Encounters between Jesuits and Protestants in Africa: (13 Jesuit Studies)

Protestants entering Africa in the nineteenth century sought to learn from earlier Jesuit presence in Ethiopia and southern Africa. The nineteenth century was itself a century of missionary scramble for Africa during which the Jesuits encountered their Protestant counterparts as both sought to evangelize the African native. Encounters between Jesuits and Protestants in Africa, edited by Robert Alexander Maryks and Festo Mkenda, S.J., presents critical reflections on the nature of those encounters in southern Africa and in Ethiopia, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Fernando Po. Though largely marked by mutual suspicion and outright competition, the encounters also reveal personal appreciations and support across denominational boundaries and thus manifest salient lessons for ecumenical encounters even in our own time. This volume is the result of the second Boston College International Symposium on Jesuit Studies held at the Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa (Nairobi, Kenya) in 2016. Thanks to generous support of the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies at Boston College, it is available in Open Access.

About the Author :
Robert Aleksander Maryks, PhD (2006) in history, Fordham University, is associate professor of history, associate director of the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, and editor of Jesuit Sources at Boston College. He has published on various aspects of the history of the Jesuits, including, most recently, Pouring Jewish Water into Fascist Wine I and II (Brill, 2011 and 2017), A Companion to Ignatius of Loyola (Brill, 2014), and Exploring Jesuit Distinctiveness (Brill, 2016). He is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Jesuit Studies, the Jesuit Studies book series, Boston College Jesuit Bibliography: The New Sommervogel Online, and Jesuit Historiography Online.  Festo Mkenda, S.J., DPhil (2009), University of Oxford, is director of the Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa. He is the author of Mission for Everyone: A Story of the Jesuits in Eastern Africa (Paulines, 2013) and of several articles in the same area.

Review :
“a probing, illuminating and often disturbing analysis of an overlooked encounter in global Christian history. […] One hopes that this excellent volume will inspire historians and theologians alike to delve more deeply into the emerging Jesuit archives of Africa. The stories are not always edifying, but they are stories that need to be known.” J. J. Carney, Creighton University. In: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 70, No. 2 (April 2019), pp. 428-430. “This book contributes to the understanding of the complex and multifaceted relations between the Jesuits and Protestants in various geographical locations in Africa at different times. In addition, it highlights diverse topics for further research, such as the gender issue in Fernando Poo.” Leonardo Cohen, Ben Gurion University of the Negev. In: Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu, Vol. 88, Fasc. 175 (2019-I), pp. 226-229.