| Description |
With the establishment of the Jesuit order in the 1500s, the fathers quickly joined the missionary work that was spreading throughout the world as European nations traded with and conquered until recently unknown cultures in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Their missions developed strategies that at first seem to have different orders running them. When one delves deeper into the motives behind the mission strategies, one finds that much of the reasoning behind the decisions was the same. My research included looking at letters and books from the Jesuits, analyzing the publications of Jesuit and non-Jesuit historians on the subject, and reading general histories about the time period. This paper traces the establishment and development of two Jesuit missions that significantly varied in how the fathers attempted to convert the native populations. These missions included the reducciones in Paraguay and the Jesuit presence in China. The adaptability of the order, personality traits, the Jesuits' European cultural heritage, and the level of sophistication of the cultures that they encountered factored into the creation of mission rules and policies towards conversion. The paper also analyzes what factors encouraged the fathers to proceed with their ministries in their unique way. It further shows how the Jesuits interacted with the Indians and the Chinese, how the influence of the foreign cultures affected the missionaries, and how European culture was introduced and imposed upon the foreign peoples. In Paraguay, the Jesuits were more influenced by European racial biases and imposed many aspects of their culture on the Indians while still maintaining the basic political structure of the tribes. In China, the fathers absorbed more of the Chinese culture than what they contributed to it. Underlying these differences, the Jesuit motives were the same, but the complex societal, religious, and cultural factors created very different missions in these two regions of the world. |
