Country | |
Publisher | |
ISBN | 9789492768056 |
Format | PaperBack |
Language | English, Chinese, Japanese |
Year of Publication | 2018 |
Bib. Info | 248p. Includes Index ; Bibliography |
Product Weight | 440 gms. |
Shipping Charges(USD) |
In this new text, sealed at Peking on March 1, 1680 and addressed to Superior General Giovanni Paolo Oliva, Ferdinand Verbiest speaks as Vice-Provincial of the China mission. He formulates a small series of postulata, requests, which partly repeat longstanding complaints from the mission, posed again on the occasion of its centennial jubilee and at a moment when opportunities appeared limitless, yet constrained by the juridical and structural framework of the Vice-Province. Some of the arguments in this internal document, one not meant to be published, also show Verbiest's concern safeguarding, in the short term, Jesuit positions in China vis-a-vis other missionary congregations. More than in any other document, these postulata show that Verbiest deserved the title of columen missionis, pillar of the mission, for his talent at forceful argumentation, using all possible means to strengthen the China mission's position, especially by freeing it from the Japan Province and promoting it to the level of a full Province within the Society of Jesus.