Catholic counter-reformation: A history of the Jesuits’ Missionto Ethiopia 1557-1635

Abstract

The Jesuits or 'The Society of Jesus' holds a significant place in the wide area of church history. In histories of Europe to the reformation of the sixteenth century, the Jesuits appear with notable frequency. Jesuits were the finest expression of the Catholic Reformation shortly after the Protestant reform began. The Society is attributed to its founder, Ignatius of Loyola. As a layman, Ignatius viewed Christendom in his context as a society under siege. It was Christian duty to therefore defend it. The Society was formed at a time that nationalism was growing and papal prestige was falling. The Jesuits, as a missionary movement at a critical period in the Roman Catholic Church, used creative strategies that later symbolised the strength of what would become the traditional Roman Catholic Church for a long time in history. The strategies involved included, but were not limited to: reviving and nurturing faith among Catholics, winning back those who had become Protestants, converting those who had not been baptised, training of the members for social service and missionary work, and establishing educational institutions. Their mission expansion to other parts of the world, Africa included, was an attempt to compensate the lost grounds in Europe in view of this paper’s thesis.