The volume theme is the distinctiveness of Jesuits and their ministries that was discussed at the first International Symposium on Jesuit Studies held at Boston College’s Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies in June 2015. It explores the
quidditas Jesuitica, or the specifically Jesuit way(s) of proceeding in which Jesuits and their colleagues operated from historical, geographical, social, and cultural perspectives. The collection poses a question whether there was an essential core of distinctive elements that characterized the way in which Jesuits lived their religious vocation and conducted their various works and how these ways of proceeding were lived out in the various epochs and cultures in which Jesuits worked over four and a half centuries; what changed and adapted itself to different times and situations, and what remained constant, transcending time and place, infusing the apostolic works and lives of Jesuits with the charism at the source of the Society of Jesus’s foundation and development.
Robert Aleksander Maryks, Ph.D. (2006) in History, Fordham University, is Associate Professor of History, Associate Director of the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, and Editor of Jesuit Sources at Boston College. He has published on various aspects of the history of the Jesuits, including, most recently,
A Companion to Ignatius of Loyola (Brill, 2014). He is Editor-in-Chief of the
Journal of Jesuit Studies, the book series of
Jesuit Studies, and the
Boston College Jesuit Bibliography: The New Sommervogel.
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Robert Aleksander Maryks
1 Francesco Benci and the Origins of Jesuit Neo-Latin Epic
Paul Gwynne
2 Exploring the Distinctiveness of Neo-Latin Jesuit Didactic Poetry in Naples: The Case of Nicolò Partenio Giannettasio
Claudia Schindler
3 Civic Education on Stage: Civic Values and Virtues in the Jesuit Schools of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Jolanta Rzegocka
4 “Ask the Jesuits to Send Verses from Rome”: The Society’s Networks and the European Dissemination of Devotional Music
Daniele V. Filippi
5 Priestly Violence, Martyrdom, and Jesuits: The Case of Diego de Alfaro, S.J. (Paraguay 1639)
Andrew Redden
6 Colonial Theodicy and the Jesuit Ascetic Ideal in José de Acosta’s Works on Spanish America
Bryan Green
7 Purple Silk and Black Cotton: Francisco Cabral, S.J., and the Negotiation of Jesuit Attire in Japan (1570–73)
Linda Zampol D’Ortia
8 Pedro de Ribadeneyra’s
Vida del P. Ignacio de Loyola (1583) and Literary Culture in Early Modern Spain
Rady Roldán-Figueroa
9 The Distinctiveness of the Society of Jesus’s Mission in Pedro de Ribadeneyra S.J.’s
Historia ecclesiástica del schisma del Reyno de Inglaterra (1588)
Spencer J. Weinreich
10 Discerning Skills: Psychological Insight at the Core of Jesuit Identity
Cristiano Casalini
11 Distinctive Contours of Jesuit Enlightenment in France
Jeffrey D. Burson
12 One Century of Science: The Jesuit Journal
Brotéria (1902–2002)
Francisco Malta Romeiras and Henrique Leitão
Bibliography
Index
The volume offers information on a wide range of topics, including (but not limited to) Church History, Missiology, Theology & World Christianity, Global History, Hispanic Studies, Asian Studies, History of Science & Medicine, Book History, and Literature & Cultural Studies.