In the seventeenth century, the Church made immense efforts to spread the one, true, Catholic faith everywhere. The discovery of new territories and peoples spurred them, even more, to set up missions in all directions to win souls. Beneficially if they could, maliciously if they had to. Because in order to save as many individuals as possible, it was necessary to impose the Catholic faith if necessary. This modus operandi largely determined relationships and power relations and has far-reaching consequences to this day.
Thanks to their incomparable and wide network of mission stations, the Jesuits left a very large mark on Catholic missionary history. Moreover, they kept accurate records of them and also made many maps of the newly discovered territories. Those documents offer an unprecedented insight into their ways. The letters and maps were expressions of colonial expansion but were also the result of transcultural communication. During a lecture evening with a concluding panel discussion led by Christiane Stallaert entitled ‘Missions, Maps and Mediators. Influential Encounters between Jesuits and Native Americas’, Mirela Altic and Francismar Alex Lopes de Carvalho delve deeper into this history. Professor Altic reflects on the incorporation of indigenous knowledge into Jesuit maps, while Professor Carvalho shows how local elements were also incorporated to spread the Catholic faith.
This lecture is part of the Big Questions series on social issues of the past and present.