The Samurai and the Cross: The Jesuit Enterprise in Early Modern Japan

In 1614 the shogunate prohibited Christianity amidst rumors of foreign plots to conquer Japan. But more than the fear of armed invasions, it was the ideological threat--or "spiritual conquest"--that the Edo shogunate feared the most. This book explores the encounter of Christianity and premodern Japan in the wider context of global and intellectual history. M. Antoni J. Ucerler examines how the Jesuit missionaries sought new ways to communicate their faith in an unfamiliar linguistic, cultural, and religious environment--and how they sought to "re-invent" Christianity in the context of samurai Japan. They developed an original "moral casuistry" or "cases of conscience" adapted to the specific dilemmas faced by Japanese Christians. This volume situates the European missionary "enterprise" in East Asia within multiple geopolitical contexts: Both Ming China and "Warring States" Japan resisted the presence of foreigners and their beliefs. In Japan, where the Jesuits were facing persecution in the midst of civil war, they debated whether they could intervene in military conflicts to protect local communities. Others advocated for the establishment of a "Christian republic" or civil protectorate. Based on little-known primary sources in various languages, The Samurai and the Cross explores the moral and political debates over religion, law, and "reason of state" that took place on both the European and the Japanese side.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations List of Illustrations Introduction Part I: Re-inventing Christianity Chapter 1: Aristotle and Aquinas come to Japan Chapter 2: Japanese Cases of Conscience Chapter 3: Jesuit Casuistry: from Rome to Nagasaki Part II: Re-imagining the Enterprise Chapter 4: The Politics of Accommodation Chapter 5: Alonso Sánchez' and his 'Empresa de China' Chapter 6: The Cross, the Sword, & 'Just War' Chapter 7: Gómez vs. Sánchez: 'Compel them to enter'? Part III: Re-interpreting 'Reason of State' Chapter 8: Jesuit Debates on Japanese 'Reason of State' Chapter 9: The Mechanics of Jesuit Obedience Chapter 10: Japanese Reactions to Christian 'Reason of State' Chapter 11: The End of the Missionary 'Enterprise' Chapter 12: Temporal vs. Spiritual Conquest Epilogue: Some Further Reflections Appendices Notes Select Bibliography Glossary Index

About the Author :
M. Antoni J. Ucerler, S.J., is the Director of the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History and Provost's Fellow at Boston College. He has also taught at Sophia University in Tokyo, Georgetown University, the University of San Francisco, and the University of Oxford, where he is an Associate Fellow of Campion Hall. His interests and publications focus on the history of Christianity in Japan and the global histories of East Asian engagement with Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He is also Co-Editor in Chief of the Brill monograph series, Studies in the History of Christianity in East Asia.

Review :
The monograph successfully resets the history of the Jesuit enterprise in Japan in its conflicts and challenges, leading to a significant reassessment of how their efforts, decisions, and strategies are understood...The Samurai and The Cross is an excellent guide for those interested in the intellectual work of Jesuits in Japan. Those who are taking their first steps into the Jesuits' history in early modern Japan will find The Samurai and the Cross a pleasure to read and most rewarding... In The Samurai and the Cross, a rich historical record replete with valuable references awaits the readers. One of the strengths of Ucerler's book lies in the care taken to provide in the endnotes bibliographical data not only on the primary sources discussed (especially frequent of the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI) collections), but also to include - where available - their critical editions or translations in several languages (in most cases Spanish or Portuguese). Ucerler's book is praised for its comprehensive approach and its contribution to ongoing scholarly discourse, offering insights that resonate with contemporary academic interests in imperialism, nationalism, and their ideological underpinnings. Ucerler's text endows the reader with a much-needed nuanced picture vis-á-vis religious expansion and Western imperialistic ambitions on Asian soil during the early modern era, elegantly enumerating and pointing out the significance of various practical considerations the Christian decision-makers had to take into account in order to be successful and efficient in a slowly modernizing, essentially non-Christian East Asian environment.