Journal Article

Michael Boym: the Polish Marco Polo

Couderq, Agnieszka

2024

Overview

The following is a selection drawn from Ms. Couderq's written proposal for a television series based on the book she has published. After three years of teaching, meeting resistance to his teachings from the authorities and Shinto and Buddhist elites, who issued a ban on the propagation of Christianity, Francis went with the intention of teaching in the Middle Kingdom. The methods developed by St. Francis during his stay in San Toma (now Chennai, on the east coast of India and capital of the southern province of Tamil Nadu) among the Indian Christians, who derived their roots of faith from the teachings handed down to their ancestors in the first century by St. Thomas, became the foundation for the Jesuit methodology of acculturation of rites. [...]the more enlightened among them recognized the superiority of Europeans in mathematical, astronomical, and engineering knowledge, and for this reason they were willing to maintain contacts with them. [...]erudition in key scientific fields was one of the most crucial factors in the selection of future missionaries to China by the Jesuit headquarters in Rome.

• Publisher: International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations
• Subject: Acculturation / Christianity / Mass media / Missionaries / Publishing / Religious conversion / Religious missions / Ricci, Matteo (1552-1610) / Teaching