Podcast Summary:

New Books Network — Interview with Christopher Joby, “Christian Mission in Seventeenth-Century Taiwan: A Reception History of Texts, Beliefs, and Practices” (Brill, 2025)
Host: Sarah Bramau Ramos
Guest: Christopher Joby
Date: September 19, 2025

Overview of the Episode

This episode features a deep-dive conversation with Christopher Joby, focusing on his landmark book, Christian Mission in Seventeenth-Century Taiwan: A Reception History of Texts, Beliefs, and Practices. The discussion explores the Dutch and Spanish Christian missions in 17th-century Taiwan, the translation and reception of religious texts, linguistic and cultural challenges, and the long afterlife of these missionary endeavors. Joby and host Sarah Bramau Ramos examine the intertwining of theology, language, material culture, and indigenous agency, drawing out the complex legacies and resonances of missionary activity in Taiwan.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Genesis of the Project and Research Approach

• Multiple Pathways to Taiwan:
  • Joby’s initial involvement stemmed from collaborative research on 17th-century Dutch church records in Taiwan (with Anne Halen Haylen at NTNU in Taipei) and from connections made while working on Dutch language history in Japan.
  • A significant turning point occurred when Joby discovered a long-sought translation of the Gospel of St. John into an indigenous language in the Royal Library, Copenhagen.

    “I did find a copy in the Royal Library in Copenhagen… I started that project wanting to look more at language. But when I identified that text...maybe we can talk about the Bible, the reception of the Bible in Taiwan.” [06:58–07:36]

• Expanding Focus:
  • Initial emphasis on texts and language shifted to encompass broader cultural, theological, and reception history themes as the research deepened.
  • The book weaves together translation studies, missionary linguistics, book history, and East Asian studies, embracing what Joby terms a “cubist perspective” (borrowing the phrase), viewing events from multiple angles.

    “That spoke to me, if you like, as a way of approaching this subject from different angles.” [12:28]

2. Reception History: Framing the Study

• Reception History Explained:
  • Joby distinguishes how Catholic (Spanish) and Protestant (Dutch) missionaries used and interpreted Christian scripture and ritual, making Taiwan uniquely positioned as a site for such comparative studies.

    “Taiwan is quite unusual in that there were both Catholic and Protestant missionaries working there. And I really felt this was an opportunity to kind of compare their approaches to mission.” [10:20–11:27]

• Key Question:
  • How did indigenous groups receive, transform, and sometimes resist missionary texts, beliefs, and practices?

3. Pre-Colonial Taiwanese Society and Diversity

• Ethnic and Religious Complexity:
  • Significant diversity among Formosan/Austronesian groups, each with distinct belief systems—some with complex deities, others more animist or ancestor-focused.

    “Although we call these people indigenous or Formosans or Austronesians, they had very different cultures. And in the case of religion…there’s still some diversity there.” [18:37]

• Linguistic Diversity:
  • Indigenous languages belonged to the Austronesian family, but with considerable internal variation at the village level.
  • Contact with Chinese and occasional Japanese, resulting in trade jargons and even more hybridized linguistic settings before European arrival.

4. Missionary Text Creation and Indigenous Involvement

• Textual Production:
  • Missionaries produced and translated a variety of texts: lexicons, catechisms, Lord’s Prayer, sermons, hymns, and—critically—Bible translations.
• Indigenous Agency:
  • Collaboration with indigenous informants was essential for language acquisition and textual translation.
• Featured Manuscript:
  • The “Utrecht Manuscript,” a bilingual word list (Dutch–Soraya), is highlighted as the first known written record of a Formosan language.

    “My favorite text… is what’s called the Utrecht Manuscript… possibly the first record of a Formosan, a Taiwanese Austronesian language.” [25:56]

• Reception of Texts:
  • Multiple generations of transcription and translation led to errors, complicating modern analysis. Joby recounts discovering, correcting, and digitizing the Utrecht Manuscript.

    “Subsequent scholars… rather than going back to the manuscript, went to the transcription… so they just repeated those mistakes. So eventually I came along in 2021… tried to correct some of the errors.” [25:56–30:13]

• Loss and Fragmentation:
  • Many texts have not survived or only exist in later translations, fragmenting the historical record and compounding the challenge of reconstructing missionary activity.

5. Unintended Consequences & Cultural Transformations

• Introduction of New Concepts:
  • Missionaries inadvertently introduced the seven-day week, time discipline, and sacraments, which had vast cultural ramifications:

    “How was it to have to stop doing things every seventh day and stay at home when you really want to go to work or, you know, go hunting…?” [12:28]

• Translation Struggles:
  • Translating religious concepts (e.g., “baptism,” “God”) required creative negotiation—Dutch and Spanish missionaries often used different terms or approaches in different indigenous languages.
• Material Culture & Ritual:
  • Spanish missionaries leveraged statues, crucifixes, and rosaries—engaging with local material cultures in ways the Dutch, with their more spiritualized faith, typically did not.

    “...The missionaries, the Spanish missionaries recognized that beads were an important part of the Basae indigenous culture… so they thought, okay, let’s introduce them to the rosary.” [43:38]

6. Catholic vs. Protestant Strategies

• Missionary Rivalry and Practice:
  • Catholics (Spanish) emphasized ritual, spectacle, and material culture; Protestants (Dutch) focused on text and linguistic translation.
  • Baptism and the Lord’s Supper were interpreted and practiced differently, contingent on both doctrinal and local acculturation policies.

    “One thing in terms of language is that in soraya they use a word which means to sprinkle water on, whereas in favelang they use a word to push down, to push someone down into water…” [39:16] “The Catholic missionaries… celebrated the Mass frequently… and that was very attractive to the indigenous people.” [39:16–42:16]

7. Legacy, Reception, and Afterlife of Missionary Texts

• Post-Colonial Traces:
  • After the Dutch expulsion in 1662, many texts, especially those in indigenous languages, faded or were lost, but some survived and recirculated in Europe.
• Global Reverberations and Modern Resonance:
  • Dutch missionary texts, once used to evangelize, have now become crucial in contemporary efforts to revitalize Soraya—a language that died out in the 19th century, now being revived using these historical documents.

    “With the end of martial law in Taiwan and the development of democracy, indigenous rights have come more to the fore, and people who identify themselves as Soraya have begun to revitalize the language. And they’ve been able to do that using the Dutch texts…” [51:22]

• Long Reception History:
  • The Lord’s Prayer in Junius’s catechism functions as a microcosm of these long afterlives: used for linguistics, at the heart of historic fraud scandals (the Psalmanazar episode), and now a tool for cultural revival.

    “Reception histories have a certain end, but you can keep on pushing that end back…” [54:59]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the multi-disciplinary, “cubist” approach:

  “There’s a phrase, a cubist perspective, which… spoke to me… as a way of approaching this subject from different angles.” —Christopher Joby [12:28]

• On the discovery of the Gospel of St. John:

  “I did find a copy in the Royal Library in Copenhagen… so the project kind of grew from there.” —Christopher Joby [06:58]

• On translation and missionary linguistics:

  “The Utrecht Manuscript… is possibly the first record, written record of a Formosan… language. I like that idea. The fact that we can see the manuscript, you can see the marks on the page…” —Christopher Joby [25:56]

• On text survival and challenges:

  “We know from a letter that [Junius] got… some VOC employees to make copies of [the catechism]. So for about 10 years it was being circulated in manuscript and there were doubtless errors in those manuscripts…” —Christopher Joby [31:14]

• On missionary rivalry and accusations:

  “Junius had come back to Europe and trumpeted the fact that he converted 6,000 Formosans and was taking pretty much all the credit for that. So that may have been behind it.” —Christopher Joby [31:14]

• On cultural interaction and agency:

  “...There is some element of negotiation going on there. And in relation to rosaries… they recognized that beads were an important part of the Basae indigenous culture. So they thought, okay, let’s introduce them to the rosary.” —Christopher Joby [43:38]

• On the afterlife of missionary texts:

  “This isn’t just… an abstract, interesting historical inquiry, but it’s a story that continues to have some sort of resonance and traction and meaning in the 21st century.” —Christopher Joby [51:22]

• On the ongoing nature of historical research:

  “Reception histories have a certain end, but you can keep on pushing that end back. And the fact that we haven’t yet found a copy of the 1645 Catechism means… we can’t yet close the book on that story.” —Christopher Joby [54:59]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [04:15] — Joby’s introduction to Taiwan studies
• [06:58] — Discovery of the Gospel of St. John translation and project expansion
• [10:20] — Framing the book as a reception history
• [12:28] — Integrating book history, translation, and cultural studies (“cubist perspective”)
• [18:37] — Overview of indigenous religious and cultural diversity
• [21:06] — Linguistic diversity and contact scenarios
• [25:56] — The Utrecht Manuscript: importance, reception, and scholarly challenges
• [31:14] — Loss and survival of texts, stories of transmission, and errors
• [39:16] — Translation of sacraments and cultural barriers
• [43:38] — Distinct mission strategies: Spanish material culture vs. Dutch linguistic focus
• [47:46] — Shifting mission language strategies and their implications
• [51:22] — Modern legacy: indigenous language revitalization using missionary texts
• [54:59] — Reception, afterlives, and the ongoing search for missing texts
• [58:07] — Joby’s current and future projects (sociolinguistic focus going forward)

Conclusion

This episode provides an accessible, richly detailed window into the intricate processes of cultural, linguistic, and religious exchange in 17th-century Taiwan. It is as much a study of translation and indigenous agency as it is of missionary ambition—illuminating how belief, practice, and the very words of faith could take on new, unpredictable trajectories across time and place. The dialogue also underscores how historical texts, once tools of colonial conversion, now play an unexpected role in the revival of indigenous language and identity.