In the context of Christian inculturation the Xianxian

In the context of Christian inculturation, the Xianxian-Daming handbook must be considered from two architectural points of view: SCH727965 Supplier and construction. About style, the handbook expresses a resistance of the ‘old school’ and missionaries such as Alphonse De Moerloose against the Sino-Christian style promoted by the Vatican. The handbook pleads for Western architecture, especially Gothic. What was the attitude of Chinese Christians towards architectural styles? Answering this question is not easy, but conservative missionaries were convinced that Chinese Christians only wanted Western architecture, as father De Moerloose writes in a letter dated 1924: “The Christians do not want Chinese churches. They say that this style is good for the pagodas. Today Chinese also build in the European way, of course with a bad result, but the idea is to build as Europeans. In Beijing, Paotingfu [Baoding], Kalgan [Zhangjiakou] buildings and even local schools are European. (…) The Apostolic Delegate [Costantini] is particularly against Gothic; as all the Italians, his model is St. John Lateran. All the well-thinking missionaries and bishops I have seen are convinced that there is no question of building Chinese churches, all the more they are not practical”. The opposite point of view is exposed by father Gresnigt in an article from 1928: “Chinese Catholics may, indeed, out of deference for the evident predilections of the foreign priest, conceal their real feelings on the subject, and may even go so far as to feign a preference for foreign architecture; but in such cases they are speaking out of innate courtesy and from a fear to wound the sensibilities of one for whom they have sincere respect. It would, therefore, be exceedingly unwise for the missionary to take expressions of this kind literally”. Interesting is that both missionary-architects had another perception of what Chinese Christians thought, but did all the Chinese people, Christian or not, have the same opinion? This question will not be developed further in this article. It is, however, worth noticing that at present Chinese Christians build churches with explicit references to Western styles and a predilection for postmodern Gothic forms. Did Costantini’s inculturation theory and efforts completely fail? Does the identity of Christianity in twenty-first-century China still need to express its foreign roots? The other aspect and also the main purpose of the handbook was construction practice, in all likelihood based on the long experience of father De Moerloose. Even if comparative Western thinking is patent from the beginning to the end of the handbook, a great attention is paid to Chinese building techniques and materials, some of them being recommended in certain circumstances. Therefore we could conclude that the handbook reveals a certain acculturation – the ability to adapt to a precise cultural milieu – to Chinese context. This is particularly true for the choice of locations and the orientation of buildings according to geomancy (even if fengshui never is explicitly mentioned). Except for the location and orientation, the authors do not seem to have paid great attention to the specific climate of Northern China, as if Gothic churches with great windows and vast spaces were appropriate to all places in the world. Some missionaries, however, found Gothic churches totally inconvenient: “[De Moerloose] did not pay enough attention to the particularities of our region and its excessive climate. These high chapels, with thin walls, many windows, and thin wooden ceilings, have pleasant forms, but the priest and the churchgoers are to be pitied when they are obliged to gather for praying by minus 30–35°C or oppressive heat. You are freezing or suffocating; staying with spread arms during the canon of the mass it is a torture, as giving communion to crowds. Priests and Christians have all experienced this pity; however the vogue of this so beautiful but so unpractical style was slow to disappear. (…) May God protect us from to conservative artists who, because of their art principles, introduced useless suffering in our missions of Mongolia”.