a long way before it recognised the existence of a plurality of cultures needing a plurality of theologies, and that it was time to bid the Eurocentric approach farewell. There is no doubt that Christian faith must be rethought, reformulated and lived anew in each human culture, letting people become missionaries within and to their own cultures. During the Age of Discovery the church was confronted with the mammoth task of having to learn from other cultures if it was to have any impact at all. This task was not completely foreign to the church, because since its inception it had to express Jesus’ message in a Judaeo-Graeco-Roman environment. The Christian faith needs to be rethought, reformulated, lived and expressed anew in every culture,260 a task that ought to be done in a vital way, searchingly and in line with a culture’s roots (Evangelium Nuntiandi 20). The important question here is whether other religions are ways to salvation. Does God make use of other religions to accomplish his plan of universal salvation? What is the role of Jesus Christ and the church’s missionary calling if all can be saved through their own professed religions? Does this not make mission, the movement of announcing the good news to other peoples, completely irrelevant if not unnecessary? In fact, what is the relationship between Christianity and other religions? In this context Arnulf Camps proposes that the terms ‘contextualisation’ and ‘inculturation’ need to be clearly distinguished from each other.261 Both terms

260 Memorandum for a Consultation on Mission (the result of a consultation held in Rome, May 1982, organised by the Secretariat for the Promotion of Christian Unity), International Review of Mission 71, 458–477. 261 Arnulf Camps, Studies in mission history, 1956–1998, 158–161.

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are of very recent origin. The term ‘contextualisation’, in use since 1972,262 implies that the “text of the Christian memoria cannot be understood without a previous analysis of the context in which the tradition is found”.263 This context contains all the realities in which the text came to be, such as history, culture, religion, the struggles for justice and liberation, and the changes resulting from all of these. The term ‘contextualisation’, then, connotes interaction, communication and dynamism – a two-way traffic. This interaction includes not only the socio-economic life of the people but their religious beliefs as well. Consequently, Camps argues, theological study of context implies accepting the following: – that salvation history is not restricted to the Judaeo-Christian concept of salvation history; God as creator of all is also the Father of all creatures; it affirms that God has indeed turned towards the world. Even today Jesus Christ is present among the hungry and the sick, the exploited and the marginalised. – that God continues to love all human beings, even when they do not respond to his love or respond in different ways. – that God invites everyone to enter into a covenant of love with him, and all human beings can respond to this invitation by way of the expressive tools of a given culture and religion. Thus both culture and religion are simply human responses to God’s invitation to participate in his life. – that all religions and cultures cherish their stories about their foundation as communities and these narratives are expressed via religious doctrines – which impart a communal identity – that are read and celebrated. – that the holy scriptures of the founders, seers and sages of religions need to be taken seriously and given their rightful place in the universal history of salvation. It is not proper to refer to them as seminaries of idolatry, natural/undeveloped religions or ignorance, since they, too, are fundamentally concerned with the holistic well-being of all people. – that religions are not self-contained entities but are open to interaction with other religions. These encounters have varied in nature in the course of human history: sometimes enriching, sometimes polemical and mutually destructive. Today we seem to be in a phase of frank and open dialogue.

262 Shoki Coe, director of the Theological Education Fund, is considered to have coined the term. See Theological Education Fund, ministry in context: the third mandate program of the Theological Education Fund (1970–1977), Bromley: New Life Press, 1972; also Shoki Coe, “Contextualizing theology”, in G. H. Anderson & T. F. Stranski (eds), Mission trends no. 3: Third World theologies, New York/Grand Rapids: Paulist Press/Eerdmans, 1976, 19–24. 263 Arnulf Camps, Studies in mission history, 159.


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Contextualisation, then, proceeds from the premise that God is present in all human religions and cultures and offers salvation to their adherents. Camps maintains, furthermore, that “those who live in this context are free to meet God in Jesus Christ and Christians are free to be enriched by all that God has effected elsewhere”.264 All the partners in religious dialogue have received values of the kingdom of God and in dialogue they are challenged to seek mutual enrichment and stimulation. Contextualisation ends at the end of historical time when God will be all in all, and the here and now is but a preparation for this final encounter, which will be a life of perfect harmony. Personal religious events such as conversion (moral values) take on a new meaning in this context. It is no longer a switch or transition from one religion and its cultural expression to another, but rather to cross the distance from “monologue to dialogue, from rivalry to harmony, from misunderstanding to understanding, from condemnation to mutual correction”.265 It is absolutely necessary, therefore, to pay attention to what is already there in a given culture and religion, and discern there the signs of God’s presence and how God is already carrying out his design for the salvation of all peoples. As a result missionary activity requires a maieutic approach: it has to be a tool that enables all religions and cultures to produce what is best and most noble in them.266 The three aspects of cultural identity, social change and popular religiosity need to be integrated in a balanced relationship, together with the elements that Christianity offers through its scriptures and historical interpretation. 1.3.9 Mission: a kenotic lifestyle in the service of an eschatological utopia Contextualisation is a must in missionary praxis, because it gives priority, not to proclamation, but to interreligious dialogue.267 Only dialogue can overcome mutual prejudices and promote mutual understanding, all the more so if it is accompanied by promotion of human and spiritual values. God’s presence here and now in every culture and religious faith needs to be acknowledged. Mutual challenge to be wholly faithful to the demands that each religion makes of its followers is essential. However, Christians are fully aware that God’s incarnation in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, his death and resurrection cannot be found in any other culture,

264 Ibid., 160. 265 Michael Amaladoss, “Mission as prophecy”, in James A. Scherer & Stephen B. Bevans (eds), New directions in mission & evangelization, 68–69. 266 Arnulf Camps, Partners in dialogue: Christianity and other world religions, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1983, 7. 267 Michael Amaladoss, “Mission as prophecy”, 69.

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however perfect and complete it may be. Interreligious dialogue needs to bring this radically new message from God to human beings without violating the good already present in the world.268 The gospel enters a culture as a servant who washes her friends’ feet. The gospel needs to remain foreign to any culture – unshackled, detached – and always be marked by contradiction.269 Only then can it be a prophetic voice in any given culture. Even though the gospel may find a home in a culture, it must remain a challenging, prophetic voice forcing us to think and act beyond our human accomplishments, however important they may be. Thus missionary praxis will be that service, translated into a lifestyle, that keeps the gospel’s flame of prophetic radicalism alive: the realisation that the kingdom of God is already among us, always alive and making its presence more clearly visible. The realisation of the kingdom of God comprehends all dimensions of human existence and the cosmos and brings them to fulfilment. Salvation history is the very heart of human history. The historical destiny of humanity needs to be put firmly in a salvific perspective. Missionary activity as witness through a coherent lifestyle must be based on the theological presupposition that “the salvific action of God made visible in the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus covers all human existence”.270 Christ’s holistic activity is presented simultaneously as liberation from sin and from all its consequences: despoliation, injustice and hatred. The liberation brought by Christ fulfils the promises of the prophets in an unexpected way and creates a new chosen people, which includes not only Israel but all humankind and the whole of creation (cf. Col 1:15-20). From the foregoing Gutiérrez makes some important inferences for the mission of Jesus’ followers. The church as a community of believers and followers of Jesus is called to play a very specific role in the establishment of a new order. The believer knows that God’s lordship and peace are eschatological gifts that pertain only to God and can only be given by God. But the church, through the coherent lifestyle of its members and through courageous criticism of social structures, points to a new heaven and earth already among us. The church must be a prophetic critic of society, because it is the bearer of an eschatological message, which prompts it to operate in a liberating way and at the same time expresses the provisional nature of any historical accomplishment and humanly attainable goal.271 The role of a missionary church must not be confined to criticism of structural societal evils, but must urge its members to commit themselves fully to the construction of a new society and history along

268 Arnulf Camps, “The theology of religions as pilgrim theology”, 131. 269 Michael Amaladoss, “Mission as prophecy”, 71–72. 270 Gustavo Gutiérrez, A theology of liberation, 195. 271 Ibid., 219.


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the lines of the utopia Jesus had in mind when proclaiming the coming of God’s kingdom.

1.4 Conclusion: missionary praxis – method is the message “The Church on earth is by its very nature missionary, since, according to the plan of the Father, it has its origin in the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit. This plan flows from ‘fountain-like love’, the love of God the Father.”272 It follows that “God reveals in the dynamic of self-emptying, life giving and empowerment that invites all creatures to be truly themselves”,273 which demands that the church should exist and live not for itself but for others. This is the kernel of missionary praxis, to which all Christians are called by virtue of their baptism: “All Christians by the example of their lives and the witness of the word, wherever they live, have an obligation to manifest the new man which they put on in baptism, and to reveal the power of the Holy Spirit by whom they were strengthened at confirmation.”274 This first chapter focused on how missionary activity can express the ‘fountain-like love’ of the Father, who reveals himself in the dynamics of selfemptying. Throughout its history Christian missionary activity has had difficulty keeping a firm hold on what God did through Christ, who led a life of radical kenosis, emptying himself and preaching the good news of the coming of God’s kingdom. In some historical eras the Christian community, the repository of Jesus’ utopian dream, was unable to keep alive the hope of a new heaven and a new earth. The leaders of the Christian community fell into the snare of seeking power and riches and being served rather than serving. Prompted by a dangerous sense of superiority over people of other cultures and faiths, the missionary activity of the church was marred by intolerance that jeopardised the very good news it was supposed to announce. The church demanded that people of other faiths join the Christian flock, if necessary by force. It installed itself as the sole mediator between God and the world and the only dispenser of eternal salvation. Challenged by external forces such as the Enlightenment, which brought the emancipation and centrality of human beings and the church’s loss of political power on the one hand, and on the other by internal forces such as missionaries who were critical of the marriage of the cross and the sword and others who

272 Vatican II, Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, Ad Gentes Divinitus, n. 2, in Austin Flannery, Vatican Council II, vols 1 and 2, 814. 273 General introduction, xliii. 274 Ad Gentes Divinitus, n. 11, 825.

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met new cultures and religions with an open mind, the church began to realise that it had to establish a new relationship with the modern world: one of mutual respect, dialogue and cooperation. Following Vatican II and important regional gatherings of church leaders, such as the one in Medellin, Colombia, a new awareness emerged in the Catholic community that demanded new answers, particularly in view of the poverty of the masses as a consequence of a greedy and selfish world order. In response to these enormous challenges this chapter presented an evangelical model – Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet as an illustration of the threefold movement of exodus (abasement, self-emptying), incarnation (taking the role of a servant) and transformation (which took place in the person of Peter).275 I believe that this model expresses the crux of the Christian message, which needs to be hidden but alive in all missionary activity (method is message). The nine contours of the missionary activity can be summarised in one guideline, namely the coherent lifestyle of the disciple of Jesus who adheres to the utopian dream of realising God’s kingdom, capable of transforming individuals and societies in order to construct a better world, particularly for the most disadvantaged. Today more than ever before the world needs models of transforming, visible, tangible praxis rather than high-flown philosophical and theological ideas. The method is indeed the message. The church is looking once more for scriptural images that illustrate its mission. I agree with Bosch when he writes: “our mission has to be multidimensional in order to be credible and faithful to its origins and character.”276 He goes on to offer some images and metaphors from the New Testament to illustrate the key tenets on which mission should be based. Some of these graphic images are the incarnation, the cross, the resurrection, the ascension and the parousia. Other images that come to mind are Jesus’ dialogue with the Syro-phoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30), the washing of the disciples’ feet (John 13:2-11), and the encounter between Cornelius and Peter (Acts 10:1-33), to mention but a few. With this end in view I summarise the chapter by proposing two practical ways in which missionary activity can be conducted. 1.4.1 Mission as a coherent lifestyle Looking at how mission has often been practised, the expansion of the Catholic Church appears to have been a priority. The success or failure of missionary activity was often measured quantitatively: how many new adherents, 275 Egiguren Iraola, Antonio, “Mission for social transformation: with a political thrust”, 1. 276 David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 512.


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dioceses, parishes, new church buildings, schools or health institutions were added? Seen thus missionary activity is more concerned with efficacy, success and political and economic influence than with being the yeast and the light of the world. In the light of Francis’s experience among the Saracens, personal encounter with Jesus, combined with the religious experience of women and men in any place and time, needs to be the centre of missionary activity. Mission is about a lifestyle that is coherent with the life, message and lifestyle of Jesus of Nazareth. God should be the agent of mission, rather than strategic planning, however important, which in concrete terms means that people and their needs have to come before human institutions. To possess the energy to transform both persons and the social structures they form mission should begin by sharing the trinitarian life that Jesus, the first missionary, dreamed of when he spoke about the kingdom of God. The compassion Jesus showed to the crippled, the sick and the outcast should again become part of the lifestyle and a genuine expression of the life of the community of his followers, allowing space for diversity. They should be a powerless community living among women and men in whatever place and time, showing profound respect for, and devotion to, these people’s cultures, sacred scriptures and ritual symbols without taking offence at the differences they encounter. Mission needs a lifestyle that acts as yeast and light without dominating, coercing, humiliating or looking down on others. Mission needs to become once again a community activity that strives to put the laity back in the driver’s seat. Mission as a coherent lifestyle has to put the accent on local communities who live everyday lives now and here in communion with the poor. The poor must not become objects of charity but subjects of history and church building, and together with them missionaries should dream about the utopia – the eschatological realisation of a new earth and a new heaven. Local communities need to be aware that the church is a global reality, and by sharing the larger picture they can feel part of a universal church. The universal church for its part must realise that it is through its operation at the local level that it becomes a credible institution that seeks to be an instrument in the service of God’s kingdom. Thus local communities will be able to celebrate the feast of the kingdom together with the poor; a celebration that announces the final establishment of the kingdom and at the same time denounces the evil present both in worldly institutions that make the poor poorer, and in the institutional church, which is often perceived as a political institution that turns a blind eye on unjust worldly structures, if not positively siding with them. In so doing Christian local communities will transform the human families among whom they live as yeast and light, and liberate all from the evil one.

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1.4.2 Mission as proclamation: “Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words”277 The title of this paragraph summarises the main thesis of this work: preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words. Announcing the word of God requires first of all a transforming, coherent lifestyle. Christians who believe that Jesus is the first missionary sent to the world by the Father strongly believe that God has irrupted in history. Synchronising with God’s project requires the theological gifts of faith, hope and love. Through God’s eyes Christians can see that God has engaged in loving dialogue with other peoples and cultures. Just as Christ is the way to salvation for all, his followers need to accept that other people have their own God-given mediators, who in mysterious ways bring them salvation. We should never forget that for the majority of people membership of a particular religion is a purely sociological fluke: one just happened to be born into it. The vast majority had no choice. For this reason, the time and place for mission as proclamation needs to be discerned the way Francis of Assisi did: it has to be done when it pleases God. And when it pleases God – and not an institution, not even the church – the missionary needs to look at the good that God has already accomplished in every culture and religion. Then, in utmost humility, turning away from dogmatic convictions and Thomistic arguments towards powerless, humble service, respecting and loving cultures, languages, traditions and local rituals, the good news can be announced. Proclamation of the gospel needs to go hand in hand with kenotic attitudes: opposing any type of enclave or ghetto mentality and engaging in a “dialogue of life which must go beyond symptoms of poverty, injustice and oppression and attempt to eradicate the causes of dehumanisation”278 so as to be able to transform human beings and their institutions. Thus personal encounter with Jesus Christ as he appears in the biblical narratives will lead the believer to kenotic praxis: “Such an openness demands a kenosis modelled after that of Jesus. Christian spirituality is a spirituality of kenosis – of powerlessness, of continual purification from self-centredness, of growing more in openness to our partners in dialogue.”279 This kenotic missionary attitude that abandons any form of self-centredness (geographical, intellectual, cultural or sociopolitical) and power in its threefold movement of exodus, immersion/incarnation/inculturation and transformation, aiming at the establishment of God’s

277

A sentence attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi, which reflects the two ways of doing mission that Francis left for his followers in chapter 16 of his Regula Non Bulata. 278 J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam, 180. 279 Ibid., 181.


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kingship in the midst of our brothers and sisters, will undoubtedly make the gospel we proclaim a more credible and coherent message. The next two chapters280 present three examples of missionary activity practised in three different parts of Asia. The way these three mission models conform to the transforming, coherent lifestyle described in chapter 1, particularly in regard to the nine contours of mission, will be the focus of the study. But as an epilogue to this chapter I anticipate by describing a concrete missionary praxis that is taking place in Thailand.

1.5 Epilogue: a Franciscan missionary option in Thailand In the introduction281 I mentioned that this study is permeated with the personal experience of twenty years as a missionary in Asia. In 1994 a group of Franciscans in Thailand opened a sixteen-bed hospice for terminally ill aids patients in the cloister of their friary. Between 1991 and 1997, the six years in which I had the privilege of being in charge of the project, Saint Clare hospice became the last home for about 400 aids patients. Reflecting the proportional distribution of religious followers in the country, about 90% of them were Buddhists, 5% were Muslims, 3% were Christians, and 2% had no religious affiliation. We even had a small number of foreigners who chose to spend the last days of their lives in Thailand. The common denominators were extreme poverty, rejection, loneliness and certain death. These patients became our missionaries.282 In the spirit and the work carried out at the hospice (it still continues today) I see a perfect articulation of the nine contours of mission, both as an intellectual and a practical endeavour, that I have presented in this chapter. I offer this experience of the Franciscans in Thailand as a possible application of mission as a transforming, coherent lifestyle. The communitarian experience of the person of Jesus, in Francis of Assisi’s spirit of service,283 was the force that inspired the community to begin such a

280 In chapter 2 I succinctly describe two models of doing mission. The first is called the conquista model followed by European missionaries in Thailand. The second model, which I call accommodation, was applied by Matteo Ricci in China. These two models will be compared with a third model that I have called kenotic; it was put into practice by Korean intellectuals turned Christians during the last quarter of the 18th century. 281 General introduction, xxxii. 282 Nicolas Standaert, “L’ “autre” dans la mission. Leçons à partir de la Chine, Brussels: Lessius, 2003. Using examples of Chinese Christians who were the real people sent by God to those European missionaries coming to China, the book attempts to see mission from the perspective of the other, where the protagonists are not the missionaries from Europe but those Chinese who turned out to be the first true missionaries. 283 J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam, 190.

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journey. Each patient revealed the suffering figure of Jesus. In keeping with Francis’s command to missionaries, the patients were our masters to whom we owed service and obedience. This became the locus for proclamation and dialogue, again following Francis’s orientation of not quarrelling about religious differences or judging patients on account of their alternative lifestyles, but loving and respecting the other in his/her difference. Direct proclamation was done only when the time was ripe for it and the community saw that it pleased God. In caring for the patients God was the main agent of the missionary activity. We were mere instruments in God’s hands. God’s unconditional love flowed like a river though our actions. Because there were many facets that had to be taken into account (e.g. medical, personal, social, economic and familial problems), it called for teamwork. The mission among the aids patients was the work of a community, some believers in Christ, others in the Buddha, others in the Qur’an, yet others with no particular religion, who became like yeast and light in a world that had proved none too friendly to them. Lay persons – doctors, nurses, psychologists, lawyers and social workers – participated in a project aimed at practising compassion. Local churches, temples and mosques were brought on board. The hospice became a place where all could celebrate their faith, each in his/her way, and remain in solidarity with the patients and their plight. The project was instrumental in creating an atmosphere for individual as well as community transformation and liberation. Indeed, the hospice became a school of learning about the causes of HIV-aids, such as dire poverty, unemployment, forced migration from small villages to the faceless metropolis, environmental destruction and oppression of women. It also became a place to look at the plight of women, often abused and sold into prostitution by men who regarded their own daughters as income generating tools. The place also housed many gatherings of government officials, who were able to pass on to the villages the spirit of the centre. This mission among the aids patients needed a theologically based response lived in faith, love, hope and justice, but also in dialogue, both interreligious and ecumenical. Indeed, the hospice became like an improvised temple where Buddhist monks and faithful Muslim imams and their followers, Protestant ministers and Catholic priests and their followers all gathered together to offer the comfort of their faith and ritualise the passing moments. All this was done by bringing all religious symbols together in perfect harmony, reading into the sacred scriptures of all faiths the message that became one of consolation and peace, and using the religious languages of the patient, be it Sanskrit-Pali, Arabic or local Thai. In this setting, Buddhist compassion, Muslim surrender and Christian agape joined hands to make the world a more liveable place in which human beings are loved and cared for and the hope of a better world was ritually anticipated. In Thailand the method became and still is the message of missionary activity.


Map 2: The city of Ayutthaya is shown in the centre of today’s Thailand. It was around the capital of Ayutthaya that the great unification of a constellation of small kingdoms was carried out during the reign of Pra Naresuan (1590–1605).

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Map 3: Ecclesiastic boundaries show that the region of Siam and Cambodia was contested territory as far as jurisdiction was concerned. The two dioceses of Goa, with its suffragan diocese of Malacca, and the bishopric of Macau claimed jurisdiction over Siam. When the French missionaries arrived in Thailand in the first quarter of the 16th century, the apostolic vicars travelling with them claimed ecclesiastic jurisdiction over Siam, Cambodia and Vietnam, thus arousing fierce disagreement among the missionaries and the neighbouring dioceses.


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Map 4: The inland route from the west coast of the Gulf of Bengal, thus avoiding having to cross the Malacca straits, shows the trade routes during the 15th and 16th centuries.


Chapter Two

Struggling between the sword and the pen

Introduction Quoting Emil Brunner, Lamin Sanneh begins his article, “Theology of mission”, with a powerful statement: “The church lives by mission as fire lives by burning.”284 Sanneh gives several interpretations of this image. Christian faith expressed in mission animates the life and thought of the believer and causes inner transformation. Mission is an activity of the church in which the believer witnesses to the kingdom Jesus had already inaugurated, but is not a means to bring the kingdom.285 The church’s mission, right from the start, was conducted in a cross-cultural setting, involving dialogue between Jew and gentile, and in concrete geographical places, such as Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, Cyprus and Libya. Persons who had been freed (Gal 5) by their faith continued Jesus’ mission, accompanied by the creative Spirit of God. These people felt free to translate and express Jesus’ life and message in other languages, using the cultural symbols and rituals available in the new environment. Jesus’ followers created a social movement in which human relations and new social and economical structures were part of the master’s message and mission. The creative, dynamic movement started by Jesus came to a standstill once the known world became Christian, with the unfortunate consequence of identification of church and state during the Middle Ages,286 from which we seem not to be completely free even now. This chapter responds to that situation. The missionaries to Thailand, whose missionary approach we discuss here, were working hand in hand with their colonial patrons. The mindset embodied by the concepts of the cross and the sword had free play.287 Missionaries – for the most part ordained clergy and members of religious orders – firmly believed their task was to expand the church to the new territories and forcefully preached the gospel. Although concerned about the needs of the poor, they never made any real effort to understand the other culture and respect its dignity. Consequently

284 Lamin Sanneh, “Theology of mission”, in David F. Ford (ed.), The modern theologians, 555. 285 Ibid., 556. 286 Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, 120. 287 The political and military interference of European forces in Thailand was not marked by the same cruelty displayed in other parts of the world, particularly Latin America.

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I qualify their missionary method as one of conquest: missionaries had to conquer new Christians for the church and their conquistador compatriots288 had to conquer goods and spices, money and power for their colonial powers. Let me state explicitly that the brief historical assessment of the events in Siam in the first part of the chapter is not meant to blame the personalities involved or the institutions they represented, nor to judge them as if they had been fully aware of what they were doing. Instead I place those events and people in the broader historical context of their times, when theirs was the ‘normal’ way to act. The second part of the chapter, in which Matteo Ricci becomes the protagonist of the missionary method I call accommodation, outlines a changed approach to mission as a result of the Renaissance (Enlightenment)289 and the Reformation in Europe, which brought new concerns and priorities. New philosophical principles, which gave human beings pride of place and thus focused on political reality rather than on God, undermined the position of the church; the value of persons as individuals was paramount. In this context it is fair to say that Matteo Ricci, together with his superior and mentor Alessandro Valignano (1539–1606), designed a new missionary method, similar to the one used by the first Christians in their encounter with new cultures. Ricci entered China, bringing with him the pen – European Renaissance humanistic culture – as well as his faith. As John Paul II put it: “Just as the Fathers of the Church thought in regard to Christianity and Greek culture, so Matteo Ricci was rightly convinced that faith in Christ would not bring any harm to Chinese culture, but rather would enrich and perfect it.”290 Ricci also brought the previously little known Chinese culture to Europe. In this intercultural dialogue he did not hesitate to accommodate the new cultural concepts and symbols he found in China in order to transmit his faith. These two mission models, conquest and accommodation, are juxtaposed and analysed in the same chapter to demonstrate the progress in the church’s missionary reflection and strategy and then, in chapter 3, contrast them with the kenotic model used in Korea in the 18th century – a model which, I believe, takes the church back to its historical origins.

2.1 Siam in the age of conquest: a colonial mission praxis The literature on the theology and history of mission during the Age of Discovery emphasises mission as expansion.291 Thus missionary success is 288 See chapter 1, section 1.1.2. 289 David J. Bosch, Transforming mission, 26–262. 290 John Paul II, discourse on 25 October 1982 during the concluding session of the International Ricci Studies Congress at the University of Macerata, Ricci’s birthplace, and the Pontifical Gregorian University to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Ricci’s arrival in China. 291 Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, 126.


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often quantified in terms of number of baptisms or new church buildings. There is no doubt that during the historical period292 under investigation the historical engine that drove mission was Europe’s maritime expansion after the great discoveries, which established the principle of combining territorial acquisition with commercial exploitation, to which Christianisation was later added.293 This political and economic atmosphere promoted the emergence of heroic missionaries, who saw themselves as new apostles called to break new ground and make Christians in order to bring salvation to all. Missionaries carried the cross and joined forces with merchants and soldiers, who carried money and guns. In this scenario bringing civilisation and the gospel and doing business became a single enterprise. Both the advances in science and technology and cultural and religious superiority were European. This is the background to the Christian encounter with Siam in the mid-16th century. The political motives of mission and its conquista character described in the first chapter clearly apply in this case. From 1550, when the Franciscan Bonferre294 arrived in Siam and preached the gospel unsuccessfully for three years, until the creation of Propaganda Fide in 1622, Siam witnessed one of the saddest historical pages written by Catholic missionaries.295 In Europe the colonial superpowers, Portugal and Spain, were in constant conflict. The annexation of Portugal by Philip II in 1580 also brought deep divisions and quarrels between Portuguese and Spanish missionaries; in both Asia and the newly discovered territories of America they accused each other of excessive nationalism.296 Although the two countries had agreed to share a king, they did not subscribe to the same imperial system. There were frequent disputes between them, also with the pope, whom they needed to control their political aspirations. Other European nations such as France, England and the Netherlands wanted their share of the politico-economic benefits and privileges;

292 Last quarter of the 16th and first quarter of the 17th century for both Thailand and China. 293 Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, 120: “It is clear from all the early records that the bold and hardy men who made the great voyages, and the rulers and others who stood behind them, had two great purposes in view: first, to bring the light of the true Gospel to hitherto unknown nations who had lived in darkness; secondly, … to enter into contact with the Christian Churches, and make a great world alliance of the faithful, through which at last the power of the Muslim [both religious and economic – AE] would be brought to the ground.” 294 Ioan Petri Maffeei Bergomatis, SJ, Historiarum Indicarum XVI, Coloniae Agrippinae: In Officina Birckmannica, Sumptibus Arnoldi Mylij, 1589, 236. He is believed to have arrived in a Portuguese boat en route from Pegu (Myanmar) to Malacca. 295 Dirk van der Cruysse, Siam & the West 1500–1700, Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 2002, 468–475. Also see Henri Chappoulia, Aux origines d’une église: Rome et les missions d’Indochine au XVII–XVIII siècle, Paris: Bloud & Gay, 1943, 71–87. 296 P. Lorenzo Pérez, “Origen de las misiones Franciscanas en el Extremo Oriente”, in Archivo Ibero-Americano VII, II, 1915, 29–33.

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France297 in particular demanded from the pope its fair share in the church’s Asian missionary drive. All these tensions played a role in relations among the missionaries arriving in Siam and proceeding onwards to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. This chapter does not profess to be an exhaustive analysis of the historical situation and the missionary work done in Siam. The aim is rather to highlight the method utilised by the missionaries in their relationship with Siamese people. Could the method adopted by the missionaries, together with their political alliances and internal tensions, have acted against them in their efforts to persuade Thai people to change their religion?298 Chapter 2 is divided into two sections. The first offers a brief overview of 16th century Siam, the interaction with the European visitors and problems with neighbouring powers. It traces the interaction of the local religion and religious leaders with the European missionaries. Finally we look at the missionary method of conquista utilised by the missionaries. The second section presents Matteo Ricci’s missionary method of accommodation. We begin by placing Matteo Ricci in his historical context, both European and Chinese. This is followed by an outline of the birth and development of the missionary dream for China, of which Alessandro Valignano may be considered the intellectual and spiritual mentor. The chapter concludes with an account of Matteo Ricci’s journey through China, his literary work and missionary style. We begin by sketching the historical, political, economic and religious situation of Siam at the time of the arrival of the first Catholic missionaries. 2.1.1 A brief look at 16th century Siam Thailand – officially the kingdom of Thailand – had an absolute monarchy from 1782 until 1932, when a military coup established a constitutional monarchy. It was known as Siam, ‘the land of the White Elephant’, until 1939, when the country was renamed Thailand (in Thai language Muang Thai, Country of the Free). Geographically it is situated in the southeastern corner of Asia.299 After reverting to its former designation of Siam in 1940, it finally assumed the name of Thailand in 1949, which is how it has been known ever since.300 297 Particularly in Tonkin and Cochinchine; see Alain Forest, Les missionnaires français au Tonkin at au Siam, XVII–XVIII siècles, Paris: L’Harmattan, 1998, 9. 298 Even today Thai people refer to Christianity as foreign and to Catholic churches as Wat Farang (Foreign Temple) and Wat Yûan (Vietnamese Temple), with reference to the many Vietnamese Catholics who took refuge in north-eastern Thailand in the wake of persecutions of Catholics in Vietnam during the 17th and 18th centuries. 299 P. Marcelo de Ribadeneira OFM, Historia de las islas del archipiélago Filipino y reinos de la Gran China, Tartaria, Cochinchina, Malaca, Siam, Cambodge y Japón, Madrid: Editorial Católica, 1947, 161–175. 300 David K. Wyatt, Thailand: a short history, New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1984, 6.


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Siam had long trading contacts with China and Japan; while the Middle Kingdom remained closed to foreign trade, its diplomatic missions to renew nominal fealty to the emperor of China became a means of continuing this trade. In his Ying-yai Sheng-lan of 1433 Ma Huan, writing of the country of Hsien Lo (Siam), admits that the southern barbarians were not uncouth: The house in which the king resides is rather elegant, neat and clean … When going about he mounts an elephant or else rides in a sedan chair, while a man holds a very elegant goldhandled umbrella made of chiao-chang leaves [over him] … The king is … a firm believer in the Buddhist religion.301

He also describes the numerous priests and nuns in the country, the curious practice of wearing penis bells, the marriage and funeral customs and the language resembling Kuangtung patois. He comments on the foreign goods available, the country’s products of incense, laka wood, rosewood, cardamon, the resin known as dragon’s blood, rattans, sappan wood, tin, elephant tusks, kingfisher feathers, “and other such things”. Thus Siam was known as an exporter of exotic jungle products. He concludes by remarking “The king regularly sends chiefs who take sappanwood, laka-wood, and other such valuable things, and bring them as tribute to the Central Country [China].”302 2.1.1.1 Arrival of European ships It can be assumed that Siam was an established power in the region well before the Europeans came on the horizon. Portuguese sailors knew it as Siam when they reached the country in the early 16th century. The Portuguese arrived after Alfonso de Albuquerque had conquered Melaka (Malacca) in 1511 on the assumption that this territory was under Ayutthaya rule.303 There was an official exchange of gifts between Albuquerque and the king of Siam.304 Albuquerque sent Duarte Fernandes, who spoke Malay, to the court of Ayutthaya, bearing a letter justifying the Portuguese conquest. King Ramathibody, who was presented with a golden sword in a sheath studded with diamonds, received him. The Siamese king was not opposed to the Portuguese conquest of Malacca.305 The king, who was engaged in frequent wars with his neighbours, wished to evaluate the military and technical superiority of the Portuguese, to which Portugal’s representative, Albuquerque, was happy to agree. Between them they concluded

Ma Huan, Ying-yai Shenglan: the overall survey of the ocean’s shores, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1433/1970, 103. Also see Alain Forest, Les missionnaires français au Tonkin at au Siam, XVII–XVIII siècles, 89. 302 Ma Huan, Ying-yai Shenglan: the overall survey, 107. 303 David K. Wyatt, Thailand: a short history, 88. 304 Fr Manuel Teixera, The Portuguese missions in Malacca and Singapore (1511–1958), Lisbon: Agencia General Do Ultramar, 1961, 56. 305 Dirk van der Cruysse, Siam & the West 1500–1700, 9. 301

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their first treaty in 1516, Portugal receiving permission to settle in Ayutthaya and other Thai ports in return for supplying guns and ammunition to the Thai king.306 Thus the Portuguese created one of their many enclaves in Asia. Portugal began supplying guns, gunpowder and munitions to Siam, and in exchange the Portuguese were granted permission to practise their religion without restraint. Towards the end of the 16th century Spain also established itself in Ayutthaya. This was the scene on which the missionaries arrived. The Portuguese and Spanish merchants used their privileged position to bring along missionaries to evangelise the country. The religious tolerance expressed by the ruler of Siam was on the whole not shown by the Portuguese and Spaniards in their dealings with Muslims and Jews in their own countries. Although relations between the missionaries and the patron merchants of both countries were not always friendly, the Portuguese capture of the major Malay trading centre of Malacca in 1511 and the establishment of an enclave in Ayutthaya not only completely changed trading patterns in the region, but also “brought about a political realignment which was to mark the region significantly”.307 By the end of 1540 a fair sized Portuguese community had settled in Ayutthaya, so that a Mu Ban Portuget (Portuguese Village) was erected with a church and a residence for missionaries. The Portuguese left some important accounts of the country in the 16th century, most notably those of Ferna˘o Mendes Pinto,308 Ja˘o de Barros and Diogo do Couto in the Décadas da India, and one dictated in Portuguese by a Fleming but published in Spanish by Jacques de Coutre.309 Dirk van der Cruysse writes: Everything points to the Portuguese presence in Siam being felicitous and profitable throughout the 16th century. From their godown in Pattani, the Portuguese established contact with Ming Chinese; the first arrived in Canton in 1517. This new expansion was to lead to a durable success. In 1557 the Ming Emperor Shih-tsung authorized ‘the people from the other shore’ to establish themselves in Macao (at first named Porto do Nome de Deus), advantageously situated at the mouth of the Pearl River, some hundred kilometers from Canton.310

In 1580 Portugal was caught up in one of the most dramatic episodes in its history when their cardinal-king Don Enrique died and the country was annexed

306 Portugal had warehouses in Ayutthaya, Ligor (now Nakhon Sri Thammarat) and Pattani in the south, and Tenasserim and Mergui (today in Burmese territory) on the west coast, thus giving it commercial control of the Gulf of Bengal. 307 Michael Smithies & Luigi Bressan, Siam and the Vatican in the seventeenth century, Bangkok: River, 2001, 11. 308 Rebecca Catz edited the translation of this diary in The travels of Mendes Pinto, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. 309 Vida de Iacqves de Covtre, natvral de la civdad de Brugas. Published as E. Stols, B. Teebsna & J. Werberckmoes (eds), Andanzas asiáticas, Madrid: Historia 16, Informaciones y Revistas, 1640/1991. 310 Dirk van der Cruysse, Siam & the West 1500–1700, 11. The Portuguese continued their trade, linking Macao with Japan and the Philippines. Macao remained a Portuguese colony until 1999.


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by Spain, which was interested in the spice trade and the Americas but less so in establishing further enclaves in the Indies. Although Portugal regained its independence under the Braganza dynasty in 1640, it lacked the military and economic power to maintain its Asian enclaves. Taking advantage of this power vacuum, the Dutch stepped in and in 1641 took over Malacca from the Portuguese. The Dutch East Indies Company (VOC), established in 1602, became the new superpower that the rest of Europe had to face in Asia. 2.1.1.2 Ayutthaya: a constantly challenged modern capital city Before Ayutthaya (Yuthia) was established as the capital of Siam in 1350, and even after that, the country was divided into a number of separate principalities linked by race, language, religion and customs. The history of Siam as a dominant regional power begins with Pra-Chao Utong Somdedtch Pra Rama Tibaudi I (1351–1371).311 After 1371 thirty-four kings, mostly military generals, ruled it until the destruction of Ayutthaya by Burmese troops in 1767.312 Ayutthaya started off as an ancient settlement313 named after Rama’s legendary kingdom in India. Its importance in Thai history began when a smallpox epidemic forced Phra U-Thong to take over the leadership of the principality in 1350: The king passed away and no member of the royal family could be found to succeed him. So all the people raised Prince U-Thong, who was the son of Choduksethy [leader of the Chinese merchant community], to be anointed as king and govern the kingdom. At that time there was a severe outbreak of smallpox and much of the population succumbed to it. So the King left troops in charge of his capital and, moving the population out of the city at night time, went to the south in order to flee the pestilence. And his [wife’s?] brother took up temporary residence with his forces in the country of the city of Suphamburi. King U-Thong, however, marched his troops on a journey of several days until they came to a large river and saw a circular island, smooth, leveled, and apparently clean, standing in the center of the area. So he had his troops cross over and established themselves on Dong Sano Island … In 712, a Year of the Tiger, second of the decade, on Friday, the sixth day of the waxing moon of the fifth month, at the three nalika [‘hours sharp’ in Thai] after the break of dawn, the Capital City of Ayutthaya was first established [Friday, 4 March 1351].314

Three years later the ruler took the name of Ramathidibodi.315 From this new position the rulers of Ayutthaya constantly tried to extend their territory 311 David K. Wyatt, Thailand: a short history, 38–60. 312 After the destruction of Ayutthaya by Burmese troops the capital of Siam was relocated to Bangkok and a completely new royal dynasty was established, which has maintained its dynastic role till the present time. 313 Derick Garnier, Ayutthaya, Venice of the East, Bangkok: River, 2004, 55–65. 314 Richard D. Cushman (trans.), The royal chronicles of Ayutthaya, unpublished manuscript, 22. Thai texts date the event to year 712 of the Buddhist calendar, chulasakkarat era, a year that began on 28 March 1350 and ended on 27 March 1351; quoted in David K. Wyatt, Thailand: a short history, 65. 315 David K. Wyatt, Thailand: a short history, 66.

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by annexing the surrounding principalities as far as Cambodia and Burma. Thus constant fighting and skirmishes characterised the period when the Portuguese merchants arrived in Ayutthaya, accompanied by the first missionaries. King Ramathidibodi and his successors tried to implement policies leading to peaceful alliances with neighbouring kingdoms, particularly with the large Chinese merchant community and powerful Cambodia, though they were more successful with the former than with the latter. One of Ramathidibodi’s most outstanding legacies, which was to leave a permanent mark on the personality of the Thai, was his belief in dharma.316 Buddhism was indeed a common heritage of the fragmented kingdoms west of India. Together with the kings of Burma and Cambodia, the rulers of Siam observed Buddhist religious precepts. Ramathidibodi, however, introduced Buddhist doctrines into the laws governing royalty and government officials, as well as formal civil and criminal law. This new basis for legislation was taken mostly from the Khmer royal court as it functioned during the golden age of Angkor’s Khmer power.317 It was to determine future generations of Siam, who came to identify their ethnicity and nationality with Buddhism. Thus Ayutthaya became one of the greatest and wealthiest cities in Asia, rivalling some European cities in its influence. This was one reason why the Portuguese were interested in establishing an enclave there. In 1549 Burmese troops launched one of their many attacks on the kingdom. The king had passed a law decreeing that all foreigners living in Ayutthaya had to offer their human as well as economic resources to the army.318 Portugal was forced to deploy 150 armed men to fight with the royal troops and the attack was repelled. In 1569, after an incursion by Burmese soldiers, Ayutthaya fell to king Bayinnaung and the invading forces ransacked and plundered the city, forcibly transporting many of its citizens to Burma.319 Naresuen,320 son of the defeated king, was among the many taken to Burma. When he reached the age of fifteen he was sent back to his kingdom. Once home, he wasted no time in organising and training a group of armed men, who developed guerrilla methods of warfare. In 1584, taking advantage of the constant fights among Burmese rulers, he attacked them, freed his kingdom and restored Ayutthaya to its former splendour for almost two hundred years. Again Ayutthaya was attacked by Burmese troops and in 1767 it was completely destroyed.

316 Ibid., 72. 317 Ibid. 318 Tourpin’s History of Siam. Trans. B. O. Cartwright, B.A., Bangkok: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1908, 3. 319 David K. Wyatt, Thailand: a short history, 99. 320 Dirk van der Cruysse, Siam & the West 1500–1700, 75–93.


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During the relatively peaceful two centuries prior to its destruction Ayutthaya became a thriving commercial centre of Asia. It was a central port, an international market where goods from the Far East could be bought or bartered in exchange for merchandise from the Malay/Indonesian archipelago, India and Persia. The Chinese with their large and versatile junks were the traders who had the most regular and sustained contact with Ayutthaya. From the 14th to the 18th centuries the kings of Ayutthaya entered willingly into a tributary relationship with the Chinese emperors in order to conduct a steady and profitable trade with Ming and Manchu China. The Thai recognised Chinese suzerainty and China’s permanent position in Asia in return for Chinese political sanction and ever more desirable Chinese luxury goods. Muslim merchants came from India and further west to sell their highly prized cloth to both Thai and foreign traders. Jacques de Coutre, a Flemish merchant who had arrived in Siam in 1591 during the reign of Pra Naresuan (1590–1605), left his memoirs of his stay in Siam, which were printed in Spain in 1640. In one passage he writes about Ayutthaya, a city of canals that reminded him of Venice: The king has his court in the city of Odia [Ayutthaya], which is girded with a brick wall and located … [between] two deep canals. This city is located some forty leagues from the sea on the bank of a tributary of the Ganges [sic]. The biggest ships came close to the outworks. Medium sized vessels can enter the city, which is traversed by canals in which habit innumerable and sometimes enormous crocodiles. The royal palace is built of gilded wood and dominated by five chedy covered with gold leaf [wang luang in Thai].321

Missionaries322 described the Siamese as dark skinned and polite, a hospitable, obliging, light-hearted, pleasure- and feast-loving people, clever gold and silversmiths, possessing fine taste in art and skilled painters, decorators and wood carvers, proficient in stone, plaster and mosaic work, and very proud of being Siamese.323 They did not demand much comfort, being happy to live in small, simple houses, content if they had enough food to eat and fire and clothes to keep warm in the short, mild winters. The country seemed to have a perpetual summery climate and was endowed with fertile land, where farmers could harvest abundant rice and pepper with little physical work. People seemed to be happy with few possessions. Siam was also blessed with other assets, particularly in the mountainous region, such as teak and yellow wood, box and

321 E. Stols, B. Teensma & J. Verberckmoes (eds), Jacques de Coutre, andanzas Asiáticas in crónicas de América 61 series, Historia 16, Madrid: Información y Revistas, 1990. Quoted in Dirk van der Cruysse, Siam & the West 1500–1700, 27. 322 P. Marcelo de Ribadeneira, Historia de las islas, 162. 323 “Es comúnmente la gente de aquel reino tan aficionada a su nación, que es entre ellos refrán el decir que los hombres que no son siameses habían de ser bestias, pareciéndoles que hacen ventaja a las demás naciones.” P. Marcelo de Ribadeneira, Historia de las islas, 162.

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ebony, saran and paddies. The country seemed a paradise. All it needed was to be converted to Christianity. 2.1.1.3 Buddhism: the religion that configures Siam’s identity The Portuguese enterprise in Asia was not only economic; it had to be matched by an equally energetic effort to Christianise the continent. Portugal could not forget the obligations the Padroado imposed.324 In Siam the main religion was Buddhism.325 According to the earliest annals Buddhism was introduced around 638 CE. With the possible exception of Tibet, there is no Eastern country where Buddhism is so closely interwoven with national life, from the king to the lowest social stratum. Males have to spend a period in a Buddhist monastery, called the rite of ordination. Even the king and his male children have to become monks for a while. The king appoints the Supreme Patriarch and even the members of the Sanha, the office responsible for maintaining religious purity. Being ordained a monk is also a way of earning merit for a deceased person. Some of the missionaries recorded that even a crooked person could have his status changed and his sins forgiven if only he became a monk.326 Buddhist monasteries were the only institutions where men (and only men) could receive intellectual training. In spite of Buddhism being the state religion,327 the Thai, as they are called, have normally been very tolerant of other religions.

324 See chapter 1, section 1.2.1.2. 325 Dirk van der Cruysse, Siam & the West 1500–1700, 130–148. Even in modern Thailand Buddhism is not only the state religion but also a de facto characteristic conferring Thai identity on a person. 326 P. Marcelo de Ribadeneira, Historia de las islas, 170. 327 Siddhartha Gautama (born c. 563 BCE by Buddhist reckoning) became known as the Buddha, a name meaning ‘he who knows’, ‘enlightened one’, ‘sage’. He was a Hindu, son of an aristocrat belonging to the warrior class (ksatriya), who was moved by human suffering and began searching for a solution to this problem. He left his wife and became a wandering ascetic, living a life of harsh physical austerity. After years of adherence to Hindu teachings, the Buddha concluded that enlightenment was not to be found in these ways. He became convinced of the futility of social living and philosophical discourse, because these hindered right living. He reached the conclusion that nothing was eternal and that everything was impermanent (anitya), even gods. Consequently the dharma or natural law of the universe became his ultimate guide to right and wrong. The Buddha’s teachings are in harmony with the true nature of the universe. Karmic law states that every action has its consequences, because every action leaves a mark in the world. Good actions are informed by compassion and selflessness and make the universe arrive at enlightenment; bad actions are the result of selfishness and tie a person and the universe to the karmic law of rebirth (samsara). For more information on the Buddha’s life, see E. Conze (trans.), Buddhist scriptures, Aylesbury: Penguin, Hazel Watson & Vinay, 1981; W. E. Soothill, Les trois religions de la Chine: Confucianism, Bouddhisme, Taöisme, Paris: Payot, 1946; Masao Abe, “Man and nature in Christianity and Buddhism”, in The Buddha eye, Frederick Franck (ed.), New York: Crossroad, 1982, 153; D. T. Suzuki, The Zen doctrine of No Mind, York Beach, ME: Weiser, 1972, 120. Less than 200 years after the


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It did not escape the notice of the European missionaries that the Buddha’s Five Precepts328 spell out the basic ethics of Buddhism in more positive terms than the biblical Ten Commandments (‘refrain from’ rather than ‘do not’). The arrival of Buddhism ushered in an important movement in Siam: popular Buddha’s death (438 BCE), Buddhism began splitting into two distinct groups. The more conservative Theravada (following the Way of the Elders) favoured a secluded priesthood focusing on attaining their own enlightenment by imitating the Buddha’s discipline. It is more predominant in Southeast Asia, notably Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma. The more liberal Mahayana tradition (Greater Vehicle) emphasised the Buddha’s compassion, introducing the concept of Bodhisattvas (enlightened beings whose openness to reality is expressed in boundless compassion for all life), who refused nirvana in order to return to help other less fortunate beings. Through their selfless actions they stored up merit that could be transferred to devout Buddhists who called on them for help (a sort of mediation or intercession). Followers of Mahayana tradition believed that ordinary people could escape samsara (the continuous round of rebirth) in this way, without having to go through the rigours of Theravada tradition. Mahayana tradition spread through northern Asia in China, Korea and Japan, mingling with other local beliefs and traditions. These two traditions coexist today and elements of one can be found in the other. In modern times a third tradition, Tibetan Buddhism (including Pure Land, Zen and other traditions) that influenced much of medieval central Asia, has been largely displaced in its own homeland by Chinese politics, which has done its utmost to destroy Tibetan culture. 328 The Five Precepts are: (1) Avoid taking the life of beings. This applies to all living creatures, not just humans. All creatures have a right to live, which should be respected. (2) Avoid taking things not given. This precept goes beyond not stealing. It includes taking anything unless one is sure that is intended for one. (3) Avoid sensual misconduct. This precept is not confined to sexual misconduct. It includes any overindulgence in sensual pleasure, such as gluttony. (4) Avoid false speech. This includes avoiding lying and deceiving, slander and any speech that is detrimental to others. (5) Avoid substances that cause intoxication and heedlessness. This precept does not attribute evil to the substances per se, but indicates that they can impede proper observance of the precepts. For more information on Buddhism, see Chah, Ajahn (with foreword by Jack Cornfield), Being Dharma: the essence of the Buddha’s teachings. Boston: Shambhala, 2001; Collins, Steven. Selfless persons: imagery and thought in Theravada Buddhism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982; Conce, Edward, Buddhism: its essence and development, New York: Harper & Row, [951] 1975; Cornfield, Jack. The teachings of Buddha, Boston: Shambhala, 1993, 1996. The Five Precepts express the eightfold path, which consists of the following: (1) having right views: accepting the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path; (2) having right resolve: renouncing sensual pleasures, harbouring no ill will towards anyone and harming no living creature; (3) having right speech: not lying, slandering or abusing anyone, not indulging in idle talk; (4) having right behaviour: not to destroy any living creature and taking only what is given, not to commit any unlawful sexual act; (5) having a right occupation: to earn one’s livelihood in a way that does not harm others; (6) making right effort: resolve to strive heroically to prevent any evil qualities from arising in one and to abandon any evil qualities that one may possess. Conversely, to strive to acquire good qualities and encourage those which one possesses to grow, increase and be perfected; (7) right contemplation: to be observant, strenuous, alert, contemplative and free from desire and sorrow; (8) right meditation: once all sensual pleasures have been abandoned, as well as all evil qualities, both joy and sorrow, one must embark on the four levels of meditation, which are produced by concentration.

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education, using recitation and chants of sacred scriptures as a method.329 Buddhism held that such instruction was necessary, so that people would have a sound knowledge of the dharma and be proficient in Pali, the language of the sacred texts. In addition learned people could influence others by helping them deepen their religious knowledge and practice, provide necessary staff for public administration, and enrich Thai culture and civilisation by contributing to literature and the arts. Sixteenth century Siamese society was divided into farmers and learned people. The latter were engaged in public administration and in business. According to Wyatt there was almost no upward mobility.330 Missionaries were amazed to discover that many learned people chose to become monks331 and that it was from the ranks of the monks that eminent people emerged. The kings gladly supported and built royal monasteries and their closest advisors on medicine, astrology, law and interpretation were monks. Missionaries also noticed that Buddhist monks were greatly respected for renouncing worldly pleasures and seriously studying the Buddha’s teachings to attain perfection. Missionaries often reported evidence of such respect.332 2.1.2 Missionaries, scientists, merchants, ambassadors, soldiers There were Christians in Siam prior to the arrival of the Portuguese in 1511, if an Italian traveller to the region in 1505, Ludovico di Varthema, is to be believed.333

329 David K. Wyatt, Studies in Thai history, Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 1996, 207. 330 Ibid., 207. 331 P. Marcelo de Ribadeneira, Historia de las islas, 173. 332 Ibid., 170–173. Quoting from diaries written by missionaries, Ribadeneira identifies three different degrees of Buddhist monks according to their lifestyle. Some monks lived in complete solitude and gave no thought to subsistence. They were sure that providence would take care of their physical needs, “which are minimal”. They liked to stay in remote places in the jungle, not readily accessible to the common folk. A second form of monastic life was by associating or grouping. These groups lived in monasteries where they performed certain mandatory activities in common, such as morning and evening prayer, collations and daytime study. Early in the morning monks would leave their monasteries silently, in queues and discalced, and go to the public markets and roadsides, where they would beg for the necessary food to feed themselves as well as the one who had to stay behind in the monastery. Under no circumstances did they allow themselves to receive money. They used to walk with reverence and great dignity, covering their faces so they could see nothing but the ground. A third kind was the intellectual group. They were committed to teaching in the temples as well as performing outside pastoral work, so to speak. They went out to help people to have a peaceful, tranquil death, assist the sick and people in difficulty, bless new buildings or a new rice paddy, and preside over religious ceremonies. They were also officially appointed to preach the dharma to the people. Missionaries on the whole admired the monks’ commitment to a simple life, their humble and polite manners, and their celibacy. 333 Ulrich Guehler, “The travels of Ludovico di Varthema”, in Selected articles from JSS, Siam Society, Bangkok VII, 239–265. Also P. Marcelo de Ribadeneira, Historia de las islas, 175.


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However, these accounts are not well illustrated and may refer to Nestorian Christians. When Alfonso de Albuquerque left Lisbon in 1503 he took with him five Dominican missionaries, among them Domingo de Souza, who combined the roles of viceroy’s confessor, counsellor and constant companion, and Eduardo Nuñez, who was to become the first bishop of Goa.334 In the same expedition there were also twelve Franciscans. Both mendicant orders established churches and Christian communities all along the Malay peninsula and then spread into Siam, Cambodia and later to China. In terms of expansion the missionaries made impressive progress. By 1549 there were no fewer than eighteen Dominican friaries in the Malaccan peninsula and on the neighbouring islands.335 The first Portuguese Dominicans soon entered Siam, Cambodia and Vietnam. In 1557 pope Paul IV (1555–1559) created three episcopal sees in the Portuguese dominions: Goa, which was to become the metropolitan (the bishop having the title of archbishop) and primate of the East, with two suffragan bishoprics in Malacca and Cochin (Malabar). 2.1.2.1 Dominican Order The earliest missionaries to Siam arrived in either 1555 or 1567 – the dates are disputed, but not the persons.336 They were fathers Jerónimo da Cruz and Sebastiao do Couto. After being welcomed to Ayutthaya by the viceroy and the people they started learning the language, which they soon mastered. Then they began their missionary work with some success: they were able to baptise about 1.500 people – even some ‘Buddhist ministers’337 – and founded three parishes. But their work had unhappy repercussions. It seems that “Muslims, jealous of the progress of Christianity and fearing especially for their trade, given the power of the Portuguese, resolved to kill the missionaries”.338 Coinciding with one of the many skirmishes in the land, the king of Siam left the capital city together with his soldiers to fight neighbouring principalities. During the king’s absence a group of Muslims quarrelled with the Portuguese missionaries, who were left without the protection of their own army, which was fighting at the king’s side against Burmese invaders. The Dominican priests tried to cut short the discussion with the Muslims and were retreating to their quarters when Fr Jerónimo da Cruz was pierced by a lance and the Muslims massacred three 334 Michael Smithies & Luigi Bressan, Siam and the Vatican, 23. 335 Dirk van der Cruysse, Siam & the West 1500–1700, 120. 12. Also Michael Smithies & Luigi Bressan, Siam and the Vatican, 23. 336 Ibid., 120. 337 Fr Manuel Teixera, The Portuguese missions, 60. 338 André-Marie Meynard, Missions Dominicains dans l’Extrême-Orient, 2 vols., Paris: Poussielgue, 1865; Benno Biermann, “Die Missionen der Portugiesischen Dominikaner in Hinterindien”, in Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaften 21, 1931, 305–327.

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of his companions. This was in February 1569 during the siege of Ayutthaya.339 The Christians mourned their first martyr. Soon after the political problems with Burma were over the king returned to the capital and, on learning what had happened, ordered the culprits to be rounded up and had them hanged in public. However, the king was amazed that Fr Sebastao had asked him to mercifully forgive the culprits, and he revered the priest as someone coming from heaven. This unfortunate event, together with the political volatility in Siam, forced Fr Sebastao to return to Malacca in 1569. He returned to Ayutthaya with two more young Dominican priests just when the Burmese king Bhureng Noung again invaded the kingdom of Siam. During this war a Muslim group beheaded the three missionaries. Following this latest tragedy in about 1575 the Dominican congregation decided to recall their missionaries from Siam and to send no further missionaries; the Christian community of Siam was left in the pastoral care of three non-Dominican Portuguese priests, fathers Diogo Perea Tibao, Manuel Pereira and Marcos Gomez of the Order of Christ.340 In 1593 king Naresuan of Siam conquered Cambodia and among the prisoners he brought to Ayutthaya were two Dominicans, fathers Jorge da Mota and Luis Fonseca. They gained the confidence of the king, who authorised them to preach the gospel.341 Meynard relates: “Father Jorge da Mota and Luis da Fonseca, taken prisoner in Cambodia by the King of Siam, profited by their exile to evangelise this kingdom once more. Their success was not to last. Luis da Fonseca was massacred at the altar, and Jorge da Mota died of wounds when returning to Malacca.”342 2.1.2.2 Franciscan Order The Franciscans decided to enter Siam during the period of apparent abandonment of the mission by the Dominican congregation in 1593. There had been an earlier attempt in 1582, when the Franciscan superior in Malacca decided to send Jerónimo de Aguilar to Siam343 and appointed him vicar general of the existing mission.344 Soon fathers Martin Ignacio de Loyola and Juan Bautista Lucarelli, en route from Macao to Europe via Malacca, called by in Siam, where they found a lively Christian community and joined Fr Jerónimo. Also in this

339 Dirk van der Cruysse, Siam & the West 1500–1700, 13. 340 Fr Manuel Teixera, The Portuguese missions, 62. 341 André-Marie Meynard, Missions Dominicains dans l’Extrême-Orient, vol. I, 120–121. For more information about the missionaries in Cambodia and their relation to the mission in Siam, see P. Benno M. Biermann, O.P “Los Portugueses y Españoles en Camboja al fin del siglo XVI”, in Archivo Ibero-Americano XXII, 38, 1935, 261–270 and 455–458. 342 Ibid. 343 P. Marcelo de Ribadeneira, Historia de las islas, 161. 344 Leon Lemmens O.F.M., Geschichte der Franziskanermissionen, Munster, 1929, 109.


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expedition was Fr Augustin de Tordesillas, the superior of the group, and Fra Juan Pobre, who immediately began studying the language.345 Two months after their arrival, advised by the Portuguese on account of Fr Tordesilla’s grave infirmity, the group decided to return to Macao and organise a more efficient, lasting missionary expedition to Siam. Eight months later the initial expedition of five friars was expanded to eight, with fathers Jerónimo de Aguilar, Francisco de Montilla and Diego Jiménez joining the group. In view of the size of the group of priests the king decided to build them a proper friary of stone and lime, and by 1585 the Madre de Deus monastery was duly built. It had a cloister and many dormitories (obviously with a view to training local clergy), workshops and a church.346 The friars, once they could speak the vernacular, began doing the work they had come to do in Siam, namely providing spiritual care for Portuguese and other Christians of different origins who were living in the quarters designated for foreigners. They also tried hard to convince the local religious leaders to abandon their ‘idols’, while taking care of the sick and abandoned children.347 The friars’ charitable work seemed to be what impressed the local people and because of it the missionaries were left unmolested to carry out their duties.348 But the Franciscans did not last long in Siam. Before the turn of the century the king sent a prominent Portuguese businessmen, Diogo Veloso, as ambassador to Manila to get Spanish help for his army as well as extend his international relations, but instead Veloso conspired with the king of Cambodia against Siam. This betrayal meant trouble for all missionaries, who were held responsible for Veloso’s high treason. As a result the missionaries were forbidden to preach the gospel and were kept under strict police surveillance. According to Fr Teixera their missionary activity was going well, but it was also marred by 345 Lorenzo Perez, OFM, “Origen de las misiones Franciscanas”, in Archivo Ibero-Americano II, VII, 1915, 33. 346 Fr Manuel Teixera, The Portuguese missions, 121–122. 347 “La ocupación de servir en los hospitales, asistir a los enfermos y curar a los llagados es muy propia de varones apostólicos: a los primeros que Cristo envió a predicar por el mundo, primeramente los mandó a curar los enfermos y luego predicar el evangelio ….. Esto que Cristo, Bien Nuestro, mandó a sus Apóstoles y ellos ejecutaron puntuales, mandó también N.S.P.S. Francisco a sus hijos y relligiosos …. En cumplimiento de uno y otro precepto …. comenzaron con la cura de los enfermos, visitándoles y regalándoles con lo que podían, y fundando hospitales en que se recogiesen todos a diligencias suyas, y con las limosnas que los devotos les daban, y su cuidadosa caridad solicitaba; y así (….) la primera diligencia que hacían era poner por lista los enfermos, tullidos y leprosos, para cuidar de visitarlos y regalarlos con lo mejor que pudiesen. Así lo hicieron cuando fundaron en Siam: andando de casa en casa, de pueblo en pueblo.” Francisco de Santa Inés, Crónica de la provincia de San Gregorio I, Manila 1892, in Archivo Ibero-Americano II, VII, 1915, 378–380. 348 Lorenzo Perez, OFM, “Origen de las misiones Franciscanas,” 35. Quoting from Ribadeneira, Historia de las islas, 170–173.

