Rites Controversy

During the seventeenth century, the church grew rapidly in China. According to Chan Kei Thong, “In 1640, three decades after [Matteo] Ricci died, there were 60,000 to 70,000 Catholic converts; by 1651, their numbers had more than doubled to 150,000. By 1664, the figure had ballooned to at least 254,980. In 1642, fifty of the high-ranking ladies in the palaces were Christians, and when Prince Gui of the remnant Southern Ming Dynasty ascended the throne to continue the fight against the invading Manchus, his empress, as well as the crown prince, both dowagers, and several high officials all converted to Catholicism. One of the dowagers – christened Helena – even sent messages to Pope Innocent X in 1650 and to the general of the Society of Jesus asking for their prayers on behalf of the Ming cause.”

Progress was halted, however, by internal squabbles among Catholics.

The Italian Jesuit Ricci had been able to find favor in the highest echelons of Chinese society by learning the language, adopting their dress and customs, advancing knowledge in geography, optics, music, astronomy, and other fields to such an extent that he became the Chinese court mathematician. But many Catholics disliked his approach, believing that he was developing a syncretistic faith when he used Chinese terms to express the Christian faith. The conflict centered on the question of rites of obeisance to ancestors: Jesuits permitted the continuation of these Confucian rites, while the other faction, led by Franciscans, Dominicans and a few Jesuits, condemned the rites.

As the controversy heated up, the Jesuits appealed to the emperor to clarify the significance of the rites. Emperor Kang Xi, who a few years before (1692) had issued an edict giving wide freedom to Catholic missionaries, obliged by issuing an edict that declared “there was, in Chinese philosophy, an omnipotent Deity who created and rules over the universe; and the rites of ancestor worship were signs of respect, without any superstitious beliefs in spirits existing in the stone tablets.” Honor is paid to Confucius, he went on, not as petition for favor, as if Confucius were a god, but “as to a Master, becuase of the magnificent moral teaching, which he has left to posterity.”

The anti-rites faction was not satisfied, and the arrogance shown toward the emperor was disatrous. Kang Xi banned Christianity, though he later relented and permitted missionaries to operate, so long as they followed Ricci’s methods. In 1742, the Pope issued a bull of condemnation, and in response “Christianity was banned, foreigners expelled, and scientific and technological exchanges with the West halted.”

What should they have done? The first century response to Judaism may offer some guidance. Throughout the apostolic period, Christians continued to mingle with Jews and worship in Jerusalem’s temple; Paul circumcised Timothy. There was, in short, a transitional period when the old customs and rites were practiced, though no doubt with very different beliefs and attitudes. Jewish converts to Christ had to swallow some challenging changes – Gentiles at table, for instance – but they were not required to give up their own customs immediately.

The analogy is of course not perfect. Confucius is not Moses. But there is an analogy, and Confucius is a kind of Mosaic figure for many in China. and deeper study of the New Testament transition would illuminate these practical difficulties of the mission field further.