This is the amazing story of the famous Jesuit missionary priest to China; Fr. Matteo Ricci; revered as a "Wise Man" by the Chinese. He arrived in China in 1582 and died there twenty-eight years later; having developing a deep knowledge of and love for the country; the culture and the people. Before Ricci's heroic mission; China was an unexplored land bordering on the vague; mysterious Cathay; and the West was no more than a rumor to the learned Mandarins; a distant unknown region lying beyond the bounds of geography. In the person of Father Ricci these two worlds met; and Vincent Cronin dramatically recreates the romance; the crossed purposes; the potential tragedy of that meeting. He shows us ancient China; the timeless state; with a civilization older than that wherein Christianity first found expression. Because Ricci loved this civilization and honored it; he was able to teach his strange new Christian doctrine with tact and sympathy. He carried much of the technological and philosophical wisdom of the late Renaissance Europe; and thus found favor among the Mandarins; the men of learning who enjoyed high status at the Imperial Court. He learned Chinese to discuss with them the problems in science and technology; and also questions of religion and the hereafter. He lived as a great scholar among great scholars and left behind him a memory worthy of the Christian faith he served. Well researched and written with an enchanting style; Cronin relied almost entirely on contemporary material only recently assembled; including Father Ricci's own letters and reports; and his account of China written in Peking before his death. The seed of Faith was sown and the crop; even after a century of atheistic communism; continues to grow in present-day China.
#497088 in Books 2013-06-05Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x .51 x 5.98l; .73 #File Name: 1618613359244 pages
Review
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Readers would also like "Jenna's Flaw"By Lee TaseyThis book of lectures and talks by Bat Ye'or is a book for our times. It explains what jihad is (the struggle to spread Islam across the entire globe) and what dhimmitude is (the fate of Jews and Christians who've been conquered by Islamic jihad). The fate of these Jews and Christians; also known as "dhimmis;" isn't good at all. As conquered peoples; the dhimmis live in a state of constant fear and humiliation. Why? Because the Muslim conquerors want the dhimmis to be aware that they've rejected Allah and Muhammad. The life of a dhimmi isn't pretty; and it's not a stretch to say that they live like dogs. Furthermore; the regime of dhimmitude ensures that Jewish and Christian communities under Islamic rule are always in a state of decay and eventual destruction so that these communities can't compete with Islam; thus ensuring that Allah's religion reigns supreme.This book is relevant today because not only is the regime of dhimmitude still somewhat in operation (Egypt; Iraq; Syria; Iran; and so on); it could return with a vengeance to the world stage; especially if Muslims were to ever consolidate military and political power and go on the warpath once again to impose Islamic law on the globe. This poses a great danger to the Judeo-Christian West; because if Muslims were to finally conquer it; the nightmare known as dhimmitude would occur all over again. And those Jews and Christians who don't convert to Islam or who don't agree to become dhimmis will be fought against by the Muslims-that is; the Jews and Christians will be killed or enslaved.Readers of this book would also like "Jenna's Flaw;" a novel about the death of Western civilization and how to save it.7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. The 3rd dimension of what is normally a 2 dimensional debateBy Ken FreedWhy do the Arabs so vehemently object to an Israel in their midst – when making peace with it could bring nothing but material benefits? Why are mideastern Christian churches so anti Israeli? Why do Muslim countries expect more tolerance in European lands than they show in their own? Why don’t Muslims (as a whole) assimilate into European societies?- Understanding DEEPLY ingrained Muslim concept of right and wrong; just and unjust; tolerant and intolerant; and superior and inferior are essential to answering the above questions.This book gives us eye opening and ground breaking background information on Dhimmitude: something so common and ubiquitous in the Muslim world - that it goes unnoticed and unreported here in the west. This book is one of the most concise and to the point books on THE salient issue surrounding Europe’s (and soon to be our) current day problems with jihad.22 of 23 people found the following review helpful. Kowtowing of Christians/Jews by IslamistsBy William Garrison Jr."Understanding Dhimmitude" by Bat Ye'or; June 2013; papeback242 pgs) or Kindle ebook. Bat Ye'or (meaning "daughter of the Nile") is a pseudonym of Gisèle (Orebi) Littman; who was born into a Jewish family living in Egypt. She wrote about the Muslim mistreatment and enslavement of non-Muslims long before; at least two decades before; Islamo- fascists piloted their jihad-hijacked airplanes into the NYC World Trade Towers in Sept. 2001. In this book; the author reveals 21 lectures and talks that she has delivered since 1984; they are presented in chronological order. 's "view inside" feature lists the "chapters" or lectures; along with the book's 15-page preface; wherein she recounts how she started her public-speaking engagements; originally to Jewish then Christian audiences. So if you have already read her other books; why read this one? As the author explains: "In these lectures; I discussed contemporary events and the general ignorance and deceiving denial surrounding this subject" [of dhimmitude]. (p. 23). That is why these lectures are listed in chronological order; for a reader to see how the author's specialty topic developed and progressed. As she presents her lectures; she provides brief introductory remarks as to where and who had invited her; and the lecture's relevance in the study of dhimmitude; sometimes her lectures were a response to critiques of her earlier publications. These lectures provide a personal; human-interest look at the author; as she expresses her concerns in revealing a topic [dhimmitude] that was doubted by some of her early audience members. As she opined in a Dec. 1985 lecture: "Jihad is in fact a comprehensive system of warfare that is the fundamental ideological and pragmatic basis on which traditional Islam established and regulated its international relations with non-Muslim countries...." (p. 71); a very perceptive insight a half decade before Osama bin Laden voiced his opposition to U.S. military forces entering Saudi Arabia to deter Iraq's oil-thirsty leader: Saddam Hussein. For those who have read her other heavily cite-sourced books; I believe that this new publication will still be of interest in seeing the development of the author's thoughts as she reveals the horror of the Prophet Muhammed's imposition of jizyah-paying dhimmitude upon zindiq; kafir; dahri; mulhid and others with kuffar thoughts.
