Markus Friedrich Book order

Exploring the intricate field of genealogy, the book highlights Imhoff's connections to various genealogical cultures of his era. Through his experiences and insights, readers gain a deeper understanding of the complexities and richness inherent in genealogical studies, making it a valuable resource for those interested in tracing familial histories and cultural heritages.

"Since its founding by Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, the Society of Jesus--more commonly known as the Jesuits--has played a critical role in the events of modern history. From the Counter-Reformation to the ascent of Francis I as the first Jesuit pope, The Jesuits presents an intimate look at one of the most important religious orders not only in the Catholic Church, but also the world. Markus Friedrich describes an organization that has deftly walked a tightrope between sacred and secular involvement and experienced difficulties during changing times, all while shaping cultural developments from pastoral care and spirituality to art, education, and science. Examining the Jesuits in the context of social, cultural, and world history, Friedrich sheds light on how the order shaped the culture of the Counter-Reformation and participated in the establishment of European empires, including missionary activity throughout Asia and in many parts of Africa in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He also explores the place of Jesuits in the New World and addresses the issue of Jesuit slaveholders. The Jesuits often tangled with the Roman Curia and the pope, resulting in their suppression in 1773, but the order returned in 1814 to rise again to a powerful position of influence. Friedrich demonstrates that the Jesuit fathers were not a monolithic group and he considers the distinctive spiritual legacy inherited by Pope Francis With its global scope and meticulous attention to archival sources and previous scholarship, The Jesuits illustrates the heterogeneous, varied, and contradictory perspectives of this famed religious organization."-- Back cover

In the long 18th century, the hitherto predominant Catholic missionary activity overseas received noticeable competition from new Christianisation projects initiated by Protestants. In this context, the anthology deals with the question of how the missionaries of different Christian denominations in the mission areas dealt with each other when they came into contact with each other on a daily basis. In view of their special early modern intra-Christian pluriconfessionality, two regions were chosen as the focus: the Eastern Mediterranean and the Indian subcontinent. As the eight contributions to the volume demonstrate in detail, interconfessional contacts frequently took place in these (and numerous other regions of the world), the conduct of which sometimes followed the patterns of interpretation and action familiar from Europe, but frequently also followed its own patterns of development due to the specific contexts overseas. Thus, the volume not only makes a contribution to the comparative study of Christian missions in the long 18th century. At the same time, it represents an important contribution to a globalisation of confessionalisation research, whose heuristic potential for analysing non-European Christianity history in the early modern period has hardly been tested so far.

The dynamic but little-known story of how archives came to shape and be shaped by European culture and society

Regular reporting on extra-European Christian missions was a distinctive feature of the early modern era, changing the worldviews of Europe and Europeans. The present collection of essays offers an innovative approach to this phenomenon by comparing different missionary publications from a cross-confessional perspective. It establishes a broader framework for understanding the organized and institutionalized transfers of knowledge from the missions to Europe. Contributions by various international specialists to such hallmarks of European Enlightenment as the Hallesche Berichte and the Jesuit Lettres Édifiantes along with less famous examples as the Circular Letters of the British missionary societies (SPCK, SPG) or the Gemeinnachrichten of the Moravian Brethren not only analyze the content but also the technologies and procedures employed to spread information. The volume discusses the comparability of the different missionary periodicals from the vantage point of cultural history. It emphasizes the importance of regular publishing of missionary activities for the fashioning and strengthening of religious identities, against the backdrop of an evolving ‘Public Sphere’ in the Enlightenment and the formation of increasingly globalized cultures of knowledge in Europe.