MATTEO RICCI’S UNDERTAKINGS IN CULTURAL DIPLOMACY: STRATEGIC MISSIOLOGIST, SCIENTIFIC APOSTLE, AND FRIEND

The present reflective notes on Matteo Ricci’s cultural and scientific posterity in China stress more upon the role of Ricci as a genuine cultural diplomat than as a militant figure of Catholic missiology in China. Regardless of Ricci’s own intentions and sometimes probably against his will, the acknowledgement of his prominent undertakings in cultural diplomacy as a friendly mate, strategic missiologist and scientific apostle prevails over widespread interpretations of his compromising accommodationism and opportunistic syncretism. In other words, depicting Ricci as an outstanding cultural diplomat could stand as an alternative reading of sweeping apperceptions regarding the overall Jesuit mentality associated with political conspiracies, intransigence and lust. A plausible alternative reading inspired by Ricci’s own life and deeds aptly reveals that (at least) some Jesuit missionaries and defenders of the Christian Catholic faith took a pious posture in their daily lives, and shared unrelentless beliefs in reason, erudition, education and rhetoric excellence. Reading Ricci through such lenses would not only do justice to his posterity but would also elevate his personality to the forefront of early modern cultural diplomacy.