Reconfiguring Inculturations

Abstract

In the history of building the Vietnamese National Church, many Catholic works of literature produced by missionaries and local believers sought to place the faith in the context of Vietnamese society. Hội đồng tứ giáo is one of the most influential works within this proliferative Catholic literature, with many versions printed in Chinese, Nôm, and quốc ngữ. Drawing on interreligious knowledge and networks, it sought to respond to the intellectual innovation and local spiritual paradigm of the three religions in a late eighteenth-century context. By configuring a formal debate between representatives from Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Catholicism, the book demonstrates broader intellectual connections of Catholic knowledge and multidimensional inculturation in the cultural and religious context of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Vietnam. The interfaith dialogue in the book illuminates an inculturation process assembled by the flows of people and ideas that in turn shaped local Catholic traditions.