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bloodshed. One deeply troubling event happened on 21 March 1600. A missionary baptised the wife of well-to-do Japanese businessman in the absence of her husband. When upon his return from a business trip he learnt of his wife’s conversion, he took her to the Catholic church and stabbed her to death in full view of the horrified congregation. The mission continued in very difficult circumstances.349 2.1.2.3 The Jesuits In 1606 the Jesuit350 provincial of Goa decided to send one of his confreres to Siam. Fr Baltasar Sequeira arrived in 1607. He had spent 28 years based in Goa and his main task was to judge whether conditions were ripe to preach the gospel in Siam. As soon as he arrived in Ayutthaya he built a church in honour of St Paul, but in 1609 he died in Petchaburi due to constant sickness. In 1619 two more Jesuits, who may have been in contact with Sequeira, fathers Pedro de Morejon and Antonio Francisco Cardin, arrived in Siam, but stayed only a short while, as they were on their way to Japan. While in Siam the Jesuits seem to have worked mostly among the Japanese converts in the capital, but their presence was short-lived. Not until 1655 did the Jesuits decide to return to Siam, where a large Christian Japanese community was clamouring for a Jesuit priest.351 The reason for the increased Japanese Christian population in Siam was the Christian insurrection in Nagasaki in 1637 and the subsequent expulsion of Christians from Japan. Many of them took refuge in Ayutthaya. 2.1.2.4 France’s interest in mission and commerce The Counter Reformation had its effects in Asia. It became increasingly clear to the church authorities in Rome that Spain and Portugal, in spite or because of the privileges that were generously granted to them (Patronato/Padroado system), were not working effectively for the conversion of the local people and were torn by rivalries. In 1622, therefore, pope Gregory XV established the pontifical congregation De Propaganda Fide,352 with the sole task of expanding

349 350 351 352

Fr Manuel Teixera, The Portuguese missions, 123. Dirk van der Cruysse, Siam & the West 1500–1700, 118. Juan G. Ruiz Medina, SJ Orígenes, 68. The bull promulgating the establishment of Propaganda Fide reads as follow: “In the name of Christ. In the year 1622 after his birth, on January 6, our Holy Father in Christ, Gregory XV by divine providence Pope, in the conviction that the most notable duty of his pastoral office is the dissemination of the Christian faith, through which men may be brought to the knowledge and adoration of the true God, constituted a congregation of thirteen cardinals and two prelates, with a secretary, to whom he entrusted and commanded the care for the propagation of the faith.” Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, 152. This central organ of Catholic missionary activity can be considered the ancestor of the modern Sacred Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.


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Catholicism in the world. In 1627, furthermore, a college was established in Rome to train missionaries and native priests, and a polyglot printing press was set up to publish religious texts in non-European languages. The congregation insisted on evangelisation by peaceful rather than violent means and it sought to instil in missionaries respect for the local people’s way of life and culture. Thus the congregation acted as a counterweight, not only to the violence of the colonising powers, but also to the standardising policies introduced by the Council of Trent. But many local bishops tried to curb the congregation’s influence. Naturally the bishops of Goa, Macao and Manila, as well as the missionaries of the traditional religious orders in the region, did not welcome these innovations and in many cases did their best to undermine the new dispensation. It was against this background that the Foreign Missionaries of Paris353 (MEP, founded in 1659, though not formally established until 1700) arrived in Siam in 1662. When bishop Lambert de la Motte and fathers Jacques de Bourges and Pierre Deydier arrived in Ayutthaya they found eleven Portuguese missionaries – four Jesuits, two Dominicans, two Franciscans and three diocesan priests – in charge of 2.000 Christians and two churches. There were also mission stations spread throughout the country, such as those at Sukkothai, Chantaburi and Chunpon (the latter was a major seaport), which sometimes had a priest. Soon after the arrival of the French missionaries under the protection and the authority of Propaganda Fide, tensions about their canonical jurisdiction arose between them and the earlier missionaries. The French bishop managed to quarrel with both the Dominicans and the Jesuits in the Portuguese quarter. The Dominicans maintained that the bishop had no canonical jurisdiction in Siam, because he and his French missionaries had been sent to Vietnam. As for the Jesuits, the French bishop’s attacks were more virulent. Their trading in order to sustain their missionary activity particularly incensed him. In October 1667 the bishop issued a pastoral letter in Portuguese and Latin strongly denouncing merchant priests, going so far as to declare that it would have been better for the missions in the Indies if the Company of Jesus had never come there.354 In the small community of Ayutthaya this kind of infighting boded ill and obviously the news of the discord spread beyond the Portuguese quarter. French missionaries, however, were struck by the freedom of religion permitted in Siam: I do not believe there is a country in the world where there are more religions and where their practice is more [freely] permitted than in Siam. The Gentiles, Christians, Mahometans, who are all divided into different sects, have complete liberty to follow whichever cult they think best. The Portuguese, the English, the Dutch, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Peguans, the people

353 Ibid., 149–162. 354 Mgr Henri Chappoulie, Aux origines d’une église. Rome et les missions d’Indochine au XVIIe siècle, 157.

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of Cambodia, Malacca, Cochin-China, Champa [Vietnam] and several other places along the north coast have their establishments in Siam. There are nearly 2,000 Catholics, mostly Portuguese, who come from various parts of the Indies, from where they have been expelled, and have taken refuge in Siam, where they have a separate quarter, which is a suburb of the city. They have two public churches: one is under the direction of the Jesuits and the Dominicans govern the other. They have as much liberty for their religion as if they were in Goa … I sometimes enquired why the king of Siam made himself so lenient in permitting in his realm and in his capital city so many religions, since it is the received maxim of the most esteemed politics that only one should be permitted for fear that, should they multiply, the diversity of beliefs would cause spiritual friction, and so lead to conflict. I was informed that this sovereign follows another political maxim; for he derives great profit from the sojourn of foreigners in his states, in the arts, in the flow of goods produced in the country, in the arrival of those from abroad. There is another reason for his conduct; this is the view which is held by Siamese that all religions are good, which is why they show themselves hostile to none, provided that it is not in conflict with the laws of the governancing [sic] of the country.355

This description of Buddhist tolerance, in sharp contrast to the situation not only in France but also of missionaries of different congregations in Thailand, obviously impressed the French missionaries. They – like the other European missionaries already in Siam – did not, however, make a serious attempt to understand the dominant religion of the country and dismissed it as superstitious idolatry. 2.1.3 Proclamation of the gospel and imperial expansion The aim of the missionaries was to make converts, whereas the European countries were interested in expanding their political and economic influence around the world. For European rulers any method was fine if their goal of gaining power was accomplished. Overall the success or failure of missionary activity was closely bound up with the political and economic relations and alliances that the Portuguese merchants particularly, but also those from other European countries, established with Siam. Missionaries could become friends or enemies of local political leaders in a very short time. The merchants used the missionaries to gain access to new markets and in exchange would exercise their economic and political influence to get authorisation for the missionaries to preach the gospel. This was the case in 1616 on the occasion of the 25th jubilee of the king’s ascension to the throne of Siam. After a spell of frosty relations between the rulers of Siam and the Portuguese enclave from Malacca that ended with the expulsion of all foreign missionaries from Siam, the Portuguese authorities sent Fr Francisco de Anunciazao as ambassador to Siam to negotiate a new peace treaty between the two countries. Once the treaty was signed missionaries

355 Quoted in Michael Smithies, “Jacques de Bourges (c. 1630–1714) and Siam”, in Journal of the Siam Society 81, 2, 1993, 113–129.


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of both the Dominican and Franciscan orders were allowed to open new mission stations, which were reinforced by the arrival in 1624 of the Jesuit priest Fr Julius Caesar de Margico, and of Fr Cardin in 1629. All these missionaries were specially invited by the king to sit in seats of honour during the jubilee celebrations. The Dutch356 were also trying to gain a foothold in the kingdom of Siam. In 1631 there was a dynastic change. The new king, Pra Tchau Prasaht Taung (1631–1639), ruled against the Portuguese, welcomed the Dutch merchants and installed them as his political advisers. But subsequent kings overruled him and tried to resume business with the Portuguese. At this point it may be interesting to see what the missionaries thought of the religion and customs of the people they met in Siam. Ribadeneira begins his history of the missionary work of the mendicant orders in Siam by accepting that the missionaries went there in the company of the merchants.357 These merchants wanted to have a priest who would celebrate mass and hear their confessions. Immediately after this statement Ribadeneira comments that the missionaries’ ‘business’ was not motivated by “greed of temporal goods, but because of the holy love of God manifested in Jesus Christ”.358 When the first missionaries met the official in charge of foreigners in Siam and asked him for permission to preach the gospel, they could not believe their ears: “We have no need of any new law in our kingdom. We follow a religion and the rites, which are hidden in antiquity. Our king is the lord of everyone living in the kingdom regarding material needs. Concerning their souls, each one is free to choose his own way of salvation.”359 The king of Siam gave a similar answer to the French embassy in 1685 on hearing the contents of a letter signed by the French king Louis XIV. The French king admonished his Siamese counterpart to become a Christian, the one true religion. To this the king of Siam responded that if there was one God, creator of all, he could have created only one religion if he so wished. In view of the different religions, it could be concluded that God the creator did not wish only one but many. Consequently the same God must have created all religions and so all must be considered equally good.360 Missionaries were generally well received by the people because they were able to communicate with them in the local language. As the first missionaries belonged to the mendicant orders, they followed the custom of the Buddhist

356 Dirk van der Cruysse, Siam & the West 1500–1700, 33–49. 357 P. Marcelo de Ribadeneira, Historia de las islas, 161. 358 Ibid., 161. 359 Ibid., 162. 360 Michael Smithies, A resounding failure: Martin and the French in Siam 1672–1693, Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 1998, 36–40.

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monks to go begging in the early hours and, like the local monks, they walked discalced. They also visited the sick and the elderly and took care of orphans and handicapped children. The missionaries showed such compassion and tenderness for the sick that one of their first projects was to create centres for the most disadvantaged children. Citizens regarded these activities with great interest and appreciation and donations poured in. Yet the missionaries failed to recognise God at work in the religiosity of the Siamese people and in their highly respected monks, and did not see them as potential dialogue partners. True, they did discern positive aspects in the religion of the Siamese people and in their monks. The missionaries particularly appreciated the monks’ morality. The seven commandments – to venerate statues of Buddha, not to kill, not to steal, not to drink alcoholic beverages, not to touch women, not to tell lies, to earn merit by feeding the monks – were kept to the letter by the monks, who were venerated by the people when they obeyed the commands. The precept not to kill was taken to such extremes that the monks refused to kill even mosquitoes. Ribadeneira quotes from the diary of a missionary describing a visit to a Buddhist temple, which the missionaries called a seminary of idolatry.361 The missionaries greeted the chief monk and explained that they, too, were monks: Christian monks, who lived in community, practised chastity, were poor, obedient to their superiors, and prayed to God, so they shared many things in common. But then the Buddhist monk mentioned that they did not eat meat. “Why?” inquired one of the missionaries. “Because we believe that the soul of an ancestor may be hidden in the animal,” was the answer. The missionary, trained in Greek logic and scholastic tricks, raised his eyebrows at such a statement and asked coolly, “Why is it, then, that dogs, for instance, cannot talk?” The monk replied that animals too have souls and that they can communicate with each other, although we cannot understand their language. The missionary countered that missionaries had managed to learn the Siamese language and that they were now capable of understanding each other and having this conversation. Consequently, if dogs indeed had souls and a language, in a reasonable period of time humans and dogs should be able to learn each other’s language and be able to communicate. This cool reasoning proved too much for the pious Buddhist monk, who began shouting at the missionary and demanding that he leave the premises of the temple at once, explaining that the missionaries were disturbing the peace in the area, that even the birds had stopped singing after their arrival and the butterflies refused to display their colourful beauty.362

361 P. Marcelo de Ribadeneira, Historia de las islas, 169. 362 Episode narrated by P. Marcelo de Ribadeneira, Historia de las islas, 169–170.


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This incident demonstrates in a nutshell the rational superiority that the missionaries believed they had over the Buddhist monks. The latter were constantly described as idol worshippers and their temples as seminaries of idolatry. The missionaries did not scruple to insult them in the course of their religious celebrations, as one missionary wrote in his diary. On the occasion of a procession the missionaries would follow the believers, shouting at them that they were idol worshippers. The missionaries even had some Portuguese soldiers destroy the statues and religious symbols that the missionaries considered to be idols. Local people went so far as to pay ransom for statues, which had been confiscated by the Portuguese, to prevent their destruction.363 The general response of the local people, however, was one of tolerance, acceptance and warm welcome.364 Where were the Christian values of patience, love and tolerance? 2.1.4 A method of coercion? Were missionaries too harsh in their approach to the people of Siam? Applied as an economic and political manipulation in order to get the king’s support to preach the gospel and baptise as many people as possible, the missionary method has always been a matter of debate. The missionaries’ concern to have good relations with the king (cuius regio illius religio) obviously had the twofold aim of converting the ruler as a stepping stone to massive popular conversions, and a golden opportunity for their patrons to do business.365 Ambassadorial jobs were given to missionaries and they seemed to be happy with that role. Small wonder that the Propaganda Fide’s injunction of 1659 criticised this missionary method. It was clear in the Portuguese and Spanish monarchs’ minds that they had a mandate to carry out spiritual activities so as to bring as many people as possible to heaven, as well as legitimise the temporal benefits extracted from the territories. The pope – believed to be divinely empowered to distribute territories and obligations among Christian nations – had issued this decree. The indissoluble marriage of the cross and the crown was exemplified by the Patronato and Padroado systems.366 In these systems, as we have seen, the things of Caesar and the things of God were one. The Propaganda Fide congregation tried with clear foresight to oppose cultural domination: “do not make any effort or use any argument in favor of forcing the people to change their customs and traditions, as long as these are not clearly opposed to religion and

363 Ibid., 166. 364 Dirk van der Cruysse, Siam & the West 1500–1700, 130, 137. 365 Teotonio R. de Souza (ed.), Discoveries, missionary expansion and Asian culture, New Delhi: Concept, 1994, 55. 366 C. R. Boxer, “Portuguese missionary methods”, in J.S. Cummins (ed.), Christianity and missions 1450–1800 (An expanding world), ISBN: 086078519X, December 1997, 78.

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morality. What could be more absurd than to import France, Spain, Italy, or any other country of Europe into China?”367 However, it proved hard to maintain the distinction between aspects of culture that belong to the religious and moral sphere and those which do not, because at the time missionary practice itself failed to make the distinction. This mindset raises the question of forcible conversion. Were people really forced to adopt Christianity after abandoning the religion of their ancestors? From 1567 onwards, under the direction of the archbishop of Goa (India), several synods were held to determine strategies and ways of conducting mission in India and southeast Asia. These resolutions always had to be approved by higher authorities, such as Rome and the kings in Europe. The Goan synod of 1567368 was particularly significant, since it was the first to be held after the end of the Council of Trent. Three main resolutions on missionary practice were taken: 1. All religions other than the orthodox Roman Catholic faith as defined by the Council of Trent were intrinsically wrong and harmful. 2. The crown of Portugal had the definitive duty of spreading the Roman Catholic faith, and the secular power of the state could be used to support the spiritual power of the church. 3. Conversions must not be by force, since the grace of God can be confirmed by him alone.369 One can hardly imagine how the third clause could be implemented in view of the previous two. Several incidents took place in Thailand, such as the burning and destruction of ‘idols’, which were described by the missionaries themselves; forced conversions were the rule rather than the exception during visits to crippled children, the sick and the dying, who hoped to benefit financially. The root of the intolerance and abusive methods of forcing people to become Christians was the principle that ruler and ruled should practice and profess the same faith. Many of the soldiers who accompanied the Portuguese and Spanish vessels to the East regarded themselves as “forming the spearhead of militant Roman Catholic Christianity, and as such, they took literally the biblical injunction (Luke 14:23) to ‘compel them to come in’”.370 This strategy of forcible conversion, together with the political motivation, which the kings of the two European superpowers shared, obviously made Christianity less attractive to the people of Siam.

367 Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, in Collectanea X, 300, Rome, 1907, 103. 368 Also see Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, 125–130. 369 C. R. Boxer, “Portuguese missionary methods”, 79. 370 Ibid., 174.


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By way of concluding the reflection on the conquista missionary method, I quote Van der Cruysse, who succinctly summarises what we have been saying so far: The “caravels of Christ” had left throughout the sixteen century to storm pagan Asia, depositing on its shores only Spanish or Portuguese missionaries and foreigners who had given their allegiance. The Iberian crowns had divided the East and the West Indies according to the famous demarcation line of the Treaty of Tordesillas; the Ius Patronatus permitted them to organize the conversion of their vast possessions without the least interference from the Vatican. But what in the sixteenth century had been an impulse to vitality had become in the seventeenth century the cause of paralyzing rigidity. Worse, the division of missionary zones between Spain and Portugal had resulted in antagonisms, which deterred the indigenous peoples from embracing a religion, which claimed to be pacific.371

Clearly the conquista method was not going to add many converts to the Catholic Church. The European missionaries arriving in Siam on Portuguese boats understood their mission as expanding the influence of the Roman Catholic Church and its political allies. The starting point of mission was not a sharing of different religious experiences, nor was God the agent of mission. The missionaries, as clerics turned heroes who had left their native land, culture and a measure of comfort, had travelled on long and treacherous routes to establish replicas in the new land of the social and religious structures they had left behind. This was the enclave into which the new Christians of Siam were welcomed as second-class citizens, while the missionaries disputed about whom these new Christians belonged to: to the king of Spain or Portugal, or to the pope through the Propaganda Fide. Missionaries showed compassion for the sick and for abandoned children, but were far from dialoguing with the diverse religions in order to bring about social transformation. Such an idea was completely alien, not only to them but also to the hierarchy of the church at large and to the religious congregations in particular. During my years in Thailand I often wondered if these beginnings of missionary activity do not live on in the historical memory of the Siamese, making them experience Christianity as a foreign, invasive, aggressive and intolerant religion. In any case, a drastic change in missionary methodology as applied in Thailand was imperative and already felt in the church during the historical period we have just described. For this change in missionary awareness and method we now turn to Matteo Ricci. He was the missionary who brought, along with the cross, a pen instead of a sword. This was already a giant step in the right direction. I have chosen to look at Matteo Ricci’s missionary method for two reasons. First, he began a new era of missionary activity in which the other was to be taken seriously. Indeed, Ricci can be credited with having created a movement based on intellectual and cultural exchange in order to bring 371 Dirk van der Cruysse, Siam & the West 1500–1700, 120–121.

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Map 5: Siam in the 15th and 16th century. The map shows the different kingdoms occupying present-day Thailand and its neighbouring countries.


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greater glory to God. Second, the literary production that Ricci started in China crossed the boundaries of that country to Korea. The interaction with these writings created a unique missionary method and ecclesial model, as we shall see in chapter 3. Who, then, was Matteo Ricci?

2.2 Matteo Ricci: the accommodation method of mission In sharp contrast with the situation in, for instance, Latin America, missionaries to Thailand and China found themselves surrounded by solid, consistent religio-political and social worldviews.372 Attempts to spread the gospel to China date back to the very dawn of the Christian era. From the time of the Nestorian evangelisation373 (635–845),374 through the Franciscan375 attempt (1294–1347) to the late 16th century, missionaries trying to enter China faced a formidable barrier, both intellectual and political, of local religions from

372 A. Camps, “The Catholic missionary movement from 1492 to 1789”, in F.J. Verstraelen et al., Missiology. An ecumenical introduction, 215. 373 The first effective Christian mission to China of which we have definite knowledge was sent by the patriarch Yeshuyab II in about 635 CE. Early in 1625 when trenches were being dug for the foundation of some building near Chang’an (Hsi-an), the capital city of the T’ang empire, a great stone slab with an inscription in both Syriac and Chinese was discovered. The monument had been erected in 781. The long inscription speaks of the coming of one Alopen in about 635 CE bringing Christianity to China. The inscription contains a long list of Persian missionaries and also a summary of the teachings of the church called Ta-Chin (Syrian). Alopen came to China during the reign of T’ai-tsung (627–649). The emperor received him warmly and, after studying the Christian scriptures (sutras) he brought with him, the emperor thoroughly understood “their propriety and truth and specially ordered their preaching and transmission”. The emperor was favourably disposed to the new religion. It is said that the emperor’s mother came from a Turkish-Mongolian Nestorian family. It is difficult to say whether or not this contributed to his favourable reception of the first known Christian mission to China. 374 Th. Ohm, Wichtige Daten der Missionsgeschichte. Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Missionswissenschaft der Wesfälischen, Wilhelms-Universität, Münster Westfalen: Aschendorffsche Werlagsbuchhandulng, Münster W., 1956, 2, 4, 25. 375 With the Mongols threatening to invade Europe, William of Rubruck, a Flemish Franciscan monk was sent by the pope to investigate Mongol society, determine their plans regarding Europe, and convert them to Christianity. William was at the court of Mongke Khan (c. 1251–1259) in Karakorum, Mongolia from 1253 to 1255. See U. Devolder, R. Ostyn & P. Vandepitte, Het reisverhaal van Willem van Rubroek, de Vlaamse Marco Polo: 1253–1255, Tielt: De Rode van Tielt, 1984. Shortly after Marco Polo made his voyage to China, John of Monte Corvino (1247–1328), another Franciscan monk, journeyed there. He became archbishop of Peking in 1307. His voyage was made possible by the Mongol empire’s control of the trade routes between Europe and China.

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Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Zoroastrianism to nature religions, as well as powerful national and political forces.376 The aim of the next subsection is to study Matteo Ricci’s attempts to adapt to the Chinese people and culture and to transmit the Christian faith. I consider Ricci’s missionary method innovative compared with the one used in Thailand. I attach enormous importance to his missionary work, for he influenced incipient Korean Christianity. Ricci’s effort to be like the Chinese literati was to some extent the abandonment of the superior attitude that claimed the pre-eminence of God’s kingdom over the world as preached in the Middle Ages. Moreover, I regard Ricci’s way of doing mission a transition to the kenotic missionary model of Korean Christianity. The Council of Trent stressed the rigid interpretation of the axiom, “outside of the Church there is no salvation”.377 Matteo Ricci’s accommodation model – a product of the Council’s missionary vision, notwithstanding his Renaissance humanistic education – stopped short of taking the human institutions and cultures he met in China at their true value and as coming from God (what we now call contextual theology). Having received an Augustinian training, Ricci fully believed that in the “providence of a merciful God, there can be higher moral life outside Christianity”.378 However, like the majority of theologians of his time, he believed that outside the church there was no salvation. Ricci tried to live, talk, dress and eat like the Mandarin gentlemen he respected and wanted to approach. He wrote his books in Chinese because he wished to communicate with people using the very tools of his Chinese counterparts without imposing a foreign language on them. Yet he remained a scholastic, Thomistic theologian as described by Camps379 and corroborated by Standaert.380 Ricci may have lived in China, but his intellectual and spiritual home was Rome. 2.2.1 Matteo Ricci: his historical background I do not profess to offer an exhaustive analysis of Matteo Ricci’s life and work. Plenty of information about his person and activities can be found in the Ricci Institute.381 The reason for focusing on Matteo Ricci is partly to highlight a 376 Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, 125–130. 377 For more insight into the history and development of the axiom, see Jacques Dupuis, SJ, Toward a Christian theology of religious pluralism, 84–102. 378 Matteo Ricci, Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of heaven, trans., with introduction and notes by Douglas Lancashire & Peter Hu Kuo-chen, SJ Chinese-English edition by Edward J. Malatesta, Saint Louis-Taipei: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1985, 50. 379 A. Camps, Studies in Asian mission history, 126. 380 Nicolas Standaert SJ Yang Tingyun, Confucian and Christian in late Ming China. His life and thought, Leiden/New York/København/Köln, 1998, 219ff. 381 The Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History studies the history of early Christianity in China, with the emphasis on the Jesuit missions of the late Ming and early


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novel missionary method, and partly to prepare the ground for the third chapter, where we shall see how the Korean intellectuals turned Christian got their faith from Ricci, but established a new ecclesiology that Ricci would never have imagined. Matteo Ricci lived and died before the creation of Propaganda Fide, which published important guidelines for missionaries on how to take local cultures into account. Writing about cultural interaction, Nicolas Standaert stresses that when one enters into dialogue with others, one should realise one is carrying one’s own cultural luggage, from which one draws one’s arguments.382 Standaert suggests that this luggage derives from three areas of human life: “the sources available in one’s culture of origin, the mobility and amount of material that one can carry, and one’s imagination about that of the other culture.” Briefly, then, before analysing Ricci’s missionary vision (both its bright and its dark side) and method, I discuss two aspects of his life: where he came from and where he went. 2.2.1.1 The Europe that Matteo Ricci brought to China In The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci Jonathan D. Spence makes a very important observation: We must remember that if at one level Ricci’s career makes sense only in the context of an aggressive Counter-Reformation Catholicism, as part of an “expansion of Europe” in the later 16th century that took place under the guns of Spanish and Portuguese men-of-war, it also makes sense only in a far older context, pre-Renaissance in many aspects, a context reaching back through the Middle Ages to classical inquiry, to worlds where the priests of the Christian religion shared the tasks of consoling mankind with the “cunning men” who dealt in magic, alchemy, cosmography, and astrology.383

Qing dynasties. Named after the 16th century Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci, the Institute was founded in 1984 and incorporated into the University of San Francisco as the research arm of the Centre for the Pacific Rim in 1988. The Ricci Institute is a nonprofit, interdisciplinary research centre housing library and archival materials focusing on the early Jesuit missions to China in the 16th to 18th century, but also accommodates a wide range of disciplines relating to cultural contacts between China and the West. The collection contains the necessary tools to study traditional Chinese civilisation, accompanied by Western works on these early contacts. Although this study is based on the early China Jesuits and the rites controversy, we also draw on historical, philosophical, geographical and scientific exchanges from earliest times through the Tang dynasty, the age of Marco Polo and the Franciscan missions, the Jesuit era, and Catholic and Protestant missions of the 19th and 20th centuries. Our work is inspired by the example of Matteo Ricci, who approached his studies in a spirit of friendship and mutual respect. The Ricci Institute follows in his footsteps by promoting understanding through Eastern and Western classical scholarship, publications, courses in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Ricci 21st Century Roundtable Database, symposia, lectures, exhibits and exchange programmes with colleagues in academic institutions worldwide. 382 Nicolas Standaert, “The transition of Renaissance culture in seventieth-century [sic] China”, in Daniel Carey (ed.), Asian travel in the Renaissance, 43. 383 Jonathan D. Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, 18.

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Matteo Ricci was born on 8 October 1552 in the Italian town of Macerata, part of the papal domains. He was the eldest of thirteen children born to Giovan Battista Ricci, a pharmacist also involved in civic affairs, and Giovanna Angiolelli. Ricci was no stranger to intolerance and violence. Born during a period of heated theological and political debate in the Council of Trent (1545–1563) in the wake of the split between Protestants and Catholics, he tried to make sense of the events taking place around him and shaping the new Europe. “Ricci’s childhood world of Macereta was encircled by war and suffused with violence,” writes Jonathan D. Spence.384 Clashes between the most influential families that often ended in murder, groups of bandits making the roads to major cities unsafe, ongoing papal disputes that were constantly threatening to turn into open war with Spain (which dominated Naples, from where the Duke of Alva tried to annex the central and northern sections of the Italian peninsula for the Spanish crown), not to mention the threat from Muslim forces385 that aroused memories of the crusades some four centuries earlier, were some of the major challenges facing the world in which Ricci lived. In this turbulent social and political milieu Ricci was fortunate to receive the best intellectual and human training that Renaissance and Jesuit education could provide. In 1658, at the age of sixteen, Ricci386 left his hometown and family for Rome to pursue higher studies at the Roman College. This was a time when art and science were flourishing. On 15 August 1571 Ricci joined the Society of Jesus, whose founder, the Basque Ignatius of Loyola, had passed away only five years earlier. After the normal novitiate he took his vows and studied at the Roman College from 1573 to 1577. Ricci became a disciple of Christophorus Clavius (1538–1612), an astronomer, mathematician and friend of Kepler and Galileo, who was chiefly responsible for the development of the Gregorian calendar. Ricci was taught the positive sciences by Clavius, and philosophy and theology by cardinal Belarmino. Belarmino also taught him the necessary techniques to be a brilliant polemicist, as he demonstrated in his Thomist-style dialogues with unbelievers in China. Having volunteered for Far Eastern mission, Ricci left Rome on 18 May 1577 for Portugal, where he continued his studies at Coimbra University while

384 Ibid., 27. 385 On his accession to the throne of Peter in 1566 pope Pius V appealed for help against the Turks. Macerata, being a town in the papal domains with some 13.000 inhabitants, provided 37 oarsmen for the papal army and a contingent of 250 soldiers, or two for every hundred of the population (Vincent Cronin, The wise man from the West, London: Harvill, 1955, 18). Also see a much more recent book by Etienne Ducornet, Mateo Ricci, le lettré d’Occident, Paris: Du Cerf, 1992. 386 I follow the version of Matteo Ricci’s life outlined in Vincent Cronin, The wise man, 23–37.


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waiting to depart for Goa. At the time the faculty of philosophy at the university was preparing the commentaries on Aristotle, which were later published under the title of Conimbricenses. Ricci, with the help of some Chinese friends, would later translate part of these commentaries into Chinese. On 29 March 1578 Ricci, together with other missionaries of the Society of Jesus, including Ruggieri and Pasio, sailed from Lisbon and arrived in Goa on 13 September 1578 after a six month voyage. Here Ricci was ordained to the priesthood and remained for four years as a teacher. On 7 August 1582 he arrived at the Portuguese enclave city of Macao, and from that day on he laboured as a remarkable pioneer missionary under the guidance of Alessandro Valignano. Ricci brought with him his humanistic education based on solid, wide-ranging Renaissance intellectual knowledge. He also brought the typical militant character of the fairly new religious congregation that had shaped his spirituality. He was coming to China as a missionary, and as such, his aim was to make Christians. His tools to achieve this purpose, however, were not a sword or the systematic disqualification and humiliation of the other, but just a pen to put into writing what he knew and believed; his new friends would read and discuss what he wrote. At the same time Ricci used his pen to let Europe know about the advanced level of knowledge that the Chinese people possessed.387 2.2.1.2 The China that Matteo Ricci found When Matteo Ricci arrived in China he found a country that looked upon itself as the Middle Kingdom, and was indeed a centre of culture and civilisation. The kingdom was complacent and quite satisfied in its superior traditions. At the time of Ricci’s arrival the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) was in power.388 Mongol rule (1279–1368) (the previous dynasty) was brought to an end after civil war among Mongol princes and increasing conversion to the sedentary Chinese way of life that robbed the Mongol military machine of much of its effectiveness. Repeated natural disasters were followed by a massive peasant rebellion that the alien rulers could not quell. The Mandate of Heaven now shifted to Zhu Yuanzhang, a peasant leader who rose to eminence during the rebellions. After eliminating his rivals, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming dynasty in 1368, with his capital city first in Nanjing (Southern City) and later in Beijing (Northern City). Zhu Yuanzhang was known in history as emperor Taizu. The Ming dynasty was the last native Chinese dynasty to rule the empire. Spanning almost three centuries between the fall of the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) and the rise of the Manchu Ching

387 Vincent Cronin, The wise man, 23–37. 388 Rayne Kruger, All under heaven: a complete history of China, Chichester: Wiley, 2004, 274–286.

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Map 6: Matteo Ricci’s itinerary in China. dynasty (1644–1911), the Ming reunited what is now called China proper after almost 400 years of foreign incursions and occupation. The Ming reached the zenith of their power during the first quarter of the 15th century. The territory they controlled was smaller than that ruled by the Yuan dynasty (1279–1234), which at the height of its power had controlled the Mongols in the north, captured the western region, conquered the Jurchen (also Nuzhen) in the northeast, governed Tibet in the southwest and established the Jiaozhi prefecture in the south. During the Ming period, Zheng Hes’s long voyages to southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean made the Ming much more influential abroad than the Tang dynasty (581–907) and no less influential than the later Ching.389 The Ming 389 Ibid.


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period seems to have been one of China’s most prosperous. Pressure from the neo-Confucian bureaucrats led to an agrarian based society. Incredible advances in the sciences and arts under Ming rule led them to believe that they had created the most perfect civilisation on earth. It was also during these centuries that the great potential of south China came to be fully exploited. New crops such as maize, cotton and sweet potato were widely cultivated, and industries producing porcelain, textiles and other wares flourished. Another accomplishment of the Ming was the completion of the Great Wall. While the Great Wall had been commenced in earlier times, most of what is seen today was either built or repaired by the Ming. However, the dynasty is best known for its strong and complex central government, which unified and controlled the empire. Ironically, it was this very complexity that later prevented the Ming government from adapting to social change and eventually led to its decline. In the closing years of the dynasty long wars with the Mongols, repeated attacks on Korea by the Japanese, and even Japanese attacks on Chinese coastal cities greatly hurt the economy of the Ming. Worse still, owing to their inability to meet the high tax demands, many peasants abandoned their land. This caused an economic crisis, exacerbated by a peasant uprising in 1627. The Ming dynasty lasted 276 years, during which sixteen emperors occupied the throne. After its collapse the Ching dynasty (1644–1911), another ethnic regime, took control. The philosophical basis of the whole political and social structure that the Ming dynasty established was inspired by interpretations of the classic Confucian sacred texts by Chu Hsi (1130–1200) and his school.390 Ming China felt that, in the face of widespread practices such as the worship of heaven, patron, clan and community gods as well as ancestor worship, their society needed cultural homogeneity transcending ethnic diversity, the cause of so many internal conflicts and wars. Ming rulers tried to create a sort of institutionalised religion, capable of pervading “all the important sectors of social life, the family, the trade guilds, the agricultural society, the imperial courts […] that would contribute greatly to the stability and the permanence of the society”.391 The intellectual revival that the Ming dynasty brought was split between two main Confucians schools: the School of Mind or Intuition ( qi) and the School of Principle ( li), with Chu Hsi as the main exponent of the latter. Both schools agreed that the world consisted of two realms: that of material forces, which manifest and make concrete the governing principle – the Great Ultimate or Tao Ch’I – within them, identified with heaven. The School of 390 Vincent Cronin, The wise man, 23–37. A more detailed explanation of Chu Hsi and his interpretations as expounded by Korean intellectuals, as well as their application to everyday life, will be provided in chapter 3, section 3.1.3. 391 George Minamiki, SJ, The Chinese rites controversy from its beginning to modern times, Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1984, 3.

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Mind emphasised that the human mind is completely unified and perfectly reflects the principle of the universe. Consequently the duty of the philosopher or sage was to investigate the nature of the human mind. By contrast, the School of Principle believed that there was an immaterial and immutable principle in all things, which was responsible for their form, motion and change. Thus the human mind, which could be perfected to reflect a higher mind, was essentially the same as the mind of the universe. In sharp contrast with Buddhism, Confucianism created no structure of gods, priestly hierarchy or theological dogmas. However, it did have some recognisable features of a clearly liturgical nature, such as ancestor worship and rites of passage generally known as Xiao or Filial Piety. The practice of filial piety was li , the norm of social conduct and propriety. This practice of offering sacrifices and incense and bowing to ancestral memorial objects was, in the case of the literati, also extended to Confucius, and was regulated by a ministry of rites. This was the vast and complex context in which Matteo Ricci lived until his death in 1610. 2.2.2 Mission to China: an impossible dream? In 1535 Portugal obtained the right to trade in the Macao392 peninsula, which became an enclave on the very doorstep of China. In 1576, moreover, pope Gregory XIII declared it a diocese.393 Macao became a centre of trade, cultural and religious exchange. This enclave became the missionaries’ entry point to China. Obviously this was not the first attempt to enter China, since Manila had also been considered a stepping-stone into the Middle Kingdom. All efforts by missionaries to break through its walls were repelled. From 1555 to 1569 several Jesuit missionaries, of both Portuguese and Spanish origin (inter alia Melchior Nunes Barreto), tried unsuccessfully to gain entrance to the country. It is reported that in 1565 the Jesuit superior of Macao, Francisco Peres, appeared before an official court in Canton and formally requested permission to settle in the country. After a courteous reception he was asked to learn Chinese and sent back to Macao.394 Entering China legally, as well as learning the language before starting missionary work, was not a goal shared by all.395 One case in point was the Spanish Jesuit missionary Juan Bautista Ribeira, who bitterly complained in one of his letters to his superiors in Rome: “During the three years I was in Macao, I did everything possible to penetrate the continent, but nothing I could think of was

392 Jonathan D. Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, 173–178. 393 Ibid., 240. 394 George H. Dunne, SJ, Generation of giants, 15. 395 Ibid., 16.


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of any avail.”396 He evidently failed to understand that mission to China should begin with respect for its culture. He continues in the same letter: “There is no hope of converting [them], unless one has recourse to force and unless they give way before the soldiers.” Clearly this was a missionary vision based on purest conquista principles. The truth is that the methods employed during the 25 years following the death of Francis Xavier showed no advance on the narrow Eurocentrism of the age. Missionaries in general made no effort to learn Chinese and Chinese customs. This was the scene on which the Italian missionary Alessandro Valignano397 arrived. 2.2.2.1 Alessandro Valignano Since Portugal did not have enough missionaries to evangelise its vast territories, the king was only too happy to receive non-Portuguese clergy, on the single condition that they would observe the Padroado system. To ensure this loyalty to the crown the government devised a plan that required all missionaries leaving for Portuguese territories to set sail from Lisbon, use only Portuguese ships, and send all their future communications to and via Lisbon. In the case of the Jesuits this meant that the Jesuit provincial in Portugal would have a greater say in matters regarding missions in the East. To circumvent the interference of the Portuguese crown and Portuguese Jesuit influence, the superior general appointed a visitator (personal delegate) who would be directly in charge of the needs of the East Indian mission. In 1574 Alessandro Valignano398 (1539–1606) became the Jesuit visitator of India and the Far East, an area that at the time included places as diverse and far apart as Mozambique, Malacca, India, Macao and Japan. He may be credited with being the force behind Ricci’s missionary method of adaptation.399 Valignano’s task was not without risks. He had been authorised by his superiors in Rome to gather suitable candidates for Asian missions before his departure to India and to this end he visited several Jesuit centres in Spain before going to Portugal, from where he was supposed to sail to India. After meeting with the

Quoted by George H. Dunne, SJ, Generation of giants, 16. Pietro Tacchi-Ventury, SJ (ed.), Matteo Ricci, SJ Opere storiche I, Macerata: Giorgetti, 1911–1913, n.5. 397 A doctor of civil law with some years’ experience at the court of pope Paul IV, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1566 at the age of 28. In 1573 the general of the Society appointed him superior with the title of visitator. 398 Stephen Neill, A history of Christian mission, 134–135, 139. 399 This is just a brief résumé of Valignano’s missionary vision. The information is taken from M. Antoni J. Üceler, SJ, “Alessandro Valignano: man, missionary, and writer”, in Daniel Carey (ed.), Asian travel in the Renaissance, 12–41. There are extensive bibliographies, both on Valignano and the Jesuit mission in the Far East. 396

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young king Sebastian of Portugal, Valignano was able to secure the king’s support for his missionary endeavours as well as passages on Portuguese vessels for all missionaries. While in Portugal Valignano experienced some friction with his Portuguese confreres that resurfaced later in Japan regarding what he considered an “unreasonably harsh and rigorous regime, characterised by a spirit of fear, that the Portuguese Jesuit leadership had imposed on its members, and which, in his opinion, painfully contradicted the ‘spirito soave della Compagnia’ ”.400 One of the concerns of the confreres, apparently not raised by the king, was Valignano’s loyalty to the Padroado system. But the chief bone of contention was control of the missions in the territories where Valignano had been asked to exercise ordinary jurisdiction. Portuguese Jesuits never forgot that theirs had been the first independent Jesuit province personally founded by Ignatius of Loyola as early as 1546. Because of this historical fact Portuguese Jesuits would not let Valignano undermine their dominant position in the missions. He sailed from Lisbon on 23 March 1574 with a group of some forty Jesuits confreres; the majority were Spaniards, many of them ‘new Christians’ or confessi.401 After staying in Goa for a couple of years they arrived in Macao at the beginning of September 1578. Nine months later he set sail for Japan, arriving in July 1579. One of his greatest achievements, and something of a novelty in those times, was the establishment in Macao of a training college for Japanese clergy, in the face of objections from his Portuguese confreres, who feared that such a college would undermine the position of the College of St Paul in Goa and give the Spanish Jesuit missionaries an excuse to bypass Goa and go directly to Macao. The venture met with success in September 1601 when two Japanese Jesuits were ordained to the priesthood. Valignano had very clear ideas about the missionary method he wanted his confreres to put into practice. It is true that he was not free from some racial prejudice. According to Ross, Valignano’s preference for the mission in Japan and China was partly due to racial and cultural prejudice. It seemed to him that, unlike the inferior peoples of India, Africa and Southeast Asia, the Japanese and Chinese were better equipped for dialogue with Western culture. These cultures were, in his opinion, on a par with European culture. However, he wanted the Jesuits to become Japanese so as to win the Japanese people, and to become Chinese so as to win the Chinese people. In clear defiance of an enclave church establishment he ordered the ‘Portugalisation’ of converts to stop. 400 Quoted in Daniel Carey (ed.), Asian travel in the Renaissance, 17. 401 The confessi were new Christians of Jewish origin, the result of an intensive hunt for the most intelligent possible new recruits to the Society of Jesus, carried out by general Mercurian in 1570. Several of them, including one priest, sailed with Matteo Ricci to China. (See Jonathan D. Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, 111.)


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The implementation of this vision and policy was a break with the Eurocentric conquistador mentality kept alive by some of his Portuguese confreres in Japan, who adhered to strict internal discipline,402 demanded privileged and different treatment from the Japanese, and wanted the Japanese to adapt to them rather than the other way round. Valignano demanded that his confreres stop criticising Japanese customs and give them access to European culture and knowledge by allowing Japanese to learn Latin and other European languages. To facilitate this intercultural exchange Valignano established colleges and seminaries where Japanese were trained for the priesthood and strongly advised missionaries to learn Japanese. Notwithstanding the criticism levelled against Valignano that he, with his racial preferences, was launching an elitist mission and anti-gospel practices (which was how the Dominicans and the Franciscans regarded it403), he was on the right track. During his time in Macao Valignano became persuaded that “the only possible way to penetration [of China] will be utterly different from that which has been adopted up to now in all the other missions in these countries”.404 This could be considered the dawn of a new missionary methodology, a break with exaggerated Eurocentrism. He saw that instead of attempting to foist itself as a foreign religion on the resistant and uncompromising Chinese culture, Christianity had to discover its original vocation of being the leaven, the salt and the light. It was a matter of trying to penetrate Chinese culture quietly from the inside in order to transform it. For this reason Valigano encouraged Matteo Ricci to study the language and the manners of the mandarins and become fluent in their classics. 2.2.3 The missionary Matteo Ricci The Jesuits living in Macao at the time of the arrival of Alessandro Valignano and his group in 1582 were no less Eurocentric than their confreres in Japan. Upon his return from Japan Valignano saw that the Jesuits in Macao needed the same harsh remedy as the ones in Japan. He immediately appointed a new superior willing to sail with the new currents in the church’s missionary method, and ordered that members going to China should enjoy considerable autonomy. He also wanted the Jesuit missionaries to enter China with proper papers,405 a legal

402 Daniel Carey (ed.), Asian travel in the Renaissance, 36. 403 George Minamiki, SJ, The Chinese rites controversy from its beginnings to modern times., 1–76. Also see A. Camps, Missiology, 52–54. 404 Quoted by Henry Bernard, SJ, Aux portes de la Chine, Tientsin: Hautes Etudes, 1933, 141. 405 Andrew C. Ross, A vision betrayed. The Jesuits in Japan and China 1542–1742, London: Edinburgh University Press, 1994, 118–141. In the next subsection I refer passim to chapter 6, “Matteo Ricci and the road to Beijing”.

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entry visa (piao), and to refrain from personal adventures by making illegal incursions into the mainland. Thus Matteo Ricci and Michele Ruggieri406 launched their first mission for the Jesuits on 10 September 1583. 2.2.3.1 Matteo Ricci’s journey in China While waiting for official authorisation to enter China, Ruggieri resided in Macao, where Ricci joined him. In September 1582 both obtained official entry permits and settled in Zhaoqin. There Ricci learned to speak and write Mandarin. Ruggieri has been greatly overshadowed by Matteo Ricci. Initially the two missionaries, to make themselves more acceptable to the Chinese, shaved their heads and dressed like Buddhist monks, putting aside their black cassocks. They travelled by junk from Macao to Canton and then on to Zhaoqin, where they were given permission to buy land on which to erect their residence. They called their residence Xian Hua Ssu (Temple of the Flower of the Saints), the way Buddhists named their temple residences. During the twelve years that the missionaries spent at this place Ricci realised that the Chinese intellectuals had little regard for Buddhism, and that writing books (China had made major advances in using the printing press) attracted greater attention among the learned community. With the approval of Valignano, Ricci decided to move further north to Nanking, where he arrived in 1595. Ricci took this opportunity – Ruggieri had returned to Europe in 1588 – to transform his appearance from that of a Buddhist monk to that of a Confucian scholar407

406 Born in Italy, Michaele Ruggieri (1543–1607) became a Christian in 1572. In 1578 he joined a missionary expedition to China with Matteo Ricci. Arriving in Macao in 1579, he studied Chinese. Ruggieri then proceeded to preach in Zhaoqing, staying at the Tianning temple. He was soon deported back to Macao. In 1583 he returned to Zhaoqing and began building a Catholic church with Matteo Ricci. The importance of Ruggieri’s contribution to the spread of Catholicism in China cannot be overemphasised. The governor of Guangzhou sent Ruggieri to Hangzhou and Zhaoqing invited him to his house in 1585, and he preached extensively in Guiling in Guangxi. Ruggieri returned to Europe in 1588 and lobbied for the European countries to open an embassy in China. He died in 1607, leaving behind a book, The annals of Catholicism, which became a very important reference work for the early translation of Catholic doctrines into Chinese. Earlier the Basque Jesuit Francis Xavier, after vain efforts to enter China, had died on Sancian island near Maca on 5 December 1552. See Francesco Antonio Gisondi, Michele Ruggieri, missionario in Cina e primo Sinologo Europeo, Milano: Iaca, 1999. 407 Matteo Ricci made the final metamorphosis from Buddhist monk to Confucian scholar in the summer of 1595. About this he wrote to one of his friends in Macao: “We have let our beards grow and our hair down to our ears; at the same time we have adopted the special dress that the literati wear on their social visits (as opposed to that of the bonzes that we used to have). I sallied out for the first time in my beard, and in the dress that mandarins use for paying their visits, which is of purple silk, and the hem of the robe and the collar and the edges are bordered with a band of blue silk a little less than a palm wide; the same decoration is on


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and also adopted a Chinese name, Le Madou.408 Receiving an official rebuff, however, he withdrew to the capital of the province of Kiangsi, Nanchang, a centre of learning and strong Buddhist influence. But Ricci’s mind was set on some day reaching Beijing. Together with a Chinese colleague he succeeded on 7 September 1598, where he found that there was no easy access to the emperor. Because Hideyoshi, the ruler of Japan, was leading a successful campaign against Korea and was planning to move on into China, the political and social circumstances demanded his withdrawal from the capital. In the early spring of 1599, however, with the sudden death of Hideyoshi the political situation became calmer and Ricci took advantage of this to establish himself in Nanking. Here he displayed his powers as a mathematician and scientist, and soon found interested pupils. Ricci did not abandon his dream of establishing himself in Peking and, arriving in the imperial capital in 1601, managed to have his gifts brought to the emperor, whom Ricci could never have met. The emperor was delighted with the gifts Ricci had brought with him (two chiming clocks and a clavichord), and his entourage was allowed to reside in an area reserved for foreign tribute bringers. They were all allotted imperial rations and later provided with a grant. From 1601 onwards Ricci tried to propagate the faith while he remained an imperial official and follower of Confucian philosophy. Only now did friends openly seek him out and, at the same time, he began printing all kinds of books on philosophy, religion, astronomy, mathematics and ethics. Ricci was to remain in Peking until his death on 11 May 1610. At that time there were about 2.500 Catholics in China, sixteen of them Jesuits.409 One of the most radical features of his legacy in Europe410 was his acceptance of certain Chinese

the edges of the sleeves which hang open, rather in the style common in Venice. There is a wide sash of the purple silk trimmed in blue which is fastened round the same robe and lets the robe hang comfortably open.” (Quoted in Jonathan D. Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, 115). 408 It has been a custom in Far Eastern countries ever since that a missionary adopts a local name with its corresponding Chinese characters. 409 For more detailed information on the number of Catholics in China and their locations, as well as information about the Jesuits and their places of assignment, see Étienne Ducornet, Matteo Ricci: le lettré d’Occidant and Francesco Antonio Gisondi, Michele Ruggieri, missionario in Cina e primo Sinologo Europeo. 410 The issue of ancestral rites and the offering of incense to statues of Confucius did not have the same relevance in Korea as it had in both China and Europe. Although Korean Christians were asked by the bishop of Peking in 1795 to refrain from performing ancestral rites, the prohibition did not incur the same heated debates and controversy among religious congregations and their superiors in Rome as it did in China. Although the prohibition of the rites divided the incipient Korean Catholic community, it did not have the same historical connotations. (A more detailed reference to this will be offered in 3.5.)

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rites into the Christian way of life.411 On 11 July 1742 pope Benedict XIV issued the apostolic constitution Ex quo Singulari that brought to a close a bitterly fought controversy on the question of the Chinese rites. This controversy is not dealt with in this study. 2.2.3.2 Matteo Ricci: brilliant polemicist and writer During the time he resided in Nanking Ricci had the opportunity to meet a leading member of the Buddhist community, whom he engaged in an interesting conversation. The people were keenly interested in seeing whose arguments were more convincing, hence whose religion would seem to be more truthful. In general, however, Ricci preferred to use his pen to communicate with a larger audience and put forward his arguments against Buddhism in his book The true meaning of the Lord of heaven. In it Ricci wrote that the Buddhist religion came to China from India and that the canonical writings of the Buddha contained the erroneous doctrine of reincarnation and a hundred other lies.412 Ricci also discovered that the polytheism of popular Taoism413 was not in accordance with its basic spirit regarding truth: The ‘nothing’ spoken by Lao Tzu and the ‘voidness’ thought by the Buddha are totally at variance with the doctrine concerning the Lord of Heaven; and it is therefore abundantly clear that they do not merit esteem. When it comes to the ‘existence’ and ‘sincerity’ of the Confucians, however, although I have not heard a complete explanation of the meaning of these words, they would seem to be close to the truth.414

After studying the Confucian classics415 Ricci became persuaded that the earliest expressions of Confucianism were an almost flawless rendering of what the Roman Catholic Church understood by the term ‘natural law’ and he set out to use these similarities both as a foundation for Christian teaching in China and to undermine the influence Buddhism still wielded among a large part of

411 Arnulf Camps, OFM, “Do the three Jesuits, Jerome Xavier, Matteo Ricci and Roberto de Nobili, still have a say in our missiology?” in Inus Daneel, Charles Van Engen and Hendrik Vroom (eds), Fullness of life for all: challenges for mission in early 21st century, Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2003, 219–234. 412 Matteo Ricci, Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of heaven, 241–243. 413 Taoism saw all changes in nature as manifestations of the dynamic interplay between the polar opposites of yin and yang (u˘ n and yang in Korean): negative and positive, passive and active, female and male, earth and heaven, even and odd, black and white, death and life, evil and good are constitutive dimensions of all things. Yin is always both contrasted with and complementary to yang. Taoism holds that any pair of opposites constitutes a polar relationship in which the two poles are dynamically interlinked. The principle of yin and yang is based on the Book of Changes. 414 Ibid., 99. 415 See note 104.


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the population. Ricci introduced Christianity as the fulfilment of primitive Confucianism.416 His association with Chinese intellectuals and the latter’s interest in Western science were crucial to their perception of the Jesuits’ mission as a scientific apostolate.417 As part of this vision Ricci undertook the translation of the classic Four books ( si shu) of Confucianism,418 which he completed in November 1594, and immediately continued with the study of the sacred Six classics. Ricci’s aim was to systematically study the Chinese canonical ancient texts and compare them with his Christian doctrines in order to discuss them with the literati. It was at this time that he earned a place in the Chinese encyclopaedia of geography after he had published a book in Chinese, A treatise on friendship (1595). For the most part he did not undertake any public evangelisation activity and confined himself to small group discussions with government officials, the intellectuals of the time. In October 1596 he was able to finish the first draft of his Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of heaven, a book that became widely discussed among Korean intellectuals during the last quarter of the 18th century. He wanted to show the Chinese intellectuals that Christianity was a unified system just like their own, and hence worthy of being integrated with the Chinese system of thought. The final draft was finished in 1603419 and was revised with the help of Chinese scholars. Other writings by Ricci that reached Korean intellectuals include: The true account of God (1584) [Cheon Ju Shileui in Korean], of a catechetical nature; De amicitia (1595) [Kyouron in Korean]; The 25 words (1604) [Yiship-on in Korean], which Ricci wrote in response to Jesuit criticism that his Tianzhu Shiyi lacked important information on Christian dogmatic truths; The 10 paradoxes (1608) [Kiinship, in Korean]; and Disputatio contra sectas idolatricas or Disputations against idolatrous sects (1609) [Pyeonhakyudok in Korean]. Of these I refer only to Tianzhu Shiyi, as this was the book that stirred up most controversy among Korean intellectuals.

416 417 418

Ibid., 9. Andrew C. Ross, A vision, 142–153. The canonical books of Confucianism are the nine classics: the classical Four Books: (1) The great learning, (2) The doctrine of the mean, (3) The analects (Confucius), (4) The works of Mencius; and the sacred Five Books: (1) Shu-king, or Book of historical documents, (2) Shih-king, or Book of ancient poems, (3) Yi-king, or Book of changes, (4) Li-ki, or Books of rites and ancient ceremonies, (5) Ch’un Ch’iu, or Spring and autumn (Annals of Lu). There seems to have been a sixth book, the Book of music, which was either lost or included as an essay in the Book of rites. For more information, also see http://www.sacredtexts.com/cfu/conf. 419 Matteo Ricci, The true meaning of the Lord of heaven.

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2.2.4 Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of heaven As described by Andrew C. Ross,420 Tianzhu Shiyi was a Christian apologia. In Ricci’s view Chinese culture had preserved the primal revelation of a monotheistic God, and he wanted to present Christianity as a continuation of Confucianism. Ricci expresses this view: Although I arrived in China late in life, I have assiduously studied the ancient records of China and discovered that the superior men of ancient times worshipped and revered the Sovereign on High, [the Supreme Lord] of Heaven and earth, but I have never heard of them paying respect to the Supreme Ultimate. If the Supreme Ultimate is the Sovereign on High and ancestor of all things, why did not the sages of ancient times say so?421

Thus his book presents the true, authoritative concept of God’s nature and metaphysical attributes. In the introduction Ricci states that his intention is to correct erroneous doctrines concerning the Lord of heaven and to enter into dialogue with Chinese scholars.422 Published in two volumes comprising eight sets of dialogues and 174 articles, the book describes a dialogue between a European intellectual and Chinese literati. A variety of topics are discussed, such as creation, the nature of the human soul and spiritual beings, reincarnation, fasting, the taking of life, reward and punishment, the fundamental goodness of human nature, Western dress, the history of celibacy and the birth of the Lord of heaven in the West. The Chinese literati take turns defending the traditional views of a Confucian, a Buddhist and a Taoist. But the words of both interlocutors betray their dislike of Buddhism, as they agree that the Indians are a low and lowly nation possessing no civilised arts and standards of moral conduct. Ricci did not consider the Buddhist concept of a Supreme Ultimate to be a personal God. He argues against the concept at length, to which the Chinese scholar listens carefully, and develops his Christian apologia in pure scholastic theories, while also citing examples found in the Confucian classic texts.423 After the lengthy exposition the Chinese scholar, acknowledging that Ricci’s views concurred with those of the sages and worthies of ancient times, concludes: I am ashamed that we Confucian scholars have not been able to see clearly the important matters of life. We have investigated other things in detail, and we have been unaware of that

420 Andrew C. Ross, A vision, 147–148. 421 Matteo Ricci, Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of heaven. 107. 422 Matteo Ricci, Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of heaven, N. 8 of Matteo Ricci’s own Introduction, 61. There are many editions of this work. The Korean version is translated from Chinese by Song Yeong-bae, Im Keum-ja, Chang Jeong-ran, Jeong In-jae, Cho Kwang & Choi So-ja, Cheon Ju Shil Eui, Seoul: Seoul University Press, 1999. 423 Matteo Ricci gives eleven quotations taken from Confucian classics such as The doctrine of the mean, The book of odes, The book of changes, The book of rites and The book of history. Matteo Ricci, Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of heaven, 123.


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learning which is concerned with the end of human existence. Our parents give us the various parts of our bodies, and we ought, therefore, to be filial towards them. Our sovereign and his ministers give us land, places to live, trees, and animals so that we can practice filial piety towards our elders, and instruct and nurture our children. We ought therefore to honor them as well. But how much more should we honor the Lord of Heaven who is the great Father and Mother, the great Sovereign, the first Cause of all first ancestors, the One from whom all sovereigns derive their mandate and the Producer and Sustainer of all things? How can one be mistaken about him or forget Him?424

The author, then, refutes the main errors of the Chinese and prepares a pedagogical way that leads to acceptance of the gospel. The following is a brief analysis of the text. The first chapter is entitled “The Lord from heaven created the ten thousands creatures and he lords over them and sustains them”. In the first dialogue Ricci refers to the intellectual capacity of human beings, then proceeds to probe the existence of God based on the theory of the movement and order in the universe. In the second dialogue Ricci refutes both Buddhism and Taoism, but gives a more positive appraisal of Confucianism, abeit rejecting its theory of the supreme principle ( Tai ji, Tae Ku – heaven).425 From the Confucian classics Ricci takes the expression ‘Sang Ji’ (Lord on high) and tries to find parallels with the Christian concept of God. In the third dialogue Ricci expounds the doctrines of heaven and hell, immortality and the human soul. The European intellectual stresses that human beings are endowed with an immortal soul, and it is this peculiarity that distinguishes them from animals. In the fourth dialogue Ricci criticises traditional Chinese pantheistic beliefs, which he believes offer a devious interpretation of the spirits and the human soul, reaffirms the existence of paradise and the human soul, and insists, drawing on Confucian classic texts (counter to the reformed theories of Chu Hsi), that the universe is not composed of a single substance. These four sets of dialogues conclude the first volume of Tianzhu Shiyi. In the fifth set of dialogues the European intellectual presents still sharper criticism of Buddhism, to which Ricci wrongly attributed the theory of metempsychoses (reincarnation).426 This discussion took place in the context of the Buddhist refusal to kill animals for food out of fear that they might be possessed by the spirit of an ancestor.427 Ricci then gives the proper reasons to observe 424 Matteo Ricci, Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of heaven, 131. 425 These terms refer to the interaction of li (reason, principle) and ki (matter) from the time of Chu Hsi (see Tianzhu Shiyi, 27). For more information on these terms, see Institute Ricci Centre d’Études Chinois, Dictionnaire francais de la langue Chinois, Paris: Kuangchi, 1976, N. 4660, 889. Also see Fong, Yeou-lan, Précis d’histoire de la philosophie Chinoise, Paris: Payot le Mail, 1985, 183, 281, 283, 286; Henri Maspero, Le Taoïsme et les religions Chinoises, Paris: Gallimard, 1971, 82–82, 106, 542. 426 The theory seems rather to be connected with the school of Pythagoras, 6th century BCE. 427 A similar discussion can be found above in the missionaries’ discussion with the Buddhists during the missionary expansion in Thailand.

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abstinence and fasting. The sixth set of dialogues concerns the reward for goodness and the punishment of wrongdoing after death, and describes paradise, hell and purgatory. All human behaviour is directed and motivated, according to the European author, by fear and hope of a future life after death. The seventh set of dialogues explains divine nature and human nature and affirms that human nature is basically good. Thus the aim of human free will is to love God and humankind. In the eighth and final set of dialogues Ricci expounds the customs of Europe, the celibate priesthood and the way the pope rules the church, as well as the doctrine of original sin and God’s incarnation. Ricci concludes by emphasising the need to convert to Christianity. In short, Ricci lucidly expounded the existence of God, creator and guide of the whole universe, human freedom and the immortality of the soul that will have to present itself before God’s judgment to receive, after death, the reward or punishment according to the deeds done in life. Having dismissed Buddhism’s theory of reincarnation as puerile and senseless, Ricci affirms that only Christ can save human beings. Only at the end of his book Ricci touches on the person of Jesus, his preaching and ascension to heaven, without mentioning his death on the cross: Our purpose is not to be teachers of men. It is simply that because we feel pity for men’s mistakes we wish to lead them back to their original path and into the holy Church of the Lord of Heaven. We are all brothers who share the same father; how dare we to accept the title of ‘teacher’ and offend against the rites, which govern teachers of men? The script used in the canonical writings of the Lord of Heaven is different from Chinese scripts. Although I have not finished translating them, I have complete translations of the essential parts. But what I have discussed earlier are all key elements of this teaching. I hope that those who study the Way will go home and savor the teachings, which I have propounded in the several foregoing chapters. If you have no further doubts about what I have said, what is there to hinder you accepting the canonical writings, receiving the sacred water and entering the Church?428

The Chinese scholar seems to be uplifted by Matteo Ricci’s explanation of religious matters, but many other were less impressed. 2.2.4.1 Tianzhu Shiyi: widely read and contested Ricci’s book spread quickly and soon more editions had to be printed. It also came in for heated criticism, especially from Chinese Buddhist and Taoist leaders, who published many books and articles. In spite of the criticism, Tianzhu Shiyi was welcomed by the Confucian literati, not only in China but throughout the Far East. The book was translated into Japanese in 1685, into Manchu in 1758, and soon afterwards into Mongol and Tokenize.429 It was introduced in Korea at the

428 Matteo Ricci, Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of heaven, 455–457. 429 Joseph Ung-Tai Kim, L’experience religieuse Coreenne dans la première annonce du message Chretien (1779–1839), Seoul: Catholic Chulphansa, 1989, 22.


