Videos from The Ricci Legacy Symposium held in Hong Kong in December 2010 are now available online.
The four-day symposium on inculturation was collaboration between Xavier House Spiritual Formation Centre in Hong Kong and Georgetown University in the United States. The 300 participants – about 100 from mainland China – heard 10 international experts, including Georgetown’s Fr Howard Gray, SJ, reflect on cultural adaptation of the Gospel and Ignatian Spirituality.
Matteo Ricci was an Italian Jesuit who lived in the second half of the 16th century, and who is known today for the way he communicated the Gospel in China. Rather than preaching a foreign religion to the Chinese people, he established common ground with them by mastering their language and adopting their customs.
He won their respect through his knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, and cartography, and his extraordinary demonstrations of memory. When interpreting Christian teaching to them, he found common values in their classic literature and in Confucianism.
His methods became controversial among Jesuits and in the official Church. But today Ricci’s legacy of inculturation is strong. The importance of respecting the unique ways in which diverse cultures understand and express their spiritual experience, even while preaching a common core belief, is no longer disputed.
Georgetown commissioned videotaping of the symposium and has now made selected segments available online. The videos cover five broad areas:
- Reflections on the life and times of Matteo Ricci
- Ricci’s legacy of inculturation today in China
- Ricci’s legacy as experienced today in India and in Jamaica
- Principles of inculturation found in the Spiritual Exercises
- Reactions to the symposium by panellists and participants
Click here to watch a general orientation to the videos from the symposium that explains the purpose of the Ricci Legacy Symposium and what to expect from the videos. Introduction is by series host Anthony Moore of Georgetown University.
To watch the series of videos from the Ricci Legacy Symposium, go to www.georgetown.edu/inculturation.html
