Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
Javascript must be enabled to continue!
The Jesuits and the Enlightenment
View through CrossRef
How we think of the relationship between the Jesuits and the Enlightenment largely depends on how we conceptualize the latter. This chapter addresses it as a series of debates conducted in the context of a cosmopolitan Republic of Letters, and a number of specific cultural practices that made that very Republic possible. The Jesuits were, therefore, participants in, rather than enemies of, the Enlightenment. Because they combined theological conservatism with cultural modernity, the Jesuits were feared and resented with particular vehemence. Placed between two different modernities, one characterized by global structures of communication and learning, as well as by the practices of cultural accommodation, the other by the attack on superstition and religious authority, the Jesuits helped create the conditions for the Enlightenment, making important but paradoxical contributions to some of its central debates. Nowhere was this more obvious than in the impact of missionary ethnographies concerning the “Gentile” pagan peoples of the world.
Title: The Jesuits and the Enlightenment
Description:
How we think of the relationship between the Jesuits and the Enlightenment largely depends on how we conceptualize the latter.
This chapter addresses it as a series of debates conducted in the context of a cosmopolitan Republic of Letters, and a number of specific cultural practices that made that very Republic possible.
The Jesuits were, therefore, participants in, rather than enemies of, the Enlightenment.
Because they combined theological conservatism with cultural modernity, the Jesuits were feared and resented with particular vehemence.
Placed between two different modernities, one characterized by global structures of communication and learning, as well as by the practices of cultural accommodation, the other by the attack on superstition and religious authority, the Jesuits helped create the conditions for the Enlightenment, making important but paradoxical contributions to some of its central debates.
Nowhere was this more obvious than in the impact of missionary ethnographies concerning the “Gentile” pagan peoples of the world.
Related Results
‘The Observations We Made in the Indies and in China’: The Shaping of the Jesuits’ Knowledge of China by Other Parts of the Non-Western World
‘The Observations We Made in the Indies and in China’: The Shaping of the Jesuits’ Knowledge of China by Other Parts of the Non-Western World
The Jesuits’ experience in China is usually analysed within the framework of Sino-Western relations. However, Jesuits’ writings often evoked their experience in and knowledge about...
The Fall of the Jesuits
The Fall of the Jesuits
Abstract
The Jesuits were the leading order in the Catholic Church in Europe at the Counter‐Reformation, and were regarded as the most papalist and unscrupulous of t...
The Transformation of Jesuits Strategy for Buddhism Based on the Jesuits Works in Early Modern China
The Transformation of Jesuits Strategy for Buddhism Based on the Jesuits Works in Early Modern China
The Jesuits began their missionary work in Asia in the 16th century. After the missions in India and Japan, they tried to enter China and spread Catholicism at the end of the 16th ...
The Oxford Handbook of the Jesuits
The Oxford Handbook of the Jesuits
The chapters in the Oxford Handbook of the Jesuits deal with close to five hundred years of history of the Society of Jesus, a transnational, polyglot Catholic religious order of m...
Jesuits and Islam in Early Modern Europe
Jesuits and Islam in Early Modern Europe
This chapter discusses Jesuit narratives of Islam and the Jesuits’ approaches to Muslims in early modern Europe. It argues that the Jesuits’ interaction with Islam was a key compon...
Jesuits, Conversos, and Alumbrados in the Iberian World
Jesuits, Conversos, and Alumbrados in the Iberian World
This chapter focuses on the first Spanish Jesuits and in particular on the ambiguous relationship between orthodoxy and heresy that characterized the first phase of their long stor...
Italian Jewish Enlightenment
Italian Jewish Enlightenment
Evolving definitions of the “Italian Jewish Enlightenment” are key to surveying scholarly output on this theme and will be reflected in the bibliographic overview presented here, w...
South American Missions
South American Missions
While it is certainly true that more academic studies have focused on the North American missions, in terms of their historical impact South American missions were just as importan...