Jesuits and Race examines the role that the Society of Jesus played in shaping Western understandings about race and explores the impact the Order had on the lives and societies of non-European peoples throughout history. Jesuits provide an unusual, if not unique, lens through which to view the topic of race given the global nature of the Society of Jesus and the priests' interest in humanity, salvation, conversion, science, and nature.Jesuits' global presence in missions, imperial expansion, and education lends insight into the differences in patterns of estrangement and assimilation, as well as enfranchisement and coercion, with people from Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The essays in this collection bring together case studies from around the world as a first step toward a comparative analysis of Jesuit engagement with racialized difference. The authors hone in on labor practices, social structures, and religious agendas at salient moments during the long span of Jesuit history in this fascinating volume.

List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction. Jesuits and Race from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Centuries Nathaniel Millett and Charles H. ParkerChapter One. ?The Society of the World:? Antonio Possevino (1533?1611) and the Jesuit Debate over Purity of Blood Emanuele ColomboChapter Two. Eternal Blackness: Body and Soul in Jesuit Martiìn de Roa's Afterlife Erin Kathleen RoweChapter Three. Jesuits and Unfree Labor in Early Modern East Asia Liam Matthew BrockeyChapter Four. Jesuits and ?Race? in Early Modern Chile: Valdivia's Letters to the King, 1604?1618 Andrew ReddenChapter Five. How to be a Country Jesuit: Practices of Continence, Care, and Containment in a Racializing Religiosity J. Michelle MolinaChapter Six. ?The Most Barbarous and Fierce Peoples in the New World?: Decoding the Jesuit Missionary Project in Colonial North Mexico Susan M. DeedsChapter Seven. The Memory of Slavery at Saint Louis University Nathaniel MillettChapter Eight. A Challenge to our Sincerity: American Jesuits Discover ?The Negro? James M. O'TooleChapter Nine. Trial by Fire: Father George Dunne and Race Relations in Cold War Los Angeles Sean Dempsey, S.J.Epilogue John T. McGreevyContributorsIndex