The Japanese Translations of Jesuit Mission Press, 1590-1614. De Imitatione Christi and Guía de Pecadores

Farge, William J.

ISBN 10: 0773469184 / ISBN 13: 9780773469181

Published by The Edwin Mellen Press, Lampeter, 2002

About this Item

Studies in the History of Missions Volume 22. Very good hardback copy, slight wear to corners. iii, 147pp. "While a fair number of past studies, both historical and bibliographical, have outlined in general the workings of the Jesuit mission press in Japan, a comprehensive account of the linguistic and religious strategies that informed the missionaries' efforts has yet to be produced. Rev. Farge's book takes a major step in this direction by focusing on an important, yet largely unexplored, area of inquiry - namely, the multiple contexts, cultural, linguistic, religious, and psychological, within which a number of Christian classics were not only linguistically but also culturally translated into Japanese. To my knowledge, this is the only in-depth literary study in the English language of Japanese Christian texts from this period. Rev. Farge's book thus represents a pioneering effort and will hopefully not only aid scholars in their study of these specific editions from the Jesuit mission press but also encourage them to explore other Christian literary treasures produced in late sixteenth-century Japan." - Archivum Historicum 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Seller Inventory # 016993

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Japanese Translations of Jesuit Mission ...

Publisher: The Edwin Mellen Press, Lampeter

Publication Date: 2002

Binding: Hard Cover

Book Condition: Very Good

Edition: First Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

William Farge, S. J., breaks new ground by employing a comparative approach in the service not of a study of the source text, De Imitatione Christi (The Imitation of Christ), but of an analysis of how this work of Christian moral instruction could be made comprehensible to a culture shaped by Buddhism. Tracing the differences between the 1596 and the 1610 Japanese translation of the book, Dr. Farge details an increasingly nuanced understanding on the part of the mission press translators of "the educational and religious needs of the new converts".