Markus Friedrich News Today

Markus Friedrich is passionate about Jesuit history—how it is studied, how it should not be studied and about its larger importance today.

Seth Meehan is an associate director at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies at Boston College.

Make no mistake, “The Jesuits” is not a study in triumph. “This book concerns itself with historical processes,” Friedrich writes in the prologue, “not religious truths.”

The Jesuits: A History by Markus Friedrich, translated by John Noel Dillon. Princeton University Press (Princeton, New Jersey, 2022). 872 pp., $39.95.

DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766581-0243 Introduction The Jesuits have impacted the history of colonial Latin America as have few other religious orders. Founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola and a group of companions, the Society of Jesus defined its profile from the beginning as an order devoted to apostolic activity, especially through missions, and education, which led it to promote new forms of preaching and teaching. Its expansion in the world coincides with the Catholic Counter-Reformation fo...