Jesuits and Matriarchs

"Jesuits and Matriarchs takes a novel approach to the history of the seventeenth-century Jesuit China missions by focusing on Chinese Catholic women’s domestic religiosity, analyzing the gendered spatial relations in the Jesuits’ mission and connecting them with post-Tridentine perceptions and development in Europe. . . . [this book] will be an accessible and rewarding read for scholars and any interested readers who wish to gain new insights into women’s religiosity in Chinese Catholicism."

"Amsler’s meticulous archival industry, innovative analysis of a wide sweep of materials, and cogent narrative serve as an example of first-rate scholarship that shall remain the authoritative word on Catholic women in early China for years to come."

"Jesuits and Matriarchs constitutes a significant contribution to our understanding of the history of Christianity in East Asia and complicates the state of ongoing debates about the situation of women in late imperial China. Amsler sheds light on the importance of gender as a novel channel to help reconsider the nature of Chinese Catholic communities and raises numerous questions for future research, for example by advocating for a comparative analysis of the global situation of women in the Catholic Church, which unequivocally makes the book thought-provoking and useful for a broad audience."

"By seeking to fill a gap in scholarship on Chinese Catholics in the seventeenth century, particularly how women in China were introduced to Catholicism and contributed to its development and spread, Nadine Amsler makes crucial contributions to many different fields of study in this slim, tightly organized book."

"In this important study, Nadine Amsler investigates the Jesuit mission to China from the late sixteenth through most of the seventeenth century, focusing on how Chinese customs and sensibilities shaped and constrained the Jesuit ministry to women."

"A major contribution to a much-neglected topic in the field of Sino-European relations, that of gender and the role of women."

"The fruit of admirable archival work, this book offers a major contribution to the history of Chinese-Western relations, especially to the subfield of early modern Christianity. It is essential reading for anybody interested in gender relations and religion, in China and comparatively."

"Jesuits and Matriachs is the first full-length study of Catholicism and women in late imperial China. Amsler's research synthesizes Chinese and European sources, analyzes Jesuit masculinity and Chinese feminity, and places the study of domestic religiosity in the largest global framework."

"A fascinating book that takes an entirely new angle on the Jesuit mission to China and raises a wide range of new issues for students of relations between China and the West. Amsler examines the Jesuit missionaries as seventeenth-century European men living in the context of elite Chinese social and domestic life, and especially the Jesuits’ interactions with Chinese women. The sophistication of Amsler’s knowledge of both European and Chinese history brings the period to life."