| Volume 6, Number 2, April 2009 |
Hidden Grandeur in the Shadow of
an Emperor
by Henrique Leitão 雷恩礼 |
|
WITH the organisation of this conference, in its two venues, in Lisbon and here in Macau, the Macau Ricci Institute gave in my opinion one of the most important steps that lately have been given in the increasing of knowledge about the missions in China. I will try to explain why.
If one had to summarize, some months ago, the state of knowledge about missionary work of the Jesuits in the old China missions, I think everybody would mention the truly voluminous amounts of materials that appeared in the past years. There is no doubt that many new studies—some of exceptional quality—were published recently on this subject. The study of the missionary activities of the Jesuits in China is a subject that gives no indication of losing its appeal to many historians, quite the contrary.
However, a more sceptical (or more informed) observer might object that despite the quantity and quality of those studies hardly anything was known about |
Tomás Pereira. Knowing nothing or possessing just a very sketchy picture about Tomás Pereira’s life and activities was a sign that, despite all that had been produced, we were still at an early stage in the comprehension of these historical events. It is obvious from the various communications presented at this Symposium, emerging clearly, for example, from Professor Paul Rule’s opening paper, that different opinions about Pereira and his contributions to the missionary work are allowed, but that it is very difficult to escape the conclusion that he was one of the most fundamental Jesuits in Beijing at the time of the old missions. Thus, knowing almost nothing about Pereira meant that, in a very essential sense, there were elements of the missionary work in China, mostly in Beijing, that still escaped us, that still eluded historians. The radical changing of this state of affairs is in my opinion what this conference brought about. That is, the outcome of this conference was not simply an increased knowledge...
[ Read more ] |
|
|
| Issue 6.2 |
|
Economy, Employment, Education, Ethics
|
|
|
