Jesuit Knowledge, Cultural Translations, and the Rules of Japanese Christianity (16th-17th centuries)

For more than two decades, seminaries and novitiates established by the Society of Jesus in early modern Japan were instrumental in shaping Japanese individuals able to preach, hear confessions, and bring about conversions among the local populace. Central to our understanding of these efforts has been the Compendia, a collection of treatises on philosophy, theology, and later, astronomy. Originally penned in Latin in 1593, translated into Japanese by 1595, and subsequently enriched with additional content, these texts have been key to exploring the translation and transmission of European Catholic knowledge to Japanese learners. The recent discovery of a complete Japanese translation of the Compendia in Wolfenbüttel in 2019 has opened new avenues for research, particularly in understanding the Jesuit interpretation and adaptation of Aristotelian philosophy, theology, and astronomy within the Japanese setting.

The workshop will feature three doctoral students from Japan, Portugal, and Germany who are at the forefront of research into the Compendia, offering new insights into cultural translation, the Jesuit mission in Asia, and the formation of normative knowledge within Japanese Christian communities. The event aims to foster discussion on the perspectives developed at the Department of Historical Regimes of Normativity within the context of Japanese and Jesuit history.