Christianity is often praised as an agent of Chinese modernization or damned as a form of cultural and religious imperialism. In both cases, Christianity’s foreignness and the social isolation of converts have dominated this debate. Eugenio Menegon uncovers another story. In the sixteenth century, European missionaries brought a foreign and global religion to China. Converts then transformed this new religion into a local one over the course of the next three centuries. Focusing on the still-active Catholic communities of Fuan county in northeast Fujian, this project addresses three main questions. Why did people convert? How did converts and missionaries transform a global and foreign religion into a local religion? What does Christianity’s localization in Fuan tell us about the relationship between late imperial Chinese society and religion? Based on an impressive array of sources from Asia and Europe, this pathbreaking book reframes our understanding of Christian missions in Chinese-Western relations. The study’s implications extend beyond the issue of Christianity in China to the wider fields of religious and social history and the early modern history of global intercultural relations. The book suggests that Christianity became part of a preexisting pluralistic, local religious space, and argues that we have so far underestimated late imperial society’s tolerance for “heterodoxy.” The view from Fuan offers an original account of how a locality created its own religious culture in Ming-Qing China within a context both global and local, and illuminates the historical dynamics contributing to the remarkable growth of Christian communities in present-day China.

In the sixteenth century, European missionaries brought a foreign and global religion to China. Converts then transformed this new religion into a local one. Focusing on the still-active Catholic communities of Fuan county in northeast Fujian, this project addresses three main questions. Why did people convert? Second, how did converts and missionaries transform a global and foreign religion into a local religion? Third, what does Christianity's localization in Fuan tell us about the relationship between late imperial Chinese society and religion? The study's implications extend beyond the issue of Christianity in China to the wider fields of religious and social history and the early modern history of global intercultural relations. The book suggests that Christianity became part of a pre-existing pluralistic, local religious space. The author argues that we underestimate late imperial society's tolerance for "heterodoxy." The view from Fuan offers an original account of how a locality created its own religious culture in Ming-Qing China.

A study of a widespread esoteric tradition in medieval China called the Way of highest Clarity (Shangqing dao) with translations of three of its important texts and essays on its doctrines regarding nature, vision, and revelation.

Analyses Spain's political shift, reassessing the role of the right as it mobilised against the Second Republic, swinging from ostensibly 'moderate' Catholic conservatism to fascist violence. This work focuses on the conspiracy to destroy the Republic, the creation of the new state, and the true social and political origins of the Franco regime

The second volume on Christianity in China covers the period from 1800 to the present day, dealing with the complexities of both Catholic and Protestant aspects.

In early modern China, Jesuit missionaries associated with the male elite of Confucian literati in order to proselytize more freely, but they had limited contact with women, whose ritual spaces were less accessible. Historians of Catholic evangelism have similarly directed their attention to the devotional practices of men, neglecting the interior spaces in Chinese households where women worshipped and undertook the transmission of Catholicism to family members and friends. Nadine Amsler's investigation brings the domestic and devotional practices of women into sharp focus, uncovering a rich body of evidence that demonstrates how Chinese households functioned as sites of evangelization, religious conflict, and indigenization of Christianity. The resulting exploration of gendered realms in seventeenth-century China reveals networks of religious sociability and ritual communities among women as well as women's remarkable acts of private piety. Amsler's exhaustive archival research and attention to material culture reveals new insights about women's agency and domestic activities, illuminating areas of Chinese and Catholic history that have remained obscure, if not entirely invisible, for far too long. The open access publication of this book was made possible by grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation and the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation.

The volume contains the proceedings of an international symposium organized by the Fondazione CiviltA Bresciana in Brescia, Italy in 1994. It comprises 28 scholary articles in English, divided into five sections.