Theological and cultural accommodation: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Mission in China, 1583-1742

China presents a challenge to us. Today, the number of Christians in China is small, compared to its vast population. Can history helps us to understand the slow process of bringing Christ to the people in China?;But how far could he go in his effort of cultural accommodation without coming into conflict with Christian theology? The Chinese Rites issue was the biggest stumbling block, and the Jesuit mission met with strong opposition in their accommodation effort from the Dominicans and the Franciscans, who later followed the Jesuits to preach the Gospels in China, Finally, the Jesuits received a fatal blow from Rome: the Vatican forbade any Chinese Christians to venerate their ancestors and Confucius. In the reality of the Chinese culture, this command actually meant that to remain a christian, one had to cease to be a Chinese. In response, China started persecuting all Christians in the Middle Kingdom.;Since then, for almost one hundred and fifty years, Christianity was totally wiped out from China until 1842, when China was defeated by Britain in the infamous Opium War.;Today, the challenge to every Christian in the evangelization of China remains--how do we reconcile theology to cultural accommodation? (Abstract shortened by UMI.).;Apart from the Nestorians' brief effort in 635 C.E., Matteo Ricci was the first Christian missionary to China in 1853. As a Jesuit, he followed his Order's guideline of cultural accommodation. In christianizing confucianism, Ricci had won a respectable place for Christianity in Chinese society, at a time when both Europe and China were experiencing a renaissance of their own.