2022 - Boston

The Roman Catholic Church is the principal milieu within which the Society of Jesus has operated over the course of its history. In order to effectively manage their interactions with the rest of the world, the Jesuits first had to establish, clarify, and cultivate their relations with this wider Catholic environment. This involved different strategies, such as initiating and maintaining good relationships with the hierarchy; collaborating, competing, or interacting with other religious orders and the diocesan clergy; establishing, running, or promoting Catholic institutions and operations. Managing these forms of relationship has proven to be complex. The history of the Society includes moments of success and positive collaboration with the Church; it also contains moments of difficulty, crisis, and even termination, as in the order’s suppression in 1773.

This International Symposium on Jesuit Studies will explore the many aspects of the Society’s relations to the Church, all within the global contexts in which the Jesuit mission grew and operated. This event will be held at Boston College between two other major gatherings of global scope, one being that of the International Federation of Catholic Universities and the second that of the International Association of Jesuit Universities.

For further information, contact the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies at iajs@bc.edu.