The Macau Ricci Institute hosts a new MRI Public Forum led Thierry Meynard S.J., on “From Confucius to Zhu Xi: the adoption of Neo-Confucianism by the Jesuit François Noël in his Philosophia Sinica (1711)”. The lecture takes place on March 17, 18:30-20:00.
According to the Macau Ricci Institute, Jesuits in China since the time of Matteo Ricci had “recognized an authentic discourse on God in the writings of Confucius and of his school, opening a fruitful venue for Christianity to take roots in Chinese culture. However, since Ricci, the missionaries and the Chinese Christians had rejected the School of Principle of Zhu Xi and its concepts of Taiji, Li, Qi and guishen. In his Philosophia Sinica (1711), François Noël argued that Neo-confucianism continued and deepened the ancient discourse on God, and he accepts Taiji as a legitimate concept for God in the philosophical sense. Why was Noël able to examine afresh Neo-confucianism? How he did it? What are the consequences for Christian theology? Those questions are like an invitation to go forward in the dialogue between Confucianism and Christianity in the 21rst century.”
More information about this public lecture is available at: http://www.riccimac.org/index.php/en/component/djevents/details/2021-03-17/163-mri-forum-104