When the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci founded the first Christian ministry in China in the late sixteenth century, he looked for areas of overlap between Christianity and traditional Confucian beliefs. When the Chinese referred vaguely to the heavens as a spiritual force, he deduced that they were referring to the Christian God; when they discussed the spirits that survived after death, he interpreted this as the Christian soul. This inclusive approach did not last long. Eventually, the Pope expressly forbade missionaries to show any tolerance for traditional Chinese practices such as paying
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