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beginning of the 17th century and was widely read and discussed, especially by Shin Hu-dam, who wrote several articles criticising and contesting Ricci’s assertions.430 The attacks on the book were limited to three areas: its scientific, political and religio-philosophical context.431 Reading the attacks on Ricci’s book in China one cannot fail to spot similarities with those of Korean intellectuals, who instigated the king to persecute their colleagues who became Christians and have them slaughtered by the national army. Regarding the scientific area, many Chinese literati resented the implication of Ricci’s book that China was scientifically and technologically backward in comparison with Europe. Some Confucians even went so far as to affirm that in fact “scientific and technological skills contributed nothing to good government, sound education, and the moral welfare of the nation”.432 This criticism was not totally correct, even in light of Jonathan D. Spence’s summary of Ricci’s approach: He did suggest – and this was to become a fateful argument – that Chinese science had somehow fallen behind that of the West by failing to develop its full potentialities, once so strongly part of Chinese culture. The Chinese, wrote Ricci, ‘have no conception of the rules of logic,’ and consequently ‘the science of ethics with them is a series of confused maxims and deductions.’ Similarly, though ‘at one time they were quite proficient in arithmetic and geometry, in the study and teaching of these branches of learning they labored with more or less confusion.’ The implication was clearly that with a more rigorous system of logic, and a renewed concentration on mathematics and science, which the West was in position to offer, China would become a better place.433

However, there are many documents that prove the contrary. In fact, in his letters Ricci never ceased to admire the progressiveness of China and the beauty of its cities. More damaging were the accusations that Ricci and his companions were the vanguard of European armies that were being trained to invade China at any moment. The way Spain had gained control of the Philippines was in everybody’s minds. More subtle issues concerned the religio-philosophical area. These can be condensed into three main aspects. First, Ricci’s conversations with the Chinese literati in Tianzhu Shiyi included neither Taoist nor Buddhist scholars. The same scholar in the dialogues expounds the positions of both these religio-philosophical orientations. No wonder Taoists and Buddhists found Ricci’s partner in dialogue to be a benevolent, easy opponent – in fact, one that was already thinking along

430 Shin Hu-dam’s reaction to the book will be studied in chapter 3. 431 Matteo Ricci, The true meaning of the Lord of heaven, 44–46. 432 Ibid., 44. 433 Jonathan D. Spence, The Chan’s great continent. China in Western minds, New York/ London: Norton, 1998, 35.

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Ricci’s own lines. Secondly, Ricci did not seem to realise that many of his neoConfucian intellectuals in fact held positions similar to those of Taoism and Buddhism. Buddhism had realised that if it wanted to survive, it had no choice but to accommodate to the neo-Confucian mainline ideas and practices, particularly those concerning filial piety. Consequently Ricci’s outright opposition to Buddhism implied opposition to many neo-Confucian principles, as the two intellectual movements had reached a syncretistic, peaceful coexistence. Finally, Ricci’s fiercest opponents remained the neo-Confucians themselves. Many of them believed that he was undermining Confucian orthodoxy as taught by the renowned reformer Chu Hsi. Ricci affirmed that, as principle (li), the Supreme Ultimate could not be regarded as the source of creation.434 For neo-Confucians this was tantamount to denying the foundations of the universal and social order. As will be seen later in the case of Korean intellectuals, the most contested aspects of Ricci’s Tianzhu Shiyi were Chinese theism, the doctrine of the soul and life after death. Also contested were the doctrines of the incarnation, human nature, heaven and hell, celibacy, and the way of electing the pope and his rule. Ricci was well aware of the limitations of his book, which he acknowledges in his introduction: This catechism does not treat of all the mysteries of our holy faith, which need to be explained only to catechumens and Christians, but only of certain principles, especially such as can be proved and understood with the light of reason. Thus it can be of service both to Christians and to non-Christians and can be understood in those remote regions which our Fathers cannot immediately reach, preparing the way for those other mysteries which depend upon faith and revealed wisdom.435

Ricci’s intention is quite evident: to prepare the way for a fuller introduction into Christianity by exclusively rational means, by studying classical Confucian texts and by proving that both Christian and classic canonical Confucian texts agree on matters pertaining to ethics and theodicy. 2.2.4.2 Ricci’s understanding of some Confucian principles There is still the question of Ricci’s grasp of the central ideas of the various Chinese schools of thought in his time. Prof. Song Yeong-bae even doubts Ricci’s knowledge of Chinese language and use of characters. Prof. Song contends that Ricci’s choice of Chinese characters to translate scholastic terms such as ‘substance’, ‘accident’, and ‘cause and effect’ (among many others – terms that did not have a corresponding Chinese character) was not very accurate. Nowadays these scholastic concepts are rendered with totally different characters.436 434 Matteo Ricci, The true meaning of the Lord of heaven, 45. 435 Ibid., 43. 436 Song Yeong-bae et al., -ja, Chang Jeong-ran, Jeong In-jae, Cho Kwang, Choi So-ja, Cheon Ju Shil Eui, Seoul: Seoul University Press, 1999, 29–35.


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Ricci’s difficulty in fully grasping the deep meaning of Chinese culture and religiophilosophic concepts is evidenced by his choice of a Chinese name for God. Concerning language, a major problem Ricci struggled with was indeed to find a Chinese word that corresponded with Deus, the Christian concept of God. He failed to understand that the Wu437 (soul of the king-sage) of Taoism or Tao (way, virtue, personal relations, study, personality, heaven’s mandate, heaven) and the K’ung of Chinese Mahayana Buddhism describe the absolutely Ultimate Reality.438 Christians could have understood these terms as parallels to those of the via negativa of scholastic philosophy and theology. By the same token the neo-Confucian terms used by the school of Chu-Hsi, such as T’ai-chi, Li or Ki, could have easily been used to express the relationship between Ultimate Reality and its interaction with people and created things in the universe. T’ai-chi, the Confucian Ultimate Reality, has parallels with the Christian concept of God the Father, source of the ten thousand creatures,439 and is also the origin of justice and interacts with humans via mediators, such as liminality, which could be interpreted as the Christian Son of God that reveals the Source (ki), similar to the Christian Holy Spirit.440 Consequently the concept rendered in Chu Hsi’s school theory with the term T’ai-chi (King on High) was not totally incompatible with the Latin concept Deus. Equally, the Taoist Wu and the Buddhist K’ung could have been used to describe the Christian notion of God, if they were properly explained, as the early church had to do in the case of the Latin term ‘Deus’. Other issues concerning Ricci’s assumptions about motivations for moral behaviour (chapter 6 of Tianzhu Shiyi, where the example of Francis of Assisi is highly exalted), the structure of the human soul, the teaching about immortality, heaven and hell, and cultivation of virtue (chapter 9) will be discussed in chapter 3. However, Ricci must not be criticised too harshly. He can be hailed as the first scholar to engage Renaissance Europe and scholastic theology in intellectual dialogue with Chinese culture. In this dialogue, like a new St Paul, Ricci was a creative scholar.441 It was not his intention to demonstrate that original Confucian thought could be of interest to Christian thinking or how the treasures of Confucianism and Christianity could merge – that would have been a real revolution. He merely tried to prove that the original Confucian thought was in agreement with the Western philosophical approach to the doctrine concerning

437 Referring to king Muwang, who ruled c. 1121 BCE. Dictionnaire francais de la langue Chinois: chronologie, 10. 438 Matteo Ricci, The true meaning of the Lord of heaven, 47. 439 Joseph Ung-Tai Kim, L’experience religieuse Coreenne, 87–88. 440 Ibid., 95. 441 George H. Dunne, S.J., Generation of giants, 5.

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the idea of God. Using scholastic arguments and doctrines, and influenced by the prevailing outright rejection of other religions, Ricci could not enter into proper theological dialogue with the religions he met in China. Arnulf Camps’ concluding remark is to the point: There can be no doubt that by making a sharp distinction between the philosophical and the theological dimension of the Christian faith and by classifying early Confucian thought as being only philosophical, Ricci confirmed the current opinion that other religions had no place in the history of salvation. He explained his view of Christian thought with the aid of his view of the original Confucian thought. A real dialogue would have tried to enter more deeply and more comprehensively into China and Europe’s religious convictions. 442

Nonetheless Ricci’s missionary method was a dramatic improvement on conquest, aggression and the offensive method of the missionaries in Thailand. Ricci shared with them the “outright rejection of other religions and [the] tendency to oppose all Confucian schools except the earliest”.443 However, like the missionaries in Thailand, he appreciated the high moral standards of the literati. A child of the Council of Trent, Ricci was persuaded that Christianity was the only true religion that can bring us salvation. Nevertheless, on the issue of filial piety, Hsiao (Hyodo in Korean), he made a serious effort to accommodate to Chinese people. He rightly understood this to be an essential dimension of Chinese Confucian culture – an ethos, indeed, the foundation of all morality and of the state structure. Ricci decided that participation in these rites444 was permissible for Christians; for to deny Christians any participation in these ancestral rites and to deny the literati the additional Confucian rites meant there would be no Chinese Christianity at all. In a letter in 1609 Ricci expresses his appreciation of Confucianism and gives details of his mission strategy. The main points are as follows: ●

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Confucian morality is compatible with Christianity, and Confucians and Christians can join forces against ‘the followers of idols’, the Buddhists. The literati occupy the highest level in Chinese society; theirs is a status based on learning, not on heredity; hence by making converts among them Christianity has a real chance of establishing itself in China.

442 Arnulf Camps, OFM, “Do the three Jesuits, Jerome Xavier, Matteo Ricci and Roberto de Nobili, still have a say in our missiology?”, 227. 443 Matteo Ricci, The true meaning of the Lord of heaven, 50. 444 It would be too arduous to give a detailed explanation of these rites. For more information, see George Minamiki, SJ, The Chinese rites controversy from its beginning to modern times. Briefly they entail the duty of the eldest son in a family to preside over funeral rites, offer incense and bow, and perform other ancestral rituals in front of the altar dedicated to the ancestors on the occasion of a death, New Year and autumn celebrations. The literati had to do the same for their mentor and Great Teacher Confucius. This became a thorny issue during the dispute about the Chinese rites: did the incense mean they were directed to a divinity?

Struggling between the sword and the pen ●

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The Jesuits will become accepted in Chinese society as bringers of scientific and technical knowledge. Hence European missionaries should study Chinese classics before they embark on mission in China.

One could hardly add anything to this vision of missionary endeavour and strategy, if one may speak of strategy with reference to missionary activity in any part of the world. Abandoning the sword as a tool for mission, Ricci took a pen and began talking and listening. This two-way interaction was in itself a remarkable improvement and change of mindset. It was from this fountain of toleration and common sense that the Korean scholars visiting Peking drank and then tried to apply it in their own country, as we shall see in chapter 3.

2.3 Conclusion Christianity was born with a clear vocation to transform human beings and the milieu in which they live, namely to make visible the kingdom of God that Jesus declared to be already in our midst. The gospel, the good news, was to be the motor for both individual and social transformation. Unfortunately the appeal of the gospel as such a motor had lost its strength by the time Christianity arrived in Thailand. The expansion of the church (implantatio ecclesiae) as a structure that provided personal salvation but left its social implications untouched seemed to have been the norm in the missionary method of conquest. Missionaries in Thailand, who encountered a well structured religious, philosophical and political society, cared for the sick, the abandoned children and the people in need. However, they were convinced of the superiority of European culture and religion. Consequently, with no serious attempt to enter into dialogue with the new country, they considered it more important to baptise and swell the numbers of the Catholic Church, engulfed as it was in internal crisis and division due to the Reformation. Missionaries entered Thailand hand in hand with merchants and mercenaries, who pursued other interests. The success or failure to make new converts was closely bound up with the political and economic success or failure of their patrons. The new Christians were put in an enclave where they were no longer considered Thai but also never completely accepted as full citizens of the empires to which they came to belong after baptism. On top of this missionaries quarrelled among themselves about ecclesiastic jurisdiction, often displaying attitudes far removed from the gospel values they tried to spread. The missionaries in Thailand disregarded the local culture. True, they valued the high moral standards of the Buddhist monks and the simplicity of their lifestyle; however, their scholastic, logical mindset and theology did not help them to see the local

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religion as a way to God. Missionaries despised local religion and called its adherents followers of idols; Buddhist temples were referred to as seminaries of idolatry. The missionaries were sure of the Catholic religion’s superiority to the world, and demanded that all be baptised to gain access to heaven, because there was no salvation outside of the church.445 In contrast with the missionaries to Thailand, Matteo Ricci breathed fresh air into the missionary task in Asia, even anticipating the spirit discernible in an instruction from Propaganda Fide published 49 years after his death in China in 1610. Ricci indeed exemplifies a new attitude of dialogue that brought the best the European Renaissance could offer to a completely unknown country with a very rich intellectual, economic and social heritage of its own. Ricci’s missionary method of adaptation was also novel in comparison with that of his own brethren in the Society of Jesus in Japan. Alessandro Valignano held that any missionary endeavour that did not begin by learning the local languages and cultures and creating higher learning institutions where local clergy could be trained was doomed to failure. Ricci followed this missionary vision. To show respect for Chinese political sensitivity, Ricci did not presume to enter China without a proper official permit. He did not enter in the company of merchants, although they were never too far from him, as he realised the need for material resources to build the necessary structures to succeed in his mission. Ricci learned Chinese, and learned from Chinese philosophical and religious culture. He studied the Confucian classics, which he translated into Latin, thus bringing China closer to Europe. He studied Buddhism and Taoism. Ricci wanted to bring the good news and express it in a language the Chinese could understand. Moreover, Ricci was deeply convinced that Christianity complemented the concept of God he believed to be present in the classical Confucian texts. He also gained profound respect for the ethical values regarding state and family that were basic to the Confucian concept of filial piety, including the meaning of the the common people’s ceremonies to ancestors and the scholars’ to Confucius.

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The newly created Propaganda Fide tried to reverse this way of thinking (see 2.1.4). Its instruction to all mission lands in Asia in 1659 continues: “Do not introduce … [European customs, etc.] to them, but only the faith, which does not despise or destroy the manners and customs of any people, always supporting [sic] that they are not evil, but rather wishes to see them preserved unharmed. It is the nature of men to love and treasure above everything else their own country and that which belongs to it; in consequence there is no stronger cause for alienation and hate than an attack on local customs, especially when these go back to a venerable antiquity. This is more especially the case, when an attempt is made to introduce the customs of another people in the place of those, which have been abolished. Do not draw invidious contrasts between the customs of the peoples and those of Europe; do your utmost to adapt yourselves to them.” Quoted from Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, 153.


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To sum up: Ricci adapted to the living conditions of the people to whom he went to announce the gospel; he learned from them and he taught them. There was interaction and dialogue. Even if in the end Matteo Ricci – being a child of the Council of Trent, like the missionaries to Thailand – firmly believed there was no salvation outside the Catholic Church, he must be commended for his new missionary method of adaptation. Ricci’s missionary method, however, was far from offering an alternative to the millions of poor, oppressed peasants in imperial China. His eagerness to meet the emperor and preach the gospel to him personally forced him to opt for the upper class, the educated literati. Matteo Ricci did influence the Korean literati dramatically. Over a period of two centuries after his death his writings in Chinese, along with of those of many other European missionaries, crossed the Yalu River separating China and Korea and reached the scholars in Seoul. The Korean literati analysed the writings, discussed them and wrote about them, and some of them understood the gospel message and put it into practice, allowing them to be transformed by it and proposing it as a road map for social transformation for the betterment of the lives of the poorest of the poor. It is to this amazing process that we turn in chapter 3. 1. Cheon Jin Am, located about 50 kilometres southeast of Seoul, can be considered the birthplace of the Christian community in the late 18th century. This was where a study group led by Kweon Cheol-sin, one of the most renowned scholars of the time, operated. Yi Byeok joined the group. 2. Su Pyeo Dong, residence of Yi Byeok. After returning from the secluded spot of Cheon Jin Am, the group of Christians gathered at Yi Byeok’s residence on the outskirts of Seoul. Here they began preaching Christian doctrine, first to their relatives and then to the people at large. Yi Byoek began his itinerant apostolate. This area was the birthplace of Kim Beom-u, an interpreter by profession, who also had a medical practice in the centre of Seoul. When the group of believers grew too big to gather at Yi Byeok’s residence, they moved to Kim Beom-u’s clinic. One Sunday the the police caught up with them and made them disperse. Kim Beom-u was beaten and sent into exile, where he died. 3. The centre of Seoul today hosts the cathedral. Not far from this place, in the area of Cheol Du San, is where the Chinese priest was kept in hiding. Being an Asian, he could travel unnoticed. This place was the centre of his pastoral activities. Not far from central Seoul, at So Seo Mun (the Small Gate of the West), is where Jeong Yak-jong Augustin was martyred, together with many others. Forty of the 103 martyrs officially canonised in 1984 were beheaded at this place. 4. Sol Mae, Haemi and Nae Bo regions are where the Kweon brothers preached the gospel after the first burst of persecution.

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Map 7: Map of Korea. The land route of the Korean embassies to China departed from Seoul, passing the city of Pyeong Yang in the north, then crossed the Yalu River and continued to Peking. The crossing had to be made before the river froze in winter, generally before December. The return journey was made after the waters of the Yalu had melted around March. The Han River, running south of the city of Seoul, served as a highway for communication between the cities along the river and Seoul, then continued to the Yellow Sea in western Korea. This map is orientational and shows only a few of the places where Christians were active during the last quarter of the 18th century.


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5. Cheon Ju, Chin San is where Yun Ji-chung’s refusal to participate in ancestral rites led to his martyrdom. 6. Bae Ron and Je Cheon, where Whang Sa-yeong Alexander wrote his Letter in Silk consisting of 13.311 Chinese characters, in which he related to the bishop of Peking the hardships during the persecutions and short biographies of the most outstanding martyrs. He was intercepted as he was about to cross to China, taken prisoner and executed. The letter was saved. Dasan Cho Dang in Kang Jin, Jeol La Nam province, where the renowned Jeong Yak-yong spent eighteen years in exile and wrote extensively about the first Christians as well as on politics, right governance, economics and many other subjects.


Chapter Three

Korea, a missionary vision with a political thrust: kenotic model

Introduction The missionary method practised by Korean Christians in the late 18th century was motivated by respectful and thankful awareness of God’s pervading presence446 in their particular historical context. True to this awareness the Christians tried – through a coherent lifestyle, translated into obedience and filial piety – to manifest a concrete face of God,447 through whose Spirit they wished to make his kingdom present among the people of Korea. The coherence through which they decided to make God’s presence known among their people meant first accepting the gospel values they discovered in the Bible, then applying them in everyday life. This way of living may be considered ‘mission by presence’ or ‘being among,’ an existential mission outlined in chapter 16 of the Rule of St Francis of Assisi.448 Thus the Christians discerned in the everyday lives of their own people the suffering, humiliation, grinding poverty, and dreams of and aspirations to a better society, and out of compassion they sought to offer a new, communitarian way to improve society. This is what I mean by a ‘political thrust.’ Indeed, the Korean intellectuals took Jesus as their model to emulate: to them the ‘emptying’ and ‘lowering’ movement of Jesus’ incarnation and death on the cross presented a challenge. That ‘emptying’ and ‘lowering’ is what I call the kenotic method449 of doing mission. Christianity was embraced by Koreans in the late 18th century, not as a passive response to the activities of foreign missionaries, but as a result of an active and zealous search for truth within the country. The fascinating story that we are about to tell took place just over 200 years ago. Indeed, the 1980s saw Korean Christianity buzzing with various historic celebrations. In 1984 Roman Catholics celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of their

446 447 448 449

See general introduction, xxxi. Also see A. Camps, Studies in mission, 167. John Breck, “The face of the Spirit”, in Pro Ecclessia III, Spring 1994, 165–178. General introduction, xxxvi. For the meaning of the word ‘kenosis’ that I use throughout the text, see general introduction, xliv, xlv.

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church,450 and Protestants451 celebrated the 100th anniversary of the arrival of their first American missionary. It was a happy coincidence that the Roman Catholics and Protestants – who today constitute as much as 50 percent of the total population of 48 million in Juan G. Ruiz de Medina, S.J. Orígenes de la Iglesia Católica Coreana desde 1566 hasta 1784, Según documentos de la época, Rome: Institutum Historicorum S.J., 1986. In his book Medina takes pains to explain that 1784 cannot be considered the correct birth date of the Catholic Church in Korea, because the Japanese invaders in 1592 included many Japanese Christians of Korean ancestry. Hideyoshi may have tried to get rid of Christians in Japan by assigning them to the large invading force. Among them was the first ever Catholic priest, Fr Céspedes, a Spaniard, to arrive in Korea (pp. 100–106). Medina’s book caused a stir among modern Korean historians of the Catholic Church, who considered 1784 the birth date of the Korean Catholic Church. Medina’s historical interpretation of the arrival of Christianity in Korea was strongly criticised by Prof. Yi Weon-soon of Seoul National University. Yi did not criticise Medina’s assertion that there may have been missionary activity in Korea prior to 1787, but he questioned Medina’s conclusions on methodological grounds. According to Prof. Yi Medina’s historical data do not include any internal (Korean) information. With no internal historical sources, argues Yi, it is difficult to provide an overall picture of any historical fact and interpret it. Yi points out that Medina uses only internal Jesuit documents, and none of his assertions are corroborated by data from inside Korea. Yi concludes that, whereas we cannot deny the fact of Christians entering Korea during the Japanese invasion and even proselytising among Koreans, nor their construction of a chapel, the absence of any internal (Korean) evidence of these events means that one can safely affirm that Christianity de facto entered Korea in 1784, since this event and subsequent developments are widely known and well documented (see Yi Weon-soon “Methodology for research of church history”, in Church and History, n. 186, 4). While acknowledging Prof. Yi’s views, the fact that Medina does not offer historical data from inside Korea does not invalidate his conclusions. In his article, “Han Kuk Kyowhoesaeui Tamku” or “Research of Korean church history II”, in Korean Catholic Church History Research, 1991 Prof. Choi Seok-u maintains that the date of the arrival of Christianity in Korea has to be 1836, the year of the creation of the Korean apostolic vicariate. Prof. Choi takes the establishment of the hierarchy as the criterion of the historical date. In Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique et les origines du Catholicism en Corée, Fribourg, Switzerland: SchoneckBekenried, 1961, 89 he also takes an ecclesiological view: “1784 n’est pas, à notre avis, le début de l’église coréene. Avant 1784, il y avait déjà des chrétiens en Corée. Sauf pour le nombre des chrétiens, plus important après 1784, il n’y a pas eu vraiment alors ce tournant qui manquerait l’origine de l’établissement de l’église. Nous considérons pour notre parte l’année 1831 comme le début officiel de l’église en Corée. C’est la date de l’érection du vicariat apostolique.” Hence I avoid referring to the period from 1784 to 1801 as the period of the ‘first’ Christians. 451 Some lay Christians are believed to have landed in Korea even before 1784. In 1582 a European ship, the “Marii”, sank off the Korean coast but the crew was rescued and immediately sent to China (see F. Vos, Die Religionen Koreas, Stuttgart/Berlin/Köln/Mainz: Verlag Kolhammer, 1977, 175–177). In 1627 some Dutchmen, too, were shipwrecked. Two of them later joined the Korean army against the Manchu invasion. In 1653 another ship, the “Sperwer”, sank off the coast of Je Ju island. Only 34 of the crew of 64 survived. In 1654 the prisoners were brought to Seoul. Hendrik Hamel, bursar on board the ship, who escaped to Japan in 1666 along with some of his colleagues, wrote about this event and provides other important data of the times. Detailed information on Hendrick Hamel can be found on http://www.hendrick.hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr/

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the Republic of Korea (known as South Korea) – celebrated their respective 200th and 100th anniversaries in the same year. The 18th century events which these festivities commemorated were a milestone in the conflict-ridden, painful and violent interaction between the Korean people and Western culture. The kenotic missionary method used to establish Christianity in Korea at the end of the 18th century in a process of communitarian, lay-powered evangelisation was a unique historical phenomenon, paralleled only by the missionary expansion of the early Christians. When pope John Paul II canonised the 103 Korean martyrs (martyrs of the early years were not included) in May 1984 during the first ever visit of a reigning pontiff to Korea, he nonetheless paid tribute to the heroic pages of history written in the blood of all Korean Christians. Korea may be considered unique in Catholic missionary history in Asia. From the reign of Songjo (1568–1608) Catholic books and holy images were brought to Korea by members of the annual embassies to the court of the Chinese emperor in Beijing. These materials became objects of great interest and intensive study on the part of Korean scholars in their zealous quest for truth. They included prominent figures like the Confucian452 thinkers 454 Seong-ho Yi Ik ,453 Jeong Yak-yong and An Jeong-bok 452 K’ung Fu Tzu (commonly pronounced Confucius in English) was born in 551 BCE in the state of Lu (modern-day Shantung province). He lived during the Chou dynasty, an era known for its moral laxity. In later life he wandered through many states of China, giving advice to their rulers. He gathered a small following of students during this time. The last years of his life were spent back in Lu, where he devoted himself to teaching. His writings deal primarily with individual morality and ethics, and the proper exercise of political power by rulers. In China and some other Asian territories Confucius’s social ethics and moral teachings are blended with Taoist communion with nature and Buddhist concepts of the afterlife, to form a set of complementary, peacefully coexisting and ecumenical religions. Confucian ethical teachings include the following values: Li, includes ritual, propriety, etiquette, etc.; Hsiao (Hyo Do in Korean), family love, love of parents for their children and of children for their parents; Yi, righteousness; Xin (Shil in Korean), honesty and trustworthiness; Jen (Jin in Korean), benevolence, humaneness towards others; and the highest Confucian virtue, Chung, loyalty to the state, etc. 453 Yi Ik (1681–1763) established his own school and is best known for his Kwagu-rok or Record of concern for the underprivileged, in which he laid down the main principles of his reform ideas, expressing his views on the full range of dynastic institutions. Many young intellectuals followed him and joined his Silhak (Sil ⫽ real, sincere; Hak ⫽ school), which gradually became the dynasty’s dominant school of thought. He was curious about Catholic teaching and even encouraged some of his disciples to research it. One of his disciples, Yi Seung-hun, became a Catholic in 1784. 454 Jeong Yak-yong (1762–1836) was the scholar who applied the institutional approach in the most comprehensible fashion. While living in exile for eighteen years and in forced retirement for another seventeen as a result of the persecution of Catholics of 1801, in which a brother and many relatives were martyred, he wrote several works based on his personal experiences and studies, particularly of Christian books, analysing and criticising the unjust conditions imposed on the poor during the Yi dynasty. He became a Catholic.

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.455 Some scholars even began observing a day of fasting, prayer and rest on the seventh day of each month, based on what they read in these books. Although unaware of the complexity of the liturgical celebration of the Christian Sunday, the scholars sensed something new and challenging in the message of these books and, more importantly, some were persuaded that hidden in the new message there was a powerful insight capable of transforming people and the society in which they lived. The purpose of this chapter is twofold. The first is to look at the remarkable encounter between Christianity and Korea, West and East, during the second half of the 18th century and to describe the development of Christian communities that mushroomed all over the country during the period 1784–1802, from the year Yi Seung-hun was baptised until the great general persecution that saw the martyrdom of the Christian leadership. The amazing fact is that these men and women, apart from a few who did have some contact with foreign missionaries active in Beijing, had no direct, personal contact with European imperial powers such as Spain, Portugal and France, or with the Vatican and its missionaries, who were already operating in Asia via the powerful, newly created Propaganda Fide (1622).456 Hence they were ‘uncontaminated’, so to speak, by the Eurocentric culture that Matteo Ricci brought to China. Yet these Korean men and women organised a vibrant, ‘unorthodox’ ecclesiological structure that still greatly influences the life of the Korean church today. This is what I called ‘mission from below’ in the general introduction.457 The second purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate that the role of the laity in Korea during this particular historical period, with its bright and dark aspects, was a truly kenotic missionary and apostolic drive that ignited all sort of passions, loyalties and reactions, but at the same time reflected a truly Christian way of solving human problems. Consequently the same lay-centred activity is proposed today as a way forward for church renewal, an inspiration to advance in order to renew the life of the church in our stagnated, ‘old’ Western Europe. With neither ordained hierarchy nor foreign missionaries to assist them, and with only a few books and the help of the Scriptures, of which they received fragments, the Korean Confucian intellectuals who converted to

An Jeong-bok (1712–1791), whose most celebrated book, Tongsa Kangmok or Annotated account of Korean history, was considered one of the most solid intellectual supports of orthodox neo-Confucianism. He was very curious about Catholic learning and read Matteo Ricci’s Cheon Ju Shil Eui or True principles of the Lord of heaven. 456 See general introduction, xlvii. 457 Ibid., li.

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Christianity were able to apply the word of God to their socio-political and cultural setting and transform it, thus offering their compatriots a political alternative as well. We shall study the particular missionary methodology, of a kenotic nature, that these intellectuals – true Confucians and bold Christians – developed in the process of fathom and spreading the gospel, with particular attention to the social transformation they tried to accomplish by following the spirit they discovered in that gospel. Because the Christians wished to be faithful to God the Lord of heaven and to Jesus Christ, whom they discovered in the Gospels, rather than to their socio-cultural traditions, they challenged the status quo that held the ruler to be the sole authority and paid dearly for it. The political leadership of the time understood well the threat this new way posed, more especially how it challenged a social structure that gave the political bureaucracy both absolute power and absolute immunity. It decided to deal with dissent by way of persecution and capital punishment. The chapter is divided into five sections. In the first (3.1) I explore in a general manner the encounter – historically the first – between Christianity and Korea at the time of the Japanese invasion of 1592, together with the social structure of the times and the main political and philosophical reasons that precipitated the invasion. This section also provides a brief outline of the history of Korea with particular emphasis on the Yi dynasty. An exhaustive historical account is not possible, but it is important to consider the political, social and intellectual circumstances that prompted such bold action on the part of certain scholars who believed in Christianity and who proposed new ways to usher in modernity and social transformation. The second section (3.2) gives a historical account of the life of a Christian community from 1784 to 1802, including a group of the most progressive male and female intellectuals, who tried to establish a Catholic Church under the direction of lay leaders with a firm vocation to transform society. Following the contours of missionary activity outlined in chapter 1, I argue that for Korean Christians mission entailed first of all the coherent lifestyle demanded by the faith they had discovered. I chose this fairly brief historical period because of the uniqueness and boldness of the church model it initiated and the dramatic political consequences it unleashed. The Christian laity, faithfully listening to the word of God, read the Bible in community and then boldly applied it to everyday life by being attentive to the signs of the times. At the same time a similar process was going on in open intellectual dialogue with other intellectuals who did not share these views. This intercultural, intellectual dialogue with other scholars of a different philosophical persuasion is briefly analysed in the third section (3.3). When intellectual discussions with peers who did not take the step to walk in the faith

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failed to bear fruit – in fact, Christian intellectuals never succeeded in offering their non-Christian counterparts intellectually acceptable reasons – Christians embarked on a social transformation process by applying principles of equality (including gender equality), opposing strict social class divisions, and placing all people under the rule of the Lord of heaven. In the fourth section (3.4) we see how the Christians tried to put in place a new social project based on the rule of God. The Christian community was convinced that new social relations could be built on what they perceived the Lord of heaven to have done when creating the world. In the fifth section (3.5) we analyse the tough opposition the Christians and their social transformation project encountered, culminating in the ferocious persecutions and martyrdoms of 1801–1802, when one of the most brutal repressions of Christianity in modern history took place. Hundreds of people were put to death. Obviously the intellectual leadership of the Christian community, on whom this chapter centres, was hit hardest. As a result of this persecution and until the year 1836458 Korean Catholics had to rely on their own new generation of leaders who, hiding in mountain villages, kept the flame of faith alive. With the arrival of the first French Catholic missionaries (three bishops and nine priests) in 1836 the structure of Korean Christianity changed from a lay-centred community into a clerically centred church on the lines of the conquista and accommodation models applied in Thailand and China (see chapter 2) but without the aggressive connotations, particularly of the mission in Thailand. The arrival of the French missionaries did not stop the cruel persecution of Christians, which continued until the end of the 19th century. However, the ecclesiastic model the French missionaries put into operation was not so different from the expansionist model adopted elsewhere by Rome’s appointed apostolic vicars. In the end both events – persecutions and the arrival of foreign clergy – meant a change in ecclesiology and the lay intellectual missionaries’ way of doing mission: the church ceased to be a lay-powered community and became a clerically centred enterprise. The upshot of the persecutions of 1801 was that to all intents and purposes Christianity was excluded from the cities and driven into the bush, and the arrival of foreign missionaries meant that the laity changed from actors in their Christian history to objects of ‘official’ teachings and children of a foreign church. I start, then, by describing Korea’s first historical encounter with Christianity.

458 This was the year of the official establishment of the first Korean Catholic vicariate. The establishment of the vicariate did not, however, mean the end of the persecutions.


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3.1 The arrival of Christianity in Korea: under the banner of conquista459 Even a brief outline of the history of Korea presents a daunting task. Hence I limit myself to the period of the Yi dynasty460 or Choseon(Country of the Morning Calm) (1392–1886)461, and within that period only to the concrete application in day-to-day governance of those neo-Confucian philosophical principles that the Christian intellectuals challenged outright. Although chronologically the Yi dynasty spans almost five centuries, some factors may be identified which precipitated the encounter between the Korean people and Christianity. They include: (1) the Japanese invasion of Korea, (2) the change of dynasty that brought a shift from Buddhism as the backbone of the national sociopolitical structure to (3) neo-Confucian philosophy and the rise of the Shilhak462 school, (4) the structural malaise, and (5) the factional character of Korean politics that provoked a general outcry for reform. Before examining the origin of the late 18th century Christian community and its evolution into a formidable social force we need to look at these five factors in more detail. 3.1.1 Japanese invasion The Japanese invasion of Korea was a dramatic and traumatic event in the history of the Yi dynasty. Among the consequences were harsh, humiliating living 459 There is plenty of literature on the subject. I consulted the following sources when compiling this section: Kim Duk-Whang, A history of religions in Korea, Seoul: Daeji Moonhwa-sa, 1988; Kim Yong-dok, “A study of prince Sohyeon”, in The study of history, vol. 18, Korean History Society, 1964; Lee Ki-baik, A new history of Korea, trans. Edward W. Wagner & Edward J. Shultz, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984; Kim Jahyun Haboush, The Confucian kingship in Korea: Yeongjo and the politics of sagacity, New York: Columbia University Press; 2001; J. G. Luis de Medina, Orígenes de la Iglesia Católica Coreana desde 1566 hasta 1784; Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique et les origines du Catholicism en Corée; Andrew C. Nahm, Korea, tradition & transformation: a history of the Korean people, Elisabeth, NJ: Hollym, 1988; G. Stramiglioli, “Hideyoshi’s expansionist policy on the Asiatic mainland”, in Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Tokyo, 3, 3, 1954, 74–116; Ralph M. Cory, “Some notes on Fr Gregorio de Céspedes, Korea’s first European visitor”, in Transactions of the Korean branch of the Royal Asiatic Society XXVII, Seoul, 1937; E. Papinot & Barrow, Terence, Historical and geographical dictionary of Japan, Tokyo: Rutland (Vt) Tuttle, 1992; Charles Dallet, Histoire de l’église de Corée, 2 vols, Paris: Librairie Victor Palmé, 1874. 460 More about the Yi Dynasty in section 3.1.2 below. 461 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église de Corée, II, III, XI deals with the same historical period. Kang Wi Jo, Christ and Caesar in modern Korea: a history of Christianity and politics, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997, 1 extends the influence of the Yi period up to 1910, when Japan formally annexed Korea. 462 For the meaning of Shilhak school, see note 8 above.

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conditions for Korean people and the first contact with Christianity. In terms of missionary expansion or implantatio ecclesiae this contact with Japan was obviously unsuccessful.463 3.1.1.1 Motives for the invasion In the period immediately prior to the Japanese invasion Korea was characterised by bloody factionalism between the different Confucian schools, which had been used “as a stepping-stone for the foundation of Yi dynasty by Yi Taejo”.464 It was the time of the Yangban465 literati. Throughout its history Korea had been prone to political conflict, mainly because of its geographically strategic position. The Japanese, taking advantage of the political turmoil and corruption within the power elites of the country, and assisted by Buddhist officials who felt cornered by the decision-making elite, decided to launch the invasion. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had earlier forcibly unified the different power regions of Japan and seized the central government,466 invaded Korea with the eventual aim of conquering Ming467 China. This invasion is called the Toyotomi war (1592–1598).468 One of the general’s prime motives for invading Korea was to get rid of the ethnic Koreans living on the southern islands of Japan and Japanese subjects who had converted to Christianity.469 Toyotomi Hideyoshi was not well liked. There are many references to the lack of popular support for this new Japanese ruler. One of the people to foresee his fall was the Jesuit visitator, Alexandro Valignano.470 In a letter to his general superior in Rome, Aquaviva, written on 15 February 1592, this Jesuit responsible for his Society’s mission in the Far East observed that Japanese people merely paid lip service to their ruler and that the local daimyos and tonos471 were only waiting for a good opportunity to turn against him.472 These local rulers pledged to resist deportation to Korea and China just to satisfy the dictator’s megalomanic dreams.

463 464 465 466 467 468

469 470 471 472

For the expression ‘implantatio ecclesiae’, see chapter 1, note 98. Kim Duk-Whang, A history of religions in Korea, 33. A more detailed explanation of the Yangban institution is given below. See note 130 below. Stephen Neill, A history of Christian missions, 136, 137. See “The China Matteo Ricci found”, 2.2.1.2. This section does not provide an exhaustive history of Korea, but is confined to the part connected with the Chosun dynasty. Nevertheless it digresses briefly and generally into other periods of Korean history to clarify aspects of that dynasty. Juan G. Ruiz de Medina, Orígenes, 15. For more information about Alexandro Valignano, see 2.2.2.1. Japanese of the upper and middle nobility. Juan G. Ruiz de Medina, Orígenes, 35.


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3.1.1.2 A Catholic priest among the invaders The Japanese invaders were accompanied by a Spanish Catholic priest, the Jesuit Fr Gregorio Céspedes.473 He was not a military chaplain,474 as is often stated, but an invited guest who took spiritual care of the many Christians forced to take part in the Korean invasion.475 Prof. Kim claims that there were many Christians among the Japanese invaders, including generals Konishi and Kuroda themselves, who desired to have a Catholic priest as chaplain for the Christians on the military expedition. At that time Catholicism had been present in Japan for over forty years, and Franciscans and Jesuits were active in evangelising the country. Although Hideyoshi had forbidden the foreign religion to be preached in Japan (1593), which eventually led to the martyrdom of the first Catholics in Nagasaki, Japan in 1596, Christianity was a much admired and respected religion. In 1592, the 25th year of king Seonjo’s reign in Korea, Toyotomi Hideyoshi gathered an impressive army of 150.000 soldiers and ethnic Korean and Japanese Christians476 led by generals Kuroda, Konishi and Kato with the mandate of occupying Korea. The chief general was Toyotomi himself.477 The Japanese army landed in Korea and immediately seized the major southern cities such as Busan and Bong Nae. Soon the troops reached the walls of Seoul and pressed on to Pyongyang. The Korean monarch and most of his government officials had already fled the capital, leaving it to its fate. Fr Gregorio Céspedes478 and Leo Hankan,479 a Japanese brother in the Society of Jesus, were assigned to Korea, arriving at the Japanese army headquarters at 473 Born in Spain in the province of Toledo in 1551. Studied arts and canon law at the University of Salamanca. Entered the Jesuit order in 1569, studied theology and travelled to Asia in the company of Valigano, reaching India in 1574. He arrived in Japan in 1577. In 1593 his superiors assigned him to provide pastoral care for Christians involved in the invasion of Korea. 474 Juan G. Ruiz de Medina, Orígenes, 43 insists that Céspedes was just “a refugee among friends, closely watched by his political detractors and not a chaplain in any way. That is why Augustin Konishi did not allow him to reside below [the hill, where the troops were]… the residence of the two Jesuits was established on top of the hill, in the quarters of the Christian Vincent Hibiya Heiemon (1554–?) grandson of a certain Kudo who housed Francis Xavier in Sankai in 1551.” 475 Juan G. Ruiz de Medina, Orígenes, 38. 476 Sending Christians as the task force to invade Korea and China was Hideyoshi’s way of getting Japan free from any Christian influence (Juan G. Ruiz de Medina. Orígenes. 31–32). 477 Kim Duk-Whang, A history of religions in Korea, 271. 478 Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 1–18. 479 Leon Hankan (c. 1538–1627), whose name was often misspelled or misquoted (as Fucan) by an ancient copyist. He has even been identified with Fabian Fukan, the apostate. He was about twelve or thirteen years older than Céspedes, born in Shimosa Daimyo (east of today’s Tokyo). In his youth he entered a Buddhist monastery and later specialised in Eastern medicine. He travelled extensively round Japan and Okinawa as both a monk and a doctor. He converted to Christianity and helped in the church until 1580, when he entered the Society of Jesus. Cf. Medina, Orígenes, 37–38.

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Ung Chun, Gyeong Sang province in 1593. Once there, the missionaries visited the soldiers and assisted them spiritually. Apparently several more missionaries entered Korea on the same expedition, but their names have been lost to history. There was an even earlier missionary attempt in 1565 by another Jesuit priest, Fr Villela,480 who drafted a plan for the evangelisation of Korea, then disappeared on his way from Kyoto to Kyushu and is believed to have entered Korea to preach Christianity.481 It is not known if he ever got there and, if he did, how long he stayed, but he wrote some accurate descriptions of Korea and its people, whom he describes as ‘white people’.482 Dominicans483 and Franciscans,484 with Antonio de Santa Maria as the main protagonist, also made several vain attempts to enter Korea. 3.1.1.3 An insurmountable challenge The two Jesuit missionaries who entered Korea with the Japanese invaders spread the gospel to Koreans as well, although the number of converts and actual missionary activities remain unknown. Prof. Kim concludes: Some people can say that the Catholic missionaries failed in their missionary work but we know that thousands of Koreans were imprisoned at Japanese camps. Therefore, there were probably many converts to Christianity in order to save their lives, attracted by the tolerance of missionaries. At the time of the Japanese withdrawal, some of the Korean war-prisoners were taken to Japan. Some of them were sold to Macao, Manila, and Indo-China, and chief Catholic centres in Japan. Most of the settlers became Catholics since they could not bear to live in solitary life in a foreign land. It is true that twenty-one Koreans were martyred by the Shogunate’s persecution against Catholics after the war, and there were two hundred and five Japanese martyrs including nine Koreans killed in the 1867 persecution.485

Although the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula lasted until the peace treaty between Japan and Korea was signed in 1615, the death of Toyotomi in 1598 had demoralised the Japanese troops, many of whom retreated to their own country. In this situation Christianity made little progress in the invaded country in terms of expansion. If Christians remained in Korea, as Medina

480 Gaspar Villela (c. 1526–1572) was born in Portugal. Arrived in Japan in the autumn of 1554 and served in the Christian communities of Hirado and Ikitsuki. He was called to Goa by his superiors, where he died c. 1572. 481 Kim Duk-Whang, A history of religions in Korea, 271. 482 Juan G. Ruiz de Medina, Orígenes, 21. Medina, like Valignano, uses the expression ‘white people’. 483 Ibid., 75–80. 484 Ibid., 90–93. 485 Kim Duk-Whang, A history of religions in Korea, 273. Also see J. G. Luis de Medina, Orígenes de la Iglesia Católica Coreana desde 1566 hasta 1784. For more information on this first Korean encounter with Christianity, see Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, 1–13.


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asserts,486 the common characteristic with the Christian community of the late 18th century must have been that of being a lay-powered and persecuted community. There were no ordained ministers around. In the political field the Korean king Seonjo tried hard to get help from the Chinese Ming rulers in order to get rid of the Japanese imperial yoke. The remnants of the Japanese army, scattered over the entire territory of Korea, were too weak to impose full Japanese rule on Korea and were ready to negotiate a peace treaty in order to maintain their ‘soft’ rule. The Chinese helped the Korean king by enabling him to push the Japanese invaders southwards, thus retaking Pyongyang in early 1593 and other major cities soon afterwards. The southern part of the peninsula became a site for guerrilla warfare and because of Korean maritime superiority the Japanese troops had to abandon the country.487 Korea was destined to experience yet another foreign invasion, this time from the north,488 even before the painful memories of the Japanese invasion had healed. In 1626 and 1636 Manchurian489 rulers, again taking advantage of internal political factionalism in Korea and its excessive diplomatic servility to Ming China that continually militated against the interests of Manchu diplomacy, seized the Korean peninsula. Their aim was to conquer Ming China as well. As a result of this invasion the Korean monarch was obliged to offer his allegiance to the new rulers, the Manchurian Ch’ing dynasty. Manchuria not only had the right to appoint the Korean monarchs, but also exercised direct authority over their policies. The relation was one of lord and servant, or

486 G. Ruiz de Medina, Orígenes, 67–71 gives quite a long list of Christians of Korean origin forcibly brought to Japan after the 1592 invasion, proselytising both in Japan among the large group of ethnic Koreans and in Korea itself. He also refers to a catechism brought from China, written in Chinese, and a list of Korean Christians martyred during the different persecutions in Japan between 1592 and 1643. Medina provides a rich bibliography and internal (Jesuit) documents, on which he bases his findings. 487 The famous admiral Yi Sun Sin (1545–1598) and his epic and heroic resistance need to be mentioned. He unearthed the turtle-like ship which seems to have existed from the time of Tae-jong, but only now became operational. Admiral Yi was thus able to divide the Japanese forces and stop the passage of much needed supplies. 488 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 215. 489 In 1644 the Manchus conquered Ming China and established the Ch’ing (or Qing) dynasty, which lasted until 1911. For the first 200 years or so of the Ch’ing dynasty Manchu was the main official language in China and the lingua franca. By the mid-19th century many Manchus had adopted Chinese as their first language, although they continued to produce Manchu versions of Chinese documents until the end of the dynasty and for some time afterwards. More information in Herbert H. Gowen, An outline history of China: from the Manchu conquest to the recognition of the Republic. A.D. 1913, part II, New York: Greenwood, 1968.

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‘kun-sin’ as Dallet puts it,490 and annual visits to the new rulers had to be organised. During these visits to Beijing, according to Dallet, the publication of the political, social (festivals) and military calendar for the following year was prepared, a project reserved for the Chinese emperor after consulting with his mathematicians, astronomers and priests. These contacts on the occasion of the annual embassies from Korea to China provided the basis for the intellectual exchange between Europe and Korea, the West and the East. 3.1.2 Change of ruling dynasty: shift to Confucian philosophy Before analysing the intellectual, social and political issues that prompted a strong Christian response among the intellectuals of Shilhak (Practical Learning)491 and Seohak (Western Learning)492 during the Yi dynasty we need to make a few remarks about the previous regime, the Koryo (or Wang) dynasty,493 that ruled from 936 to 1392, the last 150 years under Mongol494 domination. Koryo’s social structure and government system were intertwined with Buddhism. Ki-baik Yi affirms: “Buddhism’s impact on everyday life was of greater significance for Koryo society than its development as a system of religious belief.”495 Koryo aristocracy regarded Buddhism not just as an other-worldly religion, but as a faith capable of influencing the good fortune both of the state and of

490 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, XV. Dallet describes some of the taxed items the Korean monarch had to give to the Manchurian ruler, listed in the peace treaty signed on 30 March 1637: “Every year the following items shall be presented to the Ruler of Manchuria: hundred ounces of gold, thousand ounces of silver, ten thousand sacks of sticky rice, two thousand pieces of silk, three hundred pieces of mori [a sort of linen], ten thousand of ordinary cloth, four hundred pieces of cloth of hemp, a hundred pieces of fine hemp. A thousand roles of wide paper of twenty leaves each, a thousand roles of small paper, two thousand roles of cotton, a thousand buffalo horns, a hundred couples of tigers and another hundred couples of stags, four hundred couples of deer…” [My translation]. The list goes on and on. Dallet observes that the weight of a sack of rice was equivalent to that of a buffalo. 491 This school of thought, while still basically Confucian, sought to counter the excessively metaphysical controversies of neo-Confucianism with a more practical approach to actual problems in human affairs. Shilhak scholars were influenced by China’s contact with Western culture and science. Not strictly a religion, Shilhak was simply a pragmatic school of thought adopting a differentiated approach to the reform of the Chosun dynasty institution and its policies. 492 Seohak scholars adopted Christianity along with Western culture and science. These scholars believed that it was the only religion capable of giving the rulers the necessary power to make real reforms that would benefit the poor peasant class, the majority of the population. 493 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 101. 494 Ibid.,155. 495 Ibid., 132.


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individuals in the present world. For this good fortune to happen people were enjoined to perform good works and earn merit. This explains why the Koryo period was a time of frenetic temple building all over the land and why so many young men became monks.496 Everyday life was organised around Buddhist festivals, in which the king, local governors and leaders of small villages served food to monks, and the ordinary people made generous offerings, including freeing domestic animals. This caused serious problems and hardship for small and poor peasants, as Buddhist temples became landowners through donations by the royal house and the aristocracy. Property being tax free, this made Buddhists extremely powerful economically, politically and even militarily in order to protect their possessions.497 The hereditary aristocratic system of the Koryo dynasty posed problems as well. Grounded from the outset on the principle of civil supremacy over the military, the accumulation of personal power and wealth by the aristocracy brought a lot of infighting among the different families, which ended with the king having to invoke a strong military presence.498 The Koryo dynasty’s endemic unsolved international issues with its northern neighbors, as well as constant Japanese invasions of the peninsula from the south, led to the appearance of strong military rulers, who in the end brought about the demise of the 499 Koryo dynasty. Yi Seong-gye can be considered the military ruler who effected the dynastic transition from Koryo to Chosun500 and Cheong To-jeon (1342–1398) the ideologue behind the intellectual transformation and the strong man behind the leader.501 The Yi dynasty dominated the early period of Chosun rule in the 14th century. Yi Seong-gye (1335–1408) may be considered the founder of the new Chosun. Originally a staunch Buddhist, he decided to make use of Confucian intellectuals to run the political and military affairs of the state. He built the great

496 497 498 499

Ibid., 59. Ibid., 106. Ibid., 110–113. Tributary relations with Ming China during the Yi dynasty took on new dimensions. Yi Seong-gye wanted the ruling Chu family of Ming China to give his unaristocratic family prestige a royal title, since he only had military power. His son and successor Tae-jo dispatched embassies to China to negotiate friendlier acceptance of his royal family. He even asked the Chinese imperial court to name the new Korean ruling dynasty, and Chosun was chosen in 1392. This subservience, which was tantamount to accepting the sadae (subservient) role considered morally proper by the Confucian elite, gained the upper hand in the management of state affairs. 500 Sohn Pow-key, Kim Chol-choon & Hong Yi-sup, The history of Korea, Seoul: Korean National Commission for Unesco, 1984, 129–182. 501 Wm. Theodore de Bary & Hahyun Kim Haboush (eds.), The rise of neo-Confucianism in Korea, New York: Columbia University Press, 1985, 59.

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502 Seongkyunkwan temple and placed in it the most famous Confucian scholars of the time together with their students, whom he appointed to government positions. In so doing Yi Seong-gye was driven by a commitment to forge a new Confucian social order, which would be a complete break with the former Buddhist Koryo dynasty.503 Yi Seong-gye had good reason to get rid of the Buddhist influence in society, as he wished to launch sweeping agrarian reforms by privatising land, to which end he badly needed the land accumulated by Buddhist temples, and recruiting young labourers, who had hidden in monastic robes, for agricultural tasks. Although there were no aggressive popular uprisings against Buddhists, there were good reasons for the people’s disdain of them. First, as a result of their political influence and interference in state affairs and everyday life, and by acquiring large tracts of land, Buddhist monks had grown extremely powerful. The citizens’ daily lives were run according to the monks’ priorities and timetable, including times for prayer, dietary needs, state ceremonies and even funeral services.504 Everything was under their control. Another cause for popular resentment was the monks’ demand for financial subsistence, the problem being that there were too many of them. As Prof. Kim explains:

More common were the Buddhist rites, all sorts of scriptural lectures, the establishment and renovation works of the towers and temples during the age of King Hyenjong, who also revived during the year he was enthroned both the Lantern and Palkwan Festivals that have been observed from the time of Tae-jo, but abolished at the time of Sung-jong. In the 9th year of Hyeon-jong, almost 100,000 monks attended and served food in a ceremony enshrining the Buddhist relic at the Kae Keuk temple.505

One can easily imagine the burden such a large crowd of single men, begging from house to house every morning, would impose on a population of mostly poor farmers in a country too often involved in internal rivalry and wars. Another factor to which Prof. Kim attributes the peoples’ disdain of Buddhism was the decadence of the monks’ personal lifestyle. Kim writes: Although the true nature of religion consisted in mercy, purity, and unselfishness, the monks, enjoying all the imperial favors, the freedom from the economic burdens and the reverence from the general Buddhist believers, were easily exposed to corruption. These cases of corruption

502 Seongkyunkwan was created to function as a national educational college. A Confucian shrine was built in the temple, and thus the complex became a religious and academic centre where the most important subject was the Confucian classics. Its purpose was to educate people and train would-be government officials. The students’ activities were regulated by the Confucian code of conduct. Joe J. Wanne & Choe, Hongkyu, A cultural history of modern Korea, Elizabeth, N.J.: Hollym, 2000, 671–672. 503 Jahyun Kim Haboush, The Confucian kingship in Korea: Yeongjo and the politics of sagacity, 12. 504 Kim Duk-Whang Kim, A history of religions in Korea, 135. 505 Ibid., 136.


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became very conspicuous following the years of Munjong [around the year 1492 – AE]. They were worse than those of the medieval Christians. The dissolute monks indulged themselves in eating meat and in marrying, even worse, in leading a dissipated life of worldliness against their beliefs.506

The Yi dynasty was founded soon after the founding of the Chinese Ming dynasty and, with the aid of the Ming, its first rulers could get rid of Mongol influence in the Koryo dynasty and the constant threat from Japanese rulers. Ideologically, however, the Yi dynasty differed from its Chinese counterpart on several crucial points, the most important being the return in Korea to the original Confucian utopia of a king-sage.507 The early kings of the Yi dynasty accepted China’s suzerain lordship over Korea without much quibbling, but entrusted the state administration to impeccable Confucian scholars. Soon after Yi Seong-gye had established his dynasty in Korea he sought the approval of the Ming court for the policies he had implemented508 so as to legitimise both himself and his dynasty. However, it was his son Tae-jong (1400–1418) who received the recognition of the Ming rulers in China. Thus Ming China was once more able to secure suzerainty over the Chosun and the Yi dynasty by receiving their pledge of loyalty to the Chinese emperor. This Ming-Chosun relationship, called sadae (subservience to the big power),509 lasted until 1894. During this period all Chosun official documents were dated according to the year of the Chinese monarch’s reign. The seals of

506 Kim Duk-Whang, A history of religions in Korea, 151. 507 Michael C.Kalton, “The writings of Kweon Keun: the context and shape of early Yi dynasty neo-Confucianisms”, in Wm. Theodore de Bary & Hahyun Kim Haboush (eds), The rise of neo-Confucianism in Korea, 89–123. S. Couvreur, S. J. Les quatre livres, Beijing: Kuangchi Press, 1972, 69 presents the figure of the king-sage as one of the basic concepts in early Confucian texts. The figure is an ideal to be realised. Humans can become sage if they adapt their personal lifestyles the will of heaven. In this context the king-sage would be a ruler of impeccable moral behaviour, compassion and efficiency. 508 Kim Duk-Whang, A history of religions in Korea, 170. 509 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 189. Sadae is the name given to a political relationship between two countries in terms of which militarily weak countries ought to ‘serve’ their military superiors, a concept inherited from feudal Chou (722–221 BCE) China. By the time this cold international reality was written in the Ch’un Ch’iu or Spring and Autumn (Annals of Lu) at the end of the dynasty, the subservient spirit had become the most important Confucian virtue, li (ye in Korean). Once when Confucius was asked about perfect virtue he answered, “It is perfect virtue to subdue oneself and return to propriety.” He was then asked to explain the steps of such a process. Confucius answered: “Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety.” Benevolence (in), righteousness (u˘i), propriety ( ye), wisdom ( ji) and sincerity (shin) were considered ideal qualities to be cultivated through reading the classics and the exemplary biographies of historical figures. In practice the most important was in (benevolence), which was manifested in five dimensions: between rulers and subjects as righteousness; between parents and children as intimacy; between husbands and

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Chosun kings bore only Chinese characters until 1620, when Manchu scripts were added, but never Korean characters (Han-Geul). As a token of trust and reciprocity the Chinese monarchs permitted the Chosun kings to use Chinese monarchic titles such as cho or chong. Thus king Yi Seong-gye was given the posthumous title of Tae Jo (Great Progenitor); thereafter all the monarchs of the Yi dynasty, with the exception of two who were regarded as ‘unworthy’ kings, were known by the Chinese monarchic titles Taejong or Sejo .510 During the reign of the first monarchs of the Yi dynasty Confucian influence was firmly established in the country and Buddhism disappeared into the forest. In the initial period of the Yi dynasty, during the reigns of the first three Chosun monarchs, violence and massacres were common; these monarchs were more like military rulers, not scholars, and ruled with an iron fist. However, due to the adverse reaction of the people – many were still Buddhist at heart and by faith – to the harsh measures against Buddhism, especially institutional Buddhism, the kings allowed Buddhist practice to continue, even patronising some of their major construction works to regain the sympathy of the people. Not until the time of king Sejong511 in the mid-15th century did the ruling officialdom adopt a more conciliatory approach to Buddhism. Andrew C. Nahm sums it up: With the establishment of the lord-vassal relationship with China and the adoption of Neo-Confucianism as its state creed, the Yi dynasty brought about thorough Confucianization of Korea’s politics, intellectual, and cultural patterns. In the end, Korea became more Confucian than Confucian China as its influence permeated every aspect of the life of the nation.512

The Yi dynasty had somewhat isolationist, hermetic foreign policies.513 As a result of both the Japanese invasion and the master-subject relationship, first

510 511 512 513

wives as distinction; between elders and younger people as order; and between friends as trust. See Park Won, Traditional Korean thought, Incheon: Inha University Press, 2002, 84. These relationships were extended and related by analogy. The position of the father as the head of the family was seen as analogous to that of the king, who was the head of state. It is important to take this analogy into consideration to understand the angry reaction against Catholics for insisting on the presence of a God who ruled over the king and for refusing to offer sacrifices to the ancestors. The sadae relationship meant, among other things, acceptance of formal observance of the ‘year period’ and festivities imposed by the ruling power. Sending embassies and paying taxes to a higher power were meant to demonstrate clearly who was the ruler and who the vassal. For more details, see Joe J. Wanne (rev., ed. by Hongkyu A. Choe), Traditional Korea: a cultural history, Seoul: Hollym, 1997, 267–268. Andrew C. Nahm, Korea, tradition & transformation: a history of the Korean people, 80. King Sejong was the creator of Han-Geul, the Korean alphabet, in 1446. Andrew C. Nahm, Korea, tradition & transformation. A history of the Korean people, 95. Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 189–192.


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with Ming China and later with the Manchu rulers, international relations were at a low ebb. Commercial exchange and human mobility were strictly controlled and restricted. In the end structuring the social order according to neoConfucian principles did not do the general populace much good and was even less helpful to the masses of the poor. Institutional efficacy and the political dynamism which the Confucian ruling class had displayed during the founding years of the Yi dynasty seem to have all but disappeared by the reign of Seonjo (1568–1608). The first two centuries of cultural stability and peaceful relations with China, during which the ruling elite and Confucian scholars delved into Chinese antiquarianism, had rendered them inflexible in thought and action and averse to any innovation.514 By the time of the arrival of Christian books, which were to influence 18th century Korean history so profoundly, the Mountain and Forest scholar-bureaucrats515 – also called ‘rustic intellectuals’516 – were unable to face a political reality increasingly beset by internal contradictions and external dangers. Let us now look more closely at the ideals that brought the Yi dynasty to power and how they were implemented – I shall limit myself to those areas directly challenged by the Christian-turned-Confucian intellectuals – and affected the structure of the government. The shift from a Buddhist to a Confucian philosophical basis of the government structure meant, among other things, a strong and absolute monarchy. Koryo rulers thought of themselves as servants and subjects of the will of heaven, whereas the Yi rulers gradually came to see themselves as personifying that will. We shall also look at the escalating social problems this government structure created, particularly in the fields of education and economics. Some of the most notorious social issues will be examined. Only after this review will we be in a position to understand the Christian movement that got under way in Korea at the end of the 18th century, and why Christians were persecuted.

