Nathan Gilbert
Visit: September 5 - 26, 2024
Discipline: Classics and Ancient History
Project Title: Pagan Philosophers and Church Fathers in China: The Jesuit Reading of the Buddha and Confucius
Affiliation: Durham University
Host: R. Trent Pomplun
Sponsor: Workshop on Ancient Philosophy
Nathan Gilbert is Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University (UK), as well as Acting Director of Liberal Arts and Co-Director of the Centre for Language and Writings Systems. His research focuses on Greco-Roman political and ethical thought (especially the works of the Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero), but he is increasingly interested in the reception of Greco-Roman philosophy in the Renaissance and early modern period.
Abstract: I will be exploring how early modern Jesuit missionaries used Greco-Roman philosophers as interpretive models for interpreting East Asian thought and presented their missionary activities as carrying on the traditions of the Early Church Fathers. My special focus will be on the influential and widely read account of Confucianism and Buddhism in Confucius, Philosopher of China (1687).