The Spirit and the Flesh in Shandong, 1650-1785

By David E. Mungello

Book Overview

In the spring of 1738, Fr. Bernardino Bevilacqua was hustled out of Shandong to quiet the uproar over his sexual seduction of young Chinese converts. Fr. Alessio Randanini followed him to Macau in 1741. The story of this scandal has remained largely untold for nearly three centuries. Among Christians in Shandong and southern Zhili provinces during the years 1650-1785, the spirit and the flesh lived in constant tension as the aspirations of the spirit (faith, hope, love, devotion, mercy, and piety) contended with the passions of the flesh (hatred, jealousy, lust, and pride). The Spirit and the Flesh in Shandong tells the deeply human story of the introduction of Christianity to a provincial region in China where European missionaries shared the poverty and isolation of their Chinese flocks. Their close personal relationships led to intellectual and pastoral collaboration, suppression, an underground church, imprisonment, apostasy and martyrdom as well as peasant secret society affiliations, self-flagellation, and sexual seduction. In the remote villages of this region, the missionaries and their converts lived out their pious aspirations and eternal damnations under a darkening sky of growing anti-Christian policies from the capital.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0742511642
• ISBN13: 9780742511644
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Sound and inspired scholarship

It has been a surprise to discover prof. Mungello, but after reading this book I must celebrate him as a second-to-none sinologist. He has studied an aspect of European-Chinese interaction little known today, the work of Franciscan missionaries among the ordinary people. Unfortunately, too much attention has been focused on the Jesuits in Beijing or on petty conflicts at Macao, and most writers just repeat what other said without contrasting sources. It is not the case of Mungello. First, he displays rare gifts of intellectual honesty and rigour. His work is the result of thorough and referenced research of primary and secondary sources, mostly available in obscure journals, memorials and archives untouched before. Second, Mungello's vast culture and sensibiity let him weave the story beautifully but with restrain, avoiding subjetivism, common places, or premature conclussions. Last, this book is well written so that one enjoys it thorought with a feeling of gratitude. The epilogue will surely steer your emotions.After reading the book, the dense narrative and minucious attention to detail -the individuals, the events- emerge eloquent. "The Spirit and the Flesh in Shandong" goes beyond the encounter of two complex distant worlds at a momemt in time. It is a profound insight into Chinese and European cultures and into the common ground of universal values. A study of the past which is meaningful today, and an excelent scholarly contribution for others to follow...