514 Andrew C. Nahm, Korea, tradition & transformation. A history of the Korean people, 115. 515 Mountain and Forest School (the Sallim-pha group in Korean) was composed of intellectuals living in real poverty as a personal option. They lived mostly in the province of Kyeongsang, remote from the seat of power and contemptuous of central officialdom for its moral turpitude. They immersed themselves in neo-Confucian metaphysics, besides the usual literary pursuits in prose and poetry. Morally impeccable, these intellectuals adopted an outspoken, radical political stance. In due course they decided to come out of the mountain forest and take sides in the political conflicts to purge the unyielding, inflexible bureaucracy with their radical views on politics and morals as the only way out of the impasse. See Joe J. Wanne, Traditional Korea: a cultural history, 28. 516 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 222.

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3.1.3 Key Confucian concepts: the sage-king An outstanding feature of classic517 Confucianism was the elaboration of moral and social relations based on what was perceived as the relationship between human nature and heaven. This relationship to heaven – which Korean intellectualsturned-Christian, following Matteo Ricci, considered to be God the creator – was reinterpreted by the neo-Confucians from the 12th century onwards, when they instated the king in the place of heaven.518 This conceptual development of the classic Confucian notion of heaven meant that for all practical purposes the king, not heaven, was the normative, unifying element of both individual and social moral life.519 The leading Confucian thinker who introduced this new principle was Chu Hsi. What follows is a succinct outline of Chu Hsi’s thinking from the perspective of its political rather than its metaphysical implications. Chu Hsi (1130–1200) was regarded as one of the greatest neo-Confucian520 thinkers.521 The synthesis of traditional Chinese thought in neo-Confucianism 517 The term Confucian Classic refers to a number of writings and basic principles of moral conduct, attributed to Confucius (K’ung-tzu, 551–479 BCE) and therefore antedating Chu Hsi’s interpretation that ushered in neo-Confucianism. It has been established that Confucius did not write a single word of them; his students wrote them down after his death. The Analects come closest to an actual exposition of his philosophy. Chu Hsi put these works into their present form in the late 12th century CE These four books were required reading in order to pass the civil service examinations (instituted in 1315), which were the gateway to employment in the imperial bureaucracy. For further particulars of the books, see chapter 2, n. 135. The Confucian canon consists of the following works: Confucian Analects (Lun Yü), a collection of sayings recorded by Confucius’s students approximately 70 years after his death. The second book in the Confucian canon, Meng-tzu, is named after its author, also known as Meng K’o or Mencius (371–289 BCE). The Great Learning (Ta Hsüeh, lit. ‘Education for adults’) was written between 500 and 200 BCE. The Doctrine of The Mean (Chung Yung), of unknown date, is more mystical than the other Confucian classics. For more detailed information, see Joel J. Kupperman, Classic Asian philosophy: a guide to the essential texts, Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2001; Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of Korea, 19ff. 518 Tomoeda Ryutaro, “Yi T’oegye and Chu Hsi: differences in their theories of principle and material force”, 243–260. 519 Joseph Ung-Tai Kim, L’experience religieuse Coréenne dans la premiere annonce du message Chretienne, 113. 520 The term ‘neo-Confucianism’ is not accepted by all scholars of Chinese culture in general and Confucianism in particular. Matteo Ricci was the first non-Chinese intellectual who observed an intellectual change in the interpretation of the Confucian classics. The term ‘neoConfucianism’ in this book merely refers to the intellectual transformation in regard to the role and authority of the king. In the Confucian classics heaven was the absolute norm of moral conduct, articulated through personal conscience. In neo-Confucian thought the king takes precedence over personal consciousness. See Tomoeda Ryutaro, “Yi T’oegye and Chu Hsi: differences in their theories of principle and material force”, in Wm. Theodore de Bary & Hahyun Kim Haboush (eds), The rise of neo-Confucianism in Korea, 243–260. 521 In the West he is considered the founder of the neo-Confucian philosophical school. See Danielle & Valdime Elisseeff, La civilisation de la Chine classique, Paris: Arthaud, 1981, 68–69, 452–456, 578.


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by the southern Sung (1127) scholars during the 11th and 12th centuries is considered one of the intellectual achievements that greatly influenced both Chinese and Korean society from the 13th century on. Initiated by scholarofficials interested in Confucian political philosophy, the goal was to return522 to Confucius’s523 idealised society where the king was both ruler and sage. Confucius and Mencius both believed that a just government was “a moral institution with the governing principle based on Confucian human relationships and virtues”.524 Accordingly the monarch had to be a morally irreproachable leader taking responsibility for the economic well-being of the people, particularly the poor; he remained under the rule of heaven, however, implying that there was no place for arbitrary government, but that the king, too, was subject to natural law. This was the key concept of the sage-king social and political structure propounded by classic Confucianism.525 It was precisely this classic Confucian concept that was abandoned by Chu Hsi, who believed that a monarch, even if not morally irreproachable, could still function as a point of reference for all citizens instead of the more abstract reality of heaven, and impose the rule of law and morality on all. Thus the monarch could even pass evil laws.526 Over the next few centuries this conceptual shift of identifying the concept of ‘to be’ (stressing obedience to heaven prompted by personal conscience) with ‘ought’ (stressing loyalty to the ruler527) had catastrophic consequences for the country, because it opened the door to arbitrary rule, corruption and dictatorship.528 Some philosophical digressions emerged in Korea that masked the real political problems.529 These were already present in Chu Hsi’s school of thought. Chu Hsi divided human nature into two dimensions: original nature, which is 522 Confucian doctrines had stagnated for more than a thousand years, being supplanted by Taoist and Buddhist systems. Chu Hsi cum suis tried to reverse this trend by infusing new life into Confucian ideals based on practical ethical principles. It was he who inspired Korean scholars for many centuries to adopt the practical humanistic teachings of Confucius combined with a philosophy of the nature of the universe (Park Won, Traditional Korean thought, 87). 523 The Chinese philosopher Confucius (originally Kong Zi, Latinised from K’ung Fu Tze) lived between 551–479 BCE. The doctrine known as Confucianism can be defined as a Chinese philosophical approach that teaches loyalty to family, friends and rulers, and treating others as one would like to be treated. For Confucius heaven, government and people are the three supreme powers. He and the philosophical and political framework created after him regarded heaven and morality as closely related in origin and aim. Together humanity and heaven build the universe, of which humans are an integral part. 524 Joe J. Wanne, Traditional Korea: a cultural history, 216. 525 Tomoeda Ryutaro, “Yi T’oegye and Chu Hsi: differences in their theories of principle and material force”, 245. 526 Ibid., 247. 527 Sa-Soon Youn, “T’oegye’s identification of ‘to be’ and ‘ought’: T’oegye’s theory of value”, in Wm. Theodore de Bary & Hahyun Kim Haboush (eds), The rise of neo-Confucianism in Korea, 223–242. 528 Ibid., 247. 529 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 221. Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of modern Korea, 639.

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good, and psychophysical nature, which is both good and evil.530 Scholars who defended the first aspect were called the school of principle or reason ( li-in Korean: abstract form, logos), and the second the school of mind or intuition ( ki in Korean: material force). Thus according to the school of principle righteous or virtuous, rational behaviour would be natural and seeking moral perfection the only way for a good human being, whereas for the school of mind/intuition moral perfection per se would not make a person virtuous if personal behaviour and society remained unchanged. Chu-Hsi was a scrupulous Confucian, both in private life and in public conduct. He wrote a long commentary, Chu-tzu-ch’uan-shu (Complete works of Chu-tzu531) on the Four Books,532 which has been the basic text for neo-Confucian scholars ever since. The cosmological concepts of the neoConfucian metaphysical universe are rational principles: li or principle/reason and ki or matter. The li exists in heaven, on earth and in myriad things, determining the nature of things, hence what moral behavior ought to be. In other words, heaven is a rational Supreme Being. Reason must govern society and create harmony. Objects such as a house, even abstract concepts such as the sovereign-subject relationship, have their respective li, which constitutes their nature. In its cosmic operation this li participates in an all-embracing principle called , T’ae-gu˘k or Heavenly Place, also translated as Ultimate Reality.533 Ultimate Reality, being immanent in all things, becomes the supreme li, transcending all particulars. In a broader sense neo-Confucians also spoke of the li as tao or way, using the Taoist Chinese character tao.534 What differentiates the li from both Buddhist and Taoist concepts is its dynamic, creative interaction with the ki. Do things come into being by virtue of the li providing the ki with the plan for becoming a particular thing, or does the ki act on the li? Does the Ultimate Principle (heaven, li) as it were ride on the back of physical matter (ki) to create an object, imparting itself to that object as its li, or is it matter (ki) that brings forth the li? As the li and ki interact, the five elements535 appear. 530 Sunhae Kim, “Jeong Yak-yong (Dasan): creative bridge between the East and the West”, in Hae-chang Choung & Hyong-jo Han (eds), Confucian philosophy, Seoul: Academy of Korean Studies, 1996, 231. 531 Chu Hsi and Chu-tzu refer to same person. 532 See chapter 2, note 135 and note 72 above. 533 Chu Hsi does not ascribe creative power to Ultimate Reality. See Sa-Soon Youn, “T’oegye’s identification of ‘to be’ and ‘ought’: T’oegye’s theory of value”, 226. 534 See chapter 2, n. 130. 535 The five elements are: water, fire, wood, metal and the sun. In Chinese philosophy five is the perfect number designating what is basic to all things. For example, there are five virtues: compassion, justice, right knowledge, wisdom and loyalty. Likewise there are five basic social relationships – king-subject, father-son, senior-junior, husband-wife and friends – and five degrees of goodness: longevity, riches, health and tranquility, love of virtue and a peaceful death. The Chinese also identify five geographical points: east, west, south, north and centre. For more about Chinese philosophy, see e.g. Yeou-lan Fong, Précis d’histoire de la philosophie Chinoise, Paris: Payot-Le Mail, 1985, 144, 146–152, 205, 219, 307.


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The order of priority of these two principles became a subject of fiery scholarly debate in Korea,536 leading to irreconcilable political and social divisions.537 For practical purposes Chu Hsi’s School of Principle (li) became the backbone of the orthodox neo-Confucian school because of its socio-political applications, as it demanded almost blind obedience to the established rule of the monarch as guarantor of social harmony and the only authority on how to behave in a natural way.538 The 18th century Confucian Christian intellectuals could not accept this narrow, one-sided interpretation of classic Confucianism. Jeong Yak-yong (Dasan), and with him the Christian intellectuals, believed that this division of human nature was too abstract and moreover disregarded human freedom, hence it could not satisfy the practical and ethical demands of classic Confucianism (which always appealed to heaven, present in personal conscience). To Christians, moreover, it was clear that heaven meant a personal God, the creator of all things. Far more important for Korean neo-Confucian scholars’ defence of the school of li than the mere philosophical explanation of principle, matter and their interaction was the concrete application in terms of laws of human nature, ethical and political language, and social relations. Thus practical, temporal matters were paramount in the minds of scholars. In this area the ruler was the spokesperson, so to speak, of reason (li). The ruler had come to supersede heaven. There was no doubt that as modernity proceeded it would be according to norms and rules laid down by the ruler without any reference to heaven and at the expense of personal freedom, thus paving the way for autocratic, despotic rule steeped in corruption.

536 In Korea the intellectual leaders of these two schools were Yi Hwang (also known as Yi T’oegye, 1501–1570) for the eastern faction and Yi Yulgok (also known as Yi I, 1536–1584) for the western faction. The easterners quickly seized political power and tried to suppress their western rivals. It is interesting to note that factionalism became one of the major obstacles to national development. Ki-Bait Yi offers a succinct overview of the different factions: early part of Yi dynasty, Tongin (easterners) and Seoin (westerners). Following the introduction of Chu Hsi’s ideas in Korea in the 15th century and a royal succession dispute, the Tongin were further divided into Namin (southerners) and Pugin (northerners). By the time Christianity arrived in the 18th century the Namin incorporated the most progressive intellectuals and thinkers and were a major influence in the administration. Most of the intellectual Christian converts belonged to the Namin party. During this period of tensions with intellectual Christian converts the Pugin (northerers) split into two major power groups, the Taebuk (majority party) and Sobuk (minority party), each subdivided into smaller parties. See Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 252; Hahyun Kim Haboush, The Confucian kingship in Korea, 238. 537 Ibid., 222. Note that these factional conflicts always affected Korean politics, even during the period of persecutions against Christians in 1801–1802. 538 Sa-Soon Youn, “T’oegye’s identification of ‘to be’ and ‘ought’: T’oegye’s theory of value”, 224. And naturally the ruling elite, the yangban, was believed to share the king’s power.

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3.1.3.1 Education for a moral society In matters of government and politics as moral institutions under a moral leader, the sage-king, the theory of the li (the precedence of reason, heaven, Supreme Being) served its purpose well. Because the li is pure and changeless, the li (tao) of the government must have been there from eternity, even though rulers might not always have practised it.539 The Confucian belief that the ancient sage-kings practised it was considered unquestionable. Consequently the ideal government and society of ancient sage-kings could and must be recreated here and now, if only the ruler and subjects followed the li of government in regard to self, social relations and so on. Political reform, then, was an attempt to bring the government as close to its li as possible. Neo-Confucian reform philosophy held that such an order was possible even if the king was not all that holy. On the personal and religious level the theory of li and ki eclipsed the realism of Hsu˘n-tzu,540 who held that human nature was both good and evil, whereas classical Confucians held that the human li, which the individual’s li shares, must be good, regardless of time and place. What makes one person different from another is ki (matter). A sage is one endowed with ki so clear that his li, like a pearl, may shine through, whereas an evil person is one whose li, housed in a muddy ki, is like a pearl lying in murky waters. Just as muddy water can be purified, so an evil man can be rehabilitated through education and self-cultivation.541 The final goal of education and self-education, then, is to restore one’s li to its original state and

539 Jahyun Kim Haboush, “The education of the Yi crown prince: a study in Confucian pedagogy”, in Wm. Theodore de Bary & Hahyun Kim Haboush (eds), The rise of neo-Confucianism in Korea, 161–222. 540 During the 3rd century BCE Mencius and Hs˘un-tzu (ca. 298–237) developed Confucius’s teachings into a vast philosophical system. While Mencius developed the optimistic and ideal side, Hsu˘ emphasised the somewhat pessimistic and realistic branch of Confucianism. Mencius insisted on the goodness of human nature, which was to become an orthodox truth in mainline Confucianism. He based this conclusion on his observation of human behaviour. As an example he cited the way anybody would come to the rescue of a child about to fall into a deep well. This act of kindness, Mencius explained, was due to the jen or humaneness that all people have within them. However, this goodness can be corrupted by adverse circumstances, particularly if the person did not receive a proper education. For Mencius the external conditions that shape the human makeup were as important as the innate goodness with which we are all endowed. Hs u˘ -tzu, on the other hand, had a more ‘realistic’ approach: after evaluating humans and human society he concluded that human nature was essentially evil. He believed, however, that human ability and intelligence possessed virtues, which could be perfected through emulating the life of sage-kings. He also dropped the moralistic concept of heaven and social force. Re-establishing a virtuous society, which he had envisioned together with Mencius, was possible only through education and good government, not by a moralistic ruler but by one who legally punishes misdemeanours. See Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of Korea, 19. 541 Joe J. Wanne, Traditional Korea, 217–219.


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thus be one with the principle that governs all and permits harmonious awareness of the will of heaven. Chu Hsi’s “The extension of knowledge through the investigation of things” became the best-known maxim in the Great learning, one of the Four Classic Books,542 but it did not allow for God’s revelation to individual persons. Introspective meditation became another important method to complement self-cultivation, also very much emphasised by neo-Confucians. The aim of introspective meditation, however, was not to know the will of heaven but to be faithful to tradition and authority.543 In 17th and 18th century neo-Confucianism544 in Korea philosophical discussion had become just a metaphysical game, which is why Christian intellectuals like Jeong Yak-jong (Dasan) decided to put an end to the fruitless discussions of the li and ki schools, because they were not paying attention to the human spiritual capacity to will and to decide. Dasan, who became a Christian after reading Matteo Ricci’s Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of heaven, was aware of the notion of the heart,545 the physical organ, as the seat of human feelings and the place where God’s brightness rests.546 From this he developed the concept that human beings enjoy moral freedom. Consequently education should not seek primarily to make people docile to their rulers, but should rather be aimed at self-regulation, sagehood547 and the four moral virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and knowledge.548 In Korean society even the smallest details of everyday life were influenced by neo-Confucian political ideals and moral doctrines. In this social order the yangban ruling class granted the king the privilege to interpret and enforce the tao of the universe for all his citizens, thus de facto giving him absolute power. Korean intellectuals who converted to Christianity, on the other hand, turned to the original Confucian principle of the superiority of reason, heaven, which manifests itself in individual conscience as that which is perceived in nature. Accordingly, for Christian intellectuals human relations and conduct had to be determined by the principle or reason that underlies all creatures and resides in the conscience of all human beings, and not by the power of an arbitrary king. To defend this view – the crux of Christian understanding – Christian scholars were ready to die. 542 See chapter 3, note 73. 543 Yeou-lan, Fung, Précis d’histoire de la philosophie Chinoise, 306. 544 Jahyun Kim Haboush, The Confucian kingship in Korea, 7–28. 545 Reference in Matteo Ricci’s Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of heaven, 137, n.122. 546 Jeong Yak-yong, Dasan, The complete works of Dasan, 1–16, 3a. Quoted in Sunghae Kim, “Creative bridge between the East and the West”, 234. 547 Yun Sasun, Studies in Korean Confucian thought, Seoul: Yeoreumsa, 1986, 153. 548 Sunghae Kim, “Creative bridge between the East and the West”, 235.

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Neo-Confucian theorists who accepted the absolute authority of the king, on the other hand, thought of themselves, as it were, as soldiers of Confucian orthodoxy. Thanks to this unyielding ideology of the absolute lordship of the king, the yangban thought they could maintain arbitrary monarchic power as well as protect their own status and privileges. To defend these ideas the yangban did not hesitate to eliminate dissenters. In enforcing the practice of the Confucian five human relationships (also known as hyeodo or filial piety),549 they put the accent on loyalty to the ruler as the basic ethical principle so as to maintain full control over society. Thus the onus of maintaining proper social order rested on the shoulders of the obedient inferior, except in the case of their own friends. The authority – nationally the king, in the family the father, and so forth – was obviously patriarchal. Since the five human relations were the ethical manifestation in human beings of the metaphysical li (reason), patriarchal authority was identified with the tao (way) of the universe. This hierarchic social structure was carefully inculcated by way of formal education. 3.1.3.2 Formal education system Under the Yi dynasty the facilities and curriculum of the education system550 were expanded beyond that of the previous Koryo dynasty (892–1231). Since it was believed that a bad person could be made good through education, goodness was, in principle, open to all. Thus the administrative efficiency of governors and local magistrates was judged by the extent to which they promoted education in their areas of jurisdiction; this was one of king Taejo’s first administrative innovations to improve education. There were several levels of schooling. A new private primary school, Seodang,551 was established in every large village, supported by either individual families or the whole village. Both the educational institutions and the civil service examinations were, theoretically, open to all; in reality they were confined to the yangban class. In practice talented lower-class children had access only to primary schools. The government schools offering secondary and other higher education were located in the provincial capitals (Hyang-kyo552) where only yangban’s children had access to them. The third level was the national Sa-hak (Four Schools).553 As the highest centre of formal education in

549 Loyalty to the ruler, the ancestors, parents, spouse and friends. See chapter 2, note 73. For a more detailed explanation of filial piety, see note 71, page xlv of the general introduction. 550 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 192–199; Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of modern Korea, 671–713. 551 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 180, 368. 552 Ibid., 180. 553 Ibid., 181.


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Confucianism, the Seongkyunwan554 was run with extreme intellectual and moral rigour. This learning centre enshrined the Chinese and Korean sagegods of the past. The examination system, a most effective tool for preserving the political and ethical ideals of Confucianism and enlarging the basis of the ruling elite, assumed disproportionate importance during the Yi dynasty.555 The most prestigious was the triennial, five-stage examination. The first two stages were called sogwa, a lower degree course, whereas the last three, known as taegwa, led to a higher degree. Apart from these examinations, there were two more qualifications for top government positions: one, called saengwon (new scholar) degree, was awarded after passing an examination on comprehension of the Four Books and the Three Classics. This was less popular than the second, chinsa (presented scholar), which included a test of proficiency in the composition of prose and poetry. For most students, especially those from the provinces, the sogwa degree was good enough, because it could secure appointments to minor government posts and they could manoeuvre in political intrigues with the ruling parties. However, the examination system urgently needed revision.556 As a result of the variety of examinations the number of graduates far exceeded the number of available positions. Under such circumstances the best thing an unemployed graduate – utterly useless in terms of economic productivity – could do was to place himself under the patronage of wealthy, high-ranking officials as their ‘family guest’. He might also be put on a waiting list,where he would languish, talking fiercely partisan politics. Those who did neither wandered around the small towns and villages, forcing peasants to accommodate them as guests and feed them. This latter type was the cause of much political unrest, as we shall see when dealing with the yangban as an institution. Let us see now how an educational system designed to make people morally good, usher in social transformation and improve the lives of the poor resulted in general dissatisfaction and more poverty.

Ibid., 180, 181, 222. This was the National Confucian Academy. For centuries Seongkyunwan was a royal institute of learning providing a philosophical basis for all social and political affairs in the kingdom. Admission was restricted to male children from the ruling yangban class. They studied six basic courses: correct behaviour, music, archery, horse riding, Chinese classics and mathematics. Music and correct behaviour served to develop the five relationships of Confucianism. As a result of this curriculum the students formed an elite group among Korean intellectuals. So powerful did their opinion become that not even the king could completely ignore their remonstrations about political and moral errors. 555 Jahyun Jim Haboush, “The education of the Yi crown prince: a study in Confucian pedagogy”, 173. 556 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 208. Also see Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of modern Korea, 728. 554

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3.1.4 Structural malaise During the 17th century under the Yi dynasty the economy was yet another national tribulation,557 which went hand in hand with official demoralisation at leadership level. This was all the more serious, as it caused much suffering among the impoverished majority. Landholding and labour systems deteriorated. Local magistrates and petty officials abused the productivity of the peasant class as a financial resource for the government and the ruling class. Petty local officials, intent on compensation for their unpaid, hereditary services by whatever means they could contrive at either the government’s or the peasants’ expense, were the single most notorious group exploiting the peasantry. Usually in alliance with conniving higher officials and local yangban, they lined their pockets through extortion by unlawfully imposing taxes, tributes and labour obligations on their victims. By the end of the 18th century the national reality was that, despite the study of endless historical compilations and long and heated philosophical debates about the kernel of Confucian ethics558 and how to solve the endemic political, economic and social problems, something in society impeded the Confucian ideal from taking off. In this context some younger intellectuals bitterly questioned the structures that were the biggest obstacle to the creation of a modern Korea, such as the concentration of power in the hands of a few powerful clans.559 By the end of the dynasty the very political system that was put in place at the beginning of Yi rule to help the nation develop into an independent, morally impeccable and highly educated community had become so corrupt and inefficient that it could not satisfy the aspirations of the people.560 The institution that proved most backward and a real impediment to progress was the yangban. The latter, who started out as a highly educated, qualified, morally irreproachable group, had facilitated the successful accession to power of king Taejo, supported his political reforms and concept of statehood, and became his advisers. But with the passing of time the yangban or literati became, in the opinion of Yi Ki-baik,561 a reincarnation of the former Koryo

557 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea. 182–188. 558 L. Eul Sou Youn, Le Confucianisme en Corée, Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1939, 65–91. 559 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 208. 560 According to Wi Jo Kang, Christ and Caesar in modern Korea, 1, “the political tragedy of modern Korea resulted from the longevity of the Yi dynasty… During these long years of rule, the Yi family adopted the Neo-Confucianism as a political ideology and system of rule that kept Korea in total isolation. The only country that had access to Korea was China. Confucian family ethics were thus reflected in the political realm in the interaction between big brother China and smaller brother Korea.” 561 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 172.


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aristocratic rulers, whose exclusive access to the power structures of their predecessors incurred the wrath of the people and eventually brought the toppling of their dynasty by king Taejo. During the reign of the Yi dynasty562 the yangban were divided between two major administrative areas, civil and military, and ended up in absolute control of the political, economic, cultural, military and even religious spheres. The monarch consolidated them into a formal group, which evolved into a social class with its own strict rules and controls on those willing to join its ranks. To this end the yangban took charge of the examination system for the recruitment of new government officials. By the third quarter of the 18th century they controlled not only power but access to power as well. The system was thoroughly corrupt: admission to posts in public administration no longer depended on intellectual gifts. In the past the candidate, in addition to demonstrating his563 intellectual abilities, also had to be a knowledgeable and fervent practitioner of Confucian doctrines. If the state-sponsored examination system was created to assess the fitness of candidates, now with increasingly overt purpose it became a means of blocking highly capable candidates simply because they were not land owners or aristocrats. This was bitterly opposed by Confucian intellectuals who became Christians. The yangban were also exempt from the usual service obligations to the state such as community labour or military duty: “theirs was an exclusive dedication to study, to the cultivation of self that Confucian doctrine holds must underlie the ability to govern others, and so the privilege that enabled them to become officials took the place of other service obligations to the state.”564 However, the reality was far removed from such an admirable goal. The yangban ended up elitist: access to the public service was gradually closed to competent people; marriages were arranged among the yangban elite, which promoted a hereditary ruling class. Soon, according to Yi Ki-baik, the whole of Korean society was divided into classes: The northern and southern quarters in Seoul, and separate villages in the countryside rather than the towns, were where yangban residences were located. First of all, the military order was less well regarded than the civil order. In addition, a law banning those of illegitimate birth from important government office made it difficult and, during much of the dynasty, impossible for the sons of yangban by secondary wives, and their descendants, to sit for examinations that would qualify them for civil office appointments. Sons and grandsons of yangban widows who remarried could not serve in government office at all. There was regional discrimination as well, and residents of the northern provinces of Pyeong Yang and Ham Kyong, with few exceptions, were unable to gain appointment to the higher offices.565

562 Ibid., 172–175. 563 The positions were open only to male citizens. 564 Yi Ki-baik, A new history of Korea, 174. 565 Ibid., 174.

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All these conditions and restrictions were simply yangban strategies aimed at limiting the participation of other capable people in state administration, as well as placing some limits on the increase of their own people, because uncontrolled growth of the yangban class would obviously erode their position of special privilege. The yangban did not occupy so-called middle class (Jung Min) posts, such as medical officer, translator-interpreter, technician in the astronomy and meteorological bureau, accountant, statute law clerk, scribe and government artist, all of which were hereditary. The yangban were also not interested in working in agriculture, manufacture or commerce. They may have wanted changes in society but were not prepared to do away with distinctions in social status.566 3.1.5 Outcry for reform From the early 17th century onwards Korea experienced a growing consciousness of the arrival of modernity, manifesting in eagerness for social and political reform, breaking down the prevailing rural and feudal system, and establishing cities and a politically well-articulated state structure.567 Guided by the notion of sage-king leadership, society at large began realising the need to respect civil rights and equality and to create an inclusive economic and social order.568 As a result there was a major upsurge in studies and research in the natural sciences and technology. Even more decisive from the Korean perspective, rationalism was adopted as a method of inquiry into the peculiarities of Korean history. Korea was becoming aware of its uniqueness and how different it was from the all-encompassing Chinese empire. Because of this it was crying out for reform. This led to the creation of many academic schools, which in turn affected the political life of the country. At times the indiscriminate creation of schools caused social, political and economic hardship. The new schools were closer to the people, particularly in the rural areas, where once again many teachers and intellectuals began pressurising farmers to provide for them. Many of these teachers were idlers who wanted to be seen as scholars with a right to burden the peasants, and also brought political friction and factionalism from the cities to the villages. Some other groups, however, were keenly interested in the new learning from the West, Seohak,569 in spite of the central administration’s barriers to 566 Ibid., 175. 567 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 226. 568 Kim Ok Hy, Le role de Yi Pyok dans l’introduction et la diffusion du Catholicisme en Korée, Paris: Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1977, 7. 569 Seohak was how the new movement of Christian intellectuals came to be known. Characteristic of this group was that their interest in learning Western mathematics, physics and religion broadened beyond purely scientific interest to a desire for religious knowledge and faith commitment in their everyday lives.


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international exchange. The more contact these scholars had with Western knowledge, the more fascinated they became with its practical approach to real life. As Prof. Yi puts it, they were able to look beyond China and its cultural heritage. They realised there was something beyond the Middle Kingdom. The West seemed to look at facts as facts and not as the result of divine intervention. As a result they realised there was a need for vigorous reform of the prevailing corrupt, contradictory system of government.570 For many of these intellectual groups Western knowledge had a liberating effect. According to these scholars the constant social revolts were irrefutable proof that things were changing in society and that structures needed to adapt to the new circumstances.571 This was why so many scholarly groups, fully committed to serious intellectual research as well as the practice of virtue on Confucian lines, were mushrooming around the country. One of these was called the Shilhak (practical, sincere, learning) school. The thirst for higher learning was not restricted to Korea. In about the same period the Chinese Ch’ing dynasty had produced a similar movement intent on dialogue with Western culture. Known as the Kojunghak, it actually inspired the Silhak trend in Korea. Philosophically it could be defined as a transitional movement from the speculative to the concrete and real. “Learning that does not help the people is not learning,”572 was a famous saying at the time. The Silhak school had immense influence in the fields of politics, economics, agriculture, history, geography, mineralogy, mapmaking and, of course, religion, and its leaders decided to use it to bring about social and political change. The outcry for reform also touched on two very sensitive social areas, to which the Korean Christians paid special attention.

3.1.5.1 Reform of social and family structures The concept of authority and obedience in human relations was applied to all political and social situations. The paternalistic nature of authority made the whole country, at least theoretically, subservient to the Middle Kingdom.573 Within Korea itself the yangban class at the top of the class structure, who swore lasting allegiance to the king as the head of the family, formed the bulwark of Confucianism and dealt paternalistically with the productive classes,

570 Yi Ki-Baik, A new history of Korea, 106. 571 Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of modern Korea, 726. 572 Keum Chang-tae, Confucianism and Korean thought, Seoul: Seongkyunkwan University Press, 1980, 257. 573 For sadae, see section 3.1.2 above, note 65.

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the yangmin and the ch’onmin.574 To maintain the status system and the social morality of Confucianism the ruling class legally enforced the performance of family rites and ceremonies prescribed by the Confucian moral code, which discriminated between social classes. These rites were very complicated. The yangban had learnt how to perform them from Chinese sources, and so they became even more powerful and omnipresent in the process of ensuring the proper performance of rites by the people. There was yet another class between the yangban and chungmin (middle people) called yangmin, comprising specialised professionals such as medical practitioners, translators, accountants, astrologers and lawyers, who acted as a buffer. The yangmin absorbed those who dropped out of the yangban class for political reasons, state examination graduates who failed to secure proper jobs and lived as guests in the houses of their patrons waiting for better times, and those who were promoted from the lower chungmin class. A society thus divided into classes, where no crossinsemination was allowed, was something Christians were bound to oppose. Family structures also needed to be reformed. The nuclear unit in the Confucian social organisation was the family. Its importance cannot be overemphasised. An individual apart from the family was considered a non-person. Three of the five cardinal human relationships centred on the family. Of them the most important was the father-son relationship, which the yangban made sure was applied to national life to include relations between king and subject. Filial piety was considered the acme of human conduct or humanness and was dealt with extensively in educational books. Models of filial conduct in every possible situation were described in such widely read books as Hyokyeong or the Book of filial piety for emulation by sons.575 Condemnation of one’s parents in any form for whatever reason constituted the gravest crime, second only to treason. Sons had to acquire some degree of medical knowledge, because it was thought impious to leave a sick parent completely in the hands of the doctor. A son whose parent had just died regarded himself as a ‘sinner’ and was expected to “wail until he fell into swoon” and barely subsist on vegetable gruel 574 Society was structured around four social classes: the yangban, the yangmin, the chungmin (middle people) and the ch’onmin (low people), which included the paekcheong (slaves), as the lowest class. The lowest class had to work on the land of the yangban, the monks and on the royal estates and public property. The ch’onmin lived in a kind of perpetual bondage, from which it was practically impossible to escape, and they were forced to do domestic work as slaves. During the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592 members of this low social class were allowed to have military training, a privilege previously denied to them. Yangmin (good people), a short of buffer group between the yangban and the middle class, were not allocated land to till, but were happy receiving the paternalistic and benevolent care of the Confucian state that was granted to them by the yangban. See Yi Ki-Baik, A new history of Korea, 188. 575 It always refers to sons.


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and salt for three years.576 Most pious sons would build a small shed next to their parents’ graves ‘to wait on’ them for three years, which was considered the most solemn observance in Confucian moral behaviour towards parents. Around this pivotal father-son relationship other family relationships such as husbandwife, elder-younger brother and mother-daughter-in-law were formed, each with clearly defined duties and obligations. Ancestor worship including the welfare of living parents, and the birth and upbringing, particularly of male children, demanded a collective effort by the whole family. Passing the family name down to posterity and, if possible, ascending the social scale were the main duties of the firstborn son of every family. Where did this system place women? The Yi dynasty with its peculiar view of social decorum and order in harmony within the metaphysical universe conceived of women as characterised by submissiveness and decorum.577 Their social status was wholly inferior.578 A newborn baby girl was usually laid on the floor, whereas a boy was placed on a bed. In this fashion the girl’s life-long career of obedience started. In the family she was expected to be a silent servant and producer of male children. In society she was anonymous; after marriage she was known only as the wife of so-and-so or the mother of-so-and-so. After 1477 widows were not allowed to remarry, even if it meant dying of starvation, as they had to ‘follow only one man’.579 The missionary Christians decided to address these issues, citing the principle of equality between humans created by the same God as the foundation of new social relationships based on sincerity and respect. Respect for parents had to be shown in this world while the parents were alive, rather than putting up extravagant shows of grief after their passing. 3.1.5.2 Reform of political and intellectual life Neo-Confucian orthodoxy became so narrow-minded, formalistic and politically conservative that it could no longer contain the religious and intellectual discontents, which had long been fermenting.580 Profound reflection on the sterility of the abstract rationalism propounded by the neo-Confucian Chu Hsi and his Korean counterparts Ahn Hyang and Paek Yi-cheong provoked a reaction

576 Sons mourned their mothers’ death in the same way as their fathers’. Women acquired social status by giving the family male offspring, which meant perpetuation of the clan. Joe J. Wanne & Hongkyu A. Choe, A cultural history of modern Korea, 61. Park Won, Traditional Korean thought, 127–144. 577 Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of modern Korea, 735. 578 As late as the Silla Unified Korea of the 10th century women enjoyed considerable freedom and equality and could also become rulers (Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 77). 579 Joe J. Wanne & A. Choe, Traditional Korea. A cultural history, 111–115. 580 Yi Ki-Baik, A new history of Korea, 258.

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among the most progressive thinkers of the Yi dynasty. In addition the Yehak (old) school seems to have brought more political confusion and even bloodshed to the country. From the 18th century onwards both the official scholars, who were inclined towards intellectual activity, victims of factional power struggles and other intellectuals who had no political interests turned to a wide range of scholarly reflections, some sidestepping and others flatly repudiating neo-Confucianism.581 Three factors contributed to progressive thinkers’ challenge to the intellectual stagnation of the time.582 First, the neo-Confucian school of mind (ki, matter), long declared heterodox583 under the Chosun dynasty, had accorded the li (principle) school unprecedented official authority, whereby the king, together with his officials, the yangban, enjoyed absolute moral power. This approach became increasingly prevalent throughout the country. Second, influenced by Chinese Ch’ing scholars, inductive empirical research methods were introduced. Abandoning the neo-Confucian orthodox pursuit of abstract knowledge, the new research method formulated hypotheses to be tested against evidence. The problem had its corollary in theology: where does one get the data for one’s research? From established and fixed principles and their official interpretation found in libraries and books? Or from how people live their lives here and now? It is deductive of inductive? Thirdly, the discovery of Western science and religion opened up refreshingly new perspectives for scholars.584 The yangban class proved incapable of breaking out of Chu-Hsi’s strict neo-Confucian framework.585 Even the emergence of Yeyak (old Confucian School), which attempted to bolster just government and social morality, failed to accept the fact of government’s impotence to carry out its task.586 Social problems, structural economic problems and political in-fighting now loomed so large that no one seemed able to squarely face the enormous need for sweeping reform.587 Politicians of the Mountain and Forest persuasion,588 who

581 Many scholars had altogether ceased celebrating ancestral rites, even before the first group of thinkers who gathered around Yi Ik refused to offer them on the occasion of his mother’s death in Chil San in 1795. By the time the bishop of Beijing called on Christians not to participate in these rites many intellectual non-Christians had already stopped doing so. 582 Note that these developments were greatly stimulated and influenced by forces from abroad. 583 Miura Kunio, “Orthodoxy and heterodoxy in seventeenth-century Korea: Song Siyeol and Yun Hyu”, in Wm. Theodore de Bary & Jahuyn Kim Haboush (eds), The rise of neoConfucianism in Korea, 411–444. 584 Joe J. Wanne & A. Choe, Traditional Korea. A cultural history, 317. 585 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 250. 586 Ibid., 251. Also, Joe J. Wanne & A. Choe, Traditional Korea. A cultural history, 730. 587 Ibid., 254. 588 See section 3.1.2 above, note 71.


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were good at theorising but lacked any sort of political pragmatism, could hardly be expected to bring about reform on any appreciable scale. As often happens at such historical junctures, a mood of lethargy and volatility took over, and obsequious politicians mingled with powerful leaders, gradually forming rival parties.589 In this complex environment caused by political factionalism we should briefly note the further complication of intellectual sectarianism. On the one hand, Yi Hwang (pen name, Toe-kye , 1501–1570)590 propounded his particular interpretation of the origin of the four cardinal virtues (benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom) and the seven human emotions (pleasure, anger, sorrow, joy, love, hate and desire) by emphasising the priority of li (principle) over material force ki (matter). He contradicted his mentor Chu-Hsi by claiming that li included within itself the generative power for matter, a fact observable in the harmony between humans and nature. Concerning the relation between knowledge and practice, he claimed that either could precede the other, depending on the circumstances. Ki Dae-seung (1527–1572) criticised this view, maintaining that the seven human emotions were included in the four virtues and could not be attributed solely to li or ki. Yi I (pen name

589 Factional strife began early in Seong-jo’s reign, the conventional date being 1575. Personal ˘ animosity between Sim Ui-kyeom, a high-ranking conservative, and Kim Hyo-weon, the official in charge of appointments to government bureaucracy (Cheongnang), triggered political division. The two became involved in personal rivalry when Sim’s younger brother was appointed to a certain position. In 1575 the high court was divided between the two factions. Those who rallied around Kim were called Tong-in (easterners), because Kim lived in the eastern quarters of the capital, and those who supported Sim were called S˘o-in (westerners), since Sim lived in the western quarters. In fact Sim and Kim had no control over the situation. Even after they were demoted to provincial posts, having taken the blame for the factional fission, partisan politics carried on, splitting existing parties into yet more factions. By 1589 the easterners, who had dominated the court, were divided into Nam-in (southerners) and Puk-in (northerners), and within a decade the latter had subdivided into Tae-buk (great northerners) and So-buk (small northerners). The westerners, too, had a further split between No-ron (old doctrine) and So-ron (young doctrine) in 1683. These were the four parties known as Sa-saek (four colours): old doctrine, young doctrine, southerners and (small) northerners, who, without further splits, managed to work out a balance among them. Party affiliations were generally based on consanguineous and teacher-disciple relations and personal friendship. In these circumstances loyalty became an esteemed virtue, which came to be identified with u˘ i (righteousness). A characteristic of this political map was a black-white approach to all issues, rejecting any compromise or shades in between different positions, and the destruction of the enemy by way of expulsion from government office, exile and even death. Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 208–209. 590 Branded the Chu-Hsi of Korea, he was one of the brightest neo-Confucian Korean thinkers. He played an important role in unifying Chinese, Korean and Japanese thought on the basis of neo-Confucian metaphysics. Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 217, 218, 221.

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Yulgok , 1536–1584)591 was a bitter adversary of Yi Hwang. He claimed that the source of generative power in the universe lay in matter or material force itself, thus opposing Yi Hwang’s dualistic approach. He further explained that while li (principle, reason) and ki (matter) are the two cosmic forces responsible for the creation of all things, matter alone was physically observable because of its ability to change and act. Principle (li) never operates without the stimulation of matter (ki). The two are inseparable in physical reality and remain inextricably interwoven. Thus the relationship of li and ki was one of the most philosophically contentious issues among the disciples of Yi Ik592 at the end of the 18th century, a debate that led some people to convert to Christianity and others to oppose it vehemently. What was at stake was the political and social implications of the thinking of the two schools. They were divided between li-pha (principle party) and ki-pha (matter party), each of which became associated with political factions, thus exercising wide influence on everything from mundane practical affairs to government policies.593 The political implications of the two schools of thought can be summarised as follows: [Material/force] had been always been marked by [its insistence on] sociopolitical participation, and the other school [principle/main] had pursued [and promoted] moral cultivation in the forests. In the face of national failure the one fled and the other sacrificed his life [to fight it out]. The principle/main schoolmen, who attached importance to the cold logic of principle [identified with righteousness or morality] and recognised the self-existence of nature in its original state, held on to the principle of righteousness, sacrificing their lives. The material/force schoolmen, who recognised only the nature of physical endowment and who were resolute in sociopolitical participation, decided to compromise with [immoral] reality instead of sacrificing themselves [to correct it].594

In response to these narrow-minded, formal and ritualistic developments ushered in by neo-Confucians of the principle school during the last two centuries of the Yi dynasty, and because the king was neither morally virtuous nor an effective political leader and, worse still, a slave of the aristocratic yangban 591 Ibid., 203, 218, 221. “Fundamentally the theory of the primacy of ki looked upon the material, energising force of ki rather than the mysterious formative power of li as the fundamental factor in the existence of the universe. Ultimately this view leads to seeing li as nothing but the laws of motion or activity inherent in ki. Thus those who emphasise the primacy of ki are in a position to seek an objective grasp of the laws that govern things in the material world. Its advocates, as inheritors of Chu Hsi’s philosophic system, also attached importance to the search of moral principles, but their approach emphasised looking outward rather than inward, intellectual rather than spiritual perception, and so they valued external experience and breadth of learning” (Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 218). 592 For Yi Ik, see chapter 3, note 8. 593 Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of modern Korea, 662–663. Wanne provides a list of authors classified according to membership of the two philosophical schools. 594 Myong Chong Yu, Han Guk Cheol Hak Sa (Korean history of philosophy), Seoul: Tongmyonsa, 1978, 300 [my translation].


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ruling elite, a progressive group emerged in the country. These new thinkers decided to look to religion for the inspirational strength to establish a new social order. In this political, social, economic and religious context a group of late 18th century Christian intellectuals implemented what I have called their kenotic missionary method: they threw themselves into their cultural, social, economic, political and religious milieu and sought to transform it by adopting a coherent lifestyle following their master, the Lord Jesus. This mission of building a new community and the advent of the new thinkers is the subject of the next section.

3.2 The thrust of a missionary commitment In this second part of the chapter we take a closer look at the missionary activity of the 18th century Christians. The emphasis is on the process of personal and communitarian transformation, leading to a church model based on lay ministry. What were the external and internal circumstances that prompted the birth and evolution of such a community? What were the driving ideas that gave impetus to a community holding views that conflicted with the orthodox interpretation of neo-Confucianism, yet received such a sympathetic hearing among the people? Let us begin with some sociological factors that created the necessary breeding ground for the movement to begin, grow stronger and spread all over the country. 3.2.1 18th century Korea: an overview The intellectual movement that emerged in the late Yi dynasty period (with the aforementioned characteristics of rule by the yangban, neo-Confucian ritualism, oppressive social structures and impoverished masses) is commonly known as Shilhak or practical learning school. We have already seen that concern for practical learning as a means to bettering people’s lives was one of the pillars of the early neo-Confucian philosophers. The new movement was different, as Joe J. Wanne points out: What made the Shilhak movement, which reached its peak in the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries, different from earlier scholarship was that the movement was primarily individual scholar-inspired, not government-sponsored, and its subjects were much more inclusive. It included, in addition to traditional fields such as history, government, etc., commerce, technology, natural science, custom, or even the study of surnames […] More importantly, the methods and attitudes encompassed in the Shilhak scholarship in this period were definitely directed toward the specific examination and solution of the immediate; in short, they were scientific and modern.595

595 Yi Su-gwang (1563–1628) is considered the first Shilhak scholar to study Korean history (Joe J. Wanne, Traditional Korea, 331). It was the period of encyclopaedic knowledge as well. Also see Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 236.

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The mentor of this group of intellectuals was Yi Su-gwang (1563–1628),596 who differed radically from Mountain and Forest scholasticism597 and Yie-hak (old school) formalists. Yi Su-gwang’s voluminous writings, which characterised him as a Shilhak scholar, include the Chibong yu-seol (Collected essays of Chibong), compiled in 1614. The book consists of twenty chapters on such disparate subjects as astronomy, nations, government offices, poetry, plants and birds. It contains 3.435 essays, refers to 348 earlier scholars, and touches on the subject of the Catholic religion as well.598 Yi Su-gwang did not, however, address moral issues, although he does refer to Matteo Ricci’s True doctrine of God. Yi Su-gwang’s disciple Yu Hyeong-weon (1622–1673),599 author of the Pan kye surok (Occasional writings of Pan Kye), and the next generation of intellectuals began reflecting on one of the favourite subjects of the Shilhak thinkers: Korean history. Yi Ik (1681–1761), one of the leading figures, wrote a searching analysis of factionalism as the root cause of national problems. In one of his most successful works, Seong ho Saseol (Trivial essays of Seong ho), he breaks radically with the conceptual and highly theoretical approach of the neo-Confucian moralists. Joe J. Wanne writes: He first wrote in terms of the traditional concept of history as an interaction of good and evil or of the ‘genuineness and falseness’ of a dynamic line, but in the end, it seemed to him an old intellectual skeleton only to be stashed away in the family closet. On of his central concerns was the problem of establishing historicity. He stressed the empirical method, calling for gleaning as many evidences as possible with which to produce a hypothesis and bringing that hypothesis against the historicity not as succession of ‘success and failure, of fortune and misfortune’ but as happening of things of their own accord, according to time and place; to him, history was an autonomous realm divorced from vicissitudes of anthropomorphic volitions of Heaven. In the process, the Tan gun myth was debunked out of history for the first time.600

This approach was pursued by An Jeong-bok ( , 1712–1791), a friend and disciple of Yi Ik who was equally interested in studying Western ideas and applying them to organise society and address its structural problems. Some of the intellectuals were just as interested in solving the endemic agricultural and production shortages, which the political rulers consistently failed to address, as in exploring Western religion. In a context of extreme mass poverty Shilhak intellectuals began looking to Western knowledge as a basis for structuring a new social and political order. Their goals were to enable the majority of poor people to lead more comfortable lives and to have a sound intellectual and spiritual basis on which to establish new rules for social and moral conduct by

596 597 598 599 600

Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 236. See section 3.1.2, note 71. Joe J. Wanne, Traditional Korea, 331–333. Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 237. Ibid., 332.


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abandoning the ritualistic, external, formal and vacuous message propounded by the neo-Confucian school.601 Yi Ik’s group included intellectuals who started gathering to discuss the Christian way in more concrete terms, establishing the Seohak (western) subschool. Their knowledge of Christianity derived from books that arrived from China. Among the Seohak intellectuals were scholars such as Jeong Yak-jon and his two brothers Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine and Jeong Yak, Yi Byeok (real name Yi Taekyong (1762–1836),602 Yi Ka-hwan , Kwon Cheol-sin jo ),603 Yi Seung-hun, Hwang Sa-yong , Kwon Il-sin , Yi Ki-yang and Yi Yun-ha , who decided to become Christians, thus forming the core group of the Christian community. Jeong Yak-yong wrote extensively on Christianity as well as on various social and political issues concerning right governance. Other members of the Shilhak school, such as Shin Hu-dam , An Jeong-bok and Yi Hyeon-kyeong , also disciples of Yi Ik, decided not to become Christians; in fact, these authors severely criticised Christianity, more specifically the dualistic intellectual pattern of Matteo Ricci, whose books were already circulating among the literati in Korea. Nevertheless, the intellectual exchange of ideas triggered by these two groups of Yi Ik’s disciples, all sharing the same aspirations to better the livelihood of the poor, is one of the most creative and dramatic accomplishments of modern Korean thought.604 In summarising this movement some authors605 point out that, from a modern viewpoint, neo-Confucian thought remained in the realm of philosophy

601 Ibid., 236–237. 602 A scholar of bright and encyclopaedic memory, he wrote extensively on such diverse issues as agricultural economy, rural administration and governance with special emphasis on disciplinary measures against corrupt officials. Some of his most outstanding writings are: a trilogy composed of Kyeongse Yup-po (Discourses on government memorialised), Mongmin Sim-seo (Guidance for the pastor of the people) and Heumheum Sin-seo (Discreet administration of criminal justice). Like many of his contemporaries, Jeong Yak-yong (pen name, Dasan) was a keen scholar of agricultural economy and rural administration. Considered one of the greatest authors of the Shilhak School, he advocated radical economic and government reform. Although deeply influenced by Confucian learning, he readily absorbed Western scientific knowledge and Catholic thought. Because he was considered an accomplice of the Christian movement (in fact, two of his brothers were imprisoned during the 1801 Shinyu persecution and one, Jeong Yak-jong was martyred), he was exiled to the southern province of Cholla, where he remained for eighteen years. For more about Dasan, see Yun Dong-hwan, Dasan, Jeong Yak-yong, Dasan Jeong Yak-yong Research Institute, 2002 and Explanation of Dasan’s Mongmin sims˘o or Guidance for the pastor of the people, Dasan Jeong Yak-yong Research Institute, 2000. 603 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église de Corée, vol. 1, 13. 604 Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of modern Korea, 513–518. 605 Ibid., 83–94.

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and in practice did little to better the living conditions of the people. By contrast Shilhak moved into the social sciences and sought to make a social difference for the betterment of human life. Neo-Confucianism, being moral, emphasised the inner world, while Shilhak put the accent on changing the outer world as well. The main conflict between Chu Hsi’s neo-Confucian thought and that of the Shilhak school, with many of the latter moving towards the Catholic religion, was their different views of heaven and God, and consequently of the role of authority in general and the king in particular.606 While Chu Hsi held that humans are basically evil, regardless of their actions, but that they could become better through education and the fulfilment of social obligations, Catholic scholars upheld the principle of a heavenly mandate as a living voice within human conscience and stressed individual freedom to choose between good and evil.607 For Christians God, the Lord of heaven, was the ruler, and neither the king nor social norms, however perfect, could take his place. Shilhak ideas became a driving force in modern Korean thinking in the latter part of the Yi dynasty, leading up to Korea’s age of enlightenment. But the conservatives in power refused to accept it, partly because they regarded it as too provocative and counter to the established system. Faced with such revolutionary ideas, Korean neo-Confucianism developed into dogma,608 incapable of meeting the challenge of the new thought and of leading the country out of the feudal into the modern age. Before we analyse the contribution Christian scholars made to their country and study their kenotic model of doing mission, let us take a closer look at this particular group (Seohak scholars), who tried to reform the country by introducing the element of Christian faith. 3.2.2 A community seeking sophia and social justice The Korean intellectuals’ work in the late 18th century and their encounter with Christianity triggered “one of the most romantic (and also bloody) stories written in the history of Christianity”.609 How did this encounter come about? How did these people become acquainted with Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), Nicolas Longobardi (1559–1654), Diego de Pantoja (1571–1618) and Francis Sambiasi (1585–1649), to mention but a few, all of whom lived 150 years earlier in another country? To these historical events we now turn.

606 Ibid., 88. 607 Park Won represents an analogy to the Western philosopher Hegel (1770–1831) with his idealism and Kierkegaard (1813–1855) with his existential philosophy. Kierkegaard’s depiction of humans as individuals standing before God is comparable to Dasan’s view of humans as watchful over themselves before God. See Park Won, Traditional Korean thought, 99. 608 Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of modern Korea, 512. 609 Ibid., 513.


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We have already mentioned attempts by foreign missionaries to enter Korea to implant Christianity, even after the failure of the earlier effort during the Japanese invasion of 1592. However, if missionary attempts to Christianise Korea from the south610 were ineffectual and not well documented in internal (Korean) sources,611 efforts from the north via China continued vigorously and made major inroads into the country. Indeed, among Korean intellectuals the connection with Matteo Ricci’s legacy dates back to 1631. In that year Chong To-Won, a member of the annual delegation612 of the Korean government to the rulers of China to pay their taxes, met the Jesuit Fr Joao Rodrigues613 in Beijing, and took back with him many books on science, a world map designed by Ricci, a pair of pistols and a telescope, together with some other books and religious objects from the West. The books included Ricci’s The true meaning of the Lord of heaven (Thianzhu Shiyi)614 and many other Western works615 translated into Chinese. The Korean embassies to China were always aware that the imperial court had a good relationship with Matteo Ricci and his brethren in the Society of Jesus even after Ricci’s death in 1610. Korean embassies were always welcome at the

610 This refers to missionary activity carried out during and after the Japanese invasion of the Korean peninsula from 1592 onwards. It remains a mystery whether and, if any, what relationship Korean lay missionaries educated by Jesuit fathers in Japan and sent into the Korean peninsula had with the group of scholars who started their Christian mission after the baptism of Yi Seung-hun in 1784. Available historical documents tell us nothing about the activities of the first group in establishing a Christian presence in the country. The fact that Christianity spread so rapidly over the southern part of Korea after 1784 could be explained by accepting that there must have been layers of society in which Christianity was not totally alien, as Medina seems to imply in his Orígenes. 611 For Medina, see chapter 3, note 2. 612 From 1636 up to 1784, the year Fr Grammont baptised Yi Seung-hun in Beijing, there had been 167 delegations to the Chinese rulers. See Kim Jeong-Su, “Die Evangelisierung Koreas und die Errichtung der Katholischen Kirche im 1600–1800 Jahrhundert”, in Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft und Religionswissenschaft 65, 1981, 173–187. The high number of embassies to China is due to the fact that, in addition to yearly visits to pay tribute and receive the official calendar for the new year, extraordinary embassies were organised on the occasion of the investiture of the new Korean king, or whenever there were pressing political and military problems that demanded immediate action. Also see Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, XV-XVI, 15; Henri Bernad S.J., Lettres et memoires d’Adam Schall S.J. Relation historique, Tientsin: Hautes Studes, 1942, 176. 613 Fr Joao Rodrigues (1561–1633) was a Portuguese Jesuit, astronomer and writer. Choi Sukwoo, “Korean Catholicism yesterday and today”, in Korea Journal 24, 8, August 1984, 4–13. Also see G. Ruiz de Medina, Orígenes, 34: Juan Rodrigues [Portugues] Giram was a Portuguese Jesuit who lived in Japan from 1586 till 1614 and died in exile in Macao. 614 Matteo Ricci proves the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, refutes the metaphysics and other mistakes of the Buddhists and Taoists, answers questions about the true meaning and aim of fasting and explains the meaning of celibacy and the way the pope governs. 615 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 9.

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Jesuit residence. The Jesuits tried to enter Korea on several occasions, but the country was hermetically sealed and no outsiders were allowed to enter. In spite of the difficulty Catholic missionaries had in entering Korea, intellectual and religious exchange with missionaries in Beijing continued. This continuous contact promoted the initiation and development of different Christian activities in the Korean peninsula. Several attempts to enter Korea were made by foreign missionaries. Using their close relationship with Hsü Kuang Ch’i, a prime minister during the Ming dynasty, the Jesuits again tried vainly to send someone to Korea. A fresh attempt was made via prince Sohyeon, who was on his way home. Sohyeon, the crown prince during the reign of king Injo (1623–1649), was captured by the Ch’ing (Manchu) court following the northern disturbance of 1637 and was kept prisoner in Beijing for eight agonising years. During his stay in China the prince frequently saw Fr Johan Adam Schall von Bell616 and asked for Jesuit missionaries to be sent to Korea. This was not possible at the time, but instead Schall gave the prince as many books and religious objects as he could carry.617 The prince was also accompanied by a converted Chinese eunuch from the imperial court.618 Regrettably, the prince died suddenly upon his arrival in Korea and the great dream of a permanent missionary presence in Korea was shattered.619 In 1720 Rhi I-myeong visited P. Kögler,620 and in 1741 the Korean astronomer An Kuk-pin met Andres Pereira,621 with whom

616 Schall calls him ‘Rex Coreae’ in Henri Bernad S.J., Lettres et memoires d’Adam Schall S.J. Relation historique, 188. Schall was one of the court translators of Western books on astronomy and the calendar. He remained in Beijing even after the fall of the Ming dynasty and the rise to power of the Manchu Ch’ing dynasty. In August 1644 he was asked by the regent Dorgon (1612–1650), the first prince Jui, to prepare for the new dynasty a calendar based on Western mathematical calculations, which came to be known as Shih Hsien Li. In 1650 Fr Schall was allowed to build a church, which became know as the Nant’ang or South Church. 617 The exchange of gifts was and still is a sign of friendship and mutual appreciation. Such gifts cannot be considered as bribes to secure further favours. There is a sweet story about how Schall offered a number of gifts to the Korean prince. Among them was a crucifix. The prince, after accepting the gifts, came across this extraordinary item and decided to return it to Fr Schall with an explanatory message. See the letter in the appendix. 618 Choi Suk-woo, “Korean Catholicism yesterday and today”, 5. 619 Kim Yong-dok, “A study of prince Sohyeon”, 128. 620 Ignacius Kögler (1680–1746), a Bavarian Jesuit, arrived in Beijing in January 1717. He was appointed president of the Tribunal of Mathematics and vice president of the Tribunal of Rites. A second class mandarin, he became one of the official interpreters between the Chinese government and the Russian Embassy in 1719 (Carl Sommervogel, S.J. Bibliotèque de la Compagnie de Jesus, Brussels/Paris/Leuven, 1890–1910, IV, 49). 621 Andrés Pereira (also called Andrew Jackson, 1689–1743), a Jesuit of Portuguese-English extraction, a scientist appointed a mandarin in 1727, was born in Porto (Portugal) and was a member of the Academy of Sciences of St Petersburg (Joseph Dehergne, S.J., Repertoire des Jesuits de Chine de 1552 à 1800, Rome: Institutum Historicum S. J., 1973, 197).


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he discussed Western views on astronomy. In 1766 Hong Tae-yong had opportunities to discuss Western religious issues with the German Augustinus von Hallerstein622 (1703–1774) and Antonius Gogeisl623 (1701–1771), who respectively headed the Astronomical Observatory of Beijing at different stages. Both Hallerstein and Gogeisl welcomed a group of Koreans to their residence in 1766. After chatting about religious matters they sent the Koreans home with a generous box of gifts, including religious objects, more books, several types of fruit and a visiting card.624 Medina reports that, according to the royal history of the Yi dynasty, in the 46 years of king Sukjong’s reign (1674–1720) Catholicism had become so widespread that a directive was issued to apprehend and summarily deport foreigners entering the country. By the 34th year of king Yongjo’s reign (1758) Christian practices such as observance of Sunday feasts, praying and fasting were becoming so prevalent in the provinces of Hwang-Hae and Kang-Won that many of the inhabitants had stopped observing the traditional ancestral rites. Evidently Catholic teachings and practices were being followed even before the baptism of Yi Seung-hun in Beijing in 1784.625 According to George Paik Lak-Geon,626 however, it was not until 1777 when king Cheongjo ascended the throne under the intellectual leadership of

622

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August von Hallerstein, born in Carniola in today’s Republic of Slavonia of Austrian parents. Joined the Society of Jesus and travelled to China in 1738, where he remained till his death (Carl Sommervogel, S.J. Bibliotèque de la Compagnie de Jesus IV, 49). He also travelled close to the Korean border with the intention of drawing a more accurate map of China that would include Korea as well. He did not hold the Koreans in high esteem, referring to them as people “unaware or unwilling to provide any information about Japan, a country that can be seen from Pusan, and keep questions and never answer questions asked to them, and they seem to be very suspicious of everything” (Henri Bernad, S.J., Lettres et memoires, 34). Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 11. Anton Gogeisl or Goggeisl was born on 30 October 1701 in Siegenburg, Bavaria in the diocese of Ratisbona. Entered the Society of Jesus on 13 September 1720. Departed for China in 1737, arriving in Goa on 5 August 1738. He travelled on to Beijing, arriving there on 1 March 1739. A mathematician by training, he was appointed vice president of the Tribunal of Mathematicians and 6th class mandarin in 1746. Died in Beijing on 12 October 1771 (Joseph Dehergne, S.J., Répertoire de Jésuits de Chine de 1558 à 1800, Paris: Letouzey & Ané, 1973, 110). G. Ruiz de Medina, Orígenes, 97. Ibid. Also see Joseph Kim Chang-mun & John Chung Jae-sun, Catholic Korea yesterday and today (1784–1884), Seoul: St Joseph, 1984, 12. George Paik Lak-Geon, The history of Protestant missions in Korea 1832–1910, Seoul: Yeonsei University Press, 1987, 31ff. Also see Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, CXLV.

