Hàn Mặc Tử (1912-1940): A New Moon for the Season of the New Evangelization in Vietnamese Catholicism

• Main Author: Phạm, Hưng Trung, SJ
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2024
• Subjects: Inculturation; Vietnamese Catholic Church; Vietnamese literature
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss25/8; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/kk/article/1646/viewcontent/_5BKKv00n25_2015_5D_203.3_ForumKritika_Pham.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Since its arrival to Vietnam, Catholicism has often been known or accused as either heterodox religion or religion of superstition. Efforts to inculturate the Christian faith into Vietnamese cultures have begun from early missionaries in Vietnam in the early seventeenth century to church leadership in Vietnam today. At the early twentieth century, the poetry of Hàn Mặc Tử (1912 – 1940) has demonstrated a new level of inculturation where the Christian faith no longer remains at the level of “superficial adaptation” but has become a principle that animates, directs, and unifies Vietnamese cultures, transforming and remaking it so as to bring about a new creation. Therefore, Hàn’s works can serve as source of inspiration and example for the New Evangelization in the Vietnamese Catholic Church today.