Wednesday, May 1, 2024

It is the 1st of May 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Holy Cow, it is our 5th birthday as a show, and we enter our 6th season of making shows (also, Happy Birthday to listener Amanda, one of our favorite Canadians). It’s a normal show, but let me make two personal statements: the first, almost 1800 shows in, and I routinely type “Alamanac” and misspell “Emperor”- I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

And secondly, 2019 was a million years ago- you don’t need to listen to the early shows. I was still finding my way, not only for the podcast but in my own life, career, and ministry. I am so grateful for all of you- this show won't go on forever, but I didn’t think I could find five different things to talk about on May 1st, and entering the 6th season, I had at least four topics to choose from for today. This show works because you listen, you tell friends, you review the show online, etc., so, on this birthday of the Christian History Almanac, or CHA as we call it around here… thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening and allowing me to invade your ears and imaginations and hearts every day.

Okay—so there was a Jesuit (that’s like a Catholic denomination of smart folk) who was also an astronomer who was also called “grandpa” by one of the most significant Chinese emperors (yup. I just misspelled it again), and he was born today—so a fun story to enter the new year.

His full name was Johann Adam Schall von Ball, which is awesome, but he’s usually just called Adam Schall. He was born to nobility in Germany on May 1, 1591 (or 1592). It’s always fun to have two scholarly sources tell me two different things.

He went to a Jesuit school in Germany, a German seminary in Rome, and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, specializing in math and the natural sciences along with theology. He was made a Jesuit in 1611 and, in 1618, was sent to further the Jesuit mission in China, which was then undertaken by Matteo Ricci (we’ve told his story before).

However, the Chinese/Western Christian relationship was experiencing one of its periodical downturns, and Schall had to stay in Macau for a year. There, he learned Chinese and began translating Western science texts into Chinese.

In 1630, he was sent to Beijing to continue the work of a colleague who had died on calendar reform. The Chongzhen Emperor of the late Ming dynasty knew that controlling the calendar and predicting eclipses was central to his power and that these Westerners had advanced tools for studying the heavens.

Schall was so successful that he was made the top guy in the Emperor’s (error) scientific cabinet. His praise was such that even when the Manchu took over, they left Schall in his position; when the Qing took over with Shunzhi, he also kept Schall in his position and made him both a Mandarin and the Director of the Imperial observatory and the tribunal of mathematics. He was also granted permission to build churches and for Jesuit missionaries to be given free rein to preach and baptize. Conflicting reports give us between 100,000 and 500,000 baptisms over a relatively short period.

When the Shanzhi emperor was to select a successor, Schall recommended he choose one of his younger sons who had survived smallpox and was thus inoculated and could serve longer. This emperor, Kangxi, would be the longest-serving of all Chinese emperors. When he was too young to rule, he still developed a bond with Schall, addressing him with the Chinese equivalent of “Grandpa.” Schall used his influence to save Christians and missionaries and serve as a model for East/West relations.

This was too much for some in the court who had Schall and his colleagues arrested on trumped-up charges- they would be imprisoned, and the treatment was such that Schall, then old, would not survive, lasting only a year or so after his imprisonment. He died in 1666. When the Emperor was freed from his regency and allowed to rule, he had colleagues of Schall compete with local astronomers to see who was superior. The Jesuits who had worked with Schall prevailed, and he was given back his honors posthumously, with the Emperor himself traveling to his grave for honorifics. As you may know from this show and elsewhere, the history of Christianity and China is a tricky one- but if there is an early modern high point, it is with these Jesuits and Johann Adam Schall von Ball, who died in 1666, born on this day in 1561 or 2 he was about 75 years old.  

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary and an apt and appropriate benediction from Jesus in John 14:

25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 1st of May 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man for whom women swoon, children fawn, and men gnash their teeth in a jealous rage; he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man whose mood this Wednesday, Friday, and possibly Sunday will be dictated by some men bouncing and throwing basketballs in short pants… go Clips, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.