Virtual EMS

Event Description: Rome 1735: Making Sense of the Chinese Rites Debates Between the sixteenth and the eigtheenth century the Jesuit missionaries to China adopted a highly unconventional strategy, allowing new converts to participate in the ceremonies related to the cult of the dead, and especially to the cult of Confucius. This flexible attitude towards the “Chinese rites”, first put forward by Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), elicited a long debate, concluded by the condemnation of the Jesuits’s approach (1742). The lecture will examine the last stage of the Chinese rites debate and its implications, on the basis of unpublished evidence preserved at the UCLA Research Library (Los Angeles) and the Archivio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede (Rome)