This book reconstructs the life of a Jesuit missionary in a small inland residence in China (Ch'ang-shu, Chiang-nan Province), primarily but not exclusively on the basis of the evidence of a newly (re)discovered private Account Book covering the period from October 1674 to April/May 1676. This 'pocket' note book mainly represents the missionary's private expenses, and, to a much lesser extent, the revenues he received. As such it is an exceptional document in the missionary documentation. Absolutely unique is the part concerning his personal 'spiritual' exercises, his successes as well as failings in that field. After a lengthy introduction, in which both the life of the author and the complex composition of the Account Book are reconstructed, the text is presented, in a bilingual Latin - English edition. In seven chapters the contents are further described and analysed from various angles: the general topographical setting; the author's ten journeys through the region in 1674-1676; the social contacts referred to; the various aspects of priestly and pastoral life; the means of propagation, written as well as pictorial; the material culture of the mission; the financial structure of the whole undertaking, including the patterns of expenditure revealed. All the evidence available in this Account Book is combined with other contemporary information, mainly from unpublished sources, including a large number of quotations from the lost Couplet--Rougemont correspondence that has survived in Estrix's Elogium F. de Rougemont (1690), the text of which is also published here for the first time. Thus the Account Book assumes its place as an exceptional private document with a major relevance for the reconstruction of missionary life in China.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Isfahan, the capital of the Safavid Empire, hosted Catholic missionaries of more diverse affiliations than most other cities in Asia. Attracted by the hope of converting the Shah, the missionaries acted as diplomatic agents for Catholic rulers, hosts to Protestant merchants, and healers of Armenians and Muslims. Through such niche activities they gained social acceptance locally. This book examines the activities of Discalced Carmelites and other missionaries, revealing the flexibility they demonstrated in dealing with cultural diversity, a common feature of missionary activity throughout emerging global Catholicism. While missions all over the world were central to the self-fashioning of the Counter-Reformation Church, clerics who set out to win over souls for the “true religion” turned into local actors who built reputations by defining their social roles in accordance with the expectations of their host society. Such practices fed controversies that were fought out in newly emerging public spaces. Responding to the threat this posed to its authority, the Roman Curia initiated a process of doctrinal disambiguation and centralization which culminated in the nineteenth century. Using the missions to Safavid Iran as a case study for “a global history on a small scale,” the book creates a new paradigm for the study of global Catholicism.

This book provides an original study of the sizeable Portuguese community in Ayutthaya, the chief river-state in Siam, during a period of apparent decline (1640-1720). Portuguese populations were displaced from their chief settlements like Melaka and Makassar, and attracted to the river-states of mainland South-East Asia by a protective model of kingship, hopes of international trade and the opportunity to harvest souls. A variety of sources will be used to shed light on the fortunes and make-up of this displaced, mixed-race 'tribe', which was largely independent of the matrices of Portuguese colonial power, and fared poorly alongside other foreign communities in this remarkably open, dynamic environment. Circumstances changed for the better after the National Revolution of 1688, when Portuguese started to fill many of the jobs at court and in commerce previously occupied by Frenchmen and northern Europeans.

"Jesuits and Race: A Global History of Continuity and Change, 1530-2020 examines the role the Society of Jesus played in shaping Western understandings about race and explores the impact the Order had on the lives and societies of non-European peoples throughout history. Jesuits provide an unusual, if not unique, lens through which to view the topic of race given the global nature of the Society of Jesus and the priests' interest in humanity, salvation, conversion, science, and nature. Interactions, discussions, and debates occured at the loftiest of intellectual levels and at the most intimate of local settings, both offering a fascinating portal to examine oscillating attitudes about race. Jesuits' global presence in missions, imperial expansion, and education lends insight into the differences in patterns of estrangement and assimilation, as well as enfranchisement and coercion, with people from Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The essays in this collection bring together case studies from around the world as a first steop toward a comparative analysis of Jesuit engagement with racialized difference. The authors hone in on labor practices, social structures, and religious agendas at salient moments during the long span of Jesuit history. As John McGreevy notes in his incisive epilogue, the Society's long history enables a team of scholars to examine patterns and trajectories over an extended period of time to provide a long view" --

In the midst of a global pandemic, the Frankfurt POLY (Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities) Lectures on "Pathways through Early Modern Christianities" brought together a virtual, global community of scholars and students in the Spring and Summer of 2021 to discuss the fascinating nature of early modern religious life. In this book, eleven pathbreaking scholars from the "four corners" of the early modern world reflect on the analytical tools that structure their field and that they have developed, revised and embraced in their scholarship: from generations to tolerance, from uniformity to publicity, from accommodation to local religion, from polycentrism to connected histories, and from identity to object agency. Together, the chapters of this reference work help both students and advanced researchers alike to appreciate the extent of our current knowledge about early modern christianities in their interconnected global context—and what exciting new travels could lie ahead.

Beyond Indigenization, edited by Tao Feiya and translated into English by Max L. Bohnenkamp, traces the history of Christianity in China from the Tang era to contemporary times.