Translingual Catholics - (Liu Institute Chinese Christianities) by Jin Lu (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Translingual Catholics explores the life experiences and theological writings of twentieth-century Chinese Catholic intellectuals and their impact on global Catholic theology.

Weaving together archival resources in Chinese, French, and English, Translingual Catholics examines the preconciliar theological contribution of Republican-Era Chinese Catholics to global Catholicism and to the dialogue between Christianity and Chinese spiritual traditions. Author Jin Lu sheds light on generations of multilingual Chinese Catholic intellectuals who participated in the elaboration of Catholic theology leading up to the Second Vatican Council. This book situates the lives and works of these theologians in the intersecting global Catholic networks of the time, especially the Jesuit enclave of Xujiahui in Shanghai, the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-André in Bruges, Belgium, the Jesuit Theologate in Lyon-Fourvière, and the ecumenical Cercle Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Paris. By studying the interconnectedness of Chinese Catholic theologians working in multiple languages, Lu demonstrates that inculturation is necessarily a translingual process.

Through its groundbreaking archival research, Translingual Catholics tells the story of these underappreciated intellectuals and uncovers significant contributions to Chinese and global Catholic theology.

Review Quotes

"Rarely does one encounter a "new work" that genuinely confronts entirely new research--Jin Lu's Translingual Catholics is such a book. . . . Relying upon an impressive array of archival sources spanning the globe, adroit scholarly analysis, and trenchant intuition, Lu Jin's Translingual Catholics is an essential work that shall, I hope, inspire a new generation of scholars to expose more details about the decisive influences that Chinese Christians have had upon the global Church." --Journal of Religious History

"Translingual Catholics narrates the overlooked contributions of Catholic intellectuals of twentieth-century China, correcting the unbalanced nature of scholarship on Chinese Christianities, which has hitherto been preoccupied by the Protestant story. Drawing on French, English, and Chinese sources, this book offers a glimpse into World Christianity as seen through the eyes of translingual Chinese Catholics--beyond the limits of the 'Sino-Foreign Protestant Establishment.' Jin Lu has done us a tremendous service." --Alexander Chow, author of Chinese Public Theology

"Rather than confining Chinese Catholicism to its linguistic world and internal issues, Jin Lu considers Chinese Catholic intellectuals as polyglot actors inserted into the epochal change that Catholicism has experienced during the twentieth century. Such a shift of perspective makes this work significant from the start." --Benoît Vermander, author of The Encounter of Chinese and Western Philosophies

About the Author

Jin Lu is a professor of French at Purdue University Northwest. She is the author of Éléments d'une enquête sur l'usage d'un mot au siècle des Lumières.