A Sapiential Synthesis of Faith and Reason―From De Amicitia of Matteo Ricci―

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 신학과사상학회
· 수록지 정보 : 가톨릭신학과사상 / 66호 / 182 ~ 229페이지
· 저자명 : Savio HON Tai-Fai

초록

Matteo Ricci(1552~1610) was a great missionary in China. He is regarded as “a unique case of a felicitous synthesis between the proclamation of the Gospel and the dialogue with the culture”(Pope Benedict XVI). Such a synthesis is closely related to that between faith and reason. Convinced of this, Ricci kept writing books in this regard. The secret that allowed him to achieve this is friendship.
In fact, his first book written in Chinese 交友論(Jiaoyou Lun)―De Amicitia(1596) was precisely on friendship. It was his initial attempt to make a synthesis between the Christian faith and Confucian reason. The book, which was officially printed in 1601, soon became a best seller among the Chinese literati. About the same years, Ricci was preparing another well-known volume entitled 天主實義(Tianzhu Shiyi)―The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven by which he endeavored to engage in dialogue more systematically with the Chinese literati. Because of his faith, science, virtue, and friendship, Ricci managed to make himself known as a sage(西泰, XiTai) and was able to draw the attention of the Chinese people.
This article intends to offer an inter-cultural reading of Jiaoyou Lun so as to highlight the insight Ricci gained into a synthesis of faith and reason. The book should be read against his “ascent to Peking”, which contains five layers of meaning: geographical, linguistic, social, ethical, and cultural. The main theme of JYL is concerned with the Way of friendship. The author further puts into evidence how reason strengthens friendship in three aspects: universal fellowship, intimacy-reciprocity, and moral ascent. Friendship, in its turn, nourishes faith in terms of affection-joy, wisdom-virtue, spiritual treasure, loyalty-trust, and openness to transcendence.

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