To Wear or Not to Wear a Hat During Mass? The Canton Conference and Giovanni Francesco de Ferrariis SJ's Report of 1668
The Chinese Rites Controversy has received a great deal of scholarly attention but other issues discussed at that time about how to adapt Christianity also merit further research. In this journal, we have already presented critically appraised transcriptions, with English translations, of texts conc...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Institution of Catholic Studies
2021
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| In: |
Archivum historicum Societatis Iesu
Year: 2021, Volume: 90, Issue: 179, Pages: 5-61 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CH Christianity and Society KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KBM Asia RC Liturgy |
| Further subjects: | B
Dominicans
B Chinese Rites B Anthropology B Catholic missions B Christianity |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | The Chinese Rites Controversy has received a great deal of scholarly attention but other issues discussed at that time about how to adapt Christianity also merit further research. In this journal, we have already presented critically appraised transcriptions, with English translations, of texts concerning the little-known controversy over the baptism of fasters (or vegetarians), which erupted in 1688 at the Canton Conference. We present here a parallel debate about Chinese liturgy and, more specifically, about whether the Chinese faithful should follow their custom to wear a hat at Mass as a sign of respect towards God or remove it according to European practice. First, we review some twelve documents produced on both sides of the debate. These were written by Franciscan Antonio a Santa Maria Caballero and the French Jesuit Adrien Grelon, who argued against the Chinese hat. Writing in favor of wearing hats in Christian practice were the two Dominicans, Domingo Navarrete and Domenico Maria Sarpetri; the Jesuits Frangois de Rougemont, Jacques Le Faure, Prospero Intorcetta, and - the focus of this article - Giovanni Francesco de Ferrariis. The second part of this contribution reproduces in full the longest and most informative document on the subject, the text by de Ferrariis, who wrote in favour of wearing the hat. An English annotated translation of the treatise is followed by the Latin transcription. Although apparently a minor issue, the question of the hat brings a wealth of anthropological, cultural and political considerations to light, helping us better understand, through the European missionaries' lens, many aspects of the conversionary experience of Chinese Christians, of the missionaries' own responses to these, and of Chinese society and culture more generally during the Ming-Qing transition. (English) |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Jesuiten, Archivum historicum Societatis Iesu
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