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- Convenor:
-
Linda Zampol D'Ortia
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- Stream:
- Religion and Religious Thought
- Location:
- Torre A, Piso 0, Sala 02
- Sessions:
- Thursday 31 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
This panel aims to exemplify the various ways in which soteriological preoccupations affected the early modern mission of the Society of Jesus in Japan, by considering its missionary policies, financial management, and printed propaganda.
Long Abstract:
Recent studies have identified salvation as a central preoccupation of early modern Catholicism. For this reason, it is possible to trace back to soteriology various issues arising in the enterprises that comprised the sixteenth-century global outreach of the Church. This panel aims to exemplify the different ways in which matters related to salvation affected the mission of the Society of Jesus in Japan, and its depiction in Jesuit documents.
The beginning of the early modern period was characterised by an exponential growth of contacts between Europe and Asia, built on the trade networks that composed the European seaborne empires. After arriving in India in the wake of the Portuguese, in 1549 Francis Xavier established, in southern Japan, one of the most prolific Jesuit enterprises of the early modern period. According to the published reports of the missionaries themselves, this success was due to the exceptional "rationality" that distinguished the local culture. As Christianity was considered the most rational faith of all, many Japanese were depicted as converting quickly and effortlessly. A perusal of the private correspondence of the order, however, reveals a different situation, characterised by struggles to identify the best strategies for gaining converts, internal tensions on missionary policies, a challenging isolation of the mission from the Asian Jesuit network, and a dependence on Portuguese trade to attract the patronage and protection of the local authorities.
This panel approaches the problem of salvation in the Jesuit mission from different points of view, aiming to provide a portrayal of the wide-ranging implications of this preoccupation: it considers the conflicting theological assumptions behind the policies of conversion and accommodation of the Japanese mission; the material and economic struggles in the organization of the mission, and how they clashed with its spiritual aspirations; and finally, the depictions of Japanese martyrs, in printed epistolary collections, as models of salvation, and as an powerful tool of evangelization in Europe.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 31 August, 2017, -Paper short abstract:
This presentation intends to link two notions that are generally seen as antinomic in a Catholic context by examining some of the ways the Society of Jesus managed to reconcile its spiritual and material objectives in the particular case of the Japanese mission
Paper long abstract:
This presentation intends to link two notions that are generally seen as antinomic in a Catholic context by examining some of the ways the Society of Jesus managed to reconcile its spiritual and material objectives in the particular case of the Japanese mission. The historiography of the Jesuits has generally payed little attention to this kind of question, focusing instead on the evangelical methods devised by the missionaries overseas. It is true that the mission was defined by its members as an undertaking with strictly spiritual foundations: a missionary sought his salvation by securing it for the people he worked to convert. However, the texts produced by the mission's personnel in Japan, and in particular by the Visitor to the East Indies, Alessandro Valignano, display a constant concern for material questions.
This presentation demonstrates that the Jesuits' involvement in commercial and financial activities should in no way be understood independently from their spiritual objectives, as it was indeed an integral part of their evangelical strategy. This involvement became an essential condition for the salvation of the Japanese, but it was a source of unease among the missionaries, who wondered whether the mission was not departing from the order's spiritual foundations.
Three main points will be dealt with, starting with the way the missionaries developed close relationships with Portuguese merchants to facilitate conversions in particular in the South, as local lords competed for the access to Western merchants. The second point that will be examined is the implication of lay Japanese men and women in the mission and the methods used by the Jesuits to foster that implication. By making monetary and in-kind donations, converts tried to secure their salvation while contributing to the survival of the Jesuit mission in Japan. Finally, the tensions resulting from the inseparably material and spiritual strategy will be examined, through a focus on the heated debates that rocked the mission on the issue of evangelical poverty. How could the missionaries secure their own salvation if they found themselves breaching a fundamental oath, yet one that could prove incompatible with their evangelical project?
Paper short abstract:
This paper aims to exemplify different paths that were envisioned by Catholic missionaries to reach salvation in the sixteenth-century Jesuit enterprise in Japan, and how they related to the wider context of global early modern Catholicism.
Paper long abstract:
The mission of the Society of Jesus in Japan has traditionally been considered exceptional, among other early modern Catholic enterprises, thanks to its "modern" preoccupations and attitudes towards proselytization.
A closer look at manuscript Jesuit correspondence, however, helps to identify some characterising elements that the mission had in common with the global early modern Catholic movement; more specifically, preoccupations with soteriology emerge as more important than what is generally believed. Matters of salvation reveal themselves as underlying some key policies adopted by the missionaries for the conversion of Japan, while assumptions on the specific work of divine grace emerge as characterising of stances taken towards the conversion of the Japanese.
This paper will strive to contextualise the understanding of soteriology of the missionaries in Japan in early modern Catholicism. It will give an overview of the theological assumptions of the period, and their connection with divine intervention in the form of grace. It will then consider how these beliefs were integrated in the missionary effort, behind the initial policies of conversion and accommodation (and lack-thereof) of the Jesuit Japanese mission.
The paper will especially focus on the figures of Jesuits Francisco Xavier (1506-1552) and Francisco Cabral (1528/30-1609): it will analyze the connection that these two missionaries believed existing between the salvation of the native converts to Christianity, and that of the missionaries who were preaching to them, and how these notions influenced their missionary policies. Finally, it will also look at how these expectations evolved when interacting with the specificities of Japanese culture, by giving particular attention to the matter of mass conversion and its legitimacy.
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyses the seventeenth-century missionary discourse about Christian persecution in Japan published in Europe, and aims to exemplify both its uses as devotional literature and propaganda.
Paper long abstract:
Christianity was forbidden in Japan from 1614 onwards, as it was considered a danger to national jurisdiction, and the Japanese political authorities regarded the converts who persisted in their faith as agitators who challenged Tokugawa policies. This, in turn, led to harassment of Christians, and later on to persecution and execution, or apostasy. In recent times, the suppression of Christianity and the discourse built around Japanese Christian practices has been the object of renewed research. However, the discourse created by the missionaries of the Society of Jesus who themselves were persecuted together with their flock and then circulated in Europe in printed form by their brethren, has been overlooked. This paper will be focused on the prints published in Europe during the first half of the 17th century.
European missionaries engaged in Japanese mission perceived and described persecuted converts as "genuine Christians," that is, as martyrs who persevered in the Christian faith until death and through it guaranteed their salvation. This paper will consider different questions around this conceptual framework. First, it will consider the fundamental reasons behind that discourse, which in turn raise questions around the interiorization of the idea of salvation by Japanese converts. Secondly, it will be discussed the reasons behind the wide publication of those accounts on martyrdom in Catholic Europe. Through this analysis, this paper will offer a new perspective on Tokugawa persecution of Christians in Japan, by bringing to light the reason for the success of martyrdom in Japan and highlighting it uses as devotional literature.