Jesuit Political Thought: The Society of Jesus and the State, c.1540-1630

by Harro Höpfl

Overview

How did the Society of Jesus develop and maintain a distinctive position on key questions of political thought such as ruler authority, the character and scope of positive law, the limits of obedience and the right to resist? Harro Hopfl presents a full-length study of the secular world—analyzed in its proper historical context—from a Jesuit perspective. Despite the significance of the Society of Jesus in Counter-Reformation Europe and beyond, important issues relating to the society's collective history remain misunderstood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521837798
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/29/2004
Series:	Ideas in Context , #70
Pages:	428
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Harro Hopfl is one of the leading historians of ideas writing in Britain today.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. The character and work of the society of Jesus; 2. The society's organizational ideas; 3. The church, the society and heresy; 4. Jesuit reason of state and religious uniformity; 5. Jesuit reason of state and Fides; 6. Reason of state, prudence and the academic curriculum; 7. The theory of political authority; 8. Limited government, compacts and the states of nature; 9. The theory of law; 10. The common good and individual rights; 11. Tyrannicide, the oath of allegiance controversy and the assassination of Henri IV; 12. The Papal Potestas Indirecta.

Editorial Reviews

"This is an excellent book, well worth attention by a broad range of students and scholars." Renaissance Quarterly

"Long in preparation, this is the first attempt in some time to survey Jesuit political philosophy in the first century of the Society of Jesus. Höpfl traces key arguments in all the major Jesuit political treatises." CHOICE May 2005

"The result of this thorough research into the sources and judicious weighing of what Jesuits of the epoch actually thought helps the reader get to the core of the matter." - Journal of Church and State, Kevin B. Fagan, California State University, San Luis Obispo

"Höpfl's book spans a turbulent period of political history in Europe...in an intelligent and exhaustive analysis. The book is a valuable addition to the relatively insubstantial historiography on the Society of Jesus in this period, surveying the intellectual contribution of the Society's headliners such as Francisco Suarez, Gabriel Vasquez, Robert Persons, and Juan de Mariana." - Sophie Nicholls, H-Ideas

From the Publisher