A Jewish Jesuit in the eastern Mediterranean : early modern conversion, mission, and the construction of identity / Robert John Clines.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clines, Robert, 1984- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Eliano, Giovanni Battista, 1530-1589.

Eliano, Giovanni Battista.

Jesuits--Biography.

Jesuits.

Missionaries.

Middle East.

Christian converts from Judaism--Biography.

Christian converts from Judaism.

Missionaries--Middle East--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

ix, 268 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2020.

Summary:

"In A Jewish Jesuit in the Eastern Mediterranean, Robert Clines retraces the conversion and missionary career of Giovanni Battista Eliano, the only Jewish-born member of the Society of Jesus. He highlights the lived experience of conversion, and how converts dealt with others' skepticism of their motives. Clines uses primary sources, including Eliano's personal letters, missionary reports, and autobiography, together with scholarship on conversion in the early modern Mediterranean world to illustrate how false and sincere conversion often mirrored each other in outward performance. Devout converts were not readily taken at face value and needed to prove themselves in the moment and over the course of their lifetimes. Consequently, Eliano's story underscores that the mystical, introspective nature of religious belief and the formulation of new spiritual selves came into direct confrontation with the ways in which converts needed to present themselves to others in an age of political and religious turmoil"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Becoming a Jewish Jesuit: Eliano's early years

Jesuit missionary or Jewish renegade? Eliano's confrontation with his Jewish past

Jesuit anti-judaism and the fear of Eliano's Jewishness on the first mission to the Maronites of Lebanon

Textual transmission, pastoral ministry, and the re-fashioning of Eliano's intellectual training

Revisