Christian art from India

In 1542 the Spaniard Francis Xavier, one of the original band of Jesuits, arrived in Goa on the Indian subcontinent and made this site his missionary headquarters. From here he evangelized Indonesia and then went on to Japan where he arrived in 1549. Xavier pioneered what would later become a typical Jesuit approach in mission by appealing to politically and culturally influential leaders. In Japan Francis led in the formation of a small church which would thereafter endure centuries of tribulation and persecution. Xavier himself died in 1572 on an island off the Chinese coast without having accomplished his purpose of evangelizing China. An Italian Jesuit, Matteo Ricci, entered China in 1583 and after encountering many difficulties made his way in 1601 to the capital, Beijing, where he remained until his death. Here he won the respect of the Chinese through the use of his scientific knowledge, cartography, and his ability to explain the workings of clocks. Ricci pioneered an approach to missions which urged the adaptation of Christian faith and practice to the context where possible. He argued, for example, that certain elements of Confucian observance might be theologically and liturgically adapted by Christians without compromise of their faith. This led to a prolonged controversy over Jesuit methods in China which resulted in censure by the pope. A public Christian presence continued in China until 1724 when Christianity was proscribed and began an underground existence which lasted until the opening of China to the West in the nineteenth century.