天主教耶穌會士於1950、60年代在新竹市、縣，包括尖石鄉與五峰鄉兩個原住民鄉鎮，展開信仰傳播的工作。隨著福音傳播路徑的拓展，沿途依次浮出地表的教堂會所，清楚描繪宣教工作所帶動的人事物的移動、匯流與交織，一種跨文化之信仰接觸。本文將以新竹市、縣幾座天主堂為例，從建築物件的形制、外觀與裝飾等視覺元件及其表徵，以及所座落的地點與環繞周圍的社會人文景物，探討天主教堂作為一項跨文化物件的具體意涵。這些跨文化物件的物質性源自於文化遇合的諸多場景，不同源流的人們、想像、意識、態度、價值與（情感）勞動參與以及能動性，在這些接觸界中彼此遭逢、相互運轉所匯聚而成。本研究所採納的視覺研究取徑，認為這幾座教堂建築從某個角度而言，有一種凝結特定時空（與能動性）的能力，而它本身也是某種時空（與能動性）具現的產物，因此相當程度能夠呈述並揭示跨文化接觸的過程、劃界與／或組構的各種作為。

This paper traces the missionary trails built by foreign Catholic priests who spread the gospel in the 1950s in the Eastern Hsinchu Deanery, leading from Hakka areas to aboriginal tribes in the mountains. I interpret the missionary work of foreign priests as transcultural encounters between the global and the local. Missionary work connects at least two groups of people of different nationalities. People who are actively involved in the process have to negotiate, cooperate, or mediate the divergences of cultural background and social conditions, which materialize in the mediation or transference of different situations and interactions. Tangible, visible and touchable visual cultures are the media that narrate those experiences across time and space.This research applies the materialist turn in visual studies by viewing photos and architecture as objects of life stories that embody or reveal transcultural processes and actions of boundary drawing or constitution. Based on such premises, this research examines the religious activities inside the churches built on the missionary trails, and explores the transcultural contacts as materialized in pertinent visual objects (including the landscape, architecture, inner designs, ritual ceremonies and archival photos of these churches) co-created by Catholic priests who entered the area in the mid-20th century and the natives who had settled in the areas in Hsinchu.