Christian Art and Architecture from Medieval Religiosity and Devotio Moderna to Early Globalization: Spain, the Americas and China

Dear Colleagues,

The renewal and expansion of Catholic Christianity has been one of the key factors in the genesis of early globalization. The genesis of globalization began with the Iberian expansion to the Americas and Asia. This process was completed with the creation of the Manila Galleon route in 1565, which stably connected Spain and China, the two greatest political and economic powers of the early Modern Age (Gordon and Morales, 2017). The key factor in this process was the transformation of regional phenomena into global phenomena that brought about significant changes in populations, the economy, culture, technology, food and systems of thought throughout the world. As a consequence, the human being was aware for the first time of the real dimension of the world and of the challenges of global interaction and integration. This Special Issue intends to clarify what role Catholic Christianity played in this global process and mainly how art and architecture were used and developed in this context.

I am pleased to invite you to explore early globalization in relation to the changes Catholic Christianity experienced from Middle Ages to early Modern Period. How did Catholicism go from being a regional religion –fundamentally European in scope– to a world religion? Were the changes in the systems of thought and in the conception of the human being a cause or a consequence of the renewal of Catholicism? To answer these questions, it is convenient to analyze the contributions of Catholic humanism and its consideration of the "other" in parallel to European expansion. But it is also necessary to address the renewal of Catholicism promoted through phenomena such as the Devotio Moderna, which raised a new vision of the human being and his religiosity from the personal sphere (Parada and Folgado, 2020). What did push Catholicism to become an universal and integrating religion beyond the crusade spirit?

This Special Issue aims to analyze all these phenomena in the context of globalization undertaken from Spain (Hispanic Monarchy or Spanish Empire) –scenario of outstanding international and intercultural interaction– in the transition between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age (Parada and Palacios, 2020). Ecclesiastics and thinkers such as Ramon Llull –philosopher and missionary–, Alonso de Cartagena –Jewish convert bishop of Burgos– and Hernando de Talavera –first bishop of Granada– were key figures in this context. Their methods and their inclusive vision of Catholicism would have a great influence on the arts and the evangelization of Granada, the Americas and Asia. In the Americas, this phenomenon would affect the creation of the so-called Indochristian art, in parallel with the integration of indigenous people in the Catholic sphere, the study and systematization of native languages ​​through dictionaries and grammars, as well as the creation of the Derecho de Gentes (Law of Peoples) and of Ethnohistory (the precedent of modern Anthropology). Was the missioners role in globalization comparable to the avant-garde position of Spain in this process? Spanish monks and priests were also protagonists of both evangelization and globalization. Among all them Andrés de Urdaneta stands out. He was the discoverer of the Tornaviaje, the return route from Manila to Acapulco in New Spain, so necessary for the establishment of the Manila Galleon.

These precedents are a necessary base to understand the Jesuit method of cultural accommodation, the main engine of evangelization in India, Japan and China. Subjects of the Hispanic Monarchy, such as the Jesuits Saint Francis Xavier, Jerome Xavier, Michele Ruggieri and Diego de Pantoja, were in charge of applying and developing this method in Asia. Also Spanish Dominican monks like Juan Cobo interacted with local cultures. On the other hand, with Spanish support, the first Catholic native priest and first native bishop of China, Luo Wenzao (罗文藻), known as Gregorio López, was elected. These policies acted in parallel to the creation of a hybrid Christian art. In this way, the converted communities could understand this type of art as something of their own and at the same time universal, the fundamental purpose of Christian art. One of the results of this process was the creation of the Chinese Christian cloisonné (Parada and Vela, 2021).

These integration policies collapsed with the Controversy of the Chinese Rites, encouraged by new political models such as French colonial imperialism, which developed in parallel to the Spanish retreat. Likewise, the role played by England and France in the Opium Wars left behind centuries of balance between the Spanish and Chinese hegemonies. The new powers also brought with them a supremacist management of Christian evangelization in China. This situation would not begin to be redirected until the Apostolic Letter Maximum illud was published by Benedict XV in 1919, a text that proposed to recover early modern evangelizing methods such as that of Saint Francis Xavier. In short, could it be considered that the challenges of evangelization have gone hand in hand with the challenges of globalization?

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Manuel Parada López de Corselas
Guest Editor

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