The Jesuits and Christian Art in China

Susangeline Yalili Patrick

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Chapter 2 The Jesuits and Christian Art in China

In: Art as a Pathway to God

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Susangeline Yalili Patrick

Susangeline Yalili Patrick
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 22–41

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004677739_003

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Abstract

To carry out their mission of evangelization, early Jesuit missionaries followed practices that included creating, facilitating, and using Bible-themed painting, sculpture, and church architecture. The purpose of this study is to highlight and investigate the significant role of art in Jesuit mission efforts in the late Ming and the early Qing Dynasties (1552–1773), as well as Christian-themed art in the history of China prior to the Jesuit contact. It examines the initial European Jesuit motivation for using art in mission, and explores how the Jesuits developed their art and architecture within their historical context. An exploration of how some Han and other ethnic peoples in China responded to the gospel as presented through religious art reveals new Christians replacing Buddhist or Taoist images and objects with Christian art, and some even becoming painters of Christian-themed art themselves. Chinese Christian patrons, both men and women, sponsored such art and church architecture as acts of piety. A unique aspect of the Jesuit mission was churches built exclusively for women, a phenomenon not found anywhere else in the same historical period. Balanced attention is given to both European and Asian Christians, Christian men and women, Han and ethnic minorities, and intellectuals and ordinary Christians. Primary sources from archeological materials and written texts suggest that in their mission of evangelization, the Jesuits valued Christian-themed art. Art also served to sustain Christian faith and devotion in the post-conversion period. In sum, this study is primarily an exploration of the historical and theological themes and meanings emerging out of Jesuit art and architecture, and the significant role such art played in local people’s ways of knowing God and living out a Christian life.

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Art as a Pathway to God

A Historical-Theological Study of the Jesuit Mission to China, 1552–1773

Series: Theology and Mission in World Christianity, Volume: 28

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004677739

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 27 Mar 2024

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Chapter 2 The Jesuits and Christian Art in China

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Citation Info

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Art as a Pathway to God

A Historical-Theological Study of the Jesuit Mission to China, 1552–1773

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