Ecological Crisis and Strategy in the Jesuit China Mission

Abstract In Laudate Deum (2023), Pope Francis calls on those negotiating today’s climate emergency to be “strategists.” No organization has a longer history of strategy-making than the pope’s alma mater , the Society of Jesus, whose China mission was founded during an ecological crisis. No Jesuit is more celebrated as a strategist than Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), who observed the effects of that crisis in 1604 and praised the emperor’s response but noted its inadequacy. As a result of this, and the influence of Xu Guangqi (1562–1633), the idea of introducing European science to China materialized as the final strand of the China mission’s strategy. Xu’s own career was dedicated to preserving Ming China through agricultural and military reform, and his ideas are present in Ricci’s work. Thus, Ricci’s strategy-making was forged in the context of challenges recognizable today, and its strengths and limitations represent a resource for the strategists addressed by Pope Francis.