Matteo Ricci: inculturation as a bridge between different cultures and religions

• Autore: Gaetano Dammacco
• Pagine: 79-85

GAetAno dAMMAcco

MATTEO RICCI:

INCULTURATION AS A BRIDGE BETWEEN

DIFFERENT CULTURES AND RELIGIONS

1.1“Perhaps what the ancient Greeks did, entering the Jewish-Christian

message into the Greek-Roman world, or what the great Jesuit missionary,

Matteo Ricci, did linking Christian doctrine with Chinese culture, could be

an example for us in bringing the Christian message to the Chinese people.

Both Christian doctrine and spirituality need to be inculturated. The Chinese

culture would benefit from the Christian message, but Christianity itself is

enriched by the encounter  with the ancient, wise traditions of China and the

East”. This quote from Father Joseph Wong (a Benedectine monk since 1997

in the monastery in Big Sur, New Camaldoli, Camaldolese Congregation,

founded in California, USA, 1958) introduces the aim of this essay very

well. Indeed, we must ask what the teaching of Matteo Ricci is today and

what the depth of his influence on Korean and Western Christianity is. We

should have a better understand of the Christian and religious realities in

Korea – so lively from a religious and cultural point of view – to understand

the ever-expanding mission of the church within the process of globalization.

Matteo Ricci did not personally bring Christianity to Korea, where he had

never been, but he provided the key to open the doors of Western culture to

the East and those of Eastern culture to the West. The unquestionable influ-

ence of his thinking on Christianity and Korean culture was strong enough to

create the foundations for Christian faith in Korea. Besides the translations

of scientific and humanistic Western classics into Chinese, he also wrote

cultural and theological essays in Chinese, of interest to the scholars of the

time for their high ethical content. For example, it was of interest his efforts

to identify common characteristics of Eastern and Western culture, using

logical categories for easy access to different cultural views of life. In his

booklet The thoughts of believers, he concisely and effectively explained the

* The paper was presented at the conference held in Seoul by Italian Cultural Institute and Seoul

National University in september 2010, entitled “The Legacy of Matteo Ricci and Late Choson

Korea”.