Description
From 3 until 5 December 2009 an international colloquium was organised at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies (KU Leuven) which intended to highlight and discuss the impact of the Society of Jesus on the development of cultural, scientific and political life in the Low Countries. The colloquium not only aimed to bring together specialists in the various fields of Jesuitica research, but also organised a meeting between the people committed to scientific research, and those who disclose archives and other information sources enabling new research. Some of the finest scholars in Jesuit studies presented the results of their research in a number of lectures. The current volume contains a selection of these lectures, dealing with a broad spectrum of subjects, from Jesuit spirituality to the Jesuit contribution to the science of law, political thought and the visual arts, to education, mathematics and architecture. Attention is paid to the role of the Jesuits in the development of the printing press, their relation with Louvain's Faculty of Theology and their position in the Jansenist controversies, as well as to their expansion abroad, in the Missio Hollandica, in South Wales and in the mission to China. Furthermore, the book includes a number of presentations from the workshops, specifically concerning archives and databases related to the history of the Jesuits in the Low Countries.