The Jesuit Guide To (Almost) Everything - James Martin [185]
JESUIT SPIRITUALITY
When I use “Jesuit spirituality,” I’m referring to aspects of the spiritual life distinctive to Jesuit life. The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus are, of course, an important foundation, though, except in some parts, they make for dry reading for all but Jesuits. A superb summary of the Constitutions and a reflection on its overarching spirituality is Together for Mission, by Andre de Jaer, S.J.
The granddaddy of books on Jesuit spirituality is The Jesuits: Their Spiritual Doctrines and Practice, by Joseph de Guibert, S.J., first published in 1964, which, while absolutely fascinating in places, is heavy going in others. Perhaps the best short book on Jesuit spirituality is by William Barry, S.J., and Robert Doherty, S.J.: Contemplatives in Action, which describes the variety of “tensions” (between activity and prayer, to take one example) inherent in Jesuit life, community, and governance. Chris Lowney’s Heroic Leadership applies Jesuit practices to corporations, and William A. Byron, S.J.’s Jesuit Saturdays is designed for laypeople working in Jesuit institutions, introducing them to our “way of proceeding.” Finally, F. E. Peters’s memoir Ours is a window into the life of American Jesuits in the middle part of the twentieth century.
THE HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS
The gold standard of studies on the history of the early Jesuits, which also includes a précis of the life of Ignatius, is John O’Malley’s The First Jesuits. It combines the author’s superb skills as a historian with his elegant prose. (A good companion is Year by Year with the Early Jesuits, a firsthand account by Juan de Polanco, S.J., who entered the Society in 1541.) William Bangert’s A History of the Society of Jesus is a comprehensive (though somewhat dry) look at the Society’s entire history, from the early days until the early 1980s. James Brodrick, S.J., wrote both The Origin of the Jesuits and The Progress of the Jesuits. Other lively retellings of the almost five-hundred-year history of the Society of Jesus include God’s Soldiers, which focuses on the early centuries, by Jonathan Wright, and Jesuits: A Multibiography, by Jean Lacouture, which does a superb job highlighting the stories of some notable Jesuit priests and brothers. Also Thomas Worcester, S.J., edited a fine series of essays collected in The Cambridge Companion to the Jesuits.
Focusing on particular aspects of Jesuit history are two books I would like to recommend. First, Liam Brockey’s Journey to the East, a scholarly and fascinating look at the Jesuit mission to China from 1579 to 1724 (including the story of Matteo Ricci). And for those interested in the artistic heritage of the Jesuits (particularly the distinctive heritage of “Jesuit architecture” as well as how Jesuits used arts in the “missions”), see Jesuits and the Arts: 1540–1773, a gorgeously illustrated book edited by John O’Malley and Gauvin Bailey. It includes marvelous photos of the Jesuit “reductions” in South America and illustrations of stage sets that exemplify the history of “Jesuit theater.”
JESUIT SAINTS AND OTHER LIVES
Start with Joseph Tylenda, S.J.’s Jesuit Saints and Martyrs, which packs into a few hundred pages the stories of the members of the Society of Jesus who have been canonized, beatified, or are otherwise on their way to sainthood.
The list of books of Jesuit saints, blesseds, and holy men have (literally) filled libraries. Some of my favorites, in no particular order, are: The Quiet Companion (about Blessed Peter Favre, S.J.), by Mary Purcell; Saint Francis Xavier, by James Brodrick, S.J.; Jean de Brébeuf (about one of the North American martyrs), by Joseph P. Donnelly, S.J.; With God in Russia and He Leadeth Me, autobiographical works by Walter Ciszek, S.J.; Conquistador Without Sword (about Roque Gonzalez, S.J., one of the workers in the “reductions”) by C. J. McNaspy, S.J.; Spirit of Fire (about Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J.), by Ursula King; A Testimonial to Grace, a memoir by Avery Cardinal Dulles S.J.; Gerard Manley Hopkins, by