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one of the disciples of the famous scholar Yi Ik (1681–1763)627 named Kweon Cheol-shin (? – 1801) that Ricci’s book had a major impact. Between 1777 and 1779 Kweon Cheol-shin organised several conferences in a secluded place called Cheon Jin-am.628 They were attended by a closely knit group of young intellectuals of the Namin629 party, then long out of power. The conferences lasted ten days, discussing issues like heaven, the world, human nature, suffering and the immortality of the soul. After ten days of intensive study, intellectual sharing and prayer the group arrived at the conclusion that the Christian faith gave answers630 to the many questions neo-Confucian philosophy failed to solve. The group had already acquired a clear grasp of Christian and Western ideas through the books passed on to them from China, such as Matteo Ricci’s The true meaning of the Lord of heaven (Tianzhu Shiyi) and De amicitia, the Seven victories, also known as Seven virtues against seven vices, by Fr Diego de Pantoja, S.J. (1571–1618), De anima by Francesco Sambiasi, S.J. (1582–1649), liturgical books such as Missale Romanum (edited 1670),631 Breviarium Romanum (edited 1674)632 and Rituale Romanum (edited 1675),633 as well as the first part 627 One of Yi Ik’s most insightful observations was to name political factionalism as the likely cause of political decline during the last period of the Yi dynasty. Another evil he identified was the government examination system, because annually the number of graduates far exceeded the number of available government positions. The brilliant yet unemployed yangban scholars this system produced were the most volatile elements in the factional struggles, which were in turn fundamentally motivated by the widespread economic predicament of unemployed members of the yangban class. Aware of this problem, Yi Ik wrote in his Trivial essays of Seongho: “Suppose there are ten hungry men thrown together for a meal for one. Before they finished it, a quarrel or two are likely to occur among them. They might accuse one another of impolite words or impudent attitudes. People, not familiar with the situation, might think of quarrels as caused by mismanaged word or manners, but the real cause lies in the [availability of] meals… If the ten men were given ten meals, would they not eat their meals in a happier atmosphere?” (quoted in Joe J. Wanne, Traditional Korea, 321). 628 For a more detailed analysis of the gatherings at Cheon Jin-Am, see Kim Ok Hy, Le role de Yi Pyok, 91. 629 See chapter 3, notes 92 and 93. 630 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 19–20 speaks about the ‘true way’ (Ceong Do in Korean). Cheong means right and true, and do is written with the same Chinese character as tao (do in Korean, meaning ‘way’) when referring to Catholic Christian doctrine: “C’est vraiment une magnifique doctrine, leur dit-il, c’est la voie véritable. Le grand Dieu du ciel a pietié des millions d’hommes de notre pays et il veut que nous les fassions participer aux bienfaits de la Rédemption du Monde. C’est l’ordre de Dieu. Nous ne pouvons pas être sourds à son appel. Il faut répandre la religion et évangeliser tout le monde.” 631 Missale Romanum is the book of the altar containing the fixed litany of the daily mass, together with the prayers and commemorations of feast days of the saints to be celebrated during the year. It also includes abridged versions of the lives of the saints. 632 Breviarium Romanum contains the 150 psalms prayed by priests and members of religious congregations. It is still in use today. 633 Rituale Romanum contains the order of the seven sacraments.


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of St Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologiae, which were all translated into Chinese by Fr Louis Buglio (1606–1682)634 and others. At the time when these gatherings took place Korea was going through one of its many periods of fierce national rivalries and quarrels between different schools and the yangban rulers and their respective supporters. The majority of progressive intellectuals belonged to the Namin (southern) faction. Some famous scholars among them, such as Jeong Yak-jong, Yi Seung-hun and Yi Byeok, became interested in the new religion, and not only expounded it according to their own interpretation but, more remarkably, adapted their lifestyles to the new doctrines.635 3.2.3 From reason to faith: mission with the pen With important Christian literature in their hands the group had access to many of the Catholic religion’s doctrinal truths, guidelines to the sacraments and liturgical celebrations, extracts of catechetical explanations and, of course, extensive passages from the Bible – if not the whole book, then at least the main readings for the liturgical celebrations of the whole year as well as those used as prayers in the Breviarium Romanum. There is no doubt that the written material gave the group a broad, sound knowledge of Christian doctrine and life. To substantiate this I list the major works published by Korean Christians from 1779 to 1801. The intellectual literary output reflects their titanic effort to understand Christian teaching, the way they organised their communities and how they celebrated their faith. Also reflected in these writings is their anxiety to act properly (particularly regarding the ordination of lay people) and testimonies to their endurance in times of trial and martyrdom. Here is the list of literary works and letters during the period 1779–1801 that Charles Dallet includes in his Histoire de l’église

634 Kim Ung-Tai Joseph, L’experience religieuse Coréenne dans la première annonce du message Chretien (1779–1839), 47–50 lists 73 scholarly titles, which had come into the hands of Korean intellectuals. For other works by Buglio, see Streit, R.-Dindinger, J., Biblioteca missionum Freiburg/Wien: Herder, vol. 4; Aachen 1928, vol. 5, Aachen 1929, vol. 6; Freiburg 1931). For more detailed information on the books introduced into Korea prior to 1784, also see Bae Hyón-sook, “Books on Catholicism introduced from China in the 17th and 18th centuries”, in Research Journal of Korean History, 3, August 1981, published in Seoul by the Research Institute of Korean Catholic History, 1981, 3–45, 84–88. Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of modern Korea, 87 affirms the presence of Christian books even at the royal palace: “Korean Catholicism came, or was brought in the closing decades of the 18th century. It was through books, without missionaries residing in the country. The Jesuit missionaries had produced some 380 titles in Chinese by the end of the seventeenth century. Of those, 120 titles had been circulated among libraries of Korean scholars. Even in the royal library as of 1795, ‘several ten cases’ of books on Western Learning [Seo Hak] were collected.” 635 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. 1, 14.

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Coréenne. This literary production is what I call ‘mission with the pen’. Following in the steps of Matteo Ricci, Korean Christian intellectuals conducted a social debate on paper. ●

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1779: Jeong Yak-yong , Kweon Sang-hak & Yi Chong-ok (in collaboration): Ship-kye Myeong-Ka (The Ten Commandments hymn).636 1779: Yi Byeok Cheon Ju Kongkyeong Ka (Hymn of adoration of God).637 1785: Yi Byeok: Seongkyo Yoji (Essence of the sacred doctrine).638 1786: (Spring). M. Hyeon-chen. Letter to Mr. Yi Seung-hun.639 1789 (towards the end of the year): Yi Seung-hun Letter to French missionaries of the North Church of Beijing.640 1790: (Seventh Sunday after Pentecost). Yi Seung-hun: Second letter to French missionaries of the North Church of Beijing.641 1791: (October). Yun Ji-cheong Paul. Interrogatories and journals from prison.642 1791: (October). Kweon Sang-yeon James: Interrogatories and journals from prison.643 1793: Weon Si-jang Peter: A Christian’s testimony.644 1794: Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine: Chungkyo Yoji (Essentials of the Lord’s teaching).645

636 Text attached to Manchon Yugo or The memories of the articles of Manchon, author unknown, but most probably by Jeong Yak-yong in 1835. Written in Chinese characters. 637 Text attached to Manchon Yugo or The memories of the articles of Manchon. 638 Ibid. 639 Choi Suk-Woo , L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 90–99. This letter and the next two were originally written in Chinese. The originals have long been lost and the ones cited here are in their French translation. 640 Ibid. 641 Ibid. 642 Kept in French translation in Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 37–56. 643 Ibid. 644 Ibid., 63–66. 645 For the critical edition of this catechism, see Héctor Díaz, M.G., A Korean theology, Fribourg: St Paul, 1986. The original text was written in Korean and is published in Díaz’s book. Díaz explains the process of the compilation of this important document, which was to serve both an apologetic purpose (refuting possible arguments from neo-Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist scholars) and a doctrinal aspect (a guideline for Christians to the essentials of their faith and doctrine). It is interesting to note similarities between this text and its methodology, and that of Matteo Ricci’s Tianzu Shiyi: The true meaning of the Lord of heaven. See chapter 2, 2.2.4.

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1799: (April). Park Chwi-duk Laurence: Letter from prison and a Christian’s testimony.646 1799: Yi Bo-hyeon Francis: A Christian’s testimony.647 1801: (April) Yi Chung-bae Martin: A Christian’s testimony.648 1801: Cho Yong-sam , Peter: A Christian’s testimony.649 1801: (October 29). Hwang Sa-yeong Alexandre: Letter on silk to 650 Mgr. de Gauvea, bishop of Beijing. 1801: (December 27) Yi Sun-I , Lutgarda (1781–1801): Letters from prison: to my mother.651 1801: (December 27) Yi Sun-i, Lutgarda (1781–1801): Letters from prison: to my two sisters.652

In the context of mission with the pen, two essays are generally attributed to Yi Byeok. The first is called Hymn of adoration to God, a short poem in which the author makes a profound profession of faith in God, and the second a catechetical work entitled The essence of the sacred doctrine,653 a longer commentary on some biblical notions such as the existence of God, the creation, the humanity of Cain and Abel, the immortality of the soul, Jesus Christ the saviour, Jesus’ family, his environment and actions, his mission and teachings, the end of his life, judgment, and so on.654 There was a great deal of intellectual 646 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 93–99. 647 Ibid., 103–107. 648 Ibid., 130–135. 649 Ibid. 650 The letter offers bibliographic notes on the martyrdom of fifteen leaders of Christian communities, as well as the royal edict proscribing the Christian religion and a request for foreign intervention to stop the massacre. The Chinese text was published by the Research Centre of the History of the Catholic Church of Korea in Seoul in 1966. Yun Chae-yong published the Korean translation (Seoul: Editorial Chongmunsa, 1981), and the French version by Mgr G. Mutel, bishop of Mopsueste and apostolic vicar of Seoul (printed in Hong Kong by the Missions Etrangères de Paris Press, 1925). Park Do-sik, Étude sur la missive d’Alexandre Hwang Sa-yeong (unpublished doctoral thesis, Paris University VII, 1976). 651 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol I, 175–197. 652 Ibid. 653 Both titles are my translation. A critical edition of Yi Byeok’s works is not yet available, although there are several doctoral dissertations on them, most notably Joseph Kim UngTai, L’experience religieuse Coréenne dans la première annonce du message Chretien (1779–1839) and Kim Ok Hy, Le role de Yi Pyok dans l’introduction et la difussion du Catholicisme en Corée, Paris: Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1977. 654 Yi Byeok, Seongkyo Yoji (The essence of the sacred doctrine) was based on the catechesis of Matteo Ricci, “The true discourse about God” or De Deo verax disputatio (Choenju Sileui), written between 1593 and 1596. For more details in this regard, see Sangbae Jean Ri, Confucius et Jésus Christ. La premiere théologie chrétienne en Corée d’aprés l’oeuvre de Yi-Piek, lettré Confuciéen, 1754–1786, Paris: Beauchesne, 1979, 39–88.

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and literary exchange among the parties involved, both Confucian and Christian. In the process of practising mission with the pen Yi Byeok, conforming to the formal Confucian master-disciple relationship of the time, lectured and preached, captivating some of the most brilliant minds of the time such as Yi Ka-hwan (1742–1801), Yi Seung-hun, the well-known Jeong655 brothers and the Kwon brothers. Yi Byeok made a great effort to relate the philosophy and teachings of Confucius – principles on which they had all had been brought up, intellectually and culturally – to everyday reality, and to give them new and fuller import from the perspective of Jesus Christ’s teachings, belief in a renewed new universe, the existence of one God, a new meaning of life, and the Holy Mother who was “beautiful as an orchid or lotus flower”.656 The core values of Confucius’s teaching – particularly those regarding morality, filial piety and respect for elders, and sincerity – had to be maintained but refocused in the new perspective of Jesus Christ; God made man and the saviour of the world had to be emphasised.657 Faith in God was to form the basis of new human relationships. Yi Byeok presented Christianity as the true religion, and in it he discovered the kenotic aspect of his mission as self-abasement. In his Cheon Ju Kongkyeong Ka or Hymn of adoration of God (1779, written in Korean)658 Yi Byeok clearly articulates the firm convictions that led the first Christians to make the transition from reason to faith: As parents in the family As the king in the kingdom As the soul in the body So is the Lord in Heaven Respect your parents Serve the king Keep the fundamental laws But the adoration of the Lord is first.659

This text already highlights one of the cardinal issues the first Christians were about to address: in the process of applying the important Confucian principle of hyodo (filial piety), how to combine the legacy of Confucian culture with the new faith and obedience to the Lord of heaven.

655 Of the three Cheong brothers, two are particularly relevant to the present work. One is Cheong Yak-Jong Augustine, author of the cathechism. The younger brother was Jeong Yakyong John Baptiste, a powerful, prolific writer inspiring Christians with ideas on social and political reform. 656 Yi Byeok: Seongkyo Yoji or The essence of the sacred doctrine, 5. 657 Ri Sangbae Jean, Confucius et Jésus Christ, 26. 658 As opposed to Seongkyo Yoji (The essence of the sacred doctrine) (1785), which was written in Chinese. 659 Ri Sangbae Jean, Confucius et Jésus Christ, 39–40. Ri Sangbae translated the original Korean text into French.


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Because there is as yet no critical edition of Yi Byeok’s two works, I outline Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine’s Chungkyo Yoji (Essentials of the Lord’s teaching), written in 1794, a text of outstanding importance, of which a critical study is available.660 Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine’s document indicates the primary reasons why Korean intellectuals made the transition from reason to faith.661 What kind of Christian community do we see emerging from these writings? How did they understand faith and commitment to the Lord Jesus? What gospel demands did they consider relevant to their personal lives and their communities? What kind of society, based on their faith, did they wish to bring about? The next section seeks to answer these questions. To this end we first take a brief look at Jeong Yak-jong, Augustine’s Chungkyo Yoji (Essentials of the Lord’s teaching), which was to become the most basic handbook not only for the first generation Christians martyred in 1801 – including Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine himself – but for future generations of Christians as well. Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine begins his Chungkyo Yoji (Essentials of the Lord’s teaching)662 by affirming that the “human663 mind by itself knows the existence of the Lord” (chapter I, volume I), whom he calls Ju in Korean.664 The contents of the first volume indicate that for Cheong Augustine – and with him for the Christians who widely read his catechism and Koreans generally who could read the Korean alphabet (Han-Geul) – God’s lordship entailed creation: the Lord God created the myriad665 creatures (II), the firmament (IV) and finally human beings (V). There is only one Lord (VI), who exists by his own nature, because the Lord exists by himself (VII), and thus has no beginning and no end (VIII). It is interesting to note that Jeong Augustine did not make a frontal attack on other conceptions of the deity current in society, such as the shamanist, Confucian and Taoist views.666 To answer possible arguments from shamanism, Confucianism and Taoism, Jeong Augustine describes the Lord as

660 M. Diaz & G.A. Hector, A Korean theology. Chu-Gyo Yo-Ji: essentials of the Lord’s teaching by Cheong Yak-jong Augustine (1760–1801), Immense, Switzerland: St Paul, 1986. 661 I quote from his catechesis, because Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine, unlike Yi Byeok, wrote his work in Korean rather than Chinese so that common people could read it. Héctor Díaz offers the whole text of Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine’s Chu-Gyo Yo-Ji of the Lord’s teaching in Korean, with an English translation. I follow his translation, but take the freedom to adjust it when I think there is a more accurate English rendering. I also thank Fr Diaz for having added verse numbers to the otherwise very long chapters. 662 After the relevant term I insert the corresponding Roman number of the paragraph. The English text is my translation from the original Korean. 663 Fr Diaz uses the word ‘man’. I prefer ‘human’, because the Korean term ‘ingan’ or ‘saram’ includes both male and female persons. 664 Literally the expression refers to a master, chief or owner of something. 665 The Korean word used in the text is ‘man-mul’ (lit. ‘ten thousand things’). 666 Héctor Díaz, A Korean theology: Chu-Gyo Yo-Ji of the Lord’s teaching, 186.

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“being extremely spiritual and having no shape” (IX), affirms his ubiquity (X), absolute power (XI) and perfect knowledge (XII), and links the concept of the Lord with aesthetics (XIII). Jeong Augustine introduces the trinitarian Lord to his compatriots (XIV) and affirms that the blue heaven itself is not the Lord (XV)667 and that earth and heaven by themselves are not able to bring into existence the myriad things (XVI). The [neo-Confucian] concept of Sang Je (Ultimate Reality) is false (XVII): the Lord is the creator of Buddha and his compassion or Bodhisattva. (XVIII). When criticising Buddhism Jeong Augustine clearly follows Matteo Ricci.668 To regard the Buddha as the only venerable man in the world is foolish (XIX) and his scriptures are false and untrustworthy (XX). To believe in previous lives and future incarnations is false doctrine (XXI), and to accept the Buddhist interpretation of nirvana is ignorance (XXII), because the Buddhist scriptures are contradictory (XXIII). The Buddhist concept of karma, the law of cause and effect, is equally absurd (XXIV), and no one can become a Buddha and enlightened (XXV), because the ways of Buddha and those of the Lord are not alike (XXVI). To serve evil spirits is a grave sin (XXVII) and the Lord will reward his faithful and punish the unfaithful (XXVIII) after death (XXIX), when the soul will receive joy or punishment (XXX). Humans are tested during their lifetime (XXXI) and once the final decision is made there is no turning back, because heaven and hell are opposites (XXXII). The second volume of Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine’s Chungkyo Yoji (Essentials of the Lord’s teaching) sketches the fundamental Christian teachings: beginning with the stories of the creation (XXXIII), the fall and original sin (XXXIV), Jeong Augustine affirms in the catechism that the world was originally good, but with the fall a sin was committed against the Lord, which made it difficult for human beings to attain goodness. To rescue them from this predicament the Lord descended and became man, and by dying on the cross redeemed humankind from sin (XXXV). Jesus died on the cross, rose again and spent forty days with his followers before he ascended to heaven (XXXVI), leaving a footprint in the place of the ascension (XXXVII). What follows, based on the foregoing Christian teachings and principles, is what I consider to be the kernel of the kenotic mission conducted by lay people in Korea between 1784 and 1801. It is kenotic because this missionary method was first of all a lifestyle: scholars and rich people gave up their status to make themselves equal to all, thus elevating the human status of the poorest and most lowly in society. They did so in dialogue with their culture, with no impositions or disqualifying arguments against their ideological or political adversaries, 667 Confucius understood heaven to entail the presence of the Supreme Being, which he refers to as heaven. See Rha Young-bok, An analysis of the terms used for God in Korea in the context of indigenization, Boston: Boston School of Theology Press, 1977, 64–66. 668 Matteo Ricci, S. J. Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of heaven, 143, n. 129–130.


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but enduring opposition, persecution and even martyrdom. Following the model of Christ, they offered a way for the benefit of the poor, which they understood as having political implications for the advancement of social transformation. 3.2.4 Mission based on personal religious encounter The missionary thrust that started in Korea was the result of a religious experience that transformed the lives of the actors. This group of progressive intellectuals, to which Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine belonged, had a leader and underwent a growth process. Yi Byeok669 was a prominent member of the group. According to Dallet, Yi Byeok was born in the small village of Kwang-Ju near Seoul in 1754. Over several generations his family laboriously ascended the social scale by way of military service. Both his grandfather and his father came to occupy important positions in the military hierarchy. His family expected Byeok to continue the family tradition. From childhood he was taught horse-riding and physical fitness. Dallet quotes some of Byeok’s friends describing him as an extraordinarily tall person of Herculean physique.670 Yi Byeok, however, had other aspirations. He belonged to the Namin group, whose members read Yi-ik’s writings, especially those about the activities of missionaries in China, and Ricci’s works. Yi Byeok’s personal religious experience was transmitted by family members and friends and had a profound missionary impact. 3.2.4.1 From friendship to faith Yi Byeok personally knew the renowned Yi Ik671 and became the mentor of Kweon Cheol-shin, Yi Ka-hwan, Yi Ki-yang and Yi Seung-hun. They all participated in the 1779 series of research conferences that Kweon Cheol-shin organised to explore the truth according to the Chinese classics, and the truth about human nature.

669 Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 17–38. Choi Suk-Woo largely follows Dallet’s historical notes. However, the Korean professor is often more exact in his interpretation of historical data, since he has first-hand knowledge of Chinese that Dallet lacked. References to Yi Byeok and to the history of the Korean Catholic Church generally were collected in the two-volume book by Charles Dallet, who based his Histoire de l’église de Corée on the documents and testimonies of fellow members of the Paris Foreign Missionaries (MEP). These French missionaries were active in Korea from 1836. Dallet’s history was published in Paris in 1874 and has become an obligatory reference for any scholar of the history of Christianity in Korea. The book has major shortcomings, such as the fact that Dallet never went to Korea himself and relied on sources he got from the Paris Foreign Missionaries. He also tends to leap from historical facts to personal interpretations of historical events. 670 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, 14. 671 Yi Ik, see introduction to chapter 3, note 8.

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Yi Seung-hun, the first of the group to receive baptism in Beijing, also attended these gatherings. When Yi Byeok learned that his young friend Yi Seung-hun (1756–1801),672 one of the group and son of the chief ambassador, was to accompany the diplomatic delegation to Beijing in the winter of 1783, he asked Seung-hun to stay there for a longer period, deepen his knowledge of Christian doctrine and receive baptism. This is how Dallet describes the incident in which Yi Byeok sent Yi Seung-hun off to Beijing: Ton voyage à Pékin est une occasion admirable que le Ciel nous fournit pour connaître la vraie doctrine. Cette doctrine des vrais saints, ainsi que la vraie manière de servir l’Empereur Suprême, créateur de toutes choses, est au plus haut degré chez les Européens. Sans cette doctrine nous ne pouvons rien. Sans elle on ne peut régler son coeur et son caractère. Sans elle, la création du Ciel et de la terre, les lois des pôles, le cours et les révolutions régulières des astres, la distinctions des bons et des mauvais esprits, l’origine et la fin de ce monde, l’union de l’âme et du corps, la raison du bien et du mal, l’incarnation du Fils de Dieu pour la rémission des péchés, la récompense des bons dans le ciel et la punition des méchants dans l’enfer, tout cela nous reste inconnu.673

At the time Yi Seung-hun had not read any of the books Yi Byeok was mentioning, but was told to ask for the creed and to be baptised.674 Yi Seung-hun left for Beijing late in 1783 and stayed there for over three months. Yi Byeok had already informed him that “a Pékin, il y a l’église catholique, et, à l’église, des lettrés européens qui prêchent la religion. Va les voir, demande-leur un exemplaire du Credo et prie-les de te donner le baptême. Alors les missionnaires ne manqueront pas de t’aimer beaucoup et tu obtiendras d’eux quantité d’objects merveilleux et intéressants; certainement tu ne reviendras pas à vide.”675 While in the imperial capital he was taught the catechism676 and was baptised by Fr

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674 675 676

Yi Seung-hun was born in 1756 at Pyeong Chang, Kang-Won province. Gifted with a formidable memory, by the age of twenty he had already made a name for himself in the literary world. Passing the first state examination at 24, he gained the favour of king Jeong-jo and was appointed district magistrate of Pyeong Taek. For more on Yi Sung-hun, see Chu ChaeYong, Katholik-sa eui Ong-wi or Safeguard of Catholic history, Seoul: Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea Press, 1970. Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 17–18. This quotation shows that Yi Byeok already knew Sin-king Cheon-kyo (Exact explanation of the Symbol apostolorum), vol. I by Fr de Prémare (1666–1735). See Louis Pfister, Notice bibliographiques et biographiques sur les Jesuites de l’ancienne mission de Chine (1552–1773), Shanghai: Impr. de la Mission Catholique, 1932–1934. This event is mentioned in Hwang Sa-yong Alexandre, Letter on silk to Mgr. de Gauvea, bishop of Beijing, 1801, 12. Ibid. Charles Henry Robinson, D.D., History of Christian missions, Edinburgh: Clark, 1915, 248.


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Grammont.677 Most probably, as Medina attests, a profound friendship developed between the two.678 Yi Seung-hun received the Christian name of Peter. As Dallet remarks, it was hoped that he would become the new Peter, the foundation stone for the church of Korea.679 Fr Grammont urged Yi Seung-hun to think carefully about becoming a Christian and its consequences before jumping into such a venture. Among other things Grammont warned Seung-hun about the Christian prohibition of polygamy and asked him what he would do if the king were to forbid him to practise his religion. Seung-hun answered that he was ready to suffer torture and even death rather than recant on the true religion.680 This turned out to be a prophetic warning, both for Yi Seung-hun personally and for Christians in general, since for nearly a hundred years Christians were banned from the country by royal decree. There is another testimony from Beijing recording this historical event. This is how Fr Jean-Matthew de Ventavon, writing to his friends in Europe in 1784, tells the story: You will undoubtedly be gratified to learn of the conversion of a person whom God has perhaps raised up to spread the light of the Gospel, in a kingdom where it is not known that any missionary has ever penetrated: it is Korea, a peninsula located to the east of China. The king of this country sends ambassadors to the emperor of China every year, for he regards himself as his vassal. He loses nothing by it, for if he goes to considerable expense in sending him presents, the emperor gives him as much or more in return. These Korean ambassadors came, they and their suit, at the end of last year, to visit our church; we gave them some religious books. The son of one of these nobles, aged twenty-seven and a very good scholar, read them eagerly; he saw the truth in them, and grace working in his heart, he resolved to embrace the faith as soon as he had received instruction. Before admitting him to Holy Baptism, we asked him many questions, all of which he answered satisfactorily. […] Finally, before his departure to return to Korea, with the consent of his father, he was admitted to Baptism, which Louis de Grammont administered to him, giving him the name of Peter. His surname is Yi. He is said to be related to the royal family. He declared that on his return he wished to retire from public life, with his family, and devote himself entirely to his salvation. He promised to send us his news every year. The ambassadors also promised to propose to the king that he should summon

677 Jean Joseph de Grammont (1736–1812?), a French Jesuit, was already a priest in 1765. He was a mathematician and musician at the imperial court. Pope Clement XIV abolished the Society of Jesus on 21 July 1773. After the pontifical decree Jesuit priests had to either join existing religious congregations or submit themselves to local bishops as diocesan priests. Grammont, like many of his confreres, opted for the second alternative. Thirty-one years after the suppression of the Jesuit order Grammont obtained permission to renew his vows within the order and to be incorporated into a group of Jesuit provinces that still remained legally active, since the Russian czarina Catherine II never accepted or implemented the papal decree in her territories, considering it to be foreign interference. Pope Pius VII reestablished the Jesuit order on 7 August 1814. See G. Ruiz de Medina, Orígenes, 97. Also see Sommervogel III 1665; Dehergne, 117. 678 G. Ruiz de Medina, Orígenes, 98. 679 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 17–18. 680 Ibid., 18.

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Europeans to his lands. From Beijing to the capital of Korea is a journey of about three months. For the rest we can communicate with the Koreans only by writing. Their writing and that of the Chinese is the same, as regards its appearance and meaning, but their pronunciation is quite different. The Koreans put in writing what they want to say: on seeing the characters, we understand the meaning, and they also understand the meaning of what we write in reply.681

The young Yi Seung-hun was determined to keep to the faith he had received and, if necessary, die for it. Obviously Seung-hun did not realise at this point the difficult circumstances and challenges he would have to face and that he would in fact die a violent death because of it. 3.2.4.2 Proclamation and evangelisation Yi returned to his country in the spring of 1784, baptised and enriched with new insight and a deeper knowledge of the faith, and bringing with him a large supply of books, crucifixes, religious images and sundry presents which he was given in Beijing. His most pressing errand was to seek out Yi Byeok and share the treasures with him. Yi Byeok took all these materials in his hands and entered a secluded place so as to be able to concentrate on reading and digesting the material. Dallet makes the following interesting observation:682 Il avait maintenant, entre les mains des preuves plus nombreuses de la vérité de la religion, des réfutations plus complètes des cultures superstitieuses de la Chine et de la Corée, des explications des sept sacraments, des catéchismes, le commentaire des évangiles, la vie des saints pour chaque jour, et des livres de prières. Avec cela, il pouvait voir à peu près ce qu’est la religion, dans son ensemble et dans ses détails.683

As Yi Byeok waded through the literature from China that was handed to him he truly believed he had found the truth. His faith in Christ grew stronger, and with it the desire to make known to his compatriots this gift God had given him.684 He felt it was God’s command that he should preach the new religion and began at once to announce the good news, first to his middle-class friends, distinguished by their intellectual knowledge and good character, and then to

681 From a letter by J. M. Ventavon, 25 November 1784, kept in Nouvelles Lettres Édificantes des Missions de la Chine et des Indes Orientales, vol. II, Paris, 1818; vol. V, 1820, 120. Quoted by Choi Suk-woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 19. The English translation appears in Kim Chang-mun Joseph & John Chung Jae-sun, Catholic Korea yesterday and today (1784–1884), 15. Fr J. M. Ventavon, S.J. was born in Cap, France in 1737. Joined the Society of Jesus in 1754 and arrived in China in 1766. Died in Beijing on 27 May 1787. L. Pfister, Notice, 913–919. 682 Remember that Dallet wrote his history of the church in Korea during the last quarter of the 19th century and that his missionary emotions and interpretations often obscure the historical facts he is presenting. 683 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 19. 684 Ibid., 24, 39–41.


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lower-class people as well. He soon won over a number of them with his lively and penetrating exposition of doctrine. He also expounded the new learning to the nobles with some success, and without relaxing his efforts became an itinerant preacher.685 3.2.5 For Korean Christians God is the agent of mission The success of Yi Byeok’s itinerant mission caused some concern among people in his own school. Among them An Jeong-bok (1712–1791) was dismayed at the growth of interest in the new doctrine and wrote a treatise against it in 1785, A conversation on Catholicism,686 which became a model for later official attacks on the new religion. For most neo-Confucian officials Christian doctrines were no better than those of superstitious Buddhists: “Christianity adores the Lord of Heaven, and this Lord of Heaven is the Emperor on High of Confucianism. Christians adore their Lord in the same way Buddhists do. Christians invite their followers to do good and avoid evil as they are confronted with the final reward of heaven or punishment in hell. They teach about a leader called Jesus, a Western word that means ‘savior of the world.’ Although they pretend strongly to reject Buddhism, Christians fail to realise that they have fallen into the same religious trap.”687 Such criticism forced the Christians to defend their faith, using the pen, and at the same time assert themselves as a coherent group. 3.2.5.1 Giving reasons for their faith Two high-ranking government officials, Yi Ka-hwan and Yi Ki-yang, tried to bring their personal friend Yi Byeok back to the ‘true doctrine’, that is, the official line of the neo-Confucian persuasion.688 Dallet confirms that Yi Kahwan, minister of public works and head of the Namin faction, one of the greatest neo-Confucian scholars after Yi Ik, was determined to change Yi Byeok’s mind because “although the foreign doctrine apparently is not unreasonable, it is not the doctrine of the scholars. Because he seems to wish to change the 685 Ibid., 28. Also see L. Joly, Le Christianisme et l’Extrême-Orient. Vol. I. Missions Catholiques de l’Inde, de l’Indo-Chine, de la Chine, de la Corée, Paris: Lethielleux, 1907, 179. 686 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 236, 239. 687 Yi Ik, Manchon Yugo or Recollection of writings of Manchon, quoted in Park Chong-hong, “Face à la conception mondiale occidentale et la pensée du Confucianisme originel de Dasan”, in Le traité de l’histoire de la pansée Coréenne, Seoul: Hankuk Sasangsa Nongo, Seomundang, 1977, 405–429. 688 J. Ri Sangbae, Confucius et Jésus Christ, 28; D. Baker, “A Confucian confronts Catholicism, truth collides with morality in 18th century Korea”, in Korean Studies Forum 6, Winter-Spring 1979–1980, 6;. Young-Bae Song, “A philosophical analysis of M. Ricci’s Christianity in the Tianzhu Shiyi: espousing Confucianism and contradicting neo-Confucianism”, in an unedited article at Seoul National University’s Faculty of Asian Studies.

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world with it, I cannot remain idle. I will bring him back to the right way.”689 After a three-day debate it was Yi Ka-hwan who was ‘defeated’ and confessed in a prophetic manner, “this doctrine is splendid. It is true, but it will bring misfortune to its partisans.”690 After Yi Ka-hwan abandoned the debate, it was Yi Ki-yang’s turn to try and persuade Yi Byeok to change his views. “Yi Byeok’s clear and lucid exposition of the doctrine,” the Korean scholar recounted later, “always brought light and conviction; his arguments were as brilliant as the sun; they struck like a hurricane and they cut like a sword.”691 It was clear to both Yi Byeok and his group that the first disciples’ Confucian ideals and eagerness to return to the classics as a way of acquiring personal perfection and achieving political morality did not contradict the Christian doctrine of God and its cosmology.692 After these debates the group of scholars who sought the new religion as a way of life grew even bigger despite being branded unorthodox by mainline neo-Confucian thinkers. There were five brothers named Kweon who were so learned that they had a large following of disciples coming from all over the country to their respective houses at Kal-San in Yang Keun (today County Yang Pyeog), Kyeong Ki province. One of them, Kweon Cheol-shin – one of the organisers of the meetings at the Buddhist temple in 1777693 or 1779694 – was fifty years old and had devoted his life to the study of Confucian classics. After listening to Yi Byeok he hesitated to embrace the new religion, but was finally baptised and took the Christian name of Ambrose. The third brother, Kweon Ilsin was persuaded at once and converted to the new religion, firmly resolved to speed up the propagation of the gospel among his family and friends. In Yi Byeok’s eyes he was one of the great hopes for the further spread of the good news in Korea.

689 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 28–29. Yi Ka-hwan was also acquainted with some of the Christian books, which had been handed to him by Yi Byeok himself. Among these one was of particular significance, Seong Yen Koang Ik or Life of the saints. It was this symbiosis of reading and listening to Yi Byeok’s explanation of the gospel that brought Yi Ka-hwan to accept Christianity. 690 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 20. 691 Ibid., 26. 692 J. Ri Sangbae, Confucius et Jésus Christ, 29; Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 154. Kim Keon-sun, Josaphat, one of the first members of the Christian community and the one who helped Cheong Yak-jon Augustin write his catechism, also saw no contradiction between Confucianism and Christianity, as he confessed during questioning prior to his martyrdom. See Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 154. 693 According to Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 14. 694 According to Jeong Yak-yong’s account in his Works of Cheong Ya-yong Dasan. Although the dispute about these historical dates has not been settled, historians tend to take this as the more accurate date, since Dasan himself took part in those meetings.


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3.2.5.2 A growing community In September 1784 Yi Seung-hun baptised Yi Byeok, who took the Christian name of John Baptist,695 together with his friend and colleague Kweon Il-shin, who received the Christian name of Francis Xavier.696 Other leading members of the Nam-in party’s inner circle were also baptised. Another famous family was the Jeongs: the three brothers Jeong Yak-jon,697 Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine698 and Jeong Yak-yong John Baptist .699 On the same day a dozen people in all, men and women, were baptised and confirmed.700 County Yang Keun could justly be called the cradle of the Catholic Church of Korea in the late 18th century. Yi Tanwon, a disciple of Kweon Il-sin Francis Xavier, was baptised, taking the Christian name of Louis Gonzaga, and became an active missionary in yet another area not far from Seoul called Nae Po. After his martyrdom he was known as the Apostle of Nae Po. Other members of the educated upper class were converted to Christianity, such as Hong Nak-min Luke; Choi In-kil Mathias; Chi Hwang Sabas; Kim Beom-u Thomas; and Ryu Hang-keon Augustine. All these people preached their faith in spite of being regarded as Buddhists. The fact that most of the first Christians belonged to the upper classes helped the group to grow rapidly, although this boom was not to last. The group presented Christianity as a wonderful perspective and its doctrine of God and cosmology as not opposed to Confucianism, which attracted many intellectuals who were not happy with the official interpretations of neo-Confucian doctrines. 3.2.6 Celebrating faith and suffering Interest in the new movement soon spread to distant central and southern regions such as Chung-Cheong and Cholla provinces, where there were groups of Confucian scholars eager for higher knowledge and a committed, ethical lifestyle. This is how the gospel spread throughout the Korean peninsula. Baptism was the only sacrament they knew about during this first year of missionary activity after Yi Seung-hun’s return from Beijing, and it became the gateway to the fascinating new movement. Yi Seung-hun had brought back books on liturgical and devotional life. We know that during the period 1784–1791 books

695 Because he was regarded as the initiator of Christianity in Korea. 696 In honour of the great Basque missionary Francis Xavier. 697 Received baptism, although we do not have clear information about his Christian name. Soon afterwards he was banished to Heuk-San island during the first persecution. While in exile he produced a work on ichthyology entitled Cha-san-eo-po (Cha-san’s book on fish). 698 During the 1801 persecution he was martyred, together with his entire family. He was married to Yu So-sa, Cecilia, mother of Cheong Ho-sang Paul, canonised martyr (canonised on 6 May 1984). 699 His pen name was Dasan (Tea Mountain), author of more than 400 books. 700 See Ri, Sangbae Jean, Confucius et Jésus Christ, 28.

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explaining important aspects of Christian life were introduced: devotional handbooks such as “Daily exercise of prayers”,701 litanies of the passion of Jesus, meditation, rosary and daily mass.702 These examples give some idea of the spiritual knowledge the first Christians possessed and show that they knew how to administer other sacraments according to the rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. The Sunday mass was the most important celebration. Christians began holding frequent gatherings, particularly on Sundays, when they celebrated the liturgy of the word. The liturgy was very simple. “They used to place a tent to cover them, and then place in the middle a crucifix on a table, and all genuflected, listened to the admirable works the Lord had done, prayed and meditated and then encouraged each other to be faithful and departed to their assigned places.”703 As more and more people became interested in receiving baptism and attending the liturgical service, the initial Buddhist temple in the forest of Cheon Jin- Am was too remote for them to continue congregating there, so they moved to Yi Byeok’s residence at Su Pyo Kyo on the outskirts of Seoul. Outside the walls resided the poorest of the poor and social outcasts, who were not allowed to enter the city except to render specific services. According to the custom preserved by the yangban mixing of classes was strictly forbidden and harshly punished. By spring 1785 the group had become too numerous to gather at Yi Byeok’s home. Because inter-class relations were forbidden, they designed a new strategy for their meetings inside the city of Seoul. They became the guests of Kim Beom-u Thomas, who belonged to the class of official government translators and also ran a clinic dispensing Chinese herbal medicine at Myeong Dong,704 an affluent quarter of Seoul. He, too, had been baptised and was eager to help the incipient community expand and consolidate. Since disease knows no class distinctions, Christians, on the pretext of visiting the doctor where noblemen and paupers, merchants and yangban could meet together, took advantage of this situation to spread the good news. They also began to hold their Sunday services

Seonkyo Ilgwa or Daily holy prayers, written in 1602 in Chinese with the title of Cheng Kiao Je K’o, translation by P. Nicolas Longobardi’s Exercitium quotidianum precum. This was a handbook, widely disseminated among missions in China. A translation of the book into Han-Geul is mentioned in Hanguk Kathollik Taesajeon or The great dictionary of Korea, Research Centre of the History of the Catholic Church of Korea in Seoul, 1984, 1131. 702 Handbooks on meditation (Muksang), holy rosary (mukju shingong) and the mass (Misa Jueui or the celebration of the holy sacrifice) have not been found, but annals of the 1801 persecutions mention them. 703 Ri, Sangbae Jean, Confucius et Jésus Christ, 28. 704 On this site the large Seong-Mo Catholic general hospital was built. The hospital operated till the end of the 1780s, when the medical facilities were transferred to a newly built hospital on the outskirts of the city. Myeong-Dong also houses the impressive neo-Gothic Catholic cathedral built at the end of 19th century.

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at the clinic. The liturgical service proceeded very much the way a Confucian scholar taught his pupils: the presiding member sat on the floor, his face covered so that pupils would identify with the message, not the preacher. In front of him stood a table with religious symbols, normally a crucifix. They sang, prayed and listened to the explanations of the liturgical readings and the lives of the saints given by the presiding member. Clearly they had accurate knowledge of the way liturgies should be conducted. These gatherings at the clinic were not to last. Kim Hoa-jin, responsible for order and justice in Seoul, received complaints about strange activities at Kim’s clinic. According to the complainants the clinic was being used for other than strictly medical purposes. Not only was the mixing of classes counter to accepted norms, but other sinister things were also happening. Hoa-jin, believing that the premises were being used as a gambling den, decided to raid it on a Sunday. Upon discovering that the group was having a religious meeting their sacred objects were confiscated and Kim Thomas was taken to prison; people higher up the social scale were freed. This is how Dallet describes this particularly sad event: I Py-ók put a veil on his head, which covered him to his forehead. He sat down in the first place near the wall, and I Súng-hun, Chóng Yak-jón, Chóng Yak-jóng (Augustine), Yak-yong, and Kwón Il-sin with his son took a seat, carrying the book next to him. I Py-ók preached and instructed like the Confucian masters instructed their disciples. They fixed the date of their usual meetings, as they had done for several months. Many noble people as well as people of the middle class went there. The agents of the Ministry of Justice thought that this house was used to practise prohibited games. They entered in order to stop these activities. But the behavior of the assistants was so suspect that they arrested them and put them in jail. In addition to this, they also took the images of Jesus, the books, and other things, and brought them to the Ministry. They released the noble members giving them strict orders not to meet any more. They kept Kim Póm-u in prison after discovering with unbelief the identity of the guilty ones.705

As for Kim Beom-u, he was badly beaten, tortured and kept in prison for two years; he was then sent into internal exile at Tanyang in Chung Cheong province where he died from injuries sustained while in prison. He is considered

705 See Héctor Díaz, A Korean theology. Chu-Gyo Yo-Ji: Essentials of the Lord’s teaching by Chóng Yak-jong Augustine, 32. (I have retained the romanisation Héctor Díaz uses in his book. The text is widely quoted by many other authors.) Kim Beom-u’s Christian name was Thomas and he belonged to a lower class. Concerning the status of the Ministry of Justice, it was one of the six main tribunals or sovereign courts whose power extended, at least theoretically, over the whole country. Each tribunal had a second order mandarin as president and two third order mandarins as assistants. The other tribunals were: Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of War, Ministry of Public Works. For more detailed information, see C. Osgood, The Koreans and their culture, New York: Ronald Press, 1951, 135; You Hong-liel, Histoire de l’église Coréene, Seoul: Catholic Publishing Co., 1962, 90; Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 26.

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the first martyr on Korean soil. After this raid the political leadership feared that more Christian groups might mushroom around the country; the king was asked to publish an official decree against Catholics, urging family members and friends to publicly accuse those suspected of dabbling in this new religious nonsense.706 The government hoped that the case of Kim Beom-u would be a deterrent to anyone with leanings towards the new heretical707 religion. A number of Seongkyunkwan (official Confucian Royal School) students published a virulent circular against Christians, urging their relatives and friends to break off relations with them. These documents, which in fact became the draft of a royal decree against Christians, were published in March 1785 and became the first known public documents to attack Christianity. The minister of justice at the time demanded that some members of the Christian group, including Kweon Il-sin and Kim Hwa-jin, be punished, as they regularly attended Kim Beom-u’s house gatherings. Several prominent families used entreaties and threats to try to get relatives who had already embraced the faith to apostasise. These families had no choice: their public reputation and property were at stake. The government had various methods of punishing the nobility, and one of them was the use of family and clan meetings. Families and clans were asked to meet in the county or city where the family was believed to have originated.708 Families that did not hold clan meetings were sent circular letters, which were normally used to report news and gather opinions, rather like modern local newspapers. These letters encouraged people to abandon the new religion, inform the proper authorities where Christian gatherings were taking place and criticise the new religion. The yangban even created a new administrative office in charge of preparing and sending letters to all families and clans.709 706 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 27. 707 The mainline neo-Confucian thinkers always considered the new religion unorthodox and heretical, hence adherence to its teaching was punishable by law. 708 Koreans, when exchanging greetings among themselves, introduce themselves saying, “I am Mr Kim from Phohang”, “I am Mr Yi from Pyeong Taek”, “ I am Mr. Park from Yang Keun” and so on in succession. Each family name is tied to a place, from which the family tree has spread its roots all over Korea. Each member can trace his or her family name to the founding family and place. Thus all Yi or Park or Kim or Han members of a clan are attached to and protective of any other member of their family branch or clan. Family bonds and loyalties are sacred and must be respected always. For centuries government has forbidden marriage between couples with the same family name and belonging to the same clan (even though today the two persons may have been born in different places and have no direct blood relationship). 709 The contents of the letters and the names of the people responsible for conveying the letters are preserved in the books written by the early Catholics and they clearly show how serious the situation was, especially for families living in Seoul and its surrounding counties.


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At the clan meeting of Pyeong-Chang Yi’s family Yi Seung-hun’s younger brother Yi Chi-hun expressed strong animosity to his brother’s religion and exerted pressure on Peter to make him change his mind. His father, Yi Dongok, was brought before the elders of the clan and was shamed in front of them. Yi Seung-hun, terrified by the report about the sufferings of Kim Beom-u, harassed by incessant domestic persecution, fearing that he himself could lose his hard-won job as a magistrate, that his family would disgraced and all their property confiscated, was among those who decided to publicly renounce the faith. He burnt his religious books and wrote an open letter apologising for having been a Christian. Similar situations arose in the families of the other prominent members of the Christian group, such as the Kweon family of An Dong and the Jeong family, whose youngest members became Christians. They had to go to visit their respective elders and apologise for having caused trouble to their families and clans. Particularly painful and violent was the meeting of the Yi clan of Kyeong Ju. Yi Byeok, a member of this clan who was present during the raid that led to Kim Beom-u’s arrest, torture and exile, was released soon after the raid because of his social status. During the family gathering his father, Yi Bu-man, demanded that his son abandon the Christian way at once and did everything he could to make his son apostasies. Yi Byeok’s brothers had passed the civil service examination and held high positions in the government’s military department. Some members of the clan complained that because of Yi Byeok’s teaching and itinerant lifestyle they were ashamed to appear publicly at official receptions in Seoul, since it was believed that Yi Byeok was spreading foreign teachings. They insisted that anyone who preached against the practice of ancestral rites, allowed women to sit at the same table as men and abolished the social distinction between commoners and nobility710 should be expelled from the family immediately. Yi Bu-man as head of the family and responsible for the behaviour of his children was severely reprimanded for allowing his son Yi Byeok to go his own way without challenging him even once, and the elders of the clan threatened that unless this nonsense stopped they would strike Yi Bu-man’s family from the clan register.711 The family knew that Yi Seung-hun and Jeong Yak-yong had apologised to their elders for causing trouble to their families and expected Yi Byeok to do the same, namely, apologise and abandon his faith. In the presence of his father and the elders of his clan Yi Byeok refused to renounce his faith. His father then 710 These were the three socio-politically revolutionary practices that Christianity introduced in the medieval-style system of Korea as understood by Yi Byeok and the first group of scholarChristians. 711 Striking a family from a clan register, and in this case a clan with a long aristocratic tradition, meant total economic ruin of the family and destitution.

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threatened to hang himself and actually tied a rope around his neck. Thereupon the whole family became enraged against Yi Byeok and asked him what kind of religion would let him stand by idly while his father hanged himself and who could credit such a religion. Yi Byeok was placed in an acute dilemma: he could not let Christianity be seen as a ruthless religion that undermined filial piety and children’s obligations towards their parents. On the other hand the Lord on high had given new meaning to his actions. His mother and his brothers pleaded with Yi Byeok: “Even now, with your father about to hang himself, will you still go out to teach the doctrine?” “No, I will not go out,” was his reply. Much has been written about this episode. Did Yi Byeok apostatise? According to Ri Sang-bae, the historian Dallet presents it as proof of Yi Byeok’s apostasy.712 Ri,713 on the other hand, interprets Yi Byeok’s refusal to ‘go out to teach the doctrine’ from the perspective of filial piety: children would do anything in their power to save their parents. Yi Byeok pledged not to go around preaching, but did not give up his faith. Ri insists that there are no direct references to apostasy by either Yi Byeok himself or Jeong Yak-yong, who wrote extensively on the first Christians and the historical circumstances surrounding them. Yi Byeok’s promise to stop preaching was enough to make his father loosen the noose around his neck. He immediately sent his other sons to the elders of the clan, begging them not to strike their family from the clan register because of Yi Byeok’s promise. The fact is that the elders were not persuaded by Yi Byeok’s confession. They knew how firm Yi Byeok’s714 character was and demanded that he personally attend the elders’ meetings. They wanted a formal apology, as well as an unambiguous statement in which he not only promised to stop his itinerant preaching, but also recanted on his ideas and his religion. Yi Byeok refused to do so. His father, furious that the three-month clan meeting did not have the desired outcome and he again risked being struck from the clan register, placed his son under house arrest and firmly locked the door to his room from outside. No one would see Yi Byeok until he recanted. Yi Byeok met these demands by composing an essay on the worship of God.715 He was not allowed to receive even his best-known disciples. Whenever he tried to leave the room he was prevented by the guards his father had hired. Both his 712 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 28–29. 713 Ri, Sangbae Jean, Confucius et Jésus Christ, 30. 714 Yi Byeok was in fact a nickname, which means stubborn. His real name was Yi Taek-jo . 715 Essence of the sacred doctrine, which Jean Sangbae Ri attributes to Yi Byeok (also quoted in Memories of Man Cheon , written by Cheong Yak-yong in the first quarter of the 19th century during his exile in Da-San [Tea Mountain]), is a 28 page poetic composition in which he expresses his faith and his biblical knowledge. A critical study of the work still has to be made, but Ri suggests that it could have been written while Yi Byeok was kept in custody in his father’s house for refusing to abandon his faith in 1785.


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parents now undertook to hang themselves if he ever returned to preaching. This was enough for Yi Byeok. After three months of seclusion, he took a bath one day, put on new white clothes716 and devoted himself to constant prayer and meditation in his confinement without eating, changing his clothes or sleeping. Fifteen days later, utterly exhausted, he died at midnight on 14 June 1785. This is the story of Yi Byeok, who died at the age of only thirty-three, deepened his doctrinal knowledge to religion and faith, and was the missionary who launched the adventure of a Christian community that has been growing ever since.717 Below is the eulogy to Yi Byeok, written by his friend and disciple Jeong Yak-yong during the latter’s exile after the general persecution of 1801: A crane from fairyland Came down to us common men. It showed us the bearing of an immortal being, Its feathers and wings were white as snow. Cocks and ducks were jealous of its graceful features, The crane’s cry was strong enough to make the Nine Heavens tremble. Its clear song stood out among the troubles of life, In autumn, when the time to return came, suddenly it flew away, What use is it to moan its leaving?718

What happened to Yi Byeok illustrates the formidable pressure under which the Christian faith made its way into Korean society. In the case of upper-class

716 This was a traditional Korean way for children to express their outrage and protest when their parents unfairly caused them pain. 717 English translation in Kim Chang-mun Joseph & Chung Jae-sun John, Catholic Korea, yesterday and today (1784–1884), Seoul: St Joseph, 1984, 312–322. 718 English translation in Kim Chang-mun Joseph & Chung Jae-sun John, Catholic Korea, yesterday and today, 322. English translation from Jeong Yak-yong’s Commentary on the Classics, written in 1828 by Kim Chang-mun Joseph & Chung Jae-sun John. The poem was written in Chinese by Jeong Yak-yong on a stone slab now standing at the entrance of the graveyard that holds the remains of Yi Byeok and some of his friends in Cheon Ji Nam, Kyong Ki province, 50 kilometres southeast of Seoul. Jeong Yak-yong John Baptist was a very good friend of Yi Peyok. Jeong Yak-yong declared Yi Byeok to be the most knowledgable person on both the Confucian classics and Christianity, and writes full of gratitude to a man who had given him superb intellectual and spiritual guidance. In his Complete works of Dasan Jeong Yak-yong writes about Yi Peyok: “During the summer of 1784 (I was 23 years old) the King gave the National Higher Education Centre seventy questions on the “unchangeable beings” and asked the students to forward answers. My friend Yi Byeok, already deceased, was student at that moment in Su Pyo Kyo (he was 31 years old). I asked him how he would answer the questions. He gladly accepted my questions, and we set ourselves to answer all the questions. A few days later, the King had already received the answers, and both the officials responsible for the royal archives, Kim Sang-jip and the chief of protocol Hong In-ho, assured me that the King was most pleased with the answers that I had forwarded” (quoted in Ri, Sangbae Jean, Confucius et Jésus Christ, 1979, 27; my translation).

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Christians playing important roles, social and family forces demanded that they abandon the way and return to neo-Confucian orthodoxy: the very existence of the family and their social and economic status were jeopardised. Yi Byeok decided to take his own life. Others, such as Yi Seung-hun, publicly denied their faith on a number of occasions. In any event, Yi Byeok’s decision does not diminish his status as the leader of the Christian movement and a missionary among his own people. Yi Byeok, I believe, should be considered a confessor of the faith and a martyr, in spite of his suicide, precisely for confessing his faith and refusing either to apostatise or leave his clan in misery. 3.2.7 Mission by laity: ecclesial structures for survival The religious journey of the group of scholars and their followers who were making the transition from neo-Confucianism to Christianity soon felt the need for some sort of structural organisation. The first bout of persecution showed them how vulnerable they were if they were not structured and did not have a single, clearly articulated doctrine to defend against their adversaries. They were saddened by the defection of some of the members of the initial gatherings,719 but consoled by the firm stand of the majority during the first persecution in the aftermath of Kim Beom-u’s martyrdom. Yi Tan-won continued his activities around Nae-Po county and Kweon Il-sin decided to retreat to his hometown. Together with his friend Cho Justin, he set out for a mountain area far from family and friends and remained there for a time, observing strict silence and fasting. The first political onslaught together with the persecution of Kim Thomas caused the activities of the Seoul community (which by now had spread to many of the provinces) to gather momentum, particularly the celebration of the sacraments. The first persecution, which was concentrated in the province of Seoul, evoked deep evangelical commitment and forced the community to think beyond the sacrament of baptism. They were aware of the need to organise themselves and foster their relationship with the Catholic community and church authorities in Beijing. In the process the Christians took some decisions which today may seem to have exceeded their rights as lay ministers, but were taken in good faith for the sake of survival. By 1787 the furious clamour against the Christians seemed to have subsided, prompting Yi Seung-hun to return to the group. Its leaders – Yi Seunghun Peter, Kweon Il-sin Francis Xavier, and the three Jeong brothers Yak-jon, Yak-jong, and Yak-yong – discussed ways and means of developing and organising their group. On the basis of these discussions the leadership of the community was established. Yi Seung-hun had appointed about ten priests and two

719 Yi Seung-hun was forced by his family and clan to abandon all religious activities.


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bishops720 after Yi Byeok’s death, although the date of the appointment is unclear: it is thought to have taken place around the spring of 1786.721 They proceeded to carry out the duties of their ministry, preaching the gospel and administering the sacraments. This they did in good faith and their work had substantial results until it was stopped in 1789; after reading some of the books brought from Beijing in more detail some of the scholars appointed to the priesthood felt they had exceeded their authority.722 Because the community of Seoul was not sure about the validity of what they were doing, they sent a letter to the French Missionaries in Beijing in 1787; in the letter Yi Seung-hun bitterly regretted what he had done and asked forgiveness. He also informed the missionaries of the community’s progress, what they were doing and how, and asked for priests.723

3.2.7.1 In communion with the Catholic Church in Beijing Correspondence was awkward, for it had always been difficult to travel to China and the persecution of Christians compounded the problem. The letter was written on silk and covered with cotton,724 and it was decided that Yun

720 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 30; Charles Henry Robinson, D.D., History of Christian missions, 248. Also see Yi Seung-hun’s letter to the missionaries in Beijing at the end of 1789, in which he describes how he had administered sacraments and appointed priests for the diverse Christian communities spread across the country. This and several other letters by him are collected in Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, “Appendices”, 90. However, the offices of priest and bishop did not connote sacramental ordination with imposition of hands. During Yi Sung Hun’s three months or in Beijing he probably never witnessed a presbyterial ordination, let alone an episcopal one, although he is likely to have seen how the mass was celebrated. The bishop of Beijing at that time was Mgr Alexander de Gauvea, who was born at Evora, Portugal in 1751. The bishop had made his profession as a member of the Franciscan Third Order in Lisbon in 1773. Trained as a mathematician, he became a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Lisbon. He was elected bishop of Beijing on 22 July 1782, confirmed in that position on 15 December of the same year and was consecrated as bishop in Goa on 2 February 1783. He moved to Macao, where he re-opened a seminary for missionaries in 1784. He was installed in the see of Beijing on 18 January 1785, a year after Yi Sung Hun was baptised. Contrary to some generally held views, there is no possibility that Yi Sung Hun could ever have met the bishop or witnessed an ordination ceremony while in Beijing. Bishop Gauvea died on 6 July 1808. See Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 20 n. 6. 721 Ri, Sangbae Jean, Confucius et Jésus Christ, 31. 722 It is to this situation that the M. Hyeon-chen’s Letter to Mr. Yi Seung-hun in the spring of 1786 refers. 723 This is the Letter to French missionaries of the North Church of Beijing written by Yi Seung-hun. The English translation may be found in Kim Chang-mun Joseph & Chung Jaesun John, Catholic Korea, 26–28. 724 Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 28.

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Yu-il,725 Paul, a disciple of Kweon Francis Xavier baptised by Yi Seung-hun, would personally take it to Beijing. Disguised as a merchant in the entourage of the annual embassy to China, Yun Paul arrived in the imperial capital in November 1789. Upon his arrival he went to see the French Missionaries of the North Church and asked to see Fr Grammont. Fr Grammont had already departed for Canton and it was Fr Raux726 who welcomed Yun Paul. Fr Raux recounts that Yun Paul arrived at his office in January 1790, carrying Yi Seung-hun’s letter sewn into his clothes. This letter also contained a number of questions regarding religion. Fr Raux describes him as a young man of about 29 with an angelic face. On 9 February Fr Raux baptised him Yun Yu-il sub conditione,727 giving him the Christian name of Paul.728 Yun Paul also visited bishop Gauvea. This unexpected visit from a country with no priests but a growing Christian community was one of the bishop’s most memorable experiences. He wrote: “L’arrivée de Paul Youn, . à laquelle on ne s’attendait pas, fut le plus agréable des spectacles pour l’Eglise de Pékin. Elle fut remplie de la joie la plus vive, en apprenant la propagation admirable de la religion chrétienne, dans un royaume où jamais aucun missionnaire n’était entré, où jamais le nom de Jésus-Christ n’avait été prêché.”729 The bishop sent a pastoral letter, in which he encouraged the nascent Korean Christian community to thank the Lord for the gift of faith, and urged them to preserve their faith and do their utmost to secure the passage of a missionary priest to Korea, or at least send some young men with the qualities and disposition to become priests to Beijing. The bishop promised to take responsibility

725 Youn Yu-il was a young man who, once he became a Catholic, decided with his wife to live in celibacy. 726 Fr Nicolas-Joseph Raux, C.M. was born on 14 April 1754 at Ohain, France. Entered seminary on 18 July 1771 and took vows in the Congregation of St Lazarus on 19 July 1773. He was ordained priest on 15 March 1777 and after teaching at the seminary, left for the Far East, where Propaganda Fide appointed him superior of the French Missions of China on 18 December 1784. He arrived in Beijing on 29 April 1785 and died there on 16 November 1801 (J. van den Brant, Les Lazaristes in Chine 1697–1935, Pei-Phing: Notes Biographiques, 1936). 727 This is an expression used in the Roman Catholic Church’s ritual practice when conferring a sacrament that can only be received once in a lifetime, the condition being that the previously administered sacrament may have been invalid. 728 Testimony by Br Panzi, S.J. who became godfather of Yun Yu Il Paul, of whom Panzi painted a portrait showing a young man reading religious books. Br Panzi was born in Italy c. 1733 and arrived in China in 1771. A gifted artist, he was hired to do artwork at the imperial palace in Beijing. After the suppression of the Jesuit order he joined the North Church of Beijing and died c. 1812 (L. Pfister, Notices, vol. 488, 185–188). 729 Letter of bishop Alexander de Gauvea dated 15 August 1797. It is interesting that the bishop does not mention the pastoral activity of the Spanish Jesuit Fr Gregorio Céspedes, who travelled with the Japanese invaders in 1592.


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for their instruction in his seminary.730 Being aware that the main subject of Yi Seung-hun’s letter and Yun Paul’s subsequent journey to Beijing was the issue of the Korean hierarchy, it is amazing that bishop Gauvea did not explicitly address it. He merely makes passing mention of it: Comme je voyais par les questiones proposées dans leur lettre, qu’il y avait parmi eux de l’ignorance, même sur des points essentiels, je leur enseignai en abrégé, ce qu’ils devaient croire et pratiquer pour être vraiment chrétiens et mériter d’être regardés comme tels.731

Before Yun Paul returned to Korea in the spring of 1790 he received the sacraments of the eucharist and confirmation, and brought with him the bishop’s reply, also written on silk. The French missionaries, too, answered the questions raised by the Korean Christians and sewed their letter into his clothes. The Christian community in Seoul received Yun Paul joyously. Particularly happy was Yi Seung-hun, since he was not rebuked by bishop Gauvea because of the hierarchy issue.732 There was no doubt now that a hierarchy could not be established without ordained ministers. Those who had been authorised to celebrate the eucharist and hear confessions stopped doing so at once. Yun Yu-il Paul went to Beijing again in the autumn of 1790. With him he took a second letter from Yi Seung-hun,733 in which he thanked the bishop for his previous letter, which had arrived in Korea in the spring of the same year, and again asked that a priest be sent to Korea as soon as possible. This time the practice of ancestral rites was among the questions submitted by the Korean Christians. In his reply, which Yun Yu-il Paul brought back in the spring of 1791, the bishop urged the community to begin preparations to receive a Chinese priest, and at the same time declared the performance of ancestral rites heretical and prohibited by the pope. The Christian community was thrilled by the news of the arrival of a priest, but many Korean Catholics were much disturbed and embarrassed by the ban on ancestor worship, because these rites, with an ancient tradition extending over many generations as pillars of both the Korean social structure and moral values, had been faithfully observed. Failure to participate and criticism of them were considered treasonable and blasphemous and incurred severe penalties by the Ministry of Rites.734 For the adversaries of the Christian movement the 730 Letter of bishop Alexander de Gauvea, 6 October 1790. 731 Letter of bishop Alexander de Gauvea, 15 August 1797. There is no reprimand because Yi Seung-hun had created a hierarchy, just paternal acknowledgment that they had acted in ignorance. 732 Yi Seung-hun’s gratitude is manifest in the Second letter to French missionaries at the North Church of Beijing, written on the seventh Sunday after Pentecost. 733 1790 (seventh Sunday after Pentecost), Yi Seung-hun: Second letter to French missionaries at the North Church of Beijing. 734 The Ministry of Rites, one of the six government departments, oversaw the proper and diligent celebration of both state and familial rituals. Among other responsibilities, it had to determine the nature, manner and period of mourning for deceased members of the royal family.

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prohibition of participation in ancestral rites became the rational motive – or the excuse – they were looking for on which to base their opposition to and persecution of Christians. Dallet, following bishop Gauvea’s letter, thought the real motive for persecuting Christians was strictly religious, namely their refusal to practise ancestral rites.735 Prof. Choi Andreas,736 however, is of the opinion that the real motives for the persecutions were political and economic, as we shall see below. No doubt religious, political and economic motives all played a role in the preparation and conduct of the persecutions. This new turn in the controversy over ancestral rites caused some leaders of the Christian community to refrain from practising them. Among them, Yi Seung-hun again became a waverer and apostatised a second time.

3.3 Mission and religious and cultural dialogue The missionary approach of the Christians was to enter into religious dialogue with the culture of the time and rationally and credibly introduce the novelty of the Christian message. Like Matteo Ricci in China during the late 16th and early 17th century, Korean Christians delved into their own culture to find the necessary intellectual and cultural idiom to convey to the people what they had come to believe. Mission as kenosis implied dialogue with culture, an effort to incarnate religion within it, as explained in the contours of missionary praxis in chapter 1. Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine was a disciple of Yi Byeok and was influenced by his interpretation of Christian doctrine. Both Jeong Yak-jong’s Chu-Gyo Yo-Ji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching and Yi Byeok’s Cheon Ju Kongkyeong Ka or Hymn of adoration of God737 were written in the Korean alphabet, Han-Geul, hence intended for a readership of Christians and the population at large, whereas Seongkyo Yoji or The essence of the sacred doctrine by Yi Byeok was written in Chinese for scholars, hence had little influence among ordinary people, most of whom could not read Chinese characters. In the latter work Yi Byeok presented Christian doctrine along the lines of the classic Confucian texts. The Chinese Catholic priest, Fr James Zhou Wen-mo, who guided the doctrinal development of the scholars from December 1794 until 1801, when he was martyred, does not seem to have approved of Yi Byeok’s catechism and endorsed that

735 Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 38. Letter from Mgr Alexander de Gauvea, 15 August 1797. 736 Ibid., 40. 737 Text attached to Manchon Yugo or The memories of the articles of Manchon.


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of Jeong Yak-jong instead.738 Jeong Yak-jong’s purpose in writing his catechism was to provide an “Exposition de la religion à l’usage des païens”739 and, like Ricci in China, he wanted to communicate to all Koreans the good news about the existence of a personal God outside the human mind – in contrast to the Confucian concept of heaven – who is Lord and has handed down his doctrine to humans.740 For this reason he wrote in Han-Geul. The next section on mission as religious and cultural dialogue is divided into doctrinal and moral issues. I include the dialogue – the normal approach of any missionary praxis – that these issues provoked with neo-Confucian orthodoxy. 3.3.1 Doctrinal issues 3.3.1.1 The presiding Lord: a novel understanding741 Before discussing the issue of the name Augustine chose to translate ‘God’ a preliminary observation is called for. The Jesuit books that entered Korea were all written in Chinese characters. It took many years for Koreans to realise that they understood the characters used by the Jesuits differently from the Chinese.742 W. Biernatzki explains: “Chinese characters do not express ideas in a formal, direct, scientific or philosophical way, as is usual in the West, but are rather ‘pointers’ or signs, which indicate ‘a component in the nature of things which only immediate experience and continued contemplation can convey’.”743 This means that concepts need to be visualised, which is why the Korean language uses symbols, metaphors and parables to approach the same truth from different angles. Consequently Jeong Yak-jong’s reading of the Chinese characters used by the Jesuits in their books would have been different from the meaning the Jesuits intended to convey. Keum Chang-thae writes: “Both Confucianism and Christianity have in common a belief in an ultimate and transcendent reality that produces and controls everything, including the cosmos and humanity, however Christianity differs 738 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 118. 739 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, Vol. II, 504. 740 Chapters XXXIII to XLIII, vol. II of Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine’s Chungkyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching are devoted to doctrine. 741 For further study of this short exposition, see Kim Sunghae, “Han Kuk Jeon Thong Sasang wa Cheon Ju Kyo” or “Korean traditional thought and the Catholic Church”, in Han Kuk Katholic Mun Hwa Yeon Ku Weon Non Mun Jip, Je 1 Jip, 1995, 365–427; Kim Ung-Tai, Joseph, L’experience religieuse Coréenne, 72–159; Kim Ok Hy, Le role de Yi Pyok, 157–202; Jean Sangbae Ri, Confucius et Jésus Christ, 89–120. 742 Bernard Henri, Le Père Matthieu Ricci et la société Chinoise de son temps (1552–1610), 2 vols, Tientsin: Hautes Studes, 1937, 192. For more about the Chinese way of thinking, see A. Watts, Tao: the Water Course Way, Bungay, Suffolk: Pelican & Chaucer Press, 1979, 23ff. 743 William. E. Biernatzki, Jin Chang-im, Min A. K.: Korean Catholicism in the 70’s. A Christian community comes of age, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1975, 129.

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in that it presents God as a creator and personal, incarnated in Jesus and speaks to the personal individual conscience.”744 Several names had been given to this ultimate reality in Korean, including Ju ( Lord), Sang Je ( Ruler in Heaven), Cheon ( Heaven, in Korean), Wangcheon (Ruler of the heavenly kingdom), Myeong (Commandment), Taeju ( Supreme ultimate), Do (Tao, way) and li (principle). In traditional Korean religious thought there were several concepts of God that constantly emerged in shamanic rituals and myths. Yi Un-bong745 studied the ancient Koreans, who believed in three basic divinities: heaven, earth and humans. Heaven was regarded as a provident father, earth as a fertile mother, and from the symbiotic relationship between the two came the ancestors. When Christianity began searching for a Chinese character that would cover the meaning of the Latin Deus, there was some hesitation about using only Cheon Ju746 (Matteo Ricci began using Tienzhu).747 To Confucian scholars the name Sang Je (Lord on high) was most meaningful. Yi Ik affirmed that Cheon Ju was undeniably Sang Je748 and Shin Hu-dam claimed that the two terms had something in common and refer to the presiding heaven and earth and the production of all creation.749 What Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine did in his catechism Chukyo Yoji or The essence of the Lord’s teaching was to introduce the God name Cheon Ju750 (the Lord in heaven, also Han Nim) without assimilating it into the classic Confucian notion of God. He said that the existence of the Lord (chapter I) can be known and proved by reason, because he is the Lord (‘boss’, chief, owner, master).751 Jeong describes the Lord as a person (chapter II) and thus extrinsic to human beings and other creatures. He compares him to a carpenter who builds a house and manifests himself through his creative work: “But there is a person who

744 Keum Chang-thae, “The doctrinal disputes between Confucianism and Western thought in the late Chosun period”, in Collection of papers on the occasion of the 60th birthday of Fr Cheong Eui-chae, Seoul: Yuhak Keunbaenggyeon, 1984, 337–366. 745 Yi Un-Bong, La pansée religieuse de l’antiquité Coréene, Seoul: Hankuk Kodae Chongkyo Sasang, 1984, 9–10. 746 The transcription of these terms follow the Korean pronunciation. 747 After a long dispute among missionaries in China on which Chinese term to use when addressing the Lord of heaven, pope Clement XI settled the matter in 1715 by ordering that only Tienzhu should be used. 748 Yi Ik, Seongho Seonsaeng Cheonjip or Complete works of Seongho, vol. 55. 749 Shin Hu-dam, Byeokwipyeon, or Criticism on heterodoxy 1 in Seohak Pyeon: Cheon Ju Shil-eui ( Cheon Ju Shil-eui ), 81. 750 Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine, Chungkyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, I. 751 All these words had very concrete, often painful meanings for the majority of poor peasants in the country.


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planned and made plants, animals and people come into existence. The creator of all is called the Lord” for “nothing can come to exist spontaneously” (chapter III). Jeong Yak-jong does not assign a capacity for creation to the neoConfucian concept of Ultimate Reality or the Taoist interaction of yin and yang.752 In chapter IV Jeong describes God’s attributes: the Lord rules everything and he created human beings equal, men and women; the Lord is one true Lord and king (chapter V), has no beginning or end, is eternal (chapter VIII), has no shape (chapter IX) and is everywhere (chapter X), is omniscient (chapter XII), beautiful and good (chapter XIII) and exists in three persons but as one essence (chapter XIV). The problem of naming God – most importantly, what was meant by the name – was not easy to resolve, mainly because of the different understandings of the concept of God. Could the notion of Cheon (heaven) be reduced to a mere visual aspect of the firmament, or did it include a personal and relational aspect as well? Confucians had no difficulty assigning heaven a role in ruling earth through the mediation of the monarch. They were not ready to assign heaven the meaning Jeong Yak-jong and the Christians were giving it. They would never accept any authority that could overrule the king by granting personal conscience the capacity to interpret the will of heaven.753 The perennial question was how neo-Confucian orthodoxy and Christians understood the character and the role of the presiding Lord. Even though the question of God’s attributes and name was not resolved, the intellectual disputes show that there was a genuine effort to make Christianity intelligible to all. In the process Christians did not hesitate to use the God names prevalent in their own culture, but the Christian understanding of God was vastly different from what neo-Confucian orthodoxy was ready to accept. This was a truly constructive attempt at contextualisation (good found in their own culture) and inculturation (introducing

752 In his Sang Chaesang Seo or A letter to the prime minister Cheong Ha-sang affirms that for classic Confucian thinkers the presiding Lord always existed in the mind. He quotes expressions from them such as “make sacrifices to Sang Je” (Book of changes) and “If someone does wrong to heaven, there is no one else to pray” (Book of odes), but insists that the Christian Cheon Ju and the classic Confucian notion of Sang Je cannot be identified. Cheong Ha’sang Paul was the son of Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine (martyred in 1801) and Yu So-sa Cecilia (martyred in 1839). Cheong Paul was beheaded on 22 September 1839. Cheong was a member of an embassy entourage to Beijing, where he met bishop Pires and was baptised. He pledged to bring a Catholic priest to Korea and persisted until 1833, when he managed to bring Fr Pacificus Liu into the country, where he stayed as a guest in Cheong’s own house. Even Yi Byeok used the title of Cheon-Ju rather than Sang Je in his Seongkyo Yoji or Essence of the sacred teaching. 753 An Jeong-bok, Cheonhak Mundap or Questions and answers or the school of heaven (Catholicism), vol. 17, 14; Hong Cheong-ha, Shil-eui Cheong-eui or “True opinion, right opinion”, in Heo Sik (ed.), Taedong Cheong-ro, vol. 5.

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a new element, the gospel),754 if these commonly used modern terms are permissible. If naming God was problematic, describing God proved even more so. For adherents to the biblical tradition Genesis 1 narrates the supreme power of the presiding Lord, who created the whole universe as well as human beings. In his Chungkyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine stresses God’s creative power: The Lord in six days created the myriads [sic]: first he created the world. It was chaotic and without order. Then the Lord began ordering it, and in the first day he created the light. The second day the Lord divided the layers of heaven and chaotic earth … Finally the Lord created humans. What was the reason or intention for the Lord to create humans? For the Lord’s love for humans is like the parent’s love for their children. As the parents build first a home for their children and prepare the fields and furnish households, so is the Lord. He first created heavens to protect the humans, created the earth to sustain them, created the sun and moon to bring light, and then created all sort of cereals and fruits … the Lord then created humans.755

This world was originally good until humans sinned against God, and ever since human life has been arduous: the “good world became painful and the good humans became evil.”756 In ancient Chinese myths also have creator gods such as pangushi and tienhuangshi. In some cases they, too, are referred to as Cheon Ju (Lord of heaven). In the Confucian classics terms such as Cheon , Sang Je , Cheon Ju , li , do (Tao, ) and Taeju are used to refer to ultimate reality. Sang Je (high Being) presided over Cheon (heaven) or Tao (way) and this Confucian term seemed to emphasise not its creative role but its character as the logical ground of creation. Thus the meaning of Cheon Ju goes beyond sky (Cheon) and earth in the material sense. Even Shin Hu-dam accepted that Cheon Ju controls and rules heaven and earth, but rejected the Christian notion of creation as groundless.757 He saw the role of Sang Je as that of presiding over the whole cosmos only after heaven and earth were formed, just like after birth the mind controls the person’s body but it cannot make that body. In the dialogue between Augustine’s doctrinal position and Hong Cheong-ha’s reply, the latter refutes all the former’s arguments one by one. For Hong Cheong-ha Jeong Yak-jong’s first argument – “The Creator does not take material but changes nothing into being” (chapters II-V) (the Lord made the universe)758 – was a 754 755 756 757

758

See chapter 1, section 1.2.8.6. Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine, in Chungkyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, XXXIII. Ibid., XXXIV. Shin Hu-dam, Byeokwipyeon or Criticism on heterodoxy, vol.1 in Seohak Pyeon: Cheon Ju Shil-eui, 70. Also see A. C. Graham, Two Chinese philosophers, London: Lund Humphries, 1978, 31–38. The Lord does not create ‘by himself’ or ‘spontaneously’ in an eternal, unceasing interaction of opposite forces (yin and yang) that produces the universal order (A. Watts, Tao: the Water Course Way, 23) but the Lord willed so, he did because he wished to do so.


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contradiction in terms, since ‘change’ implies transforming one material into some other material.759 Jeong Yak-jong’s second argument in favour of creationism stresses, “When He desires to produce, immediately it is produced.” To this the Confucian scholar replied that the desire to create was only in the mind of the creator, but the universe was produced by itself, since mind cannot produce matter.760 The Confucian scholar further objected to the use of scriptures to prove something, since they were written by humans and no human has ever seen heaven or hell with her own eyes, so our ideas about them are limited. While the Christian creation theory emphasises the transcendence of the presiding Lord, Confucianism finds him in the concreteness of nature. Whereas Christianity sees humankind as one with nature before God, Confucianism sees humans as finding God in nature.761 This missionary dialogue between Christians and their neo-Confucian counterparts sought to give prevailing religious concepts a new and fuller meaning, one capable of transcending the moral values of their culture and inspiring a more radical morality based on the life of the historical Jesus, who loved even his enemies – a love that led him to give his life for his friends (chapter XXXV). 3.3.1.2 Personal God and incarnation What is it that inspires human beings to act morally? One of the most powerful principles Confucius taught his disciples was the need to harmonise faith in the transcendent with perfect moral obedience to heaven. ‘Commandment’ (Myeong) sums up the relationship between the transcending heaven and humans who try to make their moral behaviour conform to heaven. Myeong presupposes a ruler and a subject who obeys. Seen thus, there is no doubt that heaven has a personal dimension. The problem with this view, as neo-Confucians understood it, is that in their social relationships human beings need a mediator to show them what is the Myeong of heaven. If the king and social traditions take over this role, there is no place for personal consciousness and decision. There was no doubt in Jeong Yak-jong’s mind that the Lord named Jesus is the one who conformed his moral behaviour to the will of heaven and thus can become the ruler for humans: After the first parents sinned, all the world’s present and past humans had to suffer eternal punishment in hell. But because the Lord has an extremely kind heart and an utterly perfect virtue as a loving one, he says ‘let us forgive the sins of all humans’ … The Lord moved by

Heo Shik, Manmul Chinweon Chungkwi or Arguments on the origins of all things, in Taedong Cheong Ro, vol. 17, 1970, 30. 760 Ibid., 35. 761 Song Young-bae, “On the family resemblance”, unpublished conference paper, 17–18.

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extreme kindness and love came down to the earth in person, becoming a human, and atoned for our sins. The Lord’s plan to atone for human sins was told by the Lord to the first parents after their fall, and after that moment the Lord, generation after generation, sent many saints who spread the word of his coming to the earth and his plan to atone for our sins, and the Lord had all of this recorded in the Holy Scripture. The Lord’s birth at some time and place, his conduct and works were all meticulously recorded in the Holy Scripture. … In the time the Lord became human there was a woman [Yeo In, in Korean, a married woman] called Mary, who was extremely pure, and had an extremely pure conduct, and she alone was not stained by the original sin … and the Lord especially chose her to be his mother.762

The paragraph goes on to relate the story of Jesus’ life, his personal relationship with the poor and the sick, his compassion and forgiving heart for sinners, until he offers his life on the cross to atone for the sins of all human beings. It is because of his lifestyle that Jesus can become the Myeong (commandment) of heaven. How much of this new doctrine were the neo-Confucian scholars capable of grasping? True, many of them had read in their classical literature about offering sacrifices to heaven and of heaven blessing good and obedient people for establishing the foundations of human and social morality. Heaven guided humans through the concept of hyodo (filial piety), which in the final analysis made the king the source of morality. For Christianity, as expounded in Jeong Yak-jong’s work, the notion of a personal God is paramount. Missionaries in China emphasised God’s personhood by describing him as a subject capable of experiencing love, anger, creation and revelation, incarnation and salvation. This was bound to conflict with the views of Confucian scholars, especially neo-Confucians, who had all but put the king in the place of heaven. In Korea Yi Ik rejected the ideas of incarnation, revelation and miracles of Cheon Ju as absurd: They say that there were many who followed desire and few who followed the truth; so Cheon Ju had sympathy for them and came down to Israel to save us by being born of a virgin. His name is Jesus … It is good for them to reject Buddhism, but they do not realize that they have fallen into absurdity along with Buddhism.763 If Cheong Ju has such sympathy with man that he may appear as an apparition or give advice, how can he bear the pain of going all around the world where there are so many miserable people?764

For neo-Confucian thinkers765 heaven exists in every person, but to suggest that it can be incarnated in a specific form is irrational and self-contradictory.

762 Jeong Yak-jong Augustine, in his Chungkyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, XXXV. 763 Yi Ik, Pal Cheon Ju Sil-wei or Criticism on the true doctrine of the Lord of heaven, in Taedong Cheong Ro, vol. 55. 764 Yi Ik, Pal Cheon Ju Sil-wei or Criticism on the true doctrine of the Lord of heaven, in Taedong Cheong Ro, vol. 55. 765 Song, Young-bae, “A comparative study of the paradigms between Dasan’s philosophy and Matteo Ricci’s Tianzhu Shiyi”, In Korea Journal 41, 3, Autumn 2001, 57–99.


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Jeong-bok likewise maintained that to say that Sang Je (high Being) took human flesh and died was blasphemy.766 Shin Hu-dam put it incisively when he insisted that the miracles of the Christian faith involved a logical inconsistency. If Moses was a saint, he asked, then why did Cheon Ju (Lord of heaven) give him the Ten Commandments? If he was not a saint, then why did Cheon Ju give them only to him and not to others?767 In other words, if Cheon Ju is absolute, how can he have an individual will deviating from universality? Even if Jesus were God incarnate, his coming only to Judea was unfair. Also, Jesus had parents. How could it be said that Jesus was born by God’s power if he had parents?768 The dialogue between the two different worldviews seemed to be happening among deaf people. On the one hand Christianity considered that to speak of God as a person with emotions encourages people to have a personal relationship with God, whereas to Confucianism this was blasphemy and a negation of transcendence. Confucianism tended to interpret the relationship between heaven and humans in terms of universal, moral personhood, not an emotional personhood susceptible to arbitrary behaviour. It is a pity that scholars who had so much in common, such as the dream of a more efficient political system that would be beneficial to the poor, became enemies because the two schools of thought were not willing to understand each other and the novel conceptions that were emerging. They failed to reach consensus on the transcendence and immanence of the supreme Being. 3.3.1.3 Concept of soul Another disputed topic was the soul or the human spirit. Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine introduced the concept of soul in the context of eternal reward or punishment after death: The world’s humans die only once and the body decays and disappears [as classic Confucian teachings affirmed].769 However, after the human dies and the body decays, the soul does not die. An animal’s soul is born with its body, but a human’s soul is not born with its body. The Lord gives the soul when the human body is born and attaches to it a spiritual soul. Even if the body dies, the soul will not die. Also, as the spiritual soul has no shape it does not burn in fire, it is not hurt by the sword, it does not get ill. Then it has no way to die. A human’s soul is like the heavenly spirit above, and the body is like the animals below.770

766 An Jeong-bok, Sunamjip, in Taedong Cheong Ro, vol. 17. 767 Shin Hu-dam, Byeokwipyeon, , vol. 1. 768 Heo Shik, Manmul Chinweon Chungkwi, vol. 5. 769 My insertion. Confucian classics spoke about the soul living in heaven many years after death, but they never spoke about the soul living in hell. They did believe that each person would have the appropriate recompense, but without specifying what. (Henri Bernard, Le Père Matthiew Ricci et la société Chinoise de son temps (1552–1610), vol. 1, 335. 770 Jeong Yak-jong Augustine, in his Chungkyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, XXIX.

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Shin Hu-dam and An Jeong-bok were the first authors of the Shilhak School to actively criticise the Western values, on which some of their peers based the rationale for the transition from classic Confucianism to Christianity. Both Shin Hu-dam and An Jeong-bok’s first concern was to reject the view of the human soul presented by the Christian intellectuals. When reading how Western writers criticised neo-Confucian key concepts such as truth, virtue, knowledge, principle and God, Shin Hu-dam accepted that these terms could have different interpretations. This gave him an opportunity to explain the exact meaning of religious and moral terms to the Korean scholars by expounding the beliefs, values and assumptions of traditional Korean thought, which normally concurred with the Chinese interpretation of those terms. In an attempt to fathom Western religious principles Shin Hu-dam read three of the books his mentor, Yi Ik, passed on to him: Matteo Ricci’s The true meaning of the Lord of heaven (Tianzhu Shiyi), Julius Aleni’s World geography and Francis Sambiasi’s On the human soul. From Matteo Ricci’s book Shin Hu-dam learned some of Ricci’s presuppositions. From these it was clear to him that Ricci’s first difficulty was finding the right Chinese characters to express what he wanted to communicate. Thus for anima Ricci chose the Chinese character hon. Ricci argued that, unlike the soul possessed by animals,771 the human soul (hon) was immaterial. Human beings are not ruled by physical desires alone, because the immaterial mind (seated in the soul) is capable of overruling the desires of material flesh. Unlike animals, human beings are torn between choosing to do what is desirable and what is morally right, although not desirable. To Ricci this proved that human beings have two sides to their nature, one material, the other immaterial. In addition only humans are capable of grasping immaterial, abstract concepts.772 This Thomistic argument that the soul was the seat of human consciousness and that there was a divide between the material and the immaterial realm did not persuade Shin Hu-dam, who did not believe there were such things as immaterial entities. Everything that existed was made of ki (matter) and was

771 In his The true meaning of the Lord of heaven, 33 Ricci, following his scholastic indoctrination, explains: “In this world there are three kinds of souls. The lowest is called the life principle – the vegetative soul. This kind of soul supports vegetation in its growth, and when the vegetation withers the soul is also destroyed. The second class of soul is called the sentient soul. This soul is possessed by birds and beasts to be born, to develop and to grow up, and causes their ears and eyes to be able to hear and to see, their mouths and noses, to be able to taste and smell, and their limbs and bodies to be aware of things, though not to infer truth. When these creatures die their souls are destroyed along with them. The most superior of the souls is called the intellectual soul. This is the soul of man which includes [the powers of] the vegetative soul and the sentient soul. It enables people to grow to maturity; it causes people to be aware of things outside themselves, and it allows people to make inferences as to the nature of things and to distinguish between one principle and other.” 772 Matteo Ricci, S.J., The true meaning of the Lord of heaven (T’en-chu Shih-i), 151–157.


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therefore material. The Chinese character Ricci chose to express immateriality is rendered in Korean as mu-hyeong (without form), a term by which neoConfucians understood either the primal ki (before the material force had been directed by li [principle] into specific shapes and forms) or to li and other abstractions, which subsisted rather than existed and thus were not considered concrete entities. Applying this concept to Ricci’s understanding of the soul, Shin Hu-dam wrote: “Catholicism, because of its fundamental concern with heaven, hell, and the fate of the individual immortal soul, was no better than Buddhism – which the Western writings seem so harshly to criticize.”773 Shin Hu-dam could not accept the dualism of soul and body, the dichotomy of a heaven for godly people and a hell for ungodly people, because neo-Confucianism tended to link heaven and earth.774 In Shin Hu-dam’s view such dualism encouraged people to abandon socio-political responsibility for this world by positing the existence of another better world. For neo-Confucians the agent of consciousness was not the soul but the mind (rendered with the same Chinese character as ‘heart’). This Confucian understanding links mind and heart as inseparable sides of the same coin. By the same token neo-Confucian scholars were not happy with the Thomistic conception of substance as independent existence, since they saw the entire universe as one vast, interrelated organism. For Shin Hu-dam the hun (soul) “exists relying on substance, and when substance is extinct, hun returns to nothing”.775 To his mind the basic functions of hun are intelligence and will, hence its function would cease at death. Consequently he could not understand why Ricci and Sambiasi did not choose the Chinese character yeonghon (anima), which includes the two souls, hon (soul) and baek (spirit, ghost). In neo-Confucian thought the two elements are inseparable, the former representing yang and the latter yin, and yet they would never confuse the two. As neo-Confucians defined it, the hon was the yang spirit of expansion in the body, whereas the baek was the yin spirit of contraction. Shin Hu-dam objects: “[In the Jesuits’ books] there is not even the slightest mention of the signs of yin and yang, of contraction and expansion. Their anima has nothing in common with what we call hon. They obviously do not understand what makes a hon a hon.”776 In neo-Confucian thought the spirit and soul that Ricci described as

773 Donald Baker, On Western learning. http://www.mcel.pacificu.edu/aspac/papers/scholars/ baker/baker.html 2. 774 Young-Bae Song, “A philosophical analysis of M. Ricci’s Christianity in the Tianzhu Shiyi: espousing Confucianism and contradicting neo-Confucianism”, unedited article at Seoul National University’s Faculty of Asian Studies, 2003. 775 Shin Hu-dam, Seohakpyeon or Criticism of Western learning, vol. 1. 776 Ibid, vol. 3.

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immaterial differed from other material objects in density but not in kind. Thus the Confucian understanding of ki did not allow for a radical separation of material and immaterial beings. In the midst of this exchange Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine told his readers that all people, good or evil, are immortal, because the human soul is spiritual and thus immortal,777 and soul and body will live forever in heaven or hell.778 In the same chapter he affirms that eternity is the final state of all humans in their totality, because the soul is spiritual and does not die779 and the body, which together with its soul acquired merit or sinned, will join the soul in heaven or hell.780 This was Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine’s answer to Shin Hu-dam. 3.3.1.4 Heaven and hell Because Confucians denied the immortality of yeonghon, they might have denied the reality of heaven and hell as well. In fact An Jeong-bok said that he could agree with Ricci when he quoted from the Confucian classics to prove that Confucians also believed in them. However, he also wrote the following: They [Christians] say that hell exists, but I doubt it, because it is different from the will of a sage-king to establish a punishment system. He wishes to prevent crime in advance, because of his benevolence. Punishment in hell would give people leave to commit crimes here, and then to punish yeonghon after death. This would be nothing but deception, would it not? To read their books, punishment in hell is beyond comparison more painful than anything on earth; but how could a benevolent Sang Je become so completely merciless?781

In fact, reward and punishment in heaven and hell would justify injustice on earth, and how could this accord with the just nature of the Lord of heaven? Confucian scholars could not accept that faith determines who goes to heaven or to hell, for according to Christianity those who believe in Christ go to heaven, and thus even evil people would end up going to heaven if they were to believe in Christ. In contrast to this view the Confucian theory of fortune and misfortune makes ethical behaviour the norm, rather than belief: “They say that if one serves Jesus, one goes to heaven; if not, even a great sage will fall into hell. This bases the matter on mere private desire of Jesus. If Jesus is Sang Je, he will not follow a private desire.”782 In his catechism Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine responded to these questions by affirming that before giving reward or punishment, the Lord tests human beings in this world by asking them to do good works and avoid doing wrong.783 Human beings have been given the 777 778 779 780 781 782 783

Jeong yak-Jong, Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, XXXII, 1. Ibid., XXXII, 18–20. Ibid., XXVIII, 9. Ibid., XXVIII, 18ff. An Jeong-bok, Sunamjip, in Taedong Cheong Ro, vol. 6. Ibid. Jeong Yak-Jong, Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, XXX, 20.


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freedom to obey the Lord or not to, “because the Lord does not constrain or force anybody”.784 Humans should not fear the Lord’s arbitrariness, because before the Lord all are equal and will be judged according to their merits. Augustine freed common people from unfounded fears and hopes, and assured them that their poverty was not a sign of their sin and that riches were not a sign of virtue,785 but each person’s merits would be judged and rewarded by a just and fair Lord, not a capricious one. 3.3.2 Social and moral issues For Confucius the perfect human is the one who manifests Jen (humanity)786 and for Christians a saint is one who is “perfect in concordance with his own nature and with the principle of universal order, and transforms others by his example and teachings and helps and assists Heaven and Earth”.787 For Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine a Christian is one who knows the Lord requires self-cultivation and practises his teachings.788 In his view Christian doctrine fulfilled and perfected the traditions by allowing all to become disciples of the Lord and study his sacred books. The ‘spirits’ and the ‘ancestors’ could not provide happiness, because they, too, were created by God .789 One can safely assume, however, that the greatest barrier to mutual understanding between the two worldviews in Korea was moral rather than philosophical. The key question, which the Christian Seohak school tried to answer in an existential way, was how to overcome the selfishness that isolates human beings from cosmic unity and drives them to pursue self-interest rather than the common good. Don Baker contends that the Catholic notion of substance, the basis of the Christian concept of anima, was not a convincing answer for neo-Confucians. Applied to society, the Thomistic definition of substance was perceived by the neo-Confucians as widening the gap between the individual and society, as well as between the individual and the cosmos790 – a gap that neoConfucians tried to close. If substance was defined as an unchanging, isolated entity791 rather than as the potential for appropriate interaction, neo-Confucian scholars could not accept the consequences of its application as they saw it manifested in Western partiality, individualism and selfishness undermining

784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791

Ibid., XXX, 70. Ibid., XXVII, 2. Marcel Granet, La pansée Chinois, Paris: Albis Michel, Renaissance du Livre, 1974, 483. Henri Bernard, Le Père Ricci., vol 2. 111. Jeong Yak-Jong, Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, XXXV, XLIII. Ibid., IX. Don Baker, On Western learning, 9–10. Definition of substance: “id quod est in se et non in alio.”

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the impartiality, interdependence and selflessness of Eastern society. From some of Shin Hu-dam’s assumptions792 we gather that everything that existed was material, including soul and mind. He affirmed that substance and function ought to be inseparable, consequently the notion of eternal life after death was inconceivable. Finally he emphasised moral impact as a way to make a statement credible. Only a doctrine that encourages people to consider themselves part of the universe and hence to act morally could be acceptable. But Western philosophy encouraged people to think of themselves as separate, independent of the cosmos, and thus made them morally selfish. For Yi Ik, as well as Shin Hu-dam and An Jeong-bok, the Jesuit literature that had arrived from China had to be flatly rejected. Christians responded by citing chapter XXXV of Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine’s catechism: the narration of Jesus’ life from his birth to his death, as well as his acts of mercy and compassion and miracles to heal the sick. There was nothing in the life of Jesus that encouraged individualism and selfishness – on the contrary, Christians put themselves at the disposal of their fellows and society. There were also some concrete socio-moral issues that angered neoConfucian scholars. These pertained to familial relations, a son’s duty to perform ancestral rites and the place of the king and classes in society. 3.3.2.1 Familial relations Two aspects of family relations are pertinent: filial piety and relations with women. Confucian society rejected and prohibited Seohak learning on the grounds that the latter appeared to propose a radical change in the traditional social order and its moral basis.793 This charge against Christian intellectuals was most clearly proved by their rejection of loyalty to the king and filial piety. Christians’ refusal to practise ancestral rites and their insistence on placing God above the king was considered to open the door to an unethical society: a society with no father, king or moral norms. Confucian society was based on the principle of loyalty in its five dimensions.794 In this social order the most important institution was the family, and 792 Shin Hu-dam, Seohakpyeon or Criticism of Western learning, vol. 5. 793 Sung-bum Yun, Ethics East and West. Western secular, Christian, and Confucian traditions in comparative perspective, trans. M. C. Kalton, Seoul: Christian Literature Society, 1977, 13–67. 794 Because benevolence is the foundation and perfection of all virtues, all other methods are seen as ways to achieve it. Thus filial piety (Hyodo) is the virtue of loyalty to the ruler and his ministers (duty), who act mercifully; loyalty to the ancestors, which is an act of gratitude; to parents (affection), spouse (distinction) and friends (faithfulness), which is an act of kindness and friendliness. All these ways lead to benevolence, the supreme virtue of a sage. Sung-bum Yun, Ethics East and West. Western secular, Christian, and Confucian traditions in comparative perspective, 20.


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in it the relationship between father and son was paramount, being the foundation of the lineage. It is followed by the relationship between husband and wife and king and subject. The father-son relationship extends to the person’s relationship with heaven and earth. Hence the concept and practice of filial piety and loyalty to the king articulate basic social relations as well as one’s relationship to heaven.795 Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine did not oppose this social principle, but complemented it by introducing the concept of the Lord of heaven as the Father, “because He is the person who brought into existence and gave life to the first human, the first plant and the first animal”.796 It was the Lord as Father who made heaven and earth for his children;797 he is the great Father who created the myriad beings for love of humans.798 The absoluteness, supremacy and authority of the Lord of heaven are also attested by Yi Byeok.799 Consequently the individual’s personal relationship with the Lord of heaven must take priority over any human relationship, blood or otherwise. Confucian scholars criticised this view and regarded the Ten Commandments as breaking the primordial rule of devotion to parents, as it was now put in fourth place. By the same token the Christian tenet of placing the Lord of heaven first, harmony second and loyalty to parents last was severely criticised.800 The Christian dualistic concept that parents provide the body whereas heaven provides soul, implying that soul is more important than body and therefore God must be revered more than parents, was repulsive to neo-Confucian orthodoxy. Neo-Confucian philosophers saw it as the basis of moral degradation and destruction of the social hierarchy. Opponents of Christian views regarded respect for both parents and heaven as embodying a single attitude of loyalty, as expounded by Hong Cheong-ha: Your doctrine always divides a father from the Lord of Heaven as being of different levels and you maintain that one should disobey the lower father to respect the upper one. This is a fundamental fault. Serving parents and serving heaven are not separate. Serving one’s father well is serving heaven. Why? You try to give delight to the Lord of Heaven with a higher filial piety, but the li (principle) of Heaven has no awareness. How can you devote yourself to Cheon Ju? As a son of human beings, you should just be devoted to your parents. Just doing this will be the following of the li of Heaven. To do one’s filial duty, to avoid being one that

795 Ibid., 22. 796 Jeong Yak-Jong, Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, II, 8. 797 Ibid., XVI. 798 Ibid., XXV. 3. 799 Yi Byeok, Seong Kyo Yo Ji or Essentials of the Catholic teaching, 1. It should be remembered that Yi Byeok was put to a severe test when his father and mother wanted to commit suicide on account of his itinerant preaching. See section 3.2.6, note 263. 800 Cf. Cheong Jong Sil-lok or Annals of king Cheong Jo, vol. 33, October of the 15th year of the king’s reign.

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offends virtue, to avoid being one that offends benevolence: these are to follow rightly the will of Heaven. If you regard serving parents as a secondary duty, you are already against the Cheon Tao (Heaven’s Way). And if this is the case, then how can you serve Heaven?801

This text highlights a basic Confucian tenet: that of seeking to harmonise the commandment of heaven and its ethical implementation through ethical human behaviour, to harmonise heaven with human ways. For Confucians heaven is immanent, so they could not accept the Christian understanding of a heaven transcending human beings. True, both worldviews emphasised filial piety and considered heaven to be the moral basis for implementing it, regardless of which came first, heaven or parents. The problem was that they were unable to see the difference and similarity of their approaches. Relationships between men and women precede father-son relations in time. They stem from the story of the creation of men and women, both in the biblical account in Genesis and the Confucian Discussion of the trigrams: “There was Heaven and Earth, then all of nature, then a man and a woman, then a husband and wife, then a father and children, then a king and subjects, then a social hierarchy.”802 The text indicates a generational ordering of human relationships. Father-son relations are vertical and thus lasting, whereas men-women and husband-wife relations are horizontal and thus temporary, implying that human relationships should be based on father-son relations. Confucian scholars believed that humans would degenerate into an animal state if family relations based on father-son relationships, leading to the horizontal relations, failed to be properly channeled, as explained by Keum.803 It is by overcoming animal instincts that people are able to maintain the morality of human and family relationships. Chapter 8804 of Matteo Ricci’s The true meaning of the Lord of heaven was one of the most disturbing ones for the scholars who bitterly opposed the Seohak movement when it was introduced in Korea. In this chapter Ricci summarises Western customs, discusses the meaning and history of celibacy among the clergy, and explains why the Lord of heaven was born in the West. Christianity seemed to take a positive view of celibacy, yet allowed men and women to sit together at table and considered them equal in rights and dignity before the Lord of heaven. Confucians argued that celibacy was a breach of the

Hong Cheong-ha, Shil Eui Chung Eui or Arguments on the true meaning in Cheon Hak Mun Dap or Questions and answers on Catholic learning, in Sunamjip, vol. 14, 17; Heo Sik (ed.), Taedong Cheong Ro, vol. 5. 802 Ijing or Discussion of the trigrams. See Danielle & Valdime Elisseeff, La civilisation de la Chine classique, 3 vols, Paris: Arthaud, 1981, 68–69, 452–456, 578. 803 Keumm Chang-thae, “The doctrinal disputes between Confucianism and Western thought in the late Chosun period”, 32, 33. 804 Matteo Ricci, S.J., The true meaning of the Lord of heaven, 409. 801


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natural law of procreation, since its radical implementation would mean the extinction of the human family, and regarded men and women eating at the same table as a degenerate custom that lowers humans to the condition of animals, because it implies violating moral righteousness if not actually encouraging adultery. Seohak reacted against their opponents by pointing out that the seventh and ninth commandments of the Lord of heaven referred to adultery, including looking lustfully at someone else’s wife. Besides, men and women were created for each other in order to fulfil the Creator’s mandate of procreation, thus becoming partners of equal standing, which would also rule out the common practice of concubinage in yangban society. 3.3.2.2 Ancestor worship Neo-Confucians in the last two decades of the 18th century could not understand the Christians’ refusal to practise ancestral rites, because according to the Christian explanation of the immortality of the soul ancestors should be living with God and their yeonghon was almost equal to God. So why stop offering sacrifices to souls already living with God?805 Christians interpreted sacrifices to ancestors as if they were offered to a divinity, while Confucians, aware that spirits do not eat and drink the offerings of their loved ones, interpreted the rites as acts of solidarity between ancestors and descendants. Why do Christians accept the symbol of the cross and yet refuse to observe the ritual of writing ancestors’ names on wooden tablets? For Choi Ki-bok the fundamental spirit of filial piety had two aspects. One was to reward the source from which everyone receives life, and the other to reciprocate the affection and commitment parents have for their children. As a child reflects on parental affection and kindness it cannot but feel gratitude and a desire to do the same for its parents.806 Filial piety expresses itself in three ways. First, it takes the form of preserving one’s body. If parents are seen as the roots of a big tree, then children are the branches. Thus children take care of their bodies and the whole tree remains healthy.807 Secondly, filial piety is shown by

805 Choi Ki-bok, “The abolition of ancestral rites and tablets by Catholicism in the Chosun dynasty and the basic meaning of Confucian ancestral rites”, in Korea Journal 24, 8, August 1984, 41–52. 806 The book of odes. This is a collection of rhymed poems originating from early folk songs and ceremonial practices. Here it explains relationships in the human realm. Quoted in Philip J. Ivanhoe & Bryan W. van Norden, Readings in classical Chinese philosophy, New York/London: Seven Bridges, 2001, 221. 807 The book of rites, VII. It includes the Book of filial piety. It explains the proper form of ancient ceremonies, dealing with propriety and how the sacrifices of food and wine to ancestral spirits should be conducted. It was later extended to include proper behaviour in one’s life, including dress, etiquette and demeanour. It came to be associated with ethics. Philip J. Ivanhoe & Bryan W. van Norden, Readings in classical Chinese philosophy, 150–153.

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serving, caring for and respecting parents, looking after their clothing, food and living conditions, and honouring them with gladness.808 The third is to fulfil the parents’ aspirations of making progress in society and thus honouring their memory.809 In Confucian tradition obligations towards parents do not end with their death; the filial duty to show affection and kindness and to return parents’ devotion continues. Confucius urged everyone to “serve your parents while they are alive with decorum, bid farewell to them in funerals with decorum and remember them in memorial rites with decorum as well”.810 To serve one’s parents after death is as important in Confucianism as serving them while alive.811 This is the source of the custom of ritualising respect and gratitude to parents after their death. “An ancestral rite denotes an extension of filial piety by serving the dead continuously. Ancestral rites must be conducted not with reluctance, but whole-heartedly. Ancestral rites repay the origin of all life and express benevolence.”812 Confucian thought placed fulfilment of obligations to parents and obeying the will of heaven on the same level.813 Family rituals for ancestors were performed by the eldest son, and national ones by the king. The ritual began with the master of rites bowing before the ancestral tablets.814 When applying these principles in the context of Christian missionary activity in Korean society in the last decade of the 18th century, the son had to obey his father unconditionally815 and show respect and obedience by performing the ritual duties of giving him food and drink, otherwise the

808 809 810 811 812 813

Analects, 7, 8. Book of filial piety, 1. Analects, 5. Doctrine of the mean, 19. Book of rites. Sung-bum Yun, Ethics East and West. Western secular, Christian, and Confucian traditions in comparative perspective, 66. 814 The Book of rites narrates how a child, taken from among the grandchildren, was placed on an altar as a substitute for a dead ancestor. In an age when no portraits or pictures were available the participants in the rituals could not visualise the ancestor. Thus the child representing the ancestor helped them to visualise the forebear. Incense, bowing, sharing food and imbibing liquor were all shared with the children standing in for the ancestor. It is said that during the Chu dynasty in China (350 BCE) children were replaced by wooden tablets. These provided the visual mediation the worshippers needed, and it was believed that the souls of the deceased rested on the ritual tablets. In the early years of the transition from children to ritual tablets, these were burned immediately after the ritual was over. However, later on the tablets, inscribed with the deceased’s names, occupied prominent places in households, where incense and candles were burnt. See Ki-bok Choi, “The abolition of ancestral rites and tablets by Catholicism in the Chosun dynasty and the basic meaning of Confucian ancestral rites”, 49–50. 815 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église de Corée, vol. 1, 41. This aspect was clearly evident during Yi Byeok’s defence of his faith.


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parent would starve in the other world.816 These rituals of mourning and commemoration were observed on the anniversary of the parent’s death, as well as during new year and autumn harvest celebrations.817 While Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine purified the concept of filial piety by claiming that the dead have already received their reward, hence our rituals and sacrifices to ancestors are pointless and mere ritualism, he instated God as a great, loving Father the Lord and his Son Jesus as the sole authority to whom the utmost respect, loyalty and love are due. “For what reason or intention was the Lord made human? The Lord’s love for humans is like a parent’s love for children: parents first build a house for their children, get ready the fields and household furnishing, and then give life and bear children. The Lord is also like this.”818 Augustine often writes of God as Father, and this notion of the Christian communities clearly reflects their understanding of filial piety. The prohibition of participating in ancestral rites came to Korean Christians via a letter from bishop Gauvea of Beijing. Thus in Korea ancestor worship was never an issue, as it was in the rites controversy in China. In Korea there were no Jesuits, Franciscans or Dominicans engaged in the debate, nor was there any communication with Rome. Medina asserts that by the 34th year of king Yongjo’s reign (1758) many of the inhabitants of the provinces of Hwang-Hae and Kang-Won, following the Shilhak school, had abandoned observance of the traditional ancestral rites.819 What was the real reason why Christians were so harshly treated for not observing these rituals? I think it was unfortunate that Korean Christians were forbidden to do so. The issue had proved divisive from the very start of the Christian community. The real question concerned the role of the king. If God is the Father, the Lord and the ruler, what is left for the king to do? 3.3.2.3 Role of the king Along with the father-son relationship in Confucian society, the king-subject relationship is a major ethical rule. While the father-son relationship is dictated by love, the king-subject relationship is guided by loyalty and duty, and thus is more strictly regulated.820 The king is considered the father of the country and the first-born of Heaven. Although people did not participate in his

816 Ibid., 222. 817 S. E. Solberg, The land and people of Korea, Philadelphia/ New York: Lippincott, 1966, 94. 818 Jeong Yak-Jong, Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, XXXIII. 819 G. Ruiz Medina, Orígenes, 97. Also see Joseph Kim Chang-mun & John Chung Jae-sun, Catholic Korea yesterday and today (1784–1884), 12. 820 Kim, Jahyun Haboush, The Confucian kingship in Korea: Yeongjo and the politics of sagacity, 11.

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divinity, certainly everyone participated in his blessings.821 It is by grace of his heavenly bestowed authority, wielded with perfect personal virtue, that the king could claim to be the holder of the heavenly commandments.822 As father and king his duty was to ensure the people’s welfare and thus the achievement of universal harmony. He reigned and fulfilled his duty by way of virtue and the example of filial piety.823 If the king was not virtuous, cosmic illness could break out, causing him to lose his divine mandate.824 Consequently the king was more than a political figure: he was the son of heaven, hence an absolute monarch, a supreme master who demanded total respect, obedience and loyalty.825 The king had power over the life and death of his subjects and could mete out rewards and punishment. He had an absolute right over teaching, religion and any other doctrine and he determined orthodoxy and ideas.826 No wonder that in the 18th century any Korean Christian daring to challenge the king, his role and his heavenly mandate was in serious trouble. Theoretically, when the king lost his righteousness and virtue he could be deposed by a revolution. In practice, however, despotic rulers were often the norm, and their authority was maintained at all costs by the government officials, yangban, eager to profit from their loyalty.827 Thus the authority of the king, exercised through the yangban ruling class, became absolute and unchangeable. As Ch. Dallet points out, it was difficult to challenge a king who claimed to possess the right teaching, to be the protector of morality, to uphold the right doctrine, to be loyal to the Chinese monarchs, and keep his country free from all contaminating foreign influence except that of China.828 Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine’s catechism challenged the authority of this king and father of the people, and so did the Christians, both in words and deeds. By challenging the king Augustine endangered universal harmony and the wellbeing of the people, of which the king thought himself to be the guarantor, and for this crime he and many other Christians were put to death. Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine’s catechism does not encourage Christians to be disrespectful to the

821 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église de Corée, vol. 1, XXXIX explains how the king’s role was conceptualised. 822 Also see The Tao De Jing of Lao Tzu, trans. Brian Browne Walker, New York: St Martin’s Griffin, 1995. This book comprises 81 short articles written in short sentences, in which monarchic authority and the manner of exercising it are explained. 823 Jan-Jaques Matignon, Superstition, crime et misère en Chine, Paris: Maloine, 1902, 299, 334. 824 William T. Chan, A source book in Chinese philosophy, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973, 3, 6–7. 825 Jan-Jaques Matignon, Superstition, crime et misère en Chine, 262–263. Also see William T. Chan, A source book in Chinese philosophy, 326. 826 See M. Granet, La pensée Chinoise, 323 n. 1, 415 for a detailed description of the king’s duties. 827 Ibid., 20. 828 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église de Corée, vol. 1, 222.


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king or to disobey social rules and norms unless they conflict with the individual conscience, but it does regard the king as lower than the Lord of heaven, to whom even the king was accountable.829 This principle was clear when Kweon Sang-yeon confessed under excruciating torture: “The teaching of the Lord of Heaven is highly majestic, so even if I am to violate the commandments of the king and parents I cannot deny the teaching of the Lord of Heaven.”830 Hector Diaz concludes: Augustine perfected the Oriental idea of king and father of people with [that of] the Lord who is really divine, who made and governs all things, and keeps them in order and harmony, and who truly has supreme authority in all matters and whose extreme virtue and love for man make Him the Lord of Jen [humanity, love for humans] who works for the universal welfare and in whose virtue everyone and everything share. He is the Sovereign and Father of all that is below and above heaven. He is the only one who can give and teach the true teaching, attract others with His example of virtue and realize the universal harmony. He is therefore the King who really deserves man’s absolute obedience, respect, and loyalty.831

There is no doubt that the Christians believed that absolute obedience, respect and loyalty to the only sovereign King and Father was the solution to the social ills of corruption, despotism, class division and mass poverty. It was these challenges that they tried to meet. This section on mission as religious and cultural dialogue has touched on diverse issues, divided into doctrinal issues (the concept and naming of the presiding Lord, the novel idea of the incarnation of God, different conceptions of soul, heaven and hell) and social and moral issues (familial relations, ancestor worship and the role of the king). Missionary praxis aimed at dialogue with human reality here and now is a must in any missionary endeavour. This dialogue helped all dialogue partners to clarify concepts and issues and to explain themselves clearly. On the whole dialogue between the two different groups within the same reform-minded Shilhak school was conducted with mutual respect and in writing. In the process neither group won the other over: each stuck to its views. Intellectual dialogue per se would not have led to persecution and martyrdom had it not been for the Christians’ mission to transform society attested by their actions. It is to this social transformation that we now turn.

829 Jeong Yak-Jong, Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching. The headings from I to VIII are a consistent affirmation of the existence of the Lord, his pre-eminence over all other authorities, and his power to reward and punish all people because he created them all. The headings from VIII to XIII give a detailed exposition of the attributes of the Lord of heaven. 830 Cheong-jong Sillok or Annals of king Cheong-jong, vol. 33. 831 Hector Diaz, A Korean theology: Chu-Gyo Yo-Ji: essentials of the Lord’s teaching by Jeong Yak-jong Augustine (1760–1801), 214.

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3.4 Mission and social transformation The missionary activity of the Christians did not stop short at intellectual dialogue with different trends in the neo-Confucian thought of the time. Attentive to the signs of the time and the popular outcry for social reform, they presented their views on how to solve the endemic social problems which condemned the masses to abject poverty. This missionary activity had the clear goal of transforming society in conformity with gospel values. It is almost unthinkable how Christians, with no help from foreign missionaries, were able to discover that faith in Christ entailed a demand for social transformation. Some of the issues that Korean Christians believed to be basic to the gospel, such as the fundamental equality of all human beings and the rights of women and children, were not yet fully recognised in Europe. The Catholic faith identified by Koreans in the latter half of the Yi dynasty or Chosun period was a heterogeneous system of thought never experienced by the Korean nation before.832 Western missionaries, who had gone to China and, as noted already, propagated the view that Confucianism and Christianity were not mutually opposed, heavily influenced the most progressive Korean intellectuals, who were persuaded that Catholicism was able to supplement Confucianism and make good its deficiencies.833 This view of Christianity as a supplement to Confucianism was strongly advocated by Yi Byeok,834 and was aimed at tempering the revolutionary impact of Catholicism in its interaction with Confucianism. Most Confucian intellectuals, however, rejected this approach and their demands for government suppression of the new religion were effective, because they could demonstrate dissident elements that were likely to destroy the pre-modern order of the dynasty. Catholic intellectuals of the time clearly challenged neo-Confucian values and rejected the traditional order in Korea by promoting a new way of ordering socio-political, economic and religious affairs.835 832 Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of modern Korea, 86. 833 See Keum Chant-tae, “Aspects of development in East-West negotiations during the Ming and Ch’ing periods and their characteristics in the history of thought”, in A collection of Kookje College dissertations, Vols IV and V, Seoul: Kookje College, 1984. 834 Yi Byeok, Seongkyo Yoji or The essence of the sacred doctrine. In the second part of this work Yi Byeok takes themes that were dear to Confucian scholars such as self-cultivation, virtue, king-sage, governance of the household and the nation, peace and achieving perfection, and juxtaposes them with values dear to Christians, such as the imitation of Christ which enlightens the whole of life and attitudes of Christ’s follower, to make the point that there was no contradiction between Confucian and Christian principles. 835 Cho Kwang, “The nature of the Shinyu persecution”, in Studies of national culture, vol. 13, Seoul: National Culture Research Institute of Korea National University, 1878. Cho Kwang, currently professor of history at Korea University, Seoul, has done extensive research into the influence of the late 18th century Korean Christians on the society of the time. He has published extensively in Korean.


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One group of Christian intellectuals tried to create a new Korean culture, but, more profoundly, they were concerned about social problems and sought a solution to them. It is important, then, to see how Catholic intellectuals pursued their aim of recreating the social order in order to understand why they met with such strong and bloody opposition. What controversial innovations in Korean society did the new Christian movement wish to implement, as demanded by their faith in Christ? I refer to only two main areas of concern: acceleration of the establishment of a modern society and acceleration of the introduction of modern culture.836 I have chosen these two areas because the historical timing coincided with the arrival of modernity in Korea. After all, the Shilhak school of thought wanted to introduce in Korea the material progress that they understood to be taking place in Europe, beyond China. These scholars believed that Western learning was better equipped to deal with modern challenges.837 At the same time it strikes me as problematic to build a modern society if the project does not go hand in hand with changes in the spiritual-philosophical values that underpinned the old system. Korean Christians tried to do both. 3.4.1 Formation of a modern society The government bureaucracy of the late Yi dynasty considered the movement started by neo-Confucian intellectuals-turned-Christian to be a dangerous heterodoxy seeking to provoke social revolution.838 They were persuaded, moreover, that the dynasty was in crisis and on the brink of collapse, partly because of the advent of Christianity. However, the same government officials were at a loss to explain the popularity and growth of the new religion among the lower classes. The different schools of learning we have seen mushrooming in Korea during the latter half of the 18th century all felt fundamentally dissatisfied with the accomplishments of the Yi dynasty. The king was not the role model of a sage-king that Confucius had envisioned. Corruption, despotism, abuse of power, the arbitrary power of the yangban, mass poverty, hunger in the countryside due to bad land administration, and strict class division and segregation were among the grievances that intellectual groups addressed and wished to see resolved. Against this background it is understandable that the lower classes welcomed Christianity as a stimulus for the creation of a modern society.839 How 836 Cho Kwang, “The meaning of Catholicism in Korean history”, in Korea Journal 24, August 1984, 14. 837 Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of modern Korea, 317. The Shilhak school was interested in Western learning and its application in Korea. 838 Cho Kwang, “The Choseon government’s measures against Catholicism”, in Chai-shin Yu (ed.), The founding of Catholic tradition in Korea, trans. Ch’oe Mi-hwa, Seoul: Korean and Related Studies Press, 1996, 103. 839 Cho Kwang, “The meaning of Catholicism in Korean history”, 15.

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did the Christian movement respond to these popular expectations? One response was the concept of equality, which the Christians themselves tried hard to put into practice and thus accelerate the demise of the tightly controlled class system. Their message of equality was rooted in the gospel values they discovered in fragmentary but quite extensive biblical texts and was not confined to making all citizens equal by eliminating social classes, but also aimed at extending them to include respect for women and children. For Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine the gospel value underlying the transformation of existing social relations centred on class division was the extreme kindness and love displayed by Jesus as the incarnation of the Lord: “Because the Lord has an extremely kind heart and extremely strict virtue, as a loving one, he became human, forgave the sins of humans reconciling them with the Lord, and ordered humans to show the same kind heart, extreme virtue and forgiveness.”840 This conviction was to be the basis on which to establish a new society. To make the new religion credible to their compatriots the first community of Christians devoted particular attention to three areas: strict praxis of human equality, implying that Christians were ready and able to cross social class divisions; placing women on the same level as men; and care for children. 3.4.1.1 Message of equality Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine regarded the Lord of Heaven as the absolute Being, above the monarch. In Christian communities this took the form of social equality. How deeply the concept of equality was already entrenched in the mental framework of Christians is demonstrated by what was known as the Chin San incident.841 Christians saw equality as the basic principle of community building. It manifested itself in deeds of love and was based on biblical accounts to which they had access. Their catechism insisted: “We all are sons and daughters of the same God.”842 The same catechism stressed that human beings “should not love the personality, ability or virtues of others, but their status of being sons and

840 Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine, Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, XXXV. 841 The Chin San incident refers to the refusal by two Christians to offer sacrifices on the occasion of their mother’s death. See below under causes of martyrdom. Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, 329–330 describes in detail the judicial prosecution of Ji-chung Paul and Kweon Sang-yon James for refusing to perform the traditional rituals for Paul’s mother when she died in 1791. In their defence statements prior to their martyrdom both Christians affirmed that their refusal to offer sacrifices to an ancestor would be meaningless if they had failed during their lifetime to respect, serve and love their fellow human beings. Kindness and mercy were a commandment from the Lord. 842 Jeong Yak-jong Augustine, Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, XIV.


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daughters of God”,843 also emphasising that all humans should be regarded as images of God and loved as one loves oneself. In the same chapter the catechism puts love or hatred of others on a par with loving or hating God.844 This view was particularly challenging in their society, because it placed the king under the authority of a higher ruler and thus contradicted the yangban’s assumption that they occupied their position by divine mandate. To assert that all human beings were equally sons and daughters of God, and to identify actions towards other human beings with their relationship with God was considered a suspect, heterodox idea in a society characterised by strict control of the intellectual and social class system. This novel approach among Christians, many of whom held senior political and government positions (e.g. Yi Seunghun and Jeong Yak-yong), fanned lower-class awareness of the equality of all human beings. This manner of approaching all people in a perspective of equality845 became very popular in Korean society with its sharply defined classes, code of dress and harsh penalties for inter-class interaction. How did the new Christian believers put their message of equality into practice? It was mentioned earlier846 that when the Christians became too numerous to meet at Yi Byeok’s house on the outskirts of Seoul it was decided to move the gatherings to a larger, more accessible place that could accommodate larger numbers and allow people from all social classes to congregate. Kim Beom-u Thomas, a physician as well as an interpreter who owned a big building, offered it for the Sunday celebrations and other Christian meetings. This clinic was the only place where people of different social status could foregather. The gatherings raised suspicion among the local authorities and the place was raided. Kim Beom-u Thomas was beaten and sent into exile, where he died. Yi Peyok himself, together with other participants, went free because of their social status. This had been a bold move by the Christians. Equality was also practised boldly in the election of the community’s leaders. In 1787, when the nascent Christian community had just weathered its first persecution, in which Kim Beom-u Thomas was exiled, the community decided they needed leaders to give the group cohesion. Kweon Il-shin Francis Xavier became ‘bishop’ and Yi Seung-hun Peter, Yi Tan-won Louis-Gonzaga, Ryu Hang-kweon Augustine, and Choi Chang-hyeon John became ‘priests’ – a leadership drawn from very diverse social classes. Kweon Il-shin belonged to the yangban ruling class, Choi Chang-hyeon was a commoner.847 People of different 843 844 845 846 847

Ibid., XXXIX. Ibid., XXXV. Cho Kwang, “The meaning of Catholicism in Korean history”, 15. Also see sections 3.2.6.1 and 3.2.6.2. Cho Kwang, “An analytical inquiry into Shinyu persecution”, in Studies of the history of churches, vol. 1, Seoul: Research Institute for the Korean Catholic Church, 1984, 20–29.

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social status were given important responsibilities to help the community grow. Another example of equality concerns Hwang Il-gwang Simon (1757–1802). A member of a very poor family, he was a butcher. Butchers were considered the lowest among the classes and were forbidden to enter the cities. They had to live outside the gates. After becoming Christian he was greatly surprised by the brotherly treatment he received in the community, and he used to say: “Here, everybody treats me as a human person despite my low class. Now I believe that heaven exists here and hereafter.”848 Yet another example of equality relates to Yu Kun-myeong, who, after his baptism in 1801, freed all his slaves.849 Thus Christians rejected the unequal social system that did not see humans as sons and daughters of the Lord. Prof. Cho Kwang summarises: The community of faith centering on Catholicism founded in the latter part of the Choso˘n period made concrete and consistent efforts for the realization of an equal society. The believers formed their community as “fellow believers” without being restrained by differences in their estates. In addition, they felt a considerable pride in the basic nature of Catholicism pursuing equality. … The activities of the believers displayed a potential function to strengthen the national desire to realize an equal society.850

The orthodoxy prevailing in the country offered stiff opposition to the Christians’ practices and tried to ridicule them: Seohak [the name given to Christians] lured ignorant people, lowly men, and dull women first of all. The luring method is used for their sake. Therefore their doctrine is good for lowly men and women, because the justification of the class system is what the lowly men most feared … They always say that there is no difference between the noble and the mean and that everyone is a brother in faith. They do not discriminate, so they destroy all justification.851

Jeong Yak-yong (Dasan) also strongly rejected the class system of his time and from his exile he propounded the nobility of all people,852 following the line his brother Augustine had set in his catechism. Christians also took the initiative in allowing women to play a role in public life other than that of daughter-in-law, wife and mother, and giving children a prominent place in Christian life.

848 Saint A. Daveluy, Notices des principaux martyrs de Corée, 1858, vol. 5, 117. Manuscript English translation quoted in “Servants of God”: Paul Yun Ji-chung and 123 companions, a biographical work published by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, Seoul, 2004, 203. 849 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. 1, 271. Park Chi-won (1737–1805), a renowned scholar of his times, glorified a street beggar as having ‘natural nobility’ in his Kwang Mun Cha Chon or The story of Kwang Mun, while Yi Tok-mu (1741–1794) in his Un Ae-Chon or The story of Un Ae describes the violent emotions of ordinary people and their frustrations because their lives never got any better in spite of hard work. Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of modern Korea, 121. 850 Cho Kwang, “The meaning of Catholicism in Korean history”, 16. 851 Heo Shik, Sireui Chungkeui or Doubts about the true meaning of the Lord of heaven, vol. 6. 852 Jeong Yak-yong, Dasan, Yeonyudang Cheonso or Complete works of Yeoyudang, vol. 2.


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3.4.1.2 Bettering the lives of women and children The second aspect of Korean Christians’ missionary praxis that gave it a distinctive character and could also be interpreted politically as a challenge to the official hyodo (filial piety) concerned the role of women and children in society. Prof. Cho Kwang points out that the neo-Confucian interpretation of filial piety at the end of the Yi dynasty enforced strict separation of men and women, so much so that women were not even permitted to have their own names or any opportunity to engage in social activities outside the home.853 Women belonging to yangban families were forbidden to remarry if their husbands passed away, and the system allowed yangban males to have concubines and even practise bigamy.854 Hence we need to place women’s role during the early years of Christianity under the late Chosun dynasty in the framework of the harsh social realities of the time. From the perspective of the new Christians the position of Korean women was wretched. Christians, who believed that both men and women were the Lord’s children created in his image, that both genders had immortal souls and that women were just as human as men855 deplored the scornful treatment and disregard of women in their society: women were understood to be persons with no rights, only duties.856 Christians tried to go against the prevailing current by promoting the dignity of women, attacking the widespread practice of concubinage and the prohibition of remarriage by widows of the yangban.857 They both taught the Lord’s commandments and practised them, particularly the fourth commandment, which emphasises children’s duties towards their parents as well as husbands’ treatment of their wives: “he should not rule over her, and he should reflect on his duties towards her.”858 Thus Christians stressed harmony and cooperation between husband and wife, and urged men not to resort to violence against their wives. By making men reflect on their duties towards their wives the Christian community was aware that the fifth relationship of hyodo (filial piety), conjugal fidelity, was demanded of both

853 Ibid., 17. 854 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 256. 855 Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine, Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, XXXIII. 856 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. 1, CXVI. In the introduction Dallet dwells at length on the customs and traditions of Korean society. 857 Ibid., CXXVII. Also see Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 257. 858 This sentence appears in Seonchal Kil-yak, or Manual for examination of conscience, 14b–15b. The booklet was written by the first Christians to help them prepare for making a good confession, which also proves that Christians confessed their sins to the leaders of the communities. The booklet, written in Korean, is kept in the archives of the Research Centre of the History of the Catholic Church in Korea.

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parties and not, as it was often interpreted, a one-way obligation on the part of the wife. The role of women during these first years of Christian activity is evident in the literary, pastoral and social activities of the community. As regards literary and cultural work, Kim Ok-hy859 affirms that many firstgeneration Korean Christian women were members of the Namin group, avid students of Western learning (Sohak, religion, included), and consequently also members of the Shilhak school. These women had a decisive influence both on the interpretation of Christianity, initially viewed as a complementary religion alongside neo-Confucianism, and on evangelisation. Women were not just taking notes from scholarly men or following their directions. They were leaders capable of taking the initiative in important areas in the young church. Much of the material on their activities is recorded in the minutes of the official proceedings against them prior to their martyrdom. Among the literary works produced by women are Oenhaeng Shillok or Written records and acts by Kweon Yuhandang, and Yi Lutgarda’s Okchung Seogan or Letters from prison.860 Several other translations from Chinese into Korean are noteworthy. Prof. Kim Ok-hy maintains that Mme Kweon Yuhandang’s writings, which include translations into Korean of sections of Matteo Ricci’s The true meaning of the Lord of heaven, were a sort of educational manual for Christian women based on Seohak861 ideas to counteract the ideological influence of such Confucian literature as Yeosaseo or Four books for women, and Yeobom or Role models for women.862 As regards pastoral and missionary work, women were actively involved in teaching catechism and taking care of the leaders of the Christian communities. One of them was Yun Un-hye Lucy (?–1801) who built a meeting place in Seoul, where she taught catechism and invited Fr James Zhou Wen-mo (the only Chinese priest to enter Korea ahead of the foreign missionaries, ministering from 1795 to 1801) to celebrate mass and administer other sacraments.863 Some women, besides devoting their time to pastoral and catechetical activities, also tried to emulate the early Christian women by living in chastity. In this regard Yi Sun-i Lutgarda (1782–1802) deserves special mention. She was born

859 Kim Ok-hy, “Women in the history of Catholicism in Korea”, in Korea Journal 24, 8, August 1984, 28–40. Sister Kim Ok-hy is professor of Korean history at Su Weon University and at the Institute of Religions. She is director of the Korean Martyrs Museum at Oryundae, Pusan. She obtained a PhD in history from the Paris Sorbonne IV University. She has written extensively on the role of Christian women in Korea during the last quarter of the 18th century. 860 Kim Ok-hy, “Study on Oenhaeng Shillok of Madame Yuhandang Kwon”, in Han Kuk Hakpo 27, 1982, 50–83; Les journaux de prison (1791) by Yun Chi-chung Paul & Kweon Sangyeon, Jacques in Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église de Corée, vol. 2, 37–56. 861 Western school, referring to the writings of European missionaries in China and those introduced into Korea. 862 Kim Ok-hy, “Women in the history of Catholicism in Korea”, 30. 863 “Servants of God”. Paul Yun Ji-chung and 123 companions, 119.


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into a wealthy family and her maternal grandfather was the famous scholar Yi Ik. She received an excellent education. Lutgarda was baptised in childhood and received her first communion from Fr Zhou Wen-mo in 1795. In 1798 at the age of fifteen she told her mother of her intention to take a vow of chastity. Fr Zhou was consulted. Fr Zhou confided to Lutgarda’s mother that a young man, Yu Jung-cheol Matthew (?–1802), had asked Fr Zhou for permission to take a vow of chastity. The two youths then lived together, but having taken their vows to live in chastity. Both were arrested in the Shinyu persecution of 1801 and decapitated in 1802.864 The role of women was particularly important during the years that followed the Shinyu persecution (1801), when the male leadership of the community was decimated. According to data gathered from the interrogation records, another activity carried out by women was to start small congregations.865 This was considered a kind of community life. These communities helped Fr Zhou Wen-mo move around the country. Women were responsible for preparing candidates for baptism and confirmation. Communities of women often gathered around a female leader, who had made a commitment to celibacy or was a widow. Usually they were well-to-do, educated women. Women who had servants also proselytised among them, encouraging (sometimes forcing) them to get educated and receive baptism.866 One critical task for the first Christians was to transform the vertical human relations (king-subject, father-son, etc., even husband-wife), firmly upheld by neo-Confucian scholars, into horizontal relationships. In Christian communities women started choosing their own husbands and enjoyed economic freedom and independence. This independence proved crucial in the later development of Christian communities during the time of persecution. Cho Kwang concludes: Needless to say, the consideration of the early Christians did not reach the level of the modern concept of women’s rights and interests. In consideration of the position of women who were regulated by the pre-modern social order, however, we should evaluate the church’s outlook on women during the period of persecutions as a very progressive one. In view of this fact, we understand that the church made a certain contribution to awakening Korean women and promoting their rights and interests.867

Children also became a vital focus in the life of Christian communities. Without abandoning the neo-Confucian concept of filial piety (children’s respect for parents), it was extended by obliging parents to care for the children of other parents, especially after the cruel torture and slaughter of many Christians.868

864 Saint A. Develuy, Notices des principaux martyrs de Corée, vol. 5, 1858, 201. 865 Kim Ok-hy, “Women in the history of Catholicism in Korea”, 31. 866 Ibid., 32. 867 Cho Kwang, “The meaning of Catholicism in Korean history”, 18. 868 Ibid., 20.

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With so many men and women martyred during the Shinyu persecution of 1801–1802, many children were left parentless. Children were often used as messengers to carry religious items such as crucifixes, prayer books or messages from one community to another and even to prisons, where their elders, sometimes their own parents, brothers or sisters, faced certain execution. In the case of children, too, neo-Confucian vertical (father-son, mother-daughter) relationships acquired a horizontal dimension in that parents were attentive to their children.869 An illustration of how the concept of hyodo (filial piety) took on a new meaning in Christian communities is the case of Yi Byeok who, when asked by his father to abandon Christian teaching and take away the shame on the family caused by his preaching, refused to do so, arguing that he should obey God first, and that when caught in a dilemma between God and the king, he must choose God.870 To help children organisations were started, where the children and younger siblings of martyrs enjoyed community protection. Women in particular took charge of this social and charitable work. According to interrogation records women admitted having helped the poor and the outcasts because the Lord did so,871 and because the creator Lord had created all humans equal. Alms collection drives were organised by different groups of women. Aristocratic women also gave large donations for the poor and homeless, at the risk of being caught in the process. According to Prof. Kim Ok-hy much can be said about the role of women in the early days of Catholicism (and even in the present time) in Korea.872 By the time the Roman Catholic Church established the Work of Holy Infancy in 1864 there were many formal institutions in Korea created after the massacres of 1801, which with local support provided practical care for children.873 It is indeed remarkable how Korean Christians in the late 18th century were capable of discovering in the gospel the important dimension of humans’ basic equality before God and the dignity of women and children, and to write it into their first catechism, at a time when Europe was only beginning to open its eyes to the same realities. Missionary activity led Korean Christians not only to engage in dialogue with their cultural world but also to transform it by opening it to wider cultural realities from the West and making it accessible to all.

869 Some very personal questions parents had to answer appear in Seonchal Kil-yak or Manual for examination of conscience, 17, 18. 870 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. 1, 24. 871 Jeong Yak-jong Augustine, Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching. The Christian community was putting the purport of XXXV into practice: to do what Jesus did. 872 They did not have access to the full Bible. However, since they were in possession of liturgical and devotional books, they knew much of the New Testament as well as important sections of the Old Testament. 873 Cho Kwang, “The meaning of Catholicism in Korean history”, 19.


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3.4.2 Formation of modern culture Korean society in the last quarter of the 18th century was based on the neoConfucian principles of the great Chinese reformer Chu Hsi. His views and interpretations, officially viewed as the orthodox interpretation of Confucianism, had become fixed and were opportunistically enforced by the ruling class, thus creating a culturally closed, politically and economically stagnant nation.874 It was in the face of this cultural and economic monopoly that the first Korean scholars-turned-Christian sought to usher in an open culture and efficient administration that would result in better management of natural resources by disseminating Shilhak or practical learning.875 From their embassies to China the scholars learned about the existence of other lands beyond China, which were far ahead in technological development and social freedom. Books that arrived from China convinced the Shilhak intellectuals that Europe was better equipped to bring modernity to Korea than China. The common ground among all intellectuals belonging to the Shilhak school was the search for solutions to pressing daily problems.876 In the last quarter of the 18th century Korea was in need of thorough social, economic and cultural transformation, to which the introduction of Christianity made a major contribution. Christians brought into the discussion877 the presence of the Lord as the creator and ruler of the myriad things, to whom all creatures were accountable. The same Lord created men and women equal, and to follow his teachings was the way to better society. The proper way to establish this faith in society, Christians thought, was to produce literature and make knowledge accessible to all.878 In this way Christians believed that people could learn to analyse political structures and laws from the angle of the reign of the Lord of heaven. This could only be successful if they used the Korean alphabet, known to most people, rather than Chinese, to which only the well-educated had access. In this respect the Christians made an important contribution to advancing modern culture in their country.

874 Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of Korea, 122. He quotes Jeong Yak-yong John Baptist (exiled during the 1801 persecution, when his brother Augustine was put to death), who wrote 2.469 poems “describing the life of rural people in thatched houses, their physical toil and silent suffering, and wicked landlords and officials ready to pounce on what little they had. Some poems seemed to urge their uprising.” 875 Ibid., 24. 876 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 255. 877 As can clearly be seen in Jeong Yak-jong Augustine, or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching. 878 Cho Kwang, “The meaning of Catholicism in Korean history”, 20.

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3.4.2.1 Use of the Korean alphabet or Han-Geul In making Christian doctrine available to all Korean citizens, particularly the impoverished masses, the use of the Korean alphabet (Han-Geul) proved to be a powerful weapon. The creation of Han-Geul is considered one of the greatest cultural achievements of the early Yi dynasty. King Sejong promulgated the alphabet in the 28th year of his reign.879 Han-Geul’s potential to bring popular culture to all households was not realised to any significant extent until the last quarter of the 18th century during the Yi dynasty.880 Some renowned writers and poets, both men and women, showed remarkable talent and ability in bringing to light – through plays, short satirical poems and masked dances – the peasants’ grievances against their masters and of dropouts from the yangban against the political system.881 With the growing popularity of Han-Geul early Christian intellectuals – who had no difficulty reading books in Chinese and were themselves excellent writers of Chinese – used it widely, thus fostering national identity and awareness of having a different culture from China.882 The majority of Koreans could not read Chinese characters, and this deepened their cultural separation from the ruling intellectual class.883 The lower classes had to rely on works written in Han-Geul for intellectual nourishment. Because Christian communities welcomed and included everybody, they used Han-Geul to write their catechisms, prayer books, hymnals and letters to transmit Christian doctrine in an easily understandable manner and disseminate it to remote parts of the country. Christians used Han-Geul not only to convey doctrinal explanation but also for translations of important works written in Chinese. Among the books that arrived from China and were translated into Han-Geul soon after the Christians began their gatherings were Matteo Ricci’s The true meaning of the Lord of heaven and Seongkyeong Chikhae or Bible narratives.884 Chapter eight of Matteo Ricci’s work, among many other matters, dealt with the way the pope ruled in the West,885 while the second book contains excerpts from the Gospels. By the time of the first widespread persecution of Christians in 1801 about 30 percent of the four Gospels had been

879 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 193. 880 Ibid., 259. 881 Ibid., 259–260. Among the most famous writers and poets dating to the same period as the martyrs was Yu Chae-goen (1793–1880), who compiled the Phunkyo Samseon or Poems of people, which contained works by some 300 people, including monks and women. 882 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 255. 883 However, scholars and yangban in government positions were not allowed to use it in official transcriptions. Only Chinese characters were allowed. By the end of the 18th century Han-Geul was used mostly by the lower class and uneducated people. 884 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. 1, 19. 885 I shall deal with this aspect in the next section.


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translated into Han-Geul.886 This brought the Bible closer to people who were not able to read Chinese characters. The central government kept a close eye on doctrinal books in Han-Geul. As early as 1788, five years after Yi Seung-hun’s baptism and after the appearance of the first catechism attributed to Yi Byeok, an internal debate broke out between government officials, in which the hardliners demanded an immediate stop to the spread of heterodox doctrines that had “infested the way of thinking of common people in the most remote villages”.887 Soon after Jeong Yak-jong wrote his catechism Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching in 1794,888 which was to become the handbook for Christians on matters of faith and their stand on social issues, government officials planned a widespread round-up of their community leaders. This catechism was highly acclaimed among Christians and was declared an excellent doctrinal book by Fr James Zhou Wen-mo. The general persecution of 1801–1802 saw the burning of most religious books written in Han-Geul, but it did not stop Christians from producing works using the Korean alphabet. Christians carried out their missionary activity by meeting the cultural needs of the poor. 3.4.2.2 Reform of political structures and laws and pre-eminence of individual conscience If the Christian missionary activity had an important cultural dimension, it had an equally important impact on people’s awareness of the corrupt political system in the country, which marginalised a large proportion of citizens on account of their social, economic and educational status. The traditional system of the Yi dynasty was based on strong royal government. This political order scrupulously observed the hyodo (filial piety) principle. The concept of the king reflected the ideal of Confucian kingship that attributed to the king the role of uniting heaven and earth, bringing solidarity and harmony889 between heaven, earth and people. Thus the king was supposed to be a model sage-king, the embodiment of perfect virtue.890 Given this understanding of the king’s role, the Christian doctrine that not only preached equality of men and women, but also made the ruler accountable to the Lord at the

886 Cho Hwa-seon, “A study of Seongkyoeng Chikhae”, in A collection of dissertations on the history of Korean churches in commemoration of the sixtieth birthday of Fr Choi Seok-u, Seoul, Research Institute for Korean Church History, 1982, 258. 887 Cho Kwang, “The meaning of Catholicism in Korean history”, 21. 888 For a more detailed account of this catechism, see 3.2.3. 889 Jahyun Kim Haboush, The Confucian kingship in Korea, 11. 890 For more on this subject, see 3.1.3.

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final judgment, was bound to shock the power holders. Moreover, chapter 8 of Matteo Ricci’s The true meaning of the Lord of heaven – widely discussed in Korea – explained how the pope exercised his authority, how he was elected from among the sages and, once elected, wielded great authority.891 The existence of the papal system, in which the pope was elected from among the best candidates and, being celibate, left no hereditary successor on his demise, must have shocked the Korean ruling class, as it did when Matteo Ricci first spoke of it in Ming China two hundred years earlier, because it suggested the possibility of a political system in which the ruler could be chosen.892 This evoked strong opposition to the Christian view from Chae Che-gong, a member of the Namin (Southern) party and a powerful government official, who exclaimed: “As there is no king in accordance with the custom of that country, a wise man is selected to be the king. This is an extremely wicked practice.” For this reason he believed Christianity deserved to be criticised for being a “religion without a king”.893 Among the best exponents of the Christian concept of just governance and accountability was Jeong Yak-yong John Baptist (pen name Dasan),894 younger brother of Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine. Jeon Yak-yong can be considered the scholar who applied his mind to the institutional system in the most thoroughgoing manner.895 This eminent Shilhak scholar played a major role in the establishment of the Christian community. He had read the religious books from China and was conversant with Matteo Ricci’s The true meaning of the Lord of heaven, as evidenced by his many writings on just governance.896 In his books he analysed and criticised human conditions under the Yi dynasty on the basis of his personal experience and research, at the same time proposing ways of reforming the system of governing the country. In Kyeongse yupyo or Design for good government he propounded his views of its structure; in Mongmin Simseo or Admonitions about governing the people he proposed reform of the local administration system; and in Heumheum or Rules for new jurisprudence he offered suggestions for managing the penal system. But it was in his Thang-non or Outline of ideal government that he comprehensively criticised the evils of his time and outlined ways in which the suffering of the people could be reduced. He opposed the hereditary monarchic system and the appointment of government officials according to family or lineage,

891 This system, the Korean intellectuals believed, would produce better rulers. 892 Cho Kwang, “The meaning of Catholicism in Korean history”, 22. 893 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 240. Quoted from Choson Wangjo Shillok or Historical royal records of Choson, October, 15th year of king Cheongjo’s reign. 894 Jeong Yak-yong, 1762–1836. See introduction to chapter 3, note 9. 895 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 234. 896 Yun Dong-hwan, Dasan Cheong, Yak-yong, Seoul: Dasan Kinyeom Saobhwe, 2002, 34.


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introducing, ahead of his times, the idea of a popularly elected king and government officials.897 For Prof. Yun Dong-hwan898 one of Dasan’s most daring provocations to the political system of his time was his appeal to the law of conscience.899 Dasan certainly read about it in the first chapter of his brother Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine’s Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, which begins with an act of faith in the Lord of heaven, the creator of heaven and earth and of humans, who rules the myriad things with perfect knowledge; anyone who looks at creation carefully can discern the existence of the Lord.900 Needless to say, Christians knew they should follow the rules901 and that norms that did not contradict personal conscience were not to be considered wrong. God’s pre-eminence, however, was absolute: Si l’on doit publier et écouter avec une attention scrupuleuse les ordres des rois de la terre, à plus forte raison les ordres de Dieu qui sont plus terribles, plus redoutables et plus aimables en même temps que ceux des rois de ce monde. Il est le Tout-Puissant, le Très-Haut; Il est dix mille fois plus admirable que tous les princes.902

This priority of personal conscience before God that could overrule human norms of even ancient traditions and customs was also confessed by Yi Byeok when he was forced by his clan to abandon his faith: for Christians filial piety meant that the Father in heaven came first. This view forced many Christians to make hard choices. In the story of every martyr – from Kim Beom-u, the first one, and those martyred with him, to the martyrs of the massive Shinyu persecution of 1801–1802 and the rest of the century – the same issues recurred: on the one hand the state was persuaded that the institutional order personified by the king and his councillors as guarantors of the national cultural, social, economic and political heritage must be maintained at all cost; on the other hand people who believed in the Lord and saw in the life and passion

897 Ibid., 50. Also see Cho Kwang, “A study of Jeong Yak-yong’s thought concerning people’s rights”, in Asian studies, vol. 56, 1976, 66–69. This is a remarkably democratic insight for Korea at a time when this concept had just started taking shape in the minds of Europeans after the French Revolution of 1789. 898 Prof. Yun Dong-hwan is one of the greatest Korean authorities on the thought of Dasan. Prof. Yun lives in the place where Dasan spent his 18 years of exile and has set up a research centre for the study and application of Dasan’s legacy. 899 Yun Dong-hwan, Dasan Cheong, Yak-yong, 41. 900 Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine’s Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, I, II, V. 901 The Sonchal Kiryak or Manual for examination of conscience, 20a contains questions regarding the civil duties of Christians. 902 Saint A. Daveluy, 1855, M.E.P., vol. 577, 1137–1147. Annales de la Propagation de la Foi XXVIII, Lyon, 1856, 12–27. Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. 1, 29. The quotation refers to the martyrdom of Yi Do-gi Paul (1743–1789).

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of Jesus a model of obedience to God before any human institution held that Christians should imitate Jesus. This tension is manifested be in the following paragraph, translated by Dallet from the decree against the Christian religion promulgated at the beginning of 1801 by the regent Kim Cheong-sun, which legally sanctioned the persecution and execution of Christians: Le feu roi disait souvent que si l’on s’appliquait à faire briller la droite doctrine, la doctrine perverse s’éteindrait d’elle-même. Maintenant j’entends dire que la doctrine déréglée se maintient, et que depuis la capitale jusque dans le fond des provinces, surtout dans Ho-tsiong, elle se répand de jour en jour davantage; comment pourrais-je ne pas en trembler? L’homme ne devient vraiment homme que par l’observation des relations naturelles, et un royaume ne trouve sa vie que dans l’instruction et la vrai doctrine. Or, la doctrine déréglée dont il est question ne reconnaît ni parents, ni roi; elle rejette tout principe, elle ravale l’homme au rang des sauvages et des animaux. Le peuple ignorant s’en laisse pénétrer de plus en plus, et s’égare dans une fausse voie; c’est comme un enfant qui court à la rivière et s’y perd. Comment mon coeur ne serait-il pas touché? Et comment pourrais-je ne pas prendre en pitié ces pauvres malheureux? Les gouverneurs et mandarins des villes doivent donc ouvrir les yeux aux ignorantes, faire en sorte que les adeptes de cette religion nouvelle s’amendent sincèrement, et que ceux qui ne la suivent pas soient fortement éclairés et avertis. Par là, nous ne foulerons pas aux pieds les instructions que le feu roi s’est si généreusement efforcé de donner, et les lumières qu’il a fait briller. Après cette stricte prohibition, s’il y a encore des êtres qui ne reviennent pas à résipiscense, il faut les poursuivre comme rebelles. En conséquence, les mandarins de chaque district, établiront, chacun dans toute l’étendue de sa juridiction, le système de cinq maisons solidaires l’une de l’autre. Si parmi les cinq maisons il y en a qui suivent la mauvaise doctrine, le chef préposé à leur surveillance avertira le mandarin pour le faire corriger. Après quoi, s’ils ne veulent pas encore changer, la loi est là; qu’on les extermine de façon à n’en laisser aucun germe. Telle est notre volonté; qu’elle soit connue exécutée, tant dans la ville capitale que dans les provinces.903

The text shows that the yangban and ruling groups were resolved to stop the spread of Christian ideas in the country: it had become clear that if the Christian way of thinking were to become the popular view, the political system in which the yangban held a privileged position was in real jeopardy. It is to the yangban class’s response and the way they rationalised it that we now turn.

3.5 From opposition to persecution: martyrdom The kenotic mission model, consisting partly in intellectual dialogue between Christian scholars and their neo-Confucian counterparts, appears to have been unsuccessful, evidenced by the harsh response from officialdom based on rational Confucian arguments. In the face of this adverse response Christian intellectuals offered their compatriots what they perceived to be the essential 903

Sunjo Sillok or Annals of Sunjo Raign, Book II of Annals of the Yi dynasty, vol. 47, Seoul, 1963, 354. French translation from Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’eglise Coréene, vol. 1, 112–113. Also see Yi Ki-gyeong, La défence Confucienne contre le Christianisme (Pyokwik yeon), Seoul: Sogwansa, 1978, 247–248.


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newness of the Christian faith as opposed to neo-Confucian principles: a faith capable of achieving social transformation and a better life, particularly for the poor. As a result intellectual opposition soon turned into bitter persecution and repression. As mentioned earlier, not all members of Yi Ik’s Namin school of learning, mostly the Piek Pha,904 saw eye to eye with the development in the Christian movement from learning and researching Western ideas to accepting the religion and putting it in into practice: the transition from Shilhak to Seohak. There is little doubt that the authorities under the late Chosun dynasty considered the Christian movement a dangerous heterodox ideology aimed at social revolution. Political leaders had a sense of national crisis, but they were at a loss how to account for the growing popularity of Christianity among the lower classes. To counteract the success of Christian ideas the ruling class first tried to impose a type of intellectual control905 aimed at a return to the traditional value system and social order in the form of strict observance of traditional and popular practices, notably rituals like sacrifices to ancestors and the king. Intellectual control also meant clear definition and exposition of orthodox premises on the assumption that intellectual clarification would automatically result in popular abandonment of heterodox Christian ideas.906 When this measure proved unsuccessful and the number of people interested in Western religion continued to grow the government, in a second phase of counter moves, prohibited the introduction of new books from China. Until 1785 religious books written in Chinese could be imported fairly freely by ambassadors returning from Beijing, but this was no longer possible.907 The ban on the importation of books followed a prohibition of copying or translating them into Han-Geul and distributing

904 At the end of king Cheong-jo’s reign in the 1790s the Namin party split into two groups. One was called Si-pha, whose leading lights were Yi Ka-han, Jeong Yak-yong, Yi Seung-hun, Hong Nak-min, Yi Byeok and others, some of whom had become Christians. Faced with fierce family opposition some recanted but, during more peaceful times, returned to the flock (e.g. Yi Seung-hun). This group was always a minority and had already lost favour with the king due to factional politics. The other, more numerous group was called Piekpha. Its most prominent members were Hong Eui-ho and Mong Man-jung, who cordially despised the new religion, although wanting social and political reform. The first group developed the notion of God as sovereign ruler and believed this principle to be the rational force that should motivate social change, bringing about equality and well-being for all and a restructuring of rites and traditions. The second group strongly opposed this view and believed that the supreme ruler was the king, who was the sole agent responsible for social change, hence social reform should be achieved without abandoning local rites and traditions. See Kim Ok Hy, Le role de Yi Pyok, 77. 905 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 235. 906 Cheong-jo Sillok or Annals of king Cheong-jo, July, 12th year of king Cheong-jo’s reign. 907 Yu Ha-weon, a high ranking government official, made a proposal to that effect, which was published in Cheong-jo Sillok or Annals of king Cheong-jo, April of the 9th year of king Cheong-jo’s reign, in a text entitled Byeokwi-pyeon or Criticism of heterodoxy.

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them.908 The prohibition was not strictly applied, partly because king Jeong-jo showed tolerance towards intellectual dissidents. It was after the Chin San incident and the government’s conviction that a Chinese priest was active in the land (see next section) that officialdom decided to clamp down violently: “Shim Hwan-ji has said: ‘the corrupt practices of heterodoxy will not be brought under control until the law of terrible execution is applied to them. If we remain with the policy of edification, we will not be able to control these vile factions. Never pardon them under any circumstances. We must fix them with the law.”909 Prof. Choi has written extensively about the persecutions the first Christians had to endure and the political motivation behind them.910 He divides the persecutions into three distinct periods. He does not include the case of Kim Beom-u Thomas911 in the first period, because he believes it was an isolated incident in the early days of the movement, but it may still be considered the grand premiere of what was to be the plight of Christian communities in Korea for the next hundred years. 3.5.1 The first persecution period The period from 1791 to 1802 was characterised by fierce persecutions. Of these at least the first two – those of 1791 and 1795 – were not nationwide but localised or regional. It was the third one, from 1801 to1802, which assumed national dimensions. What triggered the first persecution of 1791 was the incident surrounding the mourning of Yun Chi-chung’s mother.912 The persecution began after the so-called Chin-San913 incident and turned into what is called the Shin-Hae

908 Joseph Ung-Thai Kim, L’experience religieuse Coreenne, 23, 44 provides an exhaustive list of books, in both Chinese and Han-Geul, that were burnt during the persecutions of 1791, 1795 and 1801. 909 Sungcheongweon Ilki or Diaries of Suncheongweon, vol. 97, 288. Quoted by Cho Kwang, “The Choson government’s measures agains Catholicism”, in Chai-shin Yu, The founding of Catholic tradition in Korea, Seoul: Korean and Related Studies Press, 1996, 111. 910 Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 39–59. 911 See 3.2.6 above. 912 This Yun Chi-chung Paul is not the Yun You-il Paul who visited Beijing. Yun Chi-chung was born in Ji San in 1759. Obtained his Chin-Sa degree in 1783 at the age of 25 and while in Seoul for the examination was a guest at Kim Beom-u’s residence, where he got acquainted with both Matteo Ricci and Pantoja’s works. Three year later he was baptised by his cousin Cheong Yak-jon and became a devout Christian. 913 In Korea the issue of ancestral rites was not marked by the same theological and political controversy and infighting as in China, because Korea was not open to the outside world and had no active religious congregations (Jesuits, Franciscans, Dominicans or Augustinians). Korean Christians accepted the prohibition to celebrate the ancestral rites in a spirit of obedience to a higher ecclesial authority.


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(new year) persecution of 1791. The main actors in this incident were Yun Chichung Paul (1759–1791) and Kwon Sang-yeon James (1751–1791). Yun Paul, a well-educated scholar who passed his state examination in the spring of 1783, decided to remain in Seoul for a while. In the winter of 1784 he was Kim Beomu’s914 guest. There he came across Matteo Ricci’s The true meaning of the Lord of heaven and Pantoja’s The seven virtues. He took copies of these books home and after studying them started practising the Christian religion. He was duly baptised, taking Paul as his Christian name. Aware of the strict prohibition of the Catholic religion, he decided, as a precaution, to burn the books.915 Kwon James was also a renowned scholar who learned about Christianity from Yun Chi-chung Paul. In May 1791 Yun Paul’s mother passed away and this put him in a predicament: either to go ahead with the ancestral rites or to obey bishop Gauvea’s prohibition. His relatives and friends were at his house offering condolences.916 Yun Paul, following tradition, wore mourning. But in compliance with bishop Gauvea’s prohibition he did not offer incense and sacrifices (food and wine) in front of the wooden tablets symbolising the presence of the ancestors’ spirits and did not bow to his mother’s memorial tablets – in fact, he had already destroyed them. Yun Paul’s obstinate refusal to go along with the traditional rites created turmoil among his family, friends and the authorities, who were immediately informed of the event. Paul’s cousin Kweon James was also present on the occasion and in agreement with Paul. Once the outrageous incident had been reported to the authorities they took stern measures against both offenders. Hong Nak-an, notorious for his anti-Catholic stand, had earlier in 1787 and 1788 circulated a virulent manifesto against Catholics. He had urged king Jeong-jo – still friendly with the Christian scholars, some of whom were his councillors – to proscribe the new religion. Hong, on hearing about the incident, wrote a letter to the councillor of the Hong (Left) party, Choi Che-kong, asking for the death penalty for both Yun Paul and Kwon James. The guards went in search of the two, but they had left their homes and gone into hiding in different regions, having been warned that the authorities were looking for them. The guards

914 See section 3.2.6.1 above. 915 The following story appears in the Testimony of self-defence of Yun Chi-chang Paul in Yi Neung-Hoa, Histoire de Christianisme, 69–71. See English translation of Saint A. Daveluy, Notices des principeaux martyrs de Corée, 1858, vol. 5, 13; Saint A. Daveluy, Notes pour l’histoire des martyrs de Corée, 1860, vol. 4, 42 in Kim Chang-mun Joseph & Chung Jaesun John, Catholic Korea, 35–38. 916 Alexander de Gauvea also mentions this episode in his letter of 15 August 1797. Earlier, in 1790, one of the questions the Koreans addressed to the French missionaries in China concerned the celebration of ancestral rites. The answer was negative: the performance of ancestral ceremonies was forbidden for Catholics throughout Korea.

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searched their houses and, finding that the ancestral tablets917 had indeed disappeared, took Yun Paul’s uncle into custody. When the two young men learned that their uncle had been taken to prison they decided to give themselves up. It was 26 November 1791. Yun Paul and Kwon James were interrogated from the day they arrived in the Jeon Ju governor’s office. The governor tried by every possible means to persuade them to renounce their faith and to get the names of other Christians from them, but in vain. He failed to make them retract and they kept repeating: “We serve God as our ‘Great Father’; therefore we cannot worship the Lord while disobeying his commandments.”918 Both were repeatedly tortured but remained steadfast and declared: “It is impossible not to serve the almighty God, creator of heaven and earth, of the angels and of mankind. Not for anything in the world will I deny him: rather than fail in my duty to him, I would gladly suffer death.”919 In the end the governor of Jeon Ju made them write their final statements and submitted them, together with his own report, to the royal court. The king was very disturbed when he read the report and was unsure what his decision should be. While the different parties and pressure groups in government sided with either the rigorous trend or the more lenient one, the majority urged the king to postpone the execution order. Ch. Dallet relates the interrogation in detail920 and provides transcripts of the testimony of both detainees. Under formidable pressure the king yielded to the politicians and signed the death sentences for the offenders Yun Paul and Kweon James, who were executed on 8 December 1791. Their possessions were confiscated. A few days later the government posted notices of this incident in every town and village in order to intimidate the people and prevent new conversions. The Hong party hailed the beheading of the two Christians as a political victory as and decided to pursue their hunt for Christians and thirst for their wealth. The following is an excerpt from the governor’s report to the royal court: “Though the bodies of Yun Ji-chung and Kwon Sang-yeon were covered all over with blood, they did not even groan. They refused to renounce their

917 Ancestral tablets were small wooden artefacts on which the names of deceased family members were written. These tablets were always placed on high surfaces in the house and represented the soul of the deceased. Incense and sacrifices were placed before the tablets in recognition of the ancestors and to show solidarity with them. During funeral rituals the tablets served to commemorate the departed and make his/her soul remain among the living members of the family. People also burnt incense before the tablets and bowed to them as a sign of respect and communion. See Choi Ki-bok, “The abolition of ancestral rites and tablets by Catholicism in the Chosun dynasty and the basic meaning of Confucian ancestral rites”, 50. 918 Jeongjo Sillok or Annals of king Jonjo, 7 November 1791. 919 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 37–56. English translation in Kim Chang-mun Joseph & Chung Jae-sun John, Catholic Korea, yesterday and today (1784–1884), 40. 920 Ch. Dallet, Histoire de l’église, vol. 1, 37–56.


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faith in God saying, ‘God’s teaching is very strict, so we cannot disobey Him, though we may disobey our parents and the king.’ They said that it is a great honor to die for God under the blade of a knife.”921 After the executions government officials searched the region for more hidden Christians and used harsh methods to extract information from citizens. This persecution period proved to be a test of fire, among others for Yi Seung-hun Peter (the first Christian baptised in Beijing in 1784), who could not escape the antiChristian fury of the Hong party. While exercising his duties as provincial magistrate of Pyeong Taek, Yi Peter was accused of being a founder of the Christian movement by Hong Nak-an, who took him to the tribunal in Seoul. In essence Yi Seung-hun was accused of having imported Matteo Ricci’s The true meaning of the Lord of heaven, Mailla’s922 Cheong Je Chu Jao or Simple treatise to change the world, and Chavagnac’s923 Cheon Tao Jae Chaeng or A self-proving doctrine. Since Yi Seung-hun could not refute these accusations, he was found guilty as charged and was immediately removed from his post as magistrate. In the course of this interrogation, he claimed that his written statement of 1785 recanting his faith was still in force. This is interpreted by Choi Andreas as a second betrayal.924 Because of his high political position Yi Seung-hun was not tortured. Persecution caused other Christians to recant as well, either because they could not accept the official church’s failure to understand the cultural need of Korean society to maintain the ancestral rites, or because they were afraid that the wealth of the whole clan would be expropriated, and yet others because they were forced to do so under torture. 3.5.2 The second persecution period The second persecution took place in 1795 in the province of Seoul. The government had a well-founded suspicion that a Chinese missionary, Fr Zhou Wenmo James,925 had entered the country and was helping the Christian community. 921 Jeongjo Sillok or Annals of king Jonjo, 7 November 1791. 922 Joseph-Marie-Anne de Moriac de Mailla (1669–1748), a French Jesuit, wrote four books, which were brought into Korea. This book was first edited and published in Beijing in 1733 (L. Pfister, Notices, 600). 923 Emeric de Chavagnac, a French Jesuit who arrived in China in 1701 and died in 1717. It contains rational proofs of the Christian doctrine (L. Pfister, Notices, 570). 924 Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 46. 925 Father Zhou Wen-mo James was born in Su-Tcheou, Jiannam Province in China in 1752 and entered the diocesan seminary in Beijing, where he was ordained a priest Korean transliteration of his Chinese name). Once in Korea he received the Korean name of Ju Mun-mo . At the time bishop A. Gauvea of Beijing was trying to send one of his priests to Korea after receiving news of the progress of the Christian community there and the persecutions they were facing. Bishop Gauvea chose Fr Zhou James, probably for his physical resemblance to Korean people (Saint A. Daveluy, Notes pour l’histoire de Corée, 1860, vol. 4, 63–64, 116–117).

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Indeed, Korean Christians had decided in 1789 to send an embassy to the bishop of Beijing carrying a report on the situation after the martyrdom of Kim Beom-u Thomas in 1785.926 In the letter the Christians described their method of operation and the progressive increase in the number of new Christians, finally asking the bishop to send them a priest. Yun Yu-il Paul (1760–1795) was chosen to carry the letter to the bishop. He concealed it in his clothing and, disguising himself as a Korean merchant, left for Beijing in October 1789. He returned in the spring of 1790 and Christians began preparations to receive a priest, who managed to reach Seoul at the end of 1794.927 When leaving Beijing in 1791Yun Yu-il had promised the bishop to keep him updated about events in Korea, but the bishop got no direct news from Korea and what he did get was disturbing. From 1791 to 1794 the bishop was negotiating with the Holy See to obtain canonical jurisdiction over the Korean Christians, hitherto denied to him, which would entitle him to send them priests.928 The bishop also received a sum of money to help the Korean church. It was not until early in 1793 that bishop Gauvea finally received first-hand news from Yun Yu-il and Ji Hwang Sabbas; Ch. Dallet writes about a certain Po John,929 who arrived in Beijing in the entourage of the annual embassy. As a

926 Three letters were exchanged between Beijing and the Korean Christians in 1786, 1789 and 1790. The letters were originally written in Chinese; the original Chinese versions were lost and only French translations of them are kept in the archives. The full texts appear in Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 90–99. 927 During this period there was also correspondence between the bishop of Beijing and the Propaganda Fide offices in Rome, to be found in Scritture originali della congregazione particolare dell’Indie e Cina, 1790, 67, 443–444, 448–450. 928 In 1791 bishop Gauvea received from the congregation of Propaganda Fide ordinary and extraordinary powers to exercise pastoral ministry in Korea and in this capacity he was able to send Zhou Wen-mo to Korea so he could give Korean Christians access to all sacraments. In territories under Portuguese jurisdiction Chinese Christians were given Portuguese names and surnames, which is why Fr Zhou Wen-mo’s name was Fr Jacques Vellozo. Fr Zhou was the first Chinese from the seminary of Beijing to be ordained a priest. Aged 42, he left Beijing for Korea in February 1794, having received from his bishop ordinary and extraordinary powers to exercise his priestly ministry. He was met at the border by Korean Christians such as Chi Hwang Sabbas and Yun Yu-il Paul. They decided to remain there until there was a propitious moment to enter Korea. Only in January 1795 were Fr Zhou Wen-mo and his entourage able to make their way to Kyeong Ki province, where he resided at Choi In-kil Matthew’s home. 929 Choi Andreas observes that the family name Po, as pronounced in Chinese, does not have a Korean equivalent. He supposes that either bishop Gauvea or one of his copyists must have made a transcription error. Dallet (Histoire de l’église, vol. I, 70) writes of Yun Yu-Il Paul and not of Po John, the one to whom Gauvea would refer. If one accepts this version, it would mean that Yun Yu-il visited Beijing three times, while the internal Korean documents mention only two. There are documents recording Yun Yu-il’s journey to the border to help Fr Zhou Wen-mo enter Korea. See Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 48 n. 4.


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result of this visit bishop Gauvea let Fr James Zhou Wen-mo (1752–1801) travel to Korea in the company of Ji Hwang Sabbas and Yun Yu-il Paul, arriving in Seoul at the end of 1794. Fr Zhou’s arrival coincided with a relatively peaceful period in the region after the first bout of persecution in 1791 – a peace that Christians knew would not last if the authorities got to know about Fr Zhou’s presence in the land. Thanks to the missionary work of lay Christians Fr Zhou found a vigorous community of about 4.000 Christians in Seoul, the neighboring districts and the more remote villages he was able to visit. During the first few months of his stay he devoted himself to the study of the Korean language and baptised a good many people. He performed all the rituals ordinarily given by priests to catechumens, which had not been performed for the first group of Christians when lay people baptised them. He also administered the sacrament of confirmation. On 27 June 1795 a Christian apostate, Han Yeong-ik, informed the authorities of Fr Zhou’s presence.930 The political authorities at once sent soldiers to raid Choi In-kil Matthew’s (1765–1795)931 residence where Fr Zhou was believed to reside. Fortunately the soldiers did not find the Chinese priest, who, having been warned in advance, had been hidden at Kang Wan-sook Colomba’s932 residence.

930 Fr Zhou, although living in relative seclusion, used to receive many visitors. People would go to him for consultations, confession or catechesis. He never refused the sacraments to those who had made the necessary preparations and did not hesitate to receive his numerous visitors, welcoming them without suspicion. This was where Han Yeong-ik approached him to find out how he managed to get into the country and who had helped him do so. Having extracted this information, Han went to see Yi Byeok’s brother, a senior government official, and informed him about Fr Zhou. Soon the leader of one of the factions got to know about him and persuaded the king to issue a royal decree forcing the minister of justice to arrest the priest, but to do so secretly. 931 Xu was his Chinese name, probably because he was very fluent in Chinese. He had received catechesis directly from Yi Byeok and was baptised in 1784. Because of his training he was among those chosen by Yi Seung-hun to teach and preside over liturgies (letter from Mgr de Gauvea dated 15 August 1797, Archives of the congregation of Propagandas Fide, Scritture referite nei congressi, f. 550–558). 932 Kang Wan-sook Colomba was a wealthy widow belonging to the yangban class. She was born in the Nae-Pho district in Chung Cheong province. A bright, eloquent and magnanimous lady, she had been married to Hong Chi-yong of Teok San county, from the same province as his second wife. When Christianity arrived in the area she was the first member of a noble family to embrace the faith and became part of the new movement. She converted her family and actively spread the new religion. During the 1791 persecution she was arrested while trying to bring food to Christian detainees and was kept in prison for several days. Hong Chi-yong, her husband, was afraid that her commitment to the new religion would bring disgrace on his whole family and divorced her. After the divorce Colomba moved to her mother-in-law’s house in Seoul, and it is here that she was baptised by Fr Zhou and kept him when the authorities raided his previous abode. Fr Zhou appointed her catechist and she became the first Korean woman of the time to engage in intellectual activity and literary creation.

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The authorities arrested Yun Yu-il Paul and Ji Hwang Sabbas, the two persons who had helped Fr Zhou enter the country,933 and Choi In-kil Matthew, who were cruelly tortured in order to discover the whereabouts of Fr Zhou. The persecutors, realising that they would not betray Fr Zhou, beat them to death on 28 June 1795 and their bodies were thrown into the Han River.934 Bishop Gauvea wrote about the martyrdom of the two people, whom he knew personally and who had helped Fr Zhou: “To the question of the persecutor: ‘do you worship Jesus who died on the cross?’ they both replied courageously: ‘yes, we do.’ When they were asked to renounce their faith in Christ, they declared: ‘we are ready to die a thousand times rather than to renounce our faith in our true Savior Jesus Christ. Matthias Choi was one of the first catechists that Peter Yi Seung-hun selected to proclaim the faith. He was one of the prominent Catholics, who were committed to spreading the glory of God with faith, zeal and devotion.”935 King Chong-jo was reluctant to take the rigorous measures against Christians that the rabid opponents of the Namin (Southern) party advised him to take, because he was afraid that action against a Chinese national could jeopardise political relations between the two countries. His timid character, as Choi points out,936 and his desire to remain neutral in political factional disputes explain why the king never proclaimed an edict of complete proscription of the Christian religion. Nevertheless Christians continued to suffer harassment, arbitrary detention, torture and many other persecutions even after the two persecution periods of 1791 and 1795 had officially ended. The second persecution officially lasted one year. It was meticulously planned to target the wealthiest members of the Namin party and cruelly and mercilessly carried out. The authorities again blamed the disruption of national life that Christianity was causing on Yi Seung-hun, Yi Ka-hwan and Jeong Yak-jong. The first two were most detested by the members of the No-ron (old school) party. The king, with great reluctance, was obliged to exile Yi Seung-hun, who had already recanted on his faith twice, to Ye-San province, confiscate his property, and declare him and his entire family disgraced. After Fr Zhou had learnt the language and become familiar with the sociopolitical situation and the ways of the Korean people, he was aided by the

933 Ibid., Yun Yu-il Paul, Choe In-gil Matthew & Ji Hwang Sabbas. Letter by Mgr de Gauvea dated 15 August 1797. 934 Saint A. Daveluy, Notices des principaux martyrs de Corée, 1858, vol. 5, 93–94; Saint A. Daveluy, Notes pour l’histoire des martyrs de Corée, 1860, vol. 4, 32–33, 56. Also see letter by Mgr de Gauvea dated 15 August 1797. 935 Letter of Mgr de Gauvea to bishop J. Didier de St Martin, 1797, in Scritture riferite nei congressi 39, 550–558. 936 Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 52.


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community (more particularly by women)937 and the Christian movement grew steadily. On king Jongjo’s death in 1801 Fr Zhou wrote a long letter (La lettre des Coréens938) informing his bishop in Beijing about the terrible situation of the Catholic Christians in Korea following the martyrdom of his closest collaborators: “Après 1795, chaque année il y eut de nombreuses épreuves; cela tient à deux causes. L’une est que le précédent roi, soupçonnant et craignant le prête, voulait absolument arriver à le découvrir; l’autre, que les No-ron, jalousant les Nam-in, faisaient tous leurs efforts pour les abattre.”939 This letter was written on silk, which had already become a way of concealing printed material from being intercepted at international border checkpoints. 3.5.3 The third persecution: Shin-Yu940 persecution of 1801 The previous two regional persecutions paved the way for a third, which took place in 1801–1802 and affected the whole kingdom of Korea. It was nationwide, because the political authorities had decided to make use of the new political climate created by the sudden death of king Jeong-jo in May 1800 at the age of 45 and the ascension to the throne of dowager queen Kim Cheonsoon,941 who swore to eradicate all Christians from every hiding place where previous persecutions had forced them to live. Obviously the forced exile of Christians running to hide in the deep forests resulted in missionary activity and the expansion of Christianity wherever they went. Christians working as potters and others as travelling merchants would go from house to house and village to village selling their merchandise. As a sideline they propagated their faith. Indeed, they continued proselytising and spreading their teachings and activities, and the number of Christians is believed to have increased considerably throughout the nation, particularly in remote areas where the military and police were scarce. 937 Fr Zhou owed much to Kang Colomba’s dedication and prudence. Taking advantage of the provision of the Korean law that exempted noblewomen from undergoing punishment, she disregarded the official ban on Catholicism and continued to spread the gospel both in Seoul and the surrounding countryside. She also protected many girls and taught them to read and write, and educated them in Christian values as well. These girls in turn made more converts among their own families and acquaintances, and their husbands’ once they were married. 938 Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 50 939 Quoted by Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 50 940 Ri, Sangbae Jean, Confucius et Jésus Christ, 32. 941 Ki-baik Lee, A new history of Korea, 240. Also Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 54. As soon as the funeral was over, the dowager queen order the dismantlement of the traditional four parties (Si-saek or Si-pha) and, together with her henchmen, decided to take revenge on the Namin party, which had exercised an important influence on the now deceased king. She immediately started apprehending the leading members of the Christian communities.

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King Chong-jo, in spite of being forced to publish decrees banning Christianity, was sympathetic to the Seohak school and had Christians among his top advisors, such as Jeong Yak-yong John Baptist.942 At the time of his death his successor, Sun-jo, was still in his early teens, and the dowager queen Kim Cheon-soon, second wife of king Jeong-jo’s grandfather, became regent for the boy king.943 She was immediately enmeshed in the endemic factional strife of Korean politics and published an edict ordering a round-up of all Christians by encouraging families to unmask their own members who had converted to Christianity. Prominent members of Ye-pha (Old Party) used the suppression of heterodox religions as an opportunity to promote their cause and thus gain direct access to the central power. These people were only too happy to carry out the task, because they had long resented the dead king’s sympathy with the Namin or Southern party, many of whom became Catholics. This is how La lettre des Coréens describes the situation in the country after the queen’s accession to the throne: Elle appartenait, originailement aux Piek-pa, aussi sa famille avait-elle été tenue à l’écart par le feu roi, et pendant longtemps elle n’avait pu satisfaire des rancunes accumulées durant des années, quand inopinément elle se trouva au pouvoir. Aussitôt elle s’appuya sur les Piek-pa pour assouvoir sa vengeance. A la onzième lune de 1800, les funérailles du précédent roi à peine achevées, tout le parti Si-pa fut destitué, et la cour se trouva à moitié vide. Tous les méchants qui depuis longtemps cherchaient à nuire à la religion étaient alliés aux Piek-pa; en voyant le changement qui s’opérait, ils se levèrent tous ensemble avec éclat, et ce fut un véritable ruée.944

Because a royal funeral, according to the protocol of the time, used to take place five months after the monarch’s demise, the great persecution of 1801 – which claimed the lives of more than 300 Catholic believers in Seoul and its vicinity alone, including female members of the royal clan such as Yi Sun-i Lutgarda – did not begin until October. This persecution was systematic and nationwide and it saw the martyrdom of the most prominent scholars and leaders of the Christian community. The Catholic movement was left with no outstanding intellectual leader. As soon as the persecution began the name of Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine, the writer of a catechism, topped the list. His books had already been sent to the government office. Jeong Augustine was arrested soon after new year 1801 and taken to the supreme court. During interrogations he did not try to avoid suffering, but declared his faith: “There is nothing wrong with worshipping the Lord but it is right and proper… God is ‘our Great King and the Great Father of Heaven and Earth.’ If we do not understand the reason why we must worship

942 Yun Dong-hwan, Dasan Cheong, Yak-yong, 30–40. 943 Ki-Baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 252. Also Jahyun Kim Haboush, The Confucian kingship in Korea, 232–235. 944 Quoted by Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 52.


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God, we are sinners under heaven, and though we are alive we are dead.”945 Two weeks after his arrest Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine was beheaded outside the So Seo Moon (small west gate)946 of Seoul. Yi Seung-hun Peter, the first Christian to be baptised, who had twice apostasiesed, also died for being the initiator and instigator of the Christian movement.947 The two Jeong brothers, the eldest Yak-jon and the youngest Yak-yong, were exiled to the extreme southwestern province of Cholla. Two days later Yi Tan-won was executed. On 13 April Yi Chung-pae, Won John, Im Heui-yeong, Choi Chang-ju and Jung Jong-ho were executed in Yeo Chu county. Yu Han-sook and Yun James (whose brother Yun Yu-il had traveled to Beijing twice and was martyred in 1795) were executed in Yang Keun county. On the same day Song Maria, wife of prince Eun-eon, and Shin Maria, widow of prince Sang-kye, were imprisoned by royal order. Kang Wan-suk Colomba, the Christian woman who hid Fr Zhou James in her house, was tortured a number of times so that she would disclose his whereabouts, but she never confessed. She was beheaded outside Seoul on 22 May 1801. Catholic historians refer to this particularly devastating persecution of 1801 as the Shin-Yu948 massacre. In order to fight the Christian movement more effectively the royal government started the year 1801 by creating a special tribunal to judge the cases of Christians. It was consolidated into the Tribunal for Crimes against the State, which had special powers to impose death sentences without appeal. An “Imperial message prohibiting the evil learning”, promulgated on 10 February 1801, began as follows: His late Majesty always maintained that with proper elucidation of the True Learning [Confucian Classics] the Evil Learning would die out of itself. Now, however, we hear that the Evil Learning flourishes from the capital to the remotest provinces… Provincial governors and county magistrates must open the eyes of the ignorant and ensure that the followers of the Evil Learning abandon it with all sincerity, while those who do not follow it must be warned against coming under its influence. In this way the great achievements of His late Majesty in ensuring the prosperity of his people will not be imperiled. After the promulgation of this edict all who disobey will be considered as rebels, guilty of high treason. Every magistrate is to enforce the Five-Family System of Collective Responsibility and ensure that the head of each unit of five families shall immediately denounce any who persist in following the Evil Learning. All such persons are to receive condign punishment so as to root out the Evil

945 Saint A. Daveluy, Notices des principaux martyrs de Corée, 1858, vol. 5, 107–108. 946 Today a simple memorial, located in a beautifully kept garden, records the names of all those valiant scholars and Christians who were martyred for their faith and their effort to transform the society in which they lived. 947 It is sad to contemplate the violent death of the first of the Christian group, who did so much for the formation of the Catholic community, being rebuked and abandoned by both government officials and his fellow Christians. 948 It is called Shin-Yu, because this new year was the first in the Oriental 60-year cycle of an adult person’s life and coincided with the first year of the reign of the new boy king.

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Learning once and for all and leave no trace of it remaining. Such is our royal will: let it be made known and carried out, both in the capital and in the provinces.949

Before turning to the causes of these persecutions it is worth considering Fr Zhou Wen-mo’s story. Information about his last moments in Korea (as well as the details of the cruel deaths of many other martyrs) was written on 29 October 1801 on what is called Hwang Sa-yong Alexandre’s Letter on silk to Mgr de Gauvea, bishop of Beijing. Kim Yeo-sam is a native of Chung Chong Province. After being baptized, he and his two brothers moved to Seoul to take refuge from persecution. Recently he apostasized and joined a gang of villains, ignoring his brother’s dissuasions. As a result Yi An-jeong, a wealthy Catholic of Seoul, discontinued his financial support of the impoverished Kim, who began to nurse a grudge. This led him to lay information against Father Chou with the police. Fortunately a Catholic discovered this in time and was able to warn Kang Won-sook Colomba, with whom he had been staying, and to enable him to escape. After that Kim went on associating with gangsters and planning further mischief. Another Catholic, seeing danger ahead, called on Kang Won-sook Colomba and asked her to introduce him to Father Chou. He had found two places in the country, which would be safe to hide in during the coming trouble. Colomba, however, told him that the priest had departed, so the Catholic, six days later, also left with his family for a remote district. Soon afterward Jeong Yak-jong was arrested (on the eleventh of the second moon in 1801) and subjected to torture, but refused to disclose where the priest was staying. On the twenty-fourth of the same month Kang Colomba and her son Hong Phil-ju were arrested and ordered to reveal the priest’s whereabouts. They steadfastly refused, so Kang Colomba’s maidservant was arrested and severely beaten also. The maid thereupon told what she knew; and when Kang Colomba was confronted with the maid’s testimony she admitted that she had indeed sheltered the priest in the past, but was now no longer in touch with him and did not know where he was staying.950

After the execution of Kang Colomba a description of Fr Zhou was circulated throughout the country and a reward offered for any information leading to his arrest. At this point Fr Zhou, believing that this persecution was because of him and that his presence in Korea was the reason why Catholics were being treated so harshly, decided to return to China. With great ingenuity and at the risk of his life he was able to evade the many police checkpoints the government had set up and arrived safely at the international border. He was just one step away from his own country. At this point he experienced a revulsion of feeling951 at the thought of abandoning his persecuted Korean Christian brethren and 949 Yi Neung-Hoa, Histoire du Christianisme et de la diplomacie Koréene, Seoul: Official Documentation Archives of the Korean Government, 1928. English translation in Kim Chang-mun Joseph & Chung Jae-sun John, Catholic Korea, yesterday and today (1784–1884), 52–53. 950 Park Do-sik, Étude sur la missive d’Alexandre Hwang Sa-yong, Paris: doctoral thesis, University of Paris VII, 1976. Fr Park passed away in June 2004 and I have his unpublished doctoral thesis. English translation from Kim Chang-mun Joseph & Chung Jae-sun John, Catholic Korea, yesterday and today (1784–1884), 54–55. 951 Hwang Sa-yong Alexandre’s Letter on silk to Mgr de Gauvea, bishop of Beijing.


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went straight back to Seoul, where he presented himself at the high court of justice, declaring “I am a Catholic believer. I have heard of the government’s ban on Catholic religion, and of the killing of many innocent people and wish to join the ranks of death.”952 Because he was a Chinese national there was a month’s delay in deciding his case, but he was finally sentenced to death by decapitation. On 31 May, Trinity Sunday, he was executed. Hwang Sa-yong Alexandre’s Letter on silk to Mgr de Gauvea, bishop of Beijing has already been mentioned a couple of times. Before concluding this section it is worth giving some more details. Hwang Sa-yong, a native of ChangWon in the province of Kyeong Sang, had been baptised by Fr Zhou with the Christian name of Alexandre. Blessed with a brilliant intellect, he had astonished the civil service examiners by obtaining the degree of Chin-sa at the age of only seventeen. At the outbreak of the 1801 persecution Hwang Alexandre took refuge in a remote mountain village in Je-Cheon province. Aware that he was a key figure in the group of the Evil Religion, the regent queen issued a special warrant for his arrest. From his hideout he wrote953 to the bishop of Beijing on 29 October 1801, reporting the distressing circumstances of the Korean church and appealing for help. The letter refers first to the cultural barrier: since learning a foreign language is a difficult task, it suggests that a Korean be sent to Beijing to teach his language to potential missionaries954 and at the same time establish contact with the right people, who could facilitate the entrance of missionaries to Korea. The letter reports the present size of the Christian communities as a consequence of Fr Zhou’s pastoral work, followed by a short biography of each of the martyrs. The arrest and martyrdom of Fr Zhou is also recounted. Finally the letter proposes appealing to Christian countries in Europe to send a number of warships to protect the Christians in Korea. This final statement was bound to exacerbate the situation of Christians, who now stood accused of collaborating with foreign powers. The letter955 was entrusted to Ok Cheon-heui for delivery to Beijing, but he was searched as he was about to cross the border and arrested. His arrest triggered the arrest of other Christians, including Hwang Sa-young himself, who was

952 Ibid. 953 This letter was written on a silk scroll 62 cm long by 38 cm wide, and contained 13.000 Chinese characters. The High Court of Justice preserved the Silk Letter for a hundred years until the 1894 political reforms when it was discovered by bishop Mutel, who presented it to pope Pius XI (1922–1939) on the occasion of the beatification of the 79 Korean martyrs in Rome on 5 July 1925. 954 Interestingly, he does not mention the possibility of sending a Korean to Beijing to be trained as a priest. This happened only after the arrival of the French missionaries, who did send a number of Korean seminarians abroad to be trained for the priesthood. 955 Park Do-sik, Étude sur la missive d’Alexandre Hwang Sa-yong, 79.

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brought to court, convicted of high treason, beheaded and his body dismembered. His parents, wife and children were exiled and his estate and property confiscated. When the young Korean monarch was finally old enough to assume his royal powers he published a decree on 25 January 1802, in which he ordered an end to the religious persecution and the release of all Christian prisoners not condemned to capital punishment. He did not, however, revoke the proscription of the Evil Learning.956 3.5.4 Summary of the motives for the persecutions According to Prof. Choi957 the third persecution had three clear motives. Firstly, it was a political revenge by the most conservative yangban group on the most progressive yangban, the Namin party, who were considered to have betrayed orthodox Confucian identity and its ethical principles on which nationhood was based, particularly in its manifestations of hyodo (filial piety) towards the king and the rituals that symbolised it.958 Prof. Choi is convinced of the political motivation of the persecutions because of the legal process of trial and execution that was put in place specifically for Christians. All Christian detainees were brought before the Tribunal for Crimes against the State, the sole court authorised to judge cases of high treason and misdemeanours of the yangban and royalty. This court was competent to hand down death sentences against which there was no appeal. However, Christianity per se cannot be ruled out as a motivation. The conservative party did not target non-Christian members of the Namin party, who were no less critical of the yangban and were also considered heterodox in their thinking and praxis. Only Christians were targeted because they were Christians. A second motive was the Christians’ contact with the Western world. The ruling yangban saw contact with the West (and thus with missionaries in China) as extremely dangerous. Missionaries were considered a direct threat to the stability and unity of the kingdom. This second reason leads to the third motivation. The fact that Hwang Alexandre’s Letter on Silk asked the bishop of Beijing to intercede with European Christian countries to send warships to Korea to persuade the Korean government to stop the massacre of Christian believers could rightly have been interpreted by the ruling yangban as interference in state affairs. Thus Christians or followers of the Evil Religion could well have 956 Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 53. 957 Ibid., 45–50. Also see Park Hyunmo, “King Jeongjo’s political role in the conflicts between Confucianism and Catholicism in eighteenth-century Korea”, in The Review of Korean Studies 7, 4, 2004, 205–228. 958 See chapter 3, note 130 about class divisions as well as notes 92 and 130 on factionalism in Korean political and social life.


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been seen as a group in direct collision with the interests of their own country. They would be considered enemies from within. Some foreign countries in fact had military forces in the region to force Korea to open its hermetically closed borders.959 The Russian, British and French governments were forging ahead to gain access to China, Korea and Japan. In the eyes of the ruling yangban there were far too many coincidences between the goals of the Christian groups and the foreign fleets ready to enter Korea, if necessary by force. But according to Choi Andreas this political reason was an exaggeration of the Christians’ political ability to persuade foreign powers to invade Korea and stop the mass killings.960 In my view we need to examine the motives for the persecutions in the broader context of a clash between two worldviews. The persecutions can be considered a reaction against precisely the transformation that Christians wanted to bring about. Hence I see it as a conflict in three different areas: the worldviews of both the defenders of orthodoxy and the proponents of Western learning; the social model to be adopted; and a clash of cultures. I will explain these areas in the following sections. 3.5.4.1 Persecution on intellectual grounds During the last quarter of the 18th century the influx of Western powers into the East reached Chosun. Thus the Yi dynasty came into contact with Seohak or Western thought, which included both secular Western culture and Christianity. As seen earlier,961 the Yi dynasty had established Confucian philosophy as the national culture and backbone of the political system from the start. It had legitimised it on three grounds: the interaction of li and ki to produce an order in which the monarch guaranteed well-being for all; the ethical principle of hyeodo (filial piety) as the guarantor of social and familial order; and the social articulation of these relationships by way of ritual.962 With the arrival of Christianity the established social structure was seriously challenged. One of the sacred institutions it questioned was family relationships, which extended to relations with the king. To deny the king absolute power and make him accountable to the Lord of heaven – now seen as the sovereign ruler, creator and final judge who granted heaven to good people and hell to evil people – was considered a threat to the very existence of the national order, as noted already. Even more dangerous were the Christian demands for

959 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 261ff. 960 Choi Suk-Woo, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, 57. 961 See 3.1.2. 962 Keum Chang-thae, “The doctrinal disputes between Confucianism and Western thought in the late Chosun period”, 7.

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social reform, equality of men and women before God, the dignity of children and the accessibility of education through the use of Han-Geul. 3.5.4.2 Persecution relating to social reform For the neo-Confucian scholars another irritating aspect of the progressive young intellectuals of the upcoming generation was their advocacy of social transformation through reforms aimed at solving current problems by introducing new standards and logic. As we have seen, a serious endemic problem was poor agricultural production, due mainly to bad land distribution. This period can rightly be called the Korean Renaissance.963 Intellectuals like Jeong Yak-yong (Dasan) were gifted with encyclopaedic knowledge and produced literary works in all fields of knowledge, from philosophy and theology to geography, astronomy, the social and political sciences, agriculture and new production techniques. Using this knowledge, the progressive intellectuals harshly criticised the political powers for not helping those citizens most in need. Korea was in fact a feudal kingdom, in which corruption and favoritism were rife, hence it desperately needed to change its obsolete, closed system. To make their faith more acceptable to their intellectual peers Christian intellectuals proposed first to go back to the study of the Confucian classics to retrieve the paradisiacal dream of sage-rulers, who would be models of ethical morality and rule for the benefit and well-being of the masses. Yi Byeok explained Christian faith as a fulfilment of that Confucian dream, not its adversary. 3.5.4.3 Persecution due to different worldviews The persecutions were mainly due to a clash of two worldviews. In the early days of the spread of Christianity the intellectuals’ interest in it did not go beyond academic curiosity. Although some did start practising Christian customs, it was limited to the introduction of a few books and Western artefacts. This soon changed, however, and Christianity evolved into a religious movement as young scholars immersed themselves in the study and practice of Western knowledge and adopted its religion. Religious practice rapidly gained momentum and was perceived as a serious threat to the established order. Scholars who opposed the transition from learning for the sake of knowledge to religious practice (e.g. Yi Ik and Shin Hu-dam) criticised the Western religion as irrational and superstitious, on a par with Buddhism and Taoism, and as a dangerous tool which could destroy the existing social order. They wished to maintain that order and promote economic and technological change, while Christian intellectuals like Yi Byeok, Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine and even his youngest brother Dasan proposed radical social change based on God’s will. It

963 Ki-baik Yi, A new history of Korea, 270.


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was in this context that a potentially fatal clash of interests arose. In fact, without these scholars realising it, they were involved in an encounter between two worldviews. None of them were prepared to confront the difference, and the Western worldview was perceived as an encroachment on others’ territory. Whilst initially there were efforts to harmonise the two cultures, they were not determined enough to reconcile or harmonise the two, resulting in antagonism and bitter opposition. As Keum Chang-tae explains, “we may still today be faced with the same antagonism and opposing worldviews in modern Korea.”964 The two cultures met too suddenly and too directly. They lacked mediation or opportunity to get to understand each other. Both cultures were ill prepared to make the best of the encounter. Hence one could say that the ideological confrontation between the neo-Confucian thought of 18th century Korea and the Christian message was not simply the product of neo-Confucians’ irrational refusal to give Western doctrine and ideas a fair hearing. In the king-sage model of classic Confucian literature there was a clear call for social change and betterment of the living standards of peasants: the ruler’s ability to impose his authority needed to be based on principles of righteousness, justice and fairness for all. Originally Confucianism, a philosophy capable of ushering in good social values and well-being, was a reaction against the Buddhist and Taoist social structure, which left the masses of people to poverty and moral dissoluteness with no attempt at changing that. Confucianism sought to create a canon for a rational, practicable social order.965 The spring and autumn annals was a strong criticism of the failure of Confucian ideals to benefit the poor and improve their wretched condition. When Seohak embraced Christianity along with Western learning, Christians criticised the social order and the causes of mass poverty created by a corrupt political system. But they did not stop there: they claimed that the Lord of heaven was absolute, that his religion was the sole truth and that all should embrace it. This absolute stance was one of the aspects that angered many Korean scholars, as became painfully clear in the way Christians were treated when they opposed ancestral rites. The two positions could not find common ground. Christianity was perceived as a foreign religion enforcing its ways conquest-style: as Matteo Ricci’s The true meaning of the Lord of heaven was introduced in Korea, many Korean scholars were astonished to find that it was Confucianism asking the questions and that Christianity answered them, and to finally realise that Confucius bowed to the Westerner’s logic and explanations. This was completely unacceptable.

964 Keum Chang-thae, “The doctrinal disputes between Confucianism and Western thought in the late Chosun period”, 8. 965 Ibid., 10.

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The threefold clash – worldviews, social model to be pursued, and different cultures – ended tragically and aggression against Christians continued throughout the 19th century. Despite all the suffering and bloodshed the encounter of worldviews was not fruitless, and from the perspective of missionary praxis it challenges us today not to tackle differences aggressively but to try to find common ground with the other. 3.5.5 Aftermath of the 1801 persecution966 The year 1801 had dawned with horrible oppression and repression and drew to a close with heroic martyrdom. The short rule of the regent queen was fragile, because a power struggle arose between two branches of her family, the Kim clan from Kyeong Ju and the Kim clan from An Dong. It ended when, in late 1802, the young monarch Sunjo reached the age to rule.967 Christians, taking advantage of the new political situation, came out of their hiding places and started organising themselves again in small communities. However, a letter by Sin Tae-bo, Peter (?–1839)968 clearly depicts the damage the persecution and martyrdom of the leadership had caused: The persecution had at last subsided, it is true, but we were all dispersed and isolated, and had lost our prayer books. The surviving relatives of several of the martyrs were now living in the district of Yong In and after protracted search I succeeded in finding them. There were only a few elderly women and some young people, little more than children, in all five households, related to one another. They were friendless and without means. They hardly dared to speak to strangers and trembled with fear at the mention of religion. They possessed several prayer books and copies of explanations of the Gospels, but all hidden away with the utmost care.969

Gone were the leaders of the Catholic community and the surviving Christians, who were mostly poor and illiterate, were left pretty much to their fate. Books and religious objects had been destroyed. The remaining Christians did not, however, remain idle. In March 1811 Kwon John sent a secret letter to the bishop of Beijing, describing in great detail the situation of Christians around

966 Choi Suk-Woo’s doctoral thesis, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique, continues with the study of the aftermath of the persecution of 1801 and describes in detail the establishment of the first Korean apostolic vicariate. 967 Ki-baik Lee, A new history of Korea, 240. 968 Sin Tae-bo Peter, born near Yong In, Gyeonggi province, became a Christian around 1795. Although little is known about him, his later writings indicate that he had a good education. He wished to meet Fr Zhou in order to receive the sacraments of confirmation and the eucharist, but never succeeded in meeting him. After the Shinyu massacre of 1801–1802 he started visiting villages accommodating Christians who went into hiding during the persecution. He also began transcribing into Han-Geul Christian books, most of which had been burnt. He was beheaded on 29 May 1839 at the age of about 70. See Saint A. Daveluy, Notices des principaux martyrs de Corée, 1858, vol. 5, 78–81. 969 Joseph Chang-mun Kim & John Jae-sun Chun, Catholic Korea, 78.


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the country during the past ten years and urgently appealing for missionary priests. Christians were afraid to express their faith and many resorted to mendicancy to survive.970 At the end of 1813 Yi Yeo-jin took another secret letter to the bishop of Beijing, in which he described the outbreak of fresh persecutions against Catholic believers in the province of Chung Chong the previous year. Another letter was sent to pope Pius VII, who at the time was held captive at Fontainebleau by emperor Napoleon,971 begging for missionary priests to be sent to Korea. The Vatican was aware of the situation in Korea from a letter sent by Mgr de Gauvea, bishop of Beijing in 1807 just a year before his death, in which he laments the loss of the intellectual leadership during the persecutions. Prof. Andres Choi’s study of the Korean Christian groups continues from the time of the persecution of 1801–1802 to 1837, when the Korean Catholic Church was officially proclaimed an apostolic vicariate.972

3.6 Conclusion: the laity’s kenotic missionary approach The aim of this chapter was to explore the encounter between Christianity and neo-Confucianism – West and East – in late 18th century Korea: what historical circumstances prompted that encounter; what missionary method was applied to create a Christian community capable of offering practical solutions to better the lives of the poor and prepared to give their lives in the process; the challenges they faced; and how they responded to them. The spirit of the Christian community they created, the ecclesiology they tried to establish and the missionary method they practised are proposed as a model to be emulated by the apathetic European Christians of our time. The aim of this chapter, then, was to look at a concrete Christian community and its method of doing mission and propose it as a model for today’s ecclesiastic institutions to take decisions aimed at changing from a clergy-centred missionary praxis to one in which the laity becomes the spearhead of mission. From this excursion into the history of Korean Christianity, the way it was introduced and practised, and the deep influence it had on society, the kenotic model applied by lay men and women emerges as a remarkable and amazing one. The missionary method of the Korean Christians is characterised as kenotic, first, because – in contrast to the method used by missionaries in Thailand – it was a coherent lifestyle imitating the life of the historical 970 The French version of the letter, written on 18 December 1811, appears in Andreas Choi, L’erection du premier vicariate apostolique, 63–64. 971 English translations of all these letters appear in Joseph Chang-mun Kim & John Jae-sun Chun, Catholic Korea, 80–89. 972 Andreas Choi, L’erection du premier vicariat apostolique.

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Jesus,973 who did not wish to impose a religion on others and thus did not disqualify or belittle anyone. Second, the kenotic missionaries were not ordained ministers but lay people with family and social responsibilities, who thirsted for higher moral and socio-economic standards, felt compassion for the poor and wished to do something about it.974 Third, because of their compassion for the poor, the practitioners of the kenotic model used intellectual and scientific knowledge to ameliorate social suffering. Like the Shilhak school, Christian scholars believed that the Western world was better equipped, both intellectually and technically, to make a difference.975 Fourth, the practitioners of the kenotic model, the majority belonging to upper social classes, ‘emptied’ [ekenosen] themselves of their status and, following the kenosis of Jesus Christ, made themselves like the poor and the outcasts of society, becoming servants and laying down their lives in congruence with their faith. Fifth, their ekenosen paved the way for social transformation, if not immediately, at least in the consciousness of the citizens that kept the flame of human dignity and values alive up to the present time.976 One could say that this kenotic model was a clear sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the world.977 The Korean neo-Confucian scholars carried the seeds of the Holy Spirit’s revelation in them. They had faith even before they were officially baptised. It was the Holy Spirit, taking advantage of the sociological circumstances, that enlightened them and guided them through the process of 973 Chapter XXXV of Jeong Yak-Jong Augustine’s Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, the catechism which was the handbook for the Christian missionaries, narrates the life of Jesus: his incarnation, miracles, ministry to the poor and the sick, his passion, death and resurrection, seen from the perspective of the redemption of humanity. 974 A thirst for learning and self-cultivation, striving for higher moral standards and concern for the betterment of the lives of the poor were aims that Christians shared with progressive neo-Confucian scholars. The difference was that the Christians were motivated, not by the ideal of the king-sage, but by the principle of creation, in which God was seen as the absolute Monarch, who created all human beings equal. See Jeong Yak-jong Augustine, Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s Teaching, I. 975 Joe J. Wanne, A cultural history of modern Korea, 714–715. 976 Adrian Buzo, The making of modern Korea. Asia’s transformation, London/New York: Routledge, 2002, 22. Buzo refers to the January 1919’s Independence Walk at Pagoda Park against Japanese colonial rule, in which the majority of the leaders were Christians, burning the torch of Christian values as the basis for nationhood. 977 In She who is: the mystery of God in feminist theology, 127 Elizabeth Johnson sings a hymn to the Holy Spirit’s presence in the world. Whether the Spirit is pictured as the warmth and light of the sun, life-giving water from a spring or a flower filled with seeds by the roots, what we are actually symbolising is God drawing near and passing through the midst of historical struggle as a vivifying, sustaining, renewing and liberating power. So profound is this truth that whenever people speak generically of God, their experience of God or God’s acts in the world, more often than not they are referring to the Spirit, if a triune perspective were introduced.


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discovering the meaning of life.978 This Spirit guidance was experienced as a transforming encounter. The actions of the Korean Christians were aimed at transforming the rigid social structure of their times into a more flexible one in which a free, practical, sincere (shil, shilhak) approach to life prevailed. Theirs was a mission for social transformation with a political thrust, and it appears to have been the main reason they were persecuted. The Korean kenotic model of mission was not accommodation either. Although at first Yi Byeok was eager to present Christianity as not conflicting with Confucian ideas,979 he was not using Matteo Ricci’s missionary method of cuius regio eius religio. Korean missionary praxis was free from European imperialism. That may be why they were able to take bold decisions, like appointing lay people to celebrate the eucharist and administer other sacraments. In contrast with the missionaries in Thailand and in China, such as Matteo Ricci and the foreign missionaries they met in Beijing, the Korean Christians had not been trained as priests or missionaries in seminaries. They were people of the world. Many of them were married, had children and had to earn a living. They had to cope with many problems of their own. Some of the intelligentsia were frustrated by their inability to better their status as government officials because the yangban controlled access to higher positions. But this does not seem to have been a reason for embracing Christianity. More important was the lack of access to the outside world. Society was kept in a closet, so to speak. The poor and those who had been labelled outcasts by the upper class could not change their status either. However, their dilemma – caught between fidelity to the neo-Confucian principle of filial piety and the oppression they experienced as a result of the overly narrow, formal and political interpretation of filial piety – made them welcome the new ideas from the West as a refreshing liberation. In these ideas they found faith in Jesus Christ. To use the Augustinian expression, they were desperately searching for God, because God had already found them. Christians became both active and creative in the way they adapted beliefs to their everyday needs and challenges. In sharp contrast with missionaries to Thailand and China, who were protected both economically and militarily, the first Korean Christians were left to themselves to organise their missionary activities. They had only a few books to guide them, with plenty of biblical texts found in the Roman lectionary and prayer books 978 Cf. Arnulf Camps, Studies in mission history, 160. Arnulf Camps affirms that contextual theology implies theologising on the premise of the good that already exists. The religious symbols, liberation, aspirations and sacred writings that sustain those dreams mean that God is already present. See also J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam, 89. In Francis of Assisi’s sojourn among the Saracens he experienced that the Spirit of God was already at work among them, because it was his deepest conviction that everything that is good, wherever it is found, comes from God. 979 See section 3.2.3 above.

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for their devotional needs. They made some visits to missionaries in Beijing during end-of-year embassies to pay taxes to the Chinese rulers. They had the company of a Chinese priest briefly from 1794 to 1801, but he could not possibly visit all the Christian communities spread over the country. And they exchanged some letters with the bishop of Beijing. That was all. However, they did organise themselves. Throughout Korea they set up small communities with special people appointed to celebrate the eucharist and the sacraments, and to explain the Christian faith and the lives of the saints. In these groups women played a leading role by teaching catechism, organising charitable activities for the benefit of the destitute, encouraging the community to stay faithful, and finally by suffering martyrdom. In sharp contrast with European missionaries, too busy protecting the privileges of the ecclesiastic and political authorities who sent them, Koreans created Christian communities at the grassroots. Leaders who celebrated the eucharist placed themselves on an equal footing with their congregation, as they did not know the power, glory and paraphernalia attached to the sacrament. For them faith was not a tool used to succeed in politics but a conviction one lives by in order to transform first oneself and then society to make a better world. For that they were even prepared to die. Two practical insights for today’s Christian communities can be gained from the amazing experience of the Korean Christians. The first is the need to move towards a lay-powered kenotic missionary method based on personal encounter with the historical Jesus as narrated in the Bible, rather than on doctrinal and dogmatic data of an apologetic nature.980 If Korean Christians were capable of making important decisions on the implementation of the Christian faith and transmitting it to their compatriots, it was because of their thirst for moral integrity and higher intellectual knowledge, as well as their proximity to the aspirations and everyday sufferings of the people in the Gospel narratives. I cite two biblical texts that reflect the source of the mission of the Korean Christians: I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing milk and honey (Ex 3:7-8). When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but labourers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest” (Mt 9:36-38).

In Korea Christians, listening to a call from heaven, used Western knowledge and faith as tools to liberate their compatriots. It was a demand found in the biblical account of God’s uncompromising option for the poor, already 980 Donald Senior, C. P. & Carrol Stuhlmueller, C. P. Biblical foundations for mission, 321–322.


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evident in Jeong Yak-yong, Augustine’s catechism.981 One has a feeling that for many centuries the laity has not been the subject of ecclesiastic action, but rather its object. Could not the creative and protagonistic role played by the Korean Christian scholars be the rule in the church rather than the exception? Would the church be different if lay people were given a more prominent, protagonistic role in the leadership of the community? Could the Korean intellectuals’ encounter with Christianity not be a model for the laity’s own missionary role in today’s church? Why not begin missionary activity by first looking at how poor and simple people live, how they experience the transcendent, and their needs, dreams and aspirations, and then, together with them, be an instrument for transformation, rather than beginning with theological proclamation? The second practical insight has to do with partnership in the process of entering wholeheartedly into the Christians’ cultural, political, social and religious milieu in the process of building a community project. This raises the question of contextuality and inculturation. The issue of what to do next, where to move, when, and particularly the common attitude towards the touchy and thorny issue of ancestral rites, were all discussed in a community where everyone could speak out and all were listened to. In the end the unfortunate982 stance of the Korean Christians to refuse to participate in rituals of filial piety, following the directions of the bishop of Beijing, resulted in martyrdom. The prohibition of the rites affected the incipient Korean Catholic community dramatically. Could the Catholic authorities in Beijing not have adopted a more open, lenient approach to ancestral rites – a life and death issue for Korean culture – which would have better served the aim of mission and evangelisation? Was the school of Yi Byeok, bitterly opposed as it was to the excessively formalistic and oppressive approach of intellectuals sitting in government offices, a real political threat? Christians were clearly challenging the status quo and proposing new ways of running society. Was the government trying to stop a social revolt? In any event, the Korean Christians of the late Chosun dynasty can be seen as bold Christians and true Confucians: as true Confucians they cherished self-cultivation and moral excellence; as Christians they put themselves at the service of the Lord of heaven, who humbled himself to become a human being out of compassion for the poorest of the poor and for all human beings and sinners.

981 Jeong Yak-jong Augustine, Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, XXXV. 982 The decision not to practise ancestral rites following directions from Beijing was unfortunate. The rites issue in Korea was not a loaded issue as it was in China, fuelled by ideological differences between the different religious orders and rooted in the Jansenist quarrels in Europe. If Korean Christians had been allowed to carry on with their traditional practices, much unnecessary suffering would have been avoided.

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In conclusion the following statement by William Johnston seems particularly appropriate: It becomes clearer day-by-day that Christianity has a great future in Asia. Above all Asian Christianity will learn from the kenosis of Jesus, who emptied himself, taking the form of a slave; it will celebrate his death and resurrection in its own Eucharistic liturgy. Asian Christianity will ask for institutional leaders to enter the cloud of unknowing, men and women who can transcend petty politics to speak of pardon and peace and reconciliation to a suffering world.983

In the kenotic model of the Korean Christians, far removed from imperialistic politics, the universal church has a wonderful example to follow in order to achieve the dream Johnston speaks about. The same model offers the laity a fundamental attitude for its mission in today’s world.

983 William Johnston, “Arise, My Love…” 135.

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Relevance of kenotic mission today

“Church lives by mission as fire lives by burning”984 can be considered the key to the lives of Korean Christians during the last two decades of the 18th century. Regarding their missionary activity we again turn to Elizabeth Johnson’s sharp insight into the presence of the Holy Spirit in history: Whether the Spirit be pictured as the warmth and light given by the sun, the life-giving water from the spring or the flower filled with seeds from the root, what we are actually signifying is God drawing near and passing by in a vivifying, sustaining, renewing, and liberating power in the midst of historical struggle. So profound is this true [sic] that whenever people speak in a generic way of God, of their experience of God or of God’s doing something in the world, more often than not they are referring to the Spirit, if a triune prism were introduced.985

Hence mission entails witnessing – through a coherent lifestyle and through words – to the pervasive presence of God’s kingdom in our midst. The Spirit of God was already present986 even before the first announcement of Christianity in Korea, in the very texts of Confucian classics that told people about being faithful to heaven and listening to the will or command (myeong) of heaven. As Jesus, through his words, actions and kenosis, became the very face of the triune God,987 so the Korean Christians offered their compatriots the image of God who came down to listen to the cry of the people (cf. Ex 3:16). In the introduction to this study it was stated that it seeks to contribute to Christian reflection on missionary praxis by proposing the kenotic model of the Korean Christians of the last quarter of the 18th century as a way of dealing with the complex challenges that Christians face in present-day Europe.988 By kenosis we mean Jesus’ existential and historical attitude that his followers try to emulate: his abasement by becoming a servant/slave and remaining so to the end, to his death on the cross. And this is done in order to transform people and the societies in which they live in the service of the establishment of God’s kingdom, which is already present among us. The kenotic model is explained as surpassing the other two models, conquista and accommodation. It surpasses the conquista method, because it demands abandoning any superior attitude – intellectual,

984 985 986 987 988

Lamin Sanneh, “Theology of mission”, 555. Elizabeth Johnson, She who is: the mystery of God in feminist discourse, 127. Arnulf Camps, Studies in mission history, 167. John Breck, “The face of the Spirit”, in Pro Ecclesia III, Spring 1994, 165–178. See Introduction, xlix.

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philosophical, theological, religious – towards other peoples and cultures. It also surpasses the accommodation method, which, whilst recognising diversity of cultures, reduces other religions to mere philosophies and thus stops short of engaging in theological dialogue with them.989 Even though accommodation makes a real effort to enter into, and adapt to, other cultures and civilisations, in the end it offers no structural change for the benefit of the poorest of the poor. Instead it endorses the superiority of the European cultural, religious and ecclesiastic structure.990 Besides, both methods emphasise the role of clergy and religious congregations in missionary praxis. The Korean Christians, on the other hand, with no formal and direct help from the church’s institutions, merely by reading books brought from China, exchanging letters with religious congregations and visiting Western missionaries in that country, managed to design a church community modelled on the primitive church in the first century of the Christian era. Their commitment to “obey God rather than men”991 was a new and challenging interpretation of the Confucian principle of filial piety. Thus the voice of God, the Lord of heaven, which spoke to them through biblical texts, through the person of Jesus Christ and through the suffering of the masses of their compatriots, challenged the incipient community to make hard choices aimed at establishing God’s rule so as to transform society into one in which the poor and marginalised are the centre of the Christian community and society. They also propounded the concept of service and the accountability of political rulers.992 Throughout this book we have seen the crisis of mission: there are great difficulties in defining it. The relevance of other religions has gradually been 989 Arnulf Camps, “The theology of religions as pilgrim theology”, 133–134: “One does not do justice to other religions if one considers them only from the point of view of religious studies or only from that of theology. The theological rehabilitation of the religions entails the harmonious integration of both perspectives …. What is at issue here is the discovery of the ray of the truth both in the things they have in common as well as in their differences …. Religions represent different ways in which the human being is human. To have faith is to be human, and indeed in the highest, truest sense.” 990 Matteo Ricci remained a scholastic and thomist theologian as described by Arnulf Camps and corroborated by Nicolas Standaert. Ricci may have been living in China, but his intellectual and spiritual centre remained to be Rome. See, Arnulf Camps, Studies in Asian Mission History, 126; and Nicolas Standaert, S.J., Yang Tingyun, Confucian and Christian in Late Ming China. His Life and Thought (Leiden-New York-København-Köln, 1998), 219ff. 991 Jeong Yak-jong Augustine, Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, I. 992 Jeong Yak-jong, John Baptist, in his Thang-non or Outline of Ideal Government criticised the evils of his time and offered ways in which the suffering of the people could be reduced. He opposed the existence of the hereditary monarchic system and the appointment of government officials according to family or blood linage, introducing already in his time the concept that the king and all government officials should be selected by popular consent. See, Cho Wang, “A Study of Jeong Yak-jong’s Thought Concerning People’s Rights” in Asian Studies, Vol. 56, 1976, 66–69.


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accepted, which makes missionary work in the traditional sense of going to distant countries to proclaim the gospel and baptise converts less urgent. Maybe for this reason the new imperative is to discover that mission is first of all about trying to live up to the ideal Jesus had in mind and practised. Maybe we can even share key elements of that utopia with adherents of other religions and thus join forces with them to help God and, with God, co-create the new heaven and new earth which we have been promised. There is no doubt that mission is still an integral task of faith in Jesus Christ today. The question of how mission is to be carried out remains a thorny one. Does it still make sense for people to leave their countries and embark on journeys to bring the Christian faith to other lands and peoples? If so, how are these missionaries to perform their missionary task? If mission is about preaching faith in Jesus and announcing the kingdom of God, does it still make sense to go into the mission field in areas where Jesus has already been announced and his message is lived, even if the Roman Catholic Church, or any other institutional Christian church, may not be present? Is it a matter of trying to live according to Jesus’ message, or of implanting a particular ecclesiastic model? More to the point and closer home, how should we be a missionary community in Europe today? How should Christians in Europe relate to peoples of other faiths living in our midst? Is Europe still Christian, or should we not rather say that there are some Christians in Europe? Who are the missionaries? How can we do mission as a community witnessing to the gospel values of the kingdom in a global scene amid such pressing issues as poverty and immigration, unequal wealth distribution, gender abuse, political aspirations of ethnic minorities and the construction of some sort of identity in Europe, state terrorism and counter terrorism, and lack of democracy where un-elected powers (e.g. media moguls, transnational companies and military regimes) control our lives, without forgetting ethical matters such as alternative lifestyles, genetic research and engineering, and health-related problems? Do the three models of doing mission I have outlined have any relevance for Christians today? These are some of the questions that can fairly be asked after reading this book. At the same time I make some recommendations for our missionary praxis, following the model of the Korean Christians. The following sections are based on the missionary method Francis of Assisi proposed to his followers.

4.1 Mission as ‘living among’ Vatican II reverted to the conviction that mission is a task – “that, by proclaiming his Gospel to every creature (cf. Mk. 16:15), it may bring to all men that light of Christ which shines out visibly from the Church” (Lumen Gentium 1) – given by the Lord to all his followers, who “through baptism are formed in the

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likeness of Christ” (LG 7), and who perform this task in different manners “like the members of the human body… [where each] is engaged in a diversity of functions, according to his own richness” (LG 7) with a view to making the kingdom of God present and visible.993 Mission, then, is about a community of faith, which upholds the same ideal vision as Jesus and emulates his lifestyle as far as possible; a community in which all are included, and all are committed, through words and actions, to making Christ’s presence shine bright and clear before the whole human family. We cannot revert to a freelance missionary and ordained-ministers-only model of dispensing a commodity in places where it is lacking. Mission rather entails “bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ into all strata of humanity and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new”.994 Still less can we have missionaries showing contempt for other cultures and religions, despising them as ‘inferior’ according to the conquista model, “because we are not called to impose our religious beliefs on others, but we are compelled to give the example of lives of faith, goodness and service, becoming salt and light for the world and at all times signs of contradiction”.995 Communities of believers live in concrete places, refer to concrete cultural symbols,996 are sensitive to other religions and their practitioners, and speak concrete languages; moreover, they have concrete concerns and sufferings and aspire to concrete goals. Believers in Jesus live with real people, and Christians make real, sometimes hard choices here and now. They share the joys and hopes of all people and “nothing that is genuinely human fails to find echo in their hearts” (Gaudium et Spes 1). The starting point of mission as a coherent lifestyle aimed at transforming the world cannot be the affirmation of the superiority of one religion to another or of certain moral interpretations to others, but a restructuring of personal life in conformity with that of the master we have freely chosen to follow. To follow Jesus the believer has to adapt to real people living in real situations. Hence a communitarian structure like the church has to be a local church, a community that is the light, the face of God, and the ever present Holy Spirit here and now. The universal church, at an institutional level, tends to become global, with all the drawbacks of the process called globalisation: an institution that resembles a

993 Flannery, Austin, O. P. Vatican Council II, vols 1 and 2. Northport, NY: Costello; Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1982. 994 USA Bishops, Heritage and Hope: Evangelization in America, Washington D. C., November 1990, in James A. Scherer & Stephen Bevans (eds), New directions in mission & evangelization, vol. 1, 163. 995 Ibid., 167. 996 See chapter 1, section 1.3.8.2 for the different definitions of culture. Mission praxis takes place in a concrete historical context.


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multinational company more than a community of believers reflecting the image of Jesus.997 A shift from a universal to a local church means that the Catholic Church must stop seeing itself as the centre of the world and its cultures and the sole guarantor and interpreter of universal truth and natural law. This is what Gustavo Gutiérrez means by ‘un-centring’. Un-centring the church means that it ceases considering itself the exclusive source of salvation and orients itself anew to the service of people. Such awareness implies that the action of God and the Spirit is the true pivot of the plan of salvation, and thus of mission.998 The Christian communities of the first centuries, on whose biblical narrative mission is based, spontaneously lived in this way. Their minority status in society and the pressure that the surrounding majority in a non-Christian world exercised on them made the Christian community aware of their function as yeast and light.999 Thus Christian communities living in Palestine, Syria and further east in Asia responded to different challenges and adapted to the local milieu in different ways. During the Middle Ages Francis of Assisi tried to revive the spirit of the first Christians when he went among the Saracens. Francis and his brothers opted for dialogue with them and shared and experienced their life as brothers to and among them.1000 In the process they observed all the good among the Saracens and came to realise that the same God was the origin of all good, both among the Saracens and among themselves. The conviction that God was the source of all good proved so powerful that prejudices broke down, giving way to mutual understanding and trust. It is in this sense that God must be instated as the origin of mission.1001 It is God’s will that the community of believers wants to put into practice, not primarily its own agenda and priorities. The same learning process can be traced among the Korean intellectuals of the 18th century. Through reading classic Confucian texts the Christians, like their partners in intellectual dialogue, already had a basis of strong moral convictions and they knew that to be deeply human meant scrupulously observing the five moral relationships. Korean intellectuals loved their culture, their long history and traditions, and at the same time they shared the sorrows and hardships of their compatriots. Crying with their people and analysing the causes of the mass poverty, they discovered it was attributable to human shortcomings. Then the Christians decided to serve their own people, to wash their feet

997 998 999 1000 1001

Michael Amalados, “Mission as prophecy”, 67–68. See Gustavo Gutiérrez, Teologia de Liberación, 292–294. Lamin Sanneh, “Theology of mission”, 557. J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam, 187–190. Donald Senior, C. P. & Carroll Stuhlmueller, C. P., The biblical foundations for mission, 321: because it is the “Sovereign God and his Will to save Humanity”.

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in imitation of Christ, and make God the only Sovereign1002 whose commands (myeong) they were merely obeying.

4.2 Mission in the “Spirit of Jesus”1003 In his mission encyclical Redemptoris Missio, echoing previous official church documents, John Paul II wrote: The Second Vatican Council sought to renew the Church’s life and activity in the light of the needs of the contemporary world. The Council emphasized the Church’s “missionary nature”, basing it in a dynamic way on the Trinitarian mission itself. The missionary thrust therefore belongs to the very nature of the Christian life, and is also the inspiration behind ecumenism: “that they may all be one … so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21).1004

He continues his reflection, in which Christ is the only mediator and redeemer. This view implies, inter alia, that some of the characteristics that informed the practice of mission as conquista can resurface, such as the proclamation of Jesus Christ as the only saviour of the world, disregarding the possibility of salvation in other religions, and prioritising the establishment and the expansion of the church founded by Christ as the community of salvation, a community made present and audible in the world through the preaching of the word and the celebration of the sacraments. Does this not mean that the church is once more the centre of the mission of God? Is it not for the un-centring of the church that we are crying? The Spirit of God is also present in other religions in ways known only to him (cf. Nostra Aetate 1, 2). In 1670 the king of Thailand, with simplicity of heart but great firmness, asked the French ambassador, who had read him a letter from king Louis XIV urging him to convert to the Catholic Church,1005 if all religions had not been created by the same God. Could God the creator not have created just one religion if he so wished? Consequently there must be a reason why God chose to create many different religions. Other religions are also vehicles of grace and ways to salvation and liberation for their followers, because it is God who saves, and he does so in whichever way he chooses. Consequently God’s creative and redemptive work transcends the boundaries of the church. This perspective on other religions has manifestly important consequences for missionary praxis. It invites a certain humility and modesty about the claims, made in olden times but still echoing in our ears, of conquista- or accommodation-type mission that identify church and salvation, as if church membership is the only means of achieving it. Some such feeling 1002 1003 1004 1005

Jeong Yak-jong. Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, I. J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam, 190. Redemptoris Missio, 1. See at www.vatican.va/edoc/ENG0219/_P2.HTM Dirk van der Cruysse, Siam & the West 1500–1700, 175–179.


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is still evident when John Paul II speaks about the urgent need to give a new impulse to missionary activity, for the number of people is still growing “who do not yet believe in Christ, who are far from Christ, in whom the church has not yet taken root and whose culture has not yet been influenced by the gospel” (Redemptoris Missio, 34). Are we not proposing reliance on the Word that transforms both persons, institutions and sacramental celebration, the Word as prophetic denunciation and annunciation that the Korean missionaries preached? With Raimon Panikkar I endorse the following view: The goal cannot be identified with any of the ways or means to it. Though Christ is the Mystery in the sense that to see Christ is to reach the Mystery, still the Mystery cannot be totally identified with Christ. Christ is only one aspect of the Mystery as a whole, even though he is the Way when we are on that way…. Only for the Christians is the Mystery indissolubly connected with Christ.1006

When dogmatic issues between religions are discussed – as when the Korean Christian intellectuals engaged in intellectual dialogue with neo-Confucianism about the New Learning – Vatican II renewed the appeal to the Christian community to be a church with a clear vocation. The church’s identity is that of a servant of God’s kingdom, which Jesus declared to be already present among us. This implies that much more attention should be paid to the historical Jesus, who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life for many out of loyalty to his vocation: the establishment of the kingdom or rule of God. To accomplish this Jesus first attested God’s mercy by empowering people marginalised on religious or socio-political grounds (such as ‘impure’ women and other ‘unclean’ figures in the Gospels, and those unable to fulfil the minutiae of the law).1007 To them all Jesus first of all proclaimed the good news through powerful acts of solidarity and compassion. Francis of Assisi likewise invoked the historical Jesus as a model for Christians when he taught his brothers among the Saracens the two ways of doing mission: not to quarrel or argue among themselves and/or with others but to be subservient to all for God’s sake, and to preach when it pleases God. To be in solidarity with the poor, not to want power or dominion over others or desire to be greater than others, was the modus

1006 Raimundo Panikkar, The unknown Christ of Hinduism: toward an ecumenical Christophany, London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1981, 24–25. 1007 Orlando E. Costas, “Christian mission in the Americas”, 7: “Hence, the mission of God is not only eschatological but also historical. The fact that it has as its goal the final consummation of the kingdom and that it is transcendentalized in the hope of new heavens and a new earth does not mean that this mission is either atemporal or beyond history. On the contrary, it is a mission whose stage is history: a redeemed creation; the definitive overcoming of hatred, chaos, and corruption; and the burgeoning of a world of love, justice, freedom, and peace. This hope is adumbrated in the crossroads of life, amid the tensions of history where ideologies and political, economic, social, and religious systems clash.”

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vivendi Francis wanted from his followers. The brothers first had to witness1008 existentially to the life of Jesus and confess they were Christians, not primarily by words but through their own way of life. Looking at the remarkable genesis and development of the Korean Christian community in the 18th century we recognise a similar attitude. These Christians first fell in love with what they knew about the person of Jesus. Jesus was the one who displayed the true meaning of filial piety.1009 This realisation totally transformed the first Korean Christians: they began practising new human relationships, such as closeness and solidarity with the poorest of the poor living outside the gates of Seoul, having compassion with the impoverished peasants and undertaking scholarly research to better their lives and farm production. They established a new relationship with women and children, for which they did not mind being despised. They reached a new understanding of filial obligations to parents based on sincerity: one should show respect and compassion for parents and the sick while they are still alive, without going into ‘insincere’, elaborate and formal expressions of mourning after their death.

4.3 Mission as transformation Ignacio Ellacuría, a university scholar and Jesuit missionary priest in El Salvador, who was assassinated together with some of his confreres and two female workers on 16 November 1989, had a profound conviction that any missionary task – be it that of a university, a parish, a diocese, a province of a religious order, a convent or a friary – had to be an instrument for social transformation (understood as creating humane living conditions for the poorest of the poor) or these institutions risked becoming mere transmitters of empty ideologies.1010 Ignacio was following in the footsteps of Jesus, the first missionary sent by the Father into the world who sought, through powerful words and actions, to make visible the kingdom of God already present in the world. From his followers Jesus demanded a change (metanoia) of heart and mind so as to articulate new human relationships based on “the service of the faith and the promotion, in society, of evangelic justice”.1011 The Korean missionaries, who read the Christian literature arriving from China but did not see the European missionaries condoning the rulers’ heavy hand on the mostly peasant and hard working Chinese society, did not miss the

1008 J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam, 191. 1009 Jeong Yak-jong. Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, XXXV narrates the whole life of Jesus in terms of kenosis. 1010 Ignacio Ellacuría & Jon Sobrino, Fé y justicia, 50–51. 1011 Letter of Fr Kolvenbach to the Society of Jesus on 24 January 2000, quoting from the Normas Complementarias. n. 245, 1 and 2 [my translation].


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point that the Christian message has to do with transforming the lives of the poor. They understood that Christianity offered a social alternative based on the inviolability and autonomy of the individual conscience that is accountable first and only to God, “because our personal conscience enables us to recognise the Lord of Heaven”.1012 To create a society in which all are equal before God (which meant first of all the inviolability of human life); where wealth does not increase human dignity nor poverty diminish it; to create space in society for women and children, where they do not have only duties but also have rights; to make popular culture available to all in a language and script (Han-Geul) that could be understood by the peasants – these were some of the social changes the Christians ushered in in their country. More dramatically, Jeong Yak-yong John Baptist, in exile after the great persecution of 1801, wrote his Thag-non or Outline of ideal government, in which he criticised the root causes of the evils of his time, namely the autocratic rule of the monarch through his government officials, the yangban, and proposed laws to demand accountability from all.1013 It is this concrete and historical missionary praxis following in the footsteps of Jesus that became a kenotic transforming mission. For that they died. There is a final question I would like to raise. Is martyrdom necessary for missionary praxis to be credible? Pope Paul VI may have answered this question when on 18 October 1964 he gave a homily on the occasion of the canonisation of the first martyrs of Uganda, Carolo Lwanga and companions: The African martyrs add a new page to that list of victorious men and women that we call the martyrology, in which we find the most magnificent as well as the most tragic of stories … . These martyrs have indeed laid the foundations of a new age. We should not dwell on the religious persecutions and conflicts, but rather on the rebirth of Christian and civil life that has begun. For from the Africa that was sprinkled with the blood of these martyrs, the first of this new age (and, God willing the last, so sublime, so precious was their sacrifice) there is emerging a free and independent Africa. The tragedy which bore them off is so extraordinary and so rich in significance, that one finds there sufficient lessons for the moral formation of a new people, for the foundations of a new spiritual tradition. There are elements there capable of illustrating and promoting the change from a simple and rather primitive way of life to a new civilization. The old way of life was, of course, not entirely lacking in outstanding human qualities within its own limitations. But in the new society there can be an awareness of the higher things of which human spirit is capable and an effort to provide better conditions for social life.1014

The pope hopes the martyrs would be the last ones, God willing,1015 but the social transformation, which the message of Jesus is capable of bringing through 1012 Jeong Yak-jong. Jukyo Yoji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching, I. 1013 Yun Dong-hwan, Dasan Jeong Yak-yong, 34. 1014 Pope Paul VI, 18 October 1964. From a homily on the occasion of the canonisation of the first martyrs of Uganda, Carolo Lwanga and companion martyrs. 1015 Is the Pope referring to the element of intolerance underlying most cases of martyrdom? Could an attitude of acceptance of difference and respect of diversity reduce the number of religious killings?

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converted and committed followers, may have unforeseen consequences, because it is the Spirit of the Lord at work. The Spirit may lead to martyrdom. However, martyrdom cannot be sought for its own sake. Francis urges us to see the work of the Spirit in the lives of people.1016 Together with them, and guided by the Spirit of God, source of all that is good, we need to strive to make the roots of the liberation of the poor and oppressed grow deeper. The poverty of so many brothers and sisters (well over half of all Catholics live below the poverty line) and the diversity of religions, the faith and values of which their followers are expressing actively and explicitly day by day, have become a ‘sign of the times’ that calls for existential dialogue aimed at establishing God’s rule of justice and peace. I believe Francis’s missionary method, starting with the experience of sharing his life with the Saracens and not with seeking martyrdom, is what missionary praxis should be today. Paulo Suess sums it up: It is the task of mission, based on the premise of faith in Jesus Christ and in the kairos of different historical and cultural contexts, to proclaim liberating redemption over and over again. Against the backdrop of the burning issues of every age, mission must show redemption to be an option, both historically and collectively and in the personal lives of individuals. If the church is poor and unrecognised, owing to its people being unrecognised, the “others” and the poor are able to come together in its buildings. The nearness to the poor is the touchstone for well-meaning sermons and bold declarations. It also tests the calling to engage in mission, which lives not from good intentions but from greater justice and love. The option for the poor and the “other” as adult protagonists demands a professional ethic in missionary work that breaks with the culture of privilege. This break is a kind of praeambula fidei of any proclamation of a faith, one that recognises the poor and the “other” as adults and also recognises their protagonist role in a new world and a living church. Bread on the tables of all human beings and roses in their neighbours’ gardens will not just be the outcome of long struggles for justice but also incarnate celebrations of the Eucharist and the Lord’s supper.1017

The most urgent motivation for mission remains the transformation of hearts (metanoia) and the transformation of society into one in which the poor and the outcast can see the kingdom of God already present, and where the Spirit of God makes them protagonists of transformation. This is what the Korean missionaries did: they had dialogue with their intellectual partners and with the whole constellation of Korean culture, tried to gather together all the goodness in it and, with the gospel in their hands, use it to transform their society. Missionary praxis is about believing existentially in Jesus Christ and together with all men and women of goodwill striving to bring into the open his vision that the kingdom of God is already in our midst.

1016 J. Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam, 194. 1017 Paulo Suess, Evangelizar a partir dos projetos historicos dos outros: ensaios de missiologia, Sao Paulo: Paulinas, 2001, 270. [My translation.]


Guidelines to the Romanisation of Korean

1. Basic principles for transcription (1) Romanisation is based on standard Korean pronunciation. (2) As far as possible no symbols except Roman letters are used. 2. Summary of the transcription system (3) Vowels are transcribed as follows: Simple vowels

Diphthongs

Note: Long vowels are not marked in transcription. (4) Consonants are transcribed as follows: Plosives (stops)

Affricates

314


Fricatives

Nasals

Liquids

3. Names of people: As a general rule, Korean names consist of three syllables: Jeong Yak-jong . The first syllable, Jeong , is the family name, whereas Yak-jong is the given name. In the case of Christians, the Christian name follows the Korean name. When transliterating Korean names into other languages, the first letter of the family name is written in upper case, as well as the first letter of the first syllable of the given name. The second syllable of the given name is written in lowercase and is joined with a hyphen to the previous syllable to indicate the given name. There are also names consisting of two syllables: Cho Kwang . Cho is the family name and Kwang the given name. 4. Names of places: they can consist of two syllables, such as the city of Kwang-Ju , or three as in Cheon-Jin-Am . In place names the first letter of each syllable is upper case.

Bibliography

1. Primary Sources about Missionary methods AN EUNG RYEOL

and CHOI SEOK-U

. Hanguk Cheonju Kyohwe Yeok-sa

. Korean Translation of DALLET, Charles. Histoire de l’eglise de Corée. 2 volumes. Waegwan, Korea: Bundo, 1979–1980. DALLET Charles. Histoire de l’eglise de Corée. 2 vols. Paris: Librairie Victor Palmé, Éditeur, 1874. (French). JEONG YAK-JONG . Chu-Gyo Yo-Ji or Essentials of the Lord’s teaching. Written circa 1786–1794. Critical edition of the document presented by DIAZ HECTOR, M. G. A Korean theology. Chu-Gyo Yo-Ji: essentials of the Lord’s teaching by Jeong Yak-jong Augustine (1760–1801). Immense, Switzerland: Saint-Paul, 1986. Les journaux de prison (1791) of Yun Chi-chung, Paul and Kweon Sang-yeon, Jacques in DALLET Charles. Histoire de l’eglise de Corée. 2 vols. Paris: Librairie Victor Palmé, Éditeur, 1874, 37–56. MAFFEEI BERGOMATIS, Ioan Petri, S. J. Historiarum Indicarum. Libri XVI. Coloniae Agrippinae: In Officina Birckmannica, Sumptibus Arnoldi Mylij, 1589. MANCHEON YUGO or Memories of Mancheon are a sort of diary generally attributed to Jeong Yak-yong , Dasan , circa 1835. These documents are to be found in the Catholic Church History Research Centre of Seoul. ———. Shipgyemyeongsa or Hymn to the Ten Commandments. Written by Jeong Yak-jeon and Kweon Sang-hak , 1779. Redaction Committee of the Redaction of the History of Korea. Choseon Wangjo Sillok or The annals of the Yi dynasty. 48 volumes and one volume with a General Index. Seoul, 1963. Relevant to the present work: Cheongjo Sillok or Annals of the reign of Cheongjo (1775–1801). RIBADENEIRA, Marcelo de, OFM. Historia de las islas del archipiélago Filipino y Reinos de la Gran China, Tartaria, Cochinchina, Malaca, Siam, Cambodge y Japón. Madrid: Editorial Católica, 1947. RICCI, Matteo, S. J. Tianzhu Shiyi: the true meaning of the Lord of heaven. Translation with introduction and notes by Douglas Lancashire & Peter Hu Kuo-chen, S. J. A Chinese-English edition by Edward J. Malatesta. Saint Louis-Taipei: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1985. SAHAKJINGEUI , or Judgment against Christians in the Annals of the persecutions of the year 1801. Included in the Hanguk Kathollik Taesajeon or The great dictionary of Korea (Research Centre of the History of the Catholic Church of Korea in Seoul), 1984. SAINT A. DEVELUY, Notices des principaux martyrs de Corée, 1858. Manuscript in the Research Centre of the History of the Catholic Church of Korea in Seoul. ———. Notes pour l’histoire des martyrs de Corée, 1860. (Manuscript). SONG Yeong-bae , Im Keum-ja , Chang Jeong-ran , Jeong In-jae , Cho Kwang

, Choi So-ja

, Cheon Ju Shil Eu

.

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Seoul: Seoul University Press, 1999. Korean translation of RICCI, Matteo, S.J. Tianzhu Shiyi: The true meaning of the Lord of heaven. TEIXERA, Manuel, Fr. The Portuguese missions in Malacca and Singapore (1511–1958). Lisbon: Agencia General do Ultramar, 1961. YI BYEOK . Seong Gyo Yoji or Essentials of the sacred doctrine, circa 1785. Text in Chinese found in Mancheon Yugo

or Memories of

Mancheon. Old Korean translation in RI SANGBAE, JEAN (YI SANGBAE ). Confucius et Jésus-Christ: la première théologie chrétienne en Corée d’après l’oeuvre de Yi Piek, Lettré Confuciéen, 1754–1786. Paris: Beauchesne, 1979. ———. Cheonju Konggyoengka or Hymn of adoration of God. Text in Chinese found in Mancheon Yugo or Memories of Mancheon. Korean translation in RI SANGBAE, JEAN (YI SANGBAE). Confucius et Jésus-Christ: la première théologie chrétienne en Corée d’après l’oeuvre de Yi Piek, Lettré Confuciéen, 1754–1786. Paris: Beauchesne, 1979. YI Man-Chae . Pyeokwipyeon or Confucian defence against Christianity. Korean translation by KIM SI-JUN . Seoul: Samgyongdang , 1985, 1–111. ———. YI Ik . Cheon Ju Shileuibal or Epilogue over the true discourse of God, 20 (in the same document). ———. SHIN HU-DAM (1702–1761). Pyeokwipyeon or Criticism on heterodoxy, vol. 1 of Seohak Pyeon 43–94.

Cheon Ju Shil-eui

2. General bibliography: Books ABE, Masao. “Man and nature in Christianity and Buddhism”, in: Frederick Franck (ed.), The Buddha eye. New York: Crossroad, 1982. ALEXANDER, Calvert S. J. The missionary dimension: Vatican II and the world of apostolate. Milwaukee: Bruce, 1967. AMALADOSS, Michael, S.J., Making all things new: dialogue, pluralism and evangelization in Asia. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1990. BAKER, Donald. Confucius confronts Catholicism in eighteenth-century Korea. Doctoral dissertation, University of Washington, 1983. ———. Confronts Catholicism in the late Joseon dynasty. Trans. Kim Sae Yoon. Seoul: Ilchokak, 1997. BARTH, Karl. Church dogmatics IV/1. Edinburgh: Clark, 1956. BAUM, Gregory & Harold Wells (eds). The reconciliation of peoples: challenge to the churches. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1997. BARY, Wm. Theodore de, & Hahyun Kim Haboush (eds). The rise of neo-Confucianism in Korea. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. BEIRNE, Charles J., S. J., Jesuit education and social change in El Salvador. New York/London: Garland, 1996. BELLAGAMBA, Anthony. Mission & ministry ... In global church, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992. BERKHOF, Hendrik. Christian faith: an introduction to the study of faith. Trans. from Dutch by Sierd Woudstra. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986. BERNARD, Henry, S.J. Aux portes de la Chine. Tientsin: Hautes Etudes, 1933. ———. Le père Matthieu Ricci et la société Chinoise de son temps (1552–1610), 2 vols. Tientsin: Hautes Études, 1937.

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3. General bibliography: Articles AAGAARD, Johannes. “Trends in missiological thinking during the sixties”, in International Review of Mission 62, 1973. AMALADOSS, Michael S.J., “Mission as prophecy”, in James A. Scherer & Stephen B. Bevans (eds.), New directions in mission & evangelization. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994. ———. “Le royaume, but de la mission”, in Spiritus 36, 1995. ———. “Les institutes missionaires en Asie”, in Spiritus 167, 2002. ———. “The mission institutes in the new millennium”, in Nijmeegs Instituut voor Missiologie, 3–4, revised version of “Les institutes missionaires en Asie”, in Spiritus 167, 2002. ANDROUSSA, Anastasios of. “Thy will be done”, in James A. Scherer & Stephen B. Bevans, New directions in mission & evangelization, vol. 2. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994. ARRUPE, Pedro. “Lettre et document du travail sur l’inculturation”, in Acta Romana Societatis Jesu, XVII, 1–2, 1978. BAE Hyón-sook, “Books on Catholicism introduced from China in the 17th and 18th centuries”, in Research Journal of Korean History 3, August 1981. BAKER, Donald. On Western learning. http://www.mcel.pacificu.edu/aspac/papers/scholars/ baker/baker.html. BAKER, Donald. “A Confucian confronts Catholicism, truth collides with morality in eighteenth century Korea”, in Korean Studies Forum 6, Winter-Spring 1979–1980. BERNES, Michael. “Theology of religions in a post-modern world”, in The Month 28, 1994. BIDEGAIN, Ana María “The church in the emancipation process (1750–1830)”, in Enrique Dussel (CEHILA), The church in Latin America: colonialism to liberation (1492–1992). BIERMANN, P. Benno M., O.P. “Los Portugueses y Españoles en Camboja al fin del siglo XVI”, in Archivo Ibero-Americano, XXII, 38, 1935. BRECK, John. “The face of the Spirit”, in Pro Ecclesia III, Spring, 1994. BOSCH, David J., “The vulnerability of mission”, in James A. Scherer and Stephen B. Bevans (eds.), New directions in mission & evangelization. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992. ———. “Theological education in missionary perspective”, in Missiology X , 1, 1982.

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BOXER, C.R. “Portuguese missionary methods”, in J.S. Cummins (ed.), Christianity and missions 1450–1800: an expanding world, V, 28. Aldershot. Brookfield USA. Singapore. Sidney: Ashgate Publishing Company, 1997. CAMPS, A. “The People’s Republic of China: from foreignness to contextualization”, in Frans J. Verstraelen & Arnulf Camps O.F.M. (eds), Missiology: an ecumenical introduction. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. ———. “The Catholic missionary movement from 1492–1789”, in Frans J. Verstraelen & Arnulf Camps O.F.M. Missiology: an ecumenical introduction. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. ———. “The theology of religions as pilgrim theology”, in G. Riße, Wege der Theologie: an der Schwelle zum dritten Jahrtausend. Festschrift für Hans Waldenfels zur Vollendung des 65. Lebensjahres. Trans. Henry Jansen. Paderborn. 1996, 369–380. ———. “The theology of religions as pilgrim theology”, in Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 7, Leuven, 1997. ———. “Interreligious dialogue: a task with many challenges”, in Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 10, Leuven, 2000. ———. “The evolution, involution and revolution of the concept and reality of mission and evangelization”, in Frans Wijsen & Peter Nissen (eds), “Mission is a Must.” Intercultural theology and the mission of the church. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2002. ———. “Do the three Jesuits, Jerome Xavier, Matteo Ricci and Roberto de Nobili, still have a say in our missiology?”, in Inus Daneel, Charles van Engen & Hendrik Vroom, Fullness of life for all: challenges for mission in early 21st century. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2003. CHOI, Ki-bok. “The abolition of ancestral rites and tablets by Catholicism in the Chosun dynasty and the basic meaning of Confucian ancestral rites”, in Korea Journal 24, 8, August 1984. CHOI Suk-Woo. “Korean Catholicism yesterday and today”, in Korea Journal 24, 8, August 1984. COMMON WITNESS. Common witness. Study document of the Joint Working Group of the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches. Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1984 (first published 1982). CORY, Ralph M. “Some notes on Fr. Gregorio de Céspedes, Korea’s first European visitor”, in Transactions of the Korean branch of the Royal Asiatic Society XXVII, Seoul, 1937. COSTAS, Orlando E. “Christian mission in the Americas”, in James A. Scherer & Stephen B. Bevans (eds), New directions in mission & evangelization. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994. CRUMLEY, James. “Reflections on twenty-five Years after the decree on ecumenism”, in Ecumenical Trends, 18, 1989. CUSTODIO, L.J. “Understanding culture”, in Philippiniana Sacra 25, 80, 1992. DUSSEL, Enrique “From the Second Vatican Council to the present day”, in Enrique Dussel (ed.), The church in Latin America 1492–1992. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992. EGUIGUREN IRAOLA, Antonio. “Mission for social transformation: with a political thrust”, in Mission, XI, 1, 2004. GEERTZ Clifford. “Thick description: toward an interpretative theory of culture”, in Clifford Geertz (ed.), The interpretation of cultures: selected essays. New York: Basic, 1973. GÓMEZ, Filipe, S.J., “The missionary activity twenty years after Vatican II”, in East Asian Pastoral Review 23, 1986. GONZÁLEZ ESPINOSA, L. E. “Los primeros pasos de la inculturación. De lovaina a Roma”, in Voces. Revista de Teología de la Universidad Intercontinental 10, 1997. GUEHLER, Ulrich. “The travels of Ludovico di Varthema”, in Selected articles from JSS, Siam Society, Bangkok, vol. VII, 1959. HENDRIX, Scott H. “Quest of the Vera Ecclesia: the crisis of late medieval ecclesiology”, in Viator, 7T, 1976. KALTON, Michael C. “The writings of Kweon Keun: the context and shape of early Yi dynasty neo-Confucianicms”, in Wm. Theodore de Bary & Hahyun Kim Haboush (eds), The rise of neoConfucianism in Korea. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.

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