The Jesuits

by J.C.H. Aveling

An authoritative, balanced history of the most secret and most powerful of Roman Catholic religious orders. This fascinating book binds together religion, politics, art, and culture to paint the most accurate picture yet of the Jesuits, a phenomenon whose influence is writ large across the history of the church itself and across modern secular European history.

390 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Aaron Cliff · Rating 2 out of 5]

A confused rambling through the otherwise interesting depths of the Jesuit Order. Aveling starts the book with 40 pages discussing how the Jesuits have been perceived in Literature, then discusses solely the founder for 50 pages, then two biographical studies on Acquaviva and Ricci, then suddenly moves to topical studies for the rest of the 200 pages, ending the book with an appeal to sociology. Even he seemed to lose steam by the end of the book, the last chapter is 10 pages long compared to the uniform length of 40 to 60 pages for each other chapter. Despite the cover pages claim, the author - if he did have access to the newly opened Jesuit archives - did not cite them. He actually cited nothing, there is no bibliography.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Details the actions and motives of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in North American during the colonial period.