Jesuits and Islam in Europe. By Paul Shore and Emanuele Colombo. Brill Research Perspectives in Humanities and Social Sciences Series. Boston: Brill, 2023. pp. 123.
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Shore and Colombo aim to explore the Jesuit Order's attitude towards Islam through the writings of selected Jesuit authors from different geographical locations and backgrounds, each with distinct connections to Islam between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.The book synthesizes the authors' earlier research, providing a detailed list of these earlier publications in the preliminary notes, which allows readers to further explore studies on the subject.The Jesuit Order's status as an organization with intercultural connections and relationships is a well discussed subject in the current Jesuit historiography, so this volume fits into this narrative well.The book is divided into ten parts.Parts one, three, seven, eight, and nine were authored by Shore, and parts two, four, five, six, and ten were written by Colombo.Each section examines a different aspect of the Order's engagement with Islam through its writings and missionary work.Throughout the book, the authors focus on several members of the Jesuit order from different locations and backgrounds, spanning the Iberian Peninsula to the Kingdom of Hungary.The authors selected a varied roster of Jesuits with the apparent intention of covering a wide range of areas where interactions between the Order and the Islamic world were the most intense, and as we can see throughout the book, the lack of knowledge of the Arabic language further narrowed the possible members of the Jesuit order whose work would be relevant to this research.In the first two parts, the authors examine St. Ignatius of Loyola's relationship with Islam, which served as the foundation for the Order's approach.The following section focuses on Ignacio de las Casas, a Morisco-turned-Jesuit, and his contributions to advancing the study of the Arabic language to enhance missionary work.The next chapter discusses Antonio Possevino, an Italian Jesuit who served as secretary of the Order between 1573 and 1577 and later
Source: Hungarian Historical Review
DOI: 10.38145/2025.2.292
Author: Dávid Lédig
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4411889012