The Dialogue of Civilizations: The Ricci Model

Against the prevailing mode of despair and angst,
the author hopes for a better world through dialogue and
sharing of vision and ideas. "Paradoxically, their (religious 
believers') other-worldly gaze brought this-worldly success"
(Smart 1999:17). Matteo Ricci invited his dialogue partners
to look beyond immediate gift-giving and study of Euclid to
the study of values of his civilization, and spiritual energies
from which they were derived, and relating them to the
Chinese worldviews and values. Thus, intelligently relating 
the immediate and the practical with the aesthetical, ethical
and the spiritual of two Great Civilizations he explored the
more complete identity of the human being opening doors to
immense possibilities. The Ricci way of sharing the assets of

Great Civilizations and even of Little Cultures is the only way
forward for the human family today.