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Theology and history are frequently misunderstood, often inadvertently through lack of factual information, but as often as the result of prejudice. It is of particular value, therefore, for disinterested students and researchers to have access to unbiased commentary and interpretation. There is much about the Jesuits – their identity, role in history, learning and training, intentions and impact on and in the world church – that evokes and provokes such misunderstanding. So, it is good to see the publication of this encyclopedia on the Jesuits. It is good, too, to have a concise encyclopedia on the subject in English: the comparator Diccionario histrico de la Compaia de Jesus (O’Neill and Dominguez, 2001) in four volumes is (in Worcester’s words) “somewhat dated”.
Inevitably, specialists and experienced resource managers will compare it with Thomas Worcester’s earlier editorial work from Cambridge University Press – The Cambridge Companion to the Jesuits (Worcester, 2008) (RR 2009/053). The five sections of that work focused on the history (up to the Suppression by Pope Clement XIV in 1773, a reflection at the time of Enlightenment scepticism about religion and moved on to the “restoration” of the order in 1814 by Pope Pius VII and what has developed since). On the other hand, the encyclopedia (under review here) adopts a “dictionary-style” approach, with 600 alphabetically arranged entries, drawing on the expertise of over 100 scholars, many of them members of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). Worcester himself was a history professor at the College of the Holy Cross in the USA and is now president of Regis College in Toronto. Contributors are international and reflect a cross section of Catholic and other sentiment.
This encyclopedic approach (with essay-style entries from between 300 to 3,000 words in length, each with further reading, most of it in English language) differentiates it from the Companion and also allows readers (most likely students of theology, students in seminaries, teachers of...