Shadow of Xavier: East Asian Jesuit Missions in the Sixteenth Century

Pipins, Bryan Joseph (2010) Shadow of Xavier: East Asian Jesuit Missions in the Sixteenth Century. Master of Arts (minor thesis) thesis, UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

When Francis Xavier died on Shangchuan Island, in 1552, by his extraordinary work he cast a long shadow over Christian missionaries to East Asia for the next five centuries.
The period of this thesis covers the fifty or so years, from the death of Xavier to the establishment of a Jesuit community in the imperial capital city of Peking. In this missionary field the newly formed Society of Jesus encountered peoples totally alien to the European experience and in each case the Jesuits in the field were challenged to modify their approach to mission so as to preach the Gospel.
The thesis looks at the Spanish and then the Portuguese missions to East Asia – specifically the Philippines, Japan and China. The missions are explored through the issues which the Jesuits identified and then how they approached the perceived problems.

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