MRI Public Forum | The China Rites Controversy and the Rise of Pan-Religionism

event

MRI Public Forum | The China Rites Controversy and the Rise of Pan-Religionism

26

Jan

The Macau Ricci Institute is hosting the MRI Public Forum: “The China Rites Controversy and the Rise of Pan-Religionism” on 26 January, from 18:30 – 20:00, at the Faculty of Religious Studies and Philosophy Seminary campus.

INTRODUCTION:

The Jesuit missionaries in 16 th century China were concerned to associate Christianity with the monotheistic worldview of China’s most ancient, classic texts, desiring in this way to present the faith less as something foreign and new, rather as something with intra Chinese origins. By the end of the century, a group of missionaries, known as Figurists, had adopted the view that multiple religions sprang from the same source, which can be traced back to Noah, who was thought to have preserved the knowledge, expressed in hieroglyphs, enjoyed by Adam and Eve before the Fall. At the climax of the Rites controversy in the opening years of the 1700s, the talks between papal legate Cardinal de Tournon and emperor Kangxi broke down when Tournon realized that some Figurists were advancing a form of pan-religionism, defined as the belief that all religions are similar, in contrast with the biblical view that a choice must be made between Christ and those who reject him.

The leaders of Europe’s broadly anti Christian Enlightenment had been closely watching the course of the Rites Controversy. In the 1720s and 30s the Freemasons adopted pan-religionism in their constitutions. From about then on the Church’s Controversy in China was replaced by conflict in Europe between the Church and the pan-religionism promoted by Freemasonry. We argue in this presentation that the latter conflict evolved naturally from the course taken by the Controversy in China.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Paul Flynn

Paul Flynn after graduating in Philosophy and English from University College Dublin in 1976, Paul Flynn moved to London where he had his main career with the British Civil Service (HMRC). In 2001 he moved from the Department to China and taught English at Guangdong University, later at HKUST in Hong Kong, where he also worked as an academic copy editor. His outputs as an author have been published both inside China and in the West. Since 2008 his works have been principally taken up with biblical and theological themes. His most recent publications, apart from ‘The China Rites Controversy and the Rise of Pan Religionism’ (2025) have been a trilogy of monographs on the questions at the intersection of the doctrines of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation: ‘The Incarnation and Our Access to the Holy Trinity’ (2024), ‘Christ and the Holy Trinity’ (2024), and ‘Who Worked Our Lord’s Miracles?’ (2025). He currently lives in Wimbledon, London with his wife Choi.

DETAILS:

Date: Monday 26 January 2026
Time: 6.30 PM – 8.00 PM (GMT +8, Macau time)
Location: Faculty of Religious Studies and Philosophy of USJ | Rua do Seminário, Macau, China (Gate located at the Rua do Seminário leads to the Seminary campus, and the door on the right side of the church gives access to the Faculty of Religious Studies and Philosophy)
Language: English

Chair: Fr. Jaroslaw Duraj S.J., Director of the Macau Ricci Insttute