God's Soldiers: Adventure, Politics, Intrigue, and Power--A History of the Jesuits [Hardcover]

Jonathan Wright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 18, 2004

Throughout history members of the Society of Jesus, popularly known as Jesuits, have been accused of killing kings and presidents, have traveled as missionaries to every corner of the globe, founded haciendas in Mexico, explored the Mississippi and Amazon rivers, and served Chinese emperors as map makers, painters, and astronomers. As well as the predictable roll call of saints and martyrs, the Society can also lay claim to the thirty-five craters on the moon named for Jesuit scientists. Jesuits have been despised and idolized on a scale unknown to members of any other religious order; they have died the most horrible deaths and done the most outlandish deeds.

Whether loved or loathed, the Jesuits’ dramatic and wide-ranging impact could never be ignored. By the mid-eighteenth century, they had established more than 650 educational institutions. They were also strongly committed to foreign missions, and like the secular explorers and settlers of the Age of Discovery, they traveled to the Far East, India, and the Americas to stake a claim. They were especially successful in Latin America, where they managed to put numerous villages entirely under Jesuit rule.

The Jesuits’ successes both in Europe and abroad, coupled with rumors of scandal and corruption within the order, soon drew criticism from within the Church and without. Writers such as Pascal and Voltaire wrote polemics against them, and the absolute monarchs of Catholic Europe sought to destroy them. Their power was seen as so threatening that hostility escalated into serious political feuds, and at various times they were either banned or harshly suppressed throughout Europe.

God’s Soldiers is a fascinating chronicle of this celebrated, mysterious, and often despised religious order. Jonathan Wright illuminates as never before their enduring contributions as well as the controversies that surrounded them. The result is an in-depth, unbiased, and utterly compelling history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

They numbered 20,408 at the start of the 21st century, and their 400-year history is marked by crisis, accomplishment and persecution. They are the Jesuits, the Society of Jesus founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1534; and Wright, a British historian, tells their amazing story in this thoroughly documented account. Given the scope of his subject, Wright's was no small task and he has neatly compressed the four-century Jesuit saga into a reasonably concise and balanced history. Along the way, he does not shrink from the darker side of that history, whether he is addressing the hatred the order engendered among its detractors or describing the failings of individual members and methods. But he is largely forgiving, allowing for human frailty as an explanation for times when the order's history was marred by less than exemplary behavior. Although Wright acknowledges there have been "Jesuit villains, Jesuits possessed of unseemly ambition, [and] Jesuits who preferred politicking to preaching," he believes the order as a whole has not deserved to be painted with a negative broad brush. Besides recounting the facts of Jesuit history, Wright's chronicle also sheds light on the roots of tensions between Catholics and Protestants that still simmer and even flare up today despite the new spirit of ecumenism fostered by the 1960s Second Vatican Council. Given the Jesuits' missionary spirit and their wide reach in the worlds of education, science and religion, a large and diverse audience should find this book to be of interest.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

British historian Wright provides a digestible account of one of the world's most accomplished and controversial religious orders. Founded in 1534 by Ignatius of Loyola, the Society of Jesus quickly evolved into one of the largest and most influential arms of the Catholic Church. Individually and collectively the Jesuits have zealously pursued missionary work, independent scholarship, holistic education, and political activism for five centuries. Most recently, many members have embraced liberation theology, a radical strategy aimed at achieving social justice and political reform. Despite their undeniably amazing theological, spiritual, scientific, educational, and cultural contributions, the Jesuits have been consistently steeped in intrigue and controversy, alternately revered and reviled by contemporaries and church historians. Seeking to separate fact from fiction and to set the often romanticized or exaggerated record straight, Wright offers a balanced overview that represents and preserves all the gore and glory of the Jesuit past. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; First Edition edition (May 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385500785
• ISBN-13: 978-0385500784
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,308,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but too short!, June 6, 2004

By 

Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God's Soldiers: Adventure, Politics, Intrigue, and Power--A History of the Jesuits (Hardcover)

The history of the Society of Jesus is an extremely interesting and exciting one, as is perfectly clear after reading this extremely well writen book. Unfortunately, the book is much too short, and we get a very cursory history, with a lot of mentions of things that hapened, but no explanations as to what these things were. I wish that the author would have expanded his book more, so that there would have been more detail to it. One small example is the missionary activity of Francis Xavier: it's mentioned, but we don't really find out anything about it in the book. Perhaps this is just the author's way of getting us to read more deeply into the subject, but i don't know. I learned a lot about the Jesuits in this book, but I was left with the hunger for more detailed knowledge.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very disapointing, November 20, 2005

By 

Borja Echegaray Aguirrezabal (Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God's Soldiers: Adventure, Politics, Intrigue, and Power--A History of the Jesuits (Hardcover)

When i bought the book i thought i was going to discover at least a big part of the huge and extraordinary jesuit history. I was wrong. The book lacks too many names, countries, and facts related to the jesuit order. The author emphasises too much on certain people and ignores jesuit saints , politicians, and kings under the jesuit influence. I would also say that the authors sources are very , very scarce.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The praised and hated Jesuits, November 7, 2007

By 

Enrique Torres "Rico" (San Diegotitlan, Califas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: God's Soldiers: Adventure, Politics, Intrigue, and Power--A History of the Jesuits (Paperback)

For the history buff, this glimpse into the world of the Jesuits and their role in educational institutions, missionary work and Catholicism, this book leaves something to be desired. While reading it I was completely enthralled but after each reading session felt like I had missed something. Was it the author's language, often very academic and intellectual or was it something else? I came away in the end thinking it was a combination of factors, one of which is the lack of detail to any number of events and the jumping around to different time periods and locations. It is almost like the author expects you to have knowledge of all the people and events he is talking about. There was not enough "color" to the events and people; they were all shaded in black and white academia. Was this enough to make the book uninteresting? No, by no means, actually I was really drawn into the material but it was just a little dry. With so many martyrs and bloodshed in the name of Christ surely the events could have been described with more attention to detail. There are times when he is describing the various events, like the acquisition and eventual selling of relics in very graphic terms; however, there is just not enough of this. At times the story is disjointed; something that fit a tight chronlogical order may have made it easier to read. By no means is this an easy book. You need to have your thinking cap on. The long history of the Jesuits is condensed but in the process the different "stories" within are somewhat lost in a blurr. To the author's credit he did an amazing job to even tackle such an esoteric subject within the confines of a three hundred page book. It is almost like there is too much information. His notations and extensive bibliography give credence to the fact that this book was well researched. The development and demise of the Jesuits as missionaries throughout the world is only one of many interesting aspects that Wright covers in the book. The Jesuits achievements are discussed as well and Wright does a good job of maintaining a neutral stance throughout the book , although, there are times that he seems to lean in their favor. This is a fascinating look into the Society of Jesus. Recommended for students of history or religion.