The Makings of a Mission: The Social Foundations of The Jesuit Approach to the Ming Dynasty Elites
Canupp, Noemi Nadette
Canupp, Noemi Nadette
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Abstract
The central topic of this thesis is to explore the missions undertaken by Jesuit missionaries in Ming Dynasty China between the 16th and 17th centuries. The focal point of this topic is the construction of the various approaches taken by the missionaries in order to access the nation and present the tenets of Christianity in a way that was palatable to the Chinese people and scholar class (also referred to as Mandarins or literati) rather than the success rate of the missions as a whole. Although it is a subject that has been researched extensively, much of the existing secondary literature regarding it takes a more biographical approach, acting as a retelling of the events rather than analyses of them. That is not to say that the literature has not been of great help to my research or of great importance to the academic community, however it is also true that the field would benefit from more focused research of these missions and the interactions between Western missionaries and advanced empires. For this reason, I find this topic to be an important one to study. In doing my research for this topic, I came to ask myself how the Jesuit missionary men came to find themselves associating so closely with the Chinese scholar class and how the more social aspects of their approach played into it; a question which I in turn decided to answer as the focal point of this thesis. My methodologies for completing this research consisted of an analysis based on the intertwining of cultural and intellectual history, seeking to understand the cultural exchanges that occurred to influence the Jesuits in their approach and the group of intellectuals that they found themselves associated with. The conclusion of my research led me to understand that, although in part purely coincidental, the nature of the Jesuits’ close association with the Mandarins links to the decisions the missionaries made in presenting themselves and their religion. The missionaries presenting themselves as scholarly men and their associating themselves with the sciences, as well as their efforts to shape iii Christianity in a way that appealed to the Confucianist traditions that were dominant in China at the time, paired with the missionaries’ efforts to befriend the Mandarins first and then focus on preaching to allow them to form close bonds with the literati as fellow academic brothers. In gaining this trust and relationship, however, the Jesuits in turn ended up “locking” themselves to the scholars and could not dedicate themselves fully to the other social classes.
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Thesis (B.A. in History)--John Cabot University, Spring 2025.
Date
2025
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Keywords
Jesuits, Missions, Christianity and other religions, Ming dynasty, 1368-1644
Citation
Canupp, Noemi Nadette. "The Makings of a Mission: The Social Foundations of The Jesuit Approach to the Ming Dynasty Elites". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2025.