CALL FOR PAPERS
Edited Volume · Open Access and Print PUBLISHED BYJESUIT SOURCES BOSTON COLLEGE
Jesuit Brothers in Mission Lands
The coadiutores temporales of the Society of Jesus between Practices, Knowledge, and Mediation
Editors
Sabina Pavone, University of Naples L’Orientale · sabina.pavone@unior.it
Francesco Gusella, University of Naples L’Orientale · francesco.gusella@unior.it
Abstract Deadline
20 December 2026
About the Volume
Temporal coadjutors have long occupied a marginal place in the historiography of the Society of Jesus. Internal hierarchies within the order, together with value-laden distinctions between spiritual/intellectual and manual labor, have helped obscure the many lay brothers whose tasks were essential to the life of Jesuit colleges and missions. Building on Estanislao Olivares’s foundational studies, more recent scholarship has focused on the legal, organizational, and theological status of temporal coadjutors and has traced their historical development. Yet knowledge of their experiences in missionary settings remains fragmentary.
Temporal coadjutors engaged in activities ranging from artistic production and scientific investigation to construction, healthcare, printing, and financial administration. Their presence appears primarily in isolated case studies and episodic references that do not provide an overarching perspective. Alongside celebrated figures such as Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766), many temporal coadjutors remain little known, with their lives recorded only in scattered, still underexplored documentation. The extensive corpus of indipetae letters, for example, reveals the substantial presence of coadjutor brothers seeking missionary assignments, reflecting a wide range of professional backgrounds and duties. This uneven visibility invites us to reflect on the criteria by which different forms of missionary activity have been acknowledged and remembered.
This volume seeks to open a forum for research and discussion on temporal coadjutors in Jesuit missionary settings. By placing these figures at the center, the book aims to analyze the relationship between institutional subordination and individual agency and to trace the contributions of temporal coadjutors to the material, social, and cultural configurations of the Jesuit missions. Our aim is to understand how specialized skills, everyday experience, and knowledge of local conditions helped shape the Society’s modus operandi at the local level.
Special attention will be given to the mediation between general directives and local circumstances. In overseas missions, norms and organizational models were tested by practical demands, limited resources, and distinct cultural conditions.
How did temporal coadjutors adapt central directives to local conditions? How did relationships with Christian communities, new converts, and non-Christian agents influence missionary practices, knowledge, and policies?
The volume will combine geographical and thematic perspectives, encouraging the comparative study of local specificities, continuities, and discontinuities in the work of temporal coadjutors.
Topics of Interest
- liturgical and devotional arts
- sacred and secular architecture
- science, medicine, and technical expertise
- printing and publishing activity
- accounting, commercial, and logistical matters
Studies May Also Address
- circulation of people, objects, and expertise
- training of coadjutors and their relationship with local agents, intermediaries, and collaborators
- asymmetries, negotiations, and conflicts within and beyond the order
We welcome biographical studies, contributions on specific contexts, regional, transregional, and comparative research, and broader theoretical and methodological reflections. Studies of normative and administrative sources will also be considered if they address their relationship to concrete missionary experiences. Transdisciplinary approaches that integrate documentary, visual, material, epigraphic, and other sources are particularly welcome. Through this dialogue, the volume seeks to reopen discussion of traditionally overlooked actors and to assess how their activities can reshape our understanding of missionary history and of the Society of Jesus itself.
The volume, edited by Sabina Pavone and Francesco Gusella, stems from a collaboration between the University of Naples L’Orientale and Boston College. It will be published by Jesuit Sources in both open-access and print editions.
How to Submit
Send your proposal in English to
no later than 20 December 2026, attaching a Word document that contains:
- the title of the proposed contribution
- an abstract of maximum 400 words, with five keywords
- your institutional affiliation
- a brief author biography of maximum 200 words
Timeline
20 December 2026
Deadline for abstract submissions
10 January 2027
Notification of acceptance
15 July 2027
Deadline for selected contributions (max. 8,000 words, incl. notes and bibliography)
15 September 2027
Peer Reviewers’ reports communicated
1 November 2027
Submission of revised contributions
15 January 2028
Final proofs
March–April 2028