“Ricci’s proofs of the existence of the Lord of Heaven Thomist and Confucian approaches in the Tianzhu Shiyi «天主實義»”
| Title in English | “Ricci’s proofs of the existence of the Lord of Heaven Thomist and Confucian approaches in the Tianzhu Shiyi «????»” |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Fr. Matteo Ricci S. J. (???, Li Madou, Macerata October 6 1552 – Beijing May 11 1610) was a pioneer Jesuit who arrived in China in 1584 after a long path going through Europe, India and Macau. During his trips, he reflected on Christianity and he aimed for his whole life a dialogue between Christianity and different cultures finding, finally, his main discussant: Confucianism. For this reason, he probably planned to write the Tianzhu Shiyi ,???? (The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven) already in early 1584 2 but he completed his first draft in 1596 and he published the book in 1603 3 . And this is the most reliable proof that the whole Christian vocation of Ricci has been also strictly related to writing a complete text to preach properly Christianity in China. This presentation showed the Thomistic and Confucian elements within this text and Ricci’s creative approach to prove the existence of the Lord of Heaven in Chinese. |