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About the author
Ines G. Zupanov is social /cultural historian of Catholic missions in South Asia and has also worked on other topics related to Portuguese empire. In addition to other two books, her latest monograph cowritten with Ângela Barreto Xavier is Catholic Orientalism; Portuguese Empire, Indian Knowledge, 16th-18th centuries (OUP, New Delhi, 2015). She coedited seven books and her articles are published in edited volumes and journals (Annales, Representations, Journal of Early Modern History, Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient, RES: Anthropology and Esthetics, etc.)
Summary
Through its missionary, pedagogical, and scientific accomplishments, the Society of Jesus-known as the Jesuits-became one of the first institutions with a truly "global" reach, in practice and intention. The Oxford Handbook of the Jesuits offers a critical assessment of the Order, helping to chart new directions for research at a time when there is renewed interest in Jesuit studies. In particular, the Handbook examines their resilient dynamism and innovative spirit, grounded in Catholic theology and Christian spirituality, but also profoundly rooted in society and cultural institutions. It also explores Jesuit contributions to education, the arts, politics, and theology, among others.
The volume is organized in seven major sections, totaling forty articles, on the Order's foundation and administration, the theological underpinnings of its activities, the Jesuit involvement with secular culture, missiology, the Order's contributions to the arts and sciences, the suppression the Order endured in the 18th century, and finally, the restoration. The volume also looks at the way the Jesuit Order is changing, including becoming more non-European and ethnically diverse, with its members increasingly interested in engaging society in addition to traditional pastoral duties.
Additional text
[%Zupanov's] international CV, which ... includes several years spent doing research and fieldwork in India, has given her not only a truly interdisciplinary range of reference but also a network of scholarly contacts that spans the globe. The result is that %Zupanov has been able to bring together a first-rate, international team of forty authors from all stages of their careers, many of whom are already familiar names to readers of this journal as leading figures in their respective fields; but significantly many more are not (yet).
