The popular Jesuit Studies Café series closes its fourth season on April 24 with a presentation led by Jean-Pascal Gay of the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. Gay speaks on “Why Theology Should Matter to Historians. Knowledge and Agency in the Early Modern Society. Around Théophile Raynaud (1583–1665).” Registration for the event is required. The deadline is April 23.
Gay draws from his recent book on Raynaud to consider the contributions that a much needed “social and cultural” history of theology can offer to our understanding of early modern societies and religion. He argues that scholars’ interest in theological ideas does not necessarily mean interest in theology itself. In early modern times, for example, theology was not merely a set of ideas reflecting social and political context, nor was it merely a language for the religious interpretation of social reality, it was also a social activity itself in which early modern communities, and even more so early modern Catholic religious orders, invested considerable human and economic resources. Therefore, studying this context of the Society of Jesus yields significant results, because of the archival material that the Jesuits have produced and because of the importance of theology and theologians in the everyday-life of the Society. The talk centers around a few theses:
– Theology plays a central part in defining social relations within the Society of Jesus.
– Theology is a situational knowledge. It can and must be studied as such.
– Theological proficiency remained in the 17th century a source of considerable agency.
– Theology is nonetheless losing ground in the 17th century to other knowledges as a source of agency.
– Theology offers insight about the contradictory process of confessionalization.
– A social and cultural history of theology can help free historical discourse from the grand narrative of the history of theology that theologians themselves have elaborated.
The full Spring 2020 Jesuit Studies Café season appears below. This series, hosted by the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, presents informal conversations with the world’s preeminent scholars working on the history, spirituality, and educational heritage of the Society of Jesus. These discussions – hosted at the Institute over coffee and also available via videoconference – are unique opportunities to learn more about the newest and most interesting scholarship in Jesuit Studies. Advanced registration is required to attend the events. Contact the Institute if you have questions or wish to participate (iajs@bc.edu).
February 28
Institute Library | 9:15 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
“Working and editing new sources: The first Jesuit philosophical text taught in Paris”
Anna Tropia, Charles University, Prague
How did the Jesuits teach philosophy during the sixteenth century? How did they organize lectures? What did they teach? How did they fit the current debates on hot topics such as the immortality of the soul, the relation between faith and reason, or the ancient authorities?
Anna Tropia will offer some insights on these important questions, by presenting the De origine, natura et immortalitate animae (about 1564) by the Spanish Jesuit, Juan Maldonado (1533/34 – 1583), a manuscript she has recently edited. This text is the only extant trace of the course that Maldonado taught in Paris in 1564, the first year after the inception of the Jesuit Collège de Clermont, but it provides precious details and a solid perspectives on how the Jesuit philosophical tradition would develop in the early modern period.
March 26
Institute Library | 9:15 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
“New Database: The Digital Indipetae Database”
Emanuele Colombo, DePaul University
Marco Rochini, Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies
This café will demonstrate of the new Digital Indipetae Database, an open-access resource that collects thousands of indipetae (Jesuit petitions for extra-European missions) preserved at the Jesuit Roman Archive (ARSI) and other archives. The tradition of writing indipetae, pretty unique to the Society of Jesus, lasted for at least four hundred years, between the 1560s and the 1960s. At this café, Colombo and Rochini will demonstrate the database’s robust functionality by exploring the first series of letters uploaded — the nearly eight hundred indipetae written during the generalate of Jan Roothaan (1829-1853), which highlight the evolution of Jesuit missions after the restoration of the Society.
April 24
Institute Library | 9:15 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
“Why Theology Should Matter to Historians. Knowledge and Agency in the Early Modern Society. Around Théophile Raynaud (1583-1665)”
Jean-Pascal Gay, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
The purpose of this talk is to discuss how a much needed “social and cultural” history of theology can bring new insights for our understanding of early modern societies and religion. As often, for such an endeavor, studying the context of the Society of Jesus yields significant results, because of the archival material that it has produced and because of the importance of theology and theologians in the everyday-life of the Society. To illustrate his point Jean-Pascal Gay will draw on material from his last monograph about a mid 17th century Jesuit theologian (Le dernier théologien? Théophile Raynaud, histoire d’une obsolescence, Paris, 2018).