Twelve articles written by as many different authors, most of whom are Jesuits, are here brought together to constitute a survey and encomium of Jesuit missionary endeavor of the past and present. Important historical events and developments, characteristic religious, educational and social ideals, policies and activities, and outstanding personalities connected with this endeavor in both the eastern and the western world are the topics with which the separate articles are concerned. St. Francis Xavier and the first Jesuit missionaries to the Orient, the English Jesuits in disguise who carried on their apostolate in their own homeland in Elizabethan times, the Jesuits associated with the ecclesiastical difficulties over the Chinese and Malabar rites in China and India, the Paraguayan Reductions (self- sufficient commonwealths set up for the Indians in South America), the Ratio Studiorum and Jesuit schools, Jesuit martyrs of Japan and China of the past and present, and modern social work with labor and credit unions on the missions are the principal subjects emphasized. An excellent article on modern missionary problems and methods brings the book to its conclusion. As informative and interesting as this book may be to those who have little or no acquaintance with the Jesuits, it will probably strike many readers as in the long run saying too little about too much. As competent as the articles are, they are inevitably sketchy, some more and others less so. Each of the topics is worthy of a separate book, and paradoxically, the plan of the present book would probably have succeeded better if the volume had been written by one man, even though he were not a specialist in each subject covered.
Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Hanover House (Doubleday)
Review Posted Online: N/A
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1957
Categories: NONFICTION
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