China and the Christian Impact: A Conflict of Cultures

by Jacques Gernet

Book Overview

Jacques Gernet's invigorating book turns the tables on traditional approaches to the history of Christianity in China, presenting a coherent analysis of the impact of Christianity in the seventeenth... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521266815
• ISBN13: 9780521266819
• Release Date: December 1985
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 310 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating record of prejudice and real humanity combined

Gerant is a master of Chinese history, and here he shows his capacity to juggle the perspectives of Chinese and European civilizations into a far richer picture. The history of interaction between Christianity and Chinese culture is surprising eventful, with influence flowing strongly in both directions. There is a lot of violence (for example the semi-Christian Taiping rebellion that burned down half of China), and also a good deal of mutual help. In one of my favorite passages, Gerant describes Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) preaching his faith to the Chinese court at a time when religious war was tearing Europe apart. But Ricci describes the political effect of Christianity as he felt sure it should be: "... on the whole and so far as one can see -- for I should not dare to exaggerate -- ever since 1,600 years ago, when our countries became Christian, in more than thirty kingdoms which adjoin one another, over more than 10,000 square li, there has not been a single change of dynasty, not a war, not the slightest dispute." (p. 110.) -author of Correcting Jesus