A Franciscan Critique of the Chinese Rites

The Chinese Rites Controversy was one of the most consequential events in the history of global Christianity. At its heart was a fundamental question of cultural and religious identity: could Chinese Christians continue to practice Confucian rituals? Following Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), Jesuit missionaries argued that these rituals were primarily symbolic expressions of filial piety (xiao 孝) and thus were permissible. But Franciscan and Dominican friars, who arrived in China in the 1630s, considered them idolatrous sacrifices incompatible with the Catholic faith. The rejection of these rituals posed a moral dilemma for Chinese Catholic converts and threatened the social integration of the Christian message. History has often cast the mendicant friars as inflexible dogmatists in contrast to progressive and tolerant Jesuits, but this volume reveals a far more complex picture. Re-examining the missionary career and writings of the Spanish Franciscan Antonio de Santa María Caballero (1602–1669) shows how He evolved in his understanding of Chinese ritual through ethnographic observation, interviews, and the study of the Confucian classics. While Caballero was consistently opposed to Confucian rituals, his earlier unpublished writings demonstrate a deep appreciation for the Confucian classics and their role in Chinese society. The evolution of Caballero’s views on Confucianism is revealed in the first critical edition and English translation of his “Sworn Declaration,” which the Franciscan addressed to Propaganda Fide in 1661. Daniel Canaris is Senior Lecturer in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sydney. He is an intellectual historian and philologist focusing on Sino-Western exchange in the early modern period, the Italian Enlightenment, and Renaissance philosophy. Recent books include Michele Ruggieri’s Tianzhu Shilu (The True Record of the Lord of Heaven, 1584) (Brill, 2023) and Vico and China (Voltaire Foundation, 2020). by Daniel Canaris pb ISBN: 978-1-57659-4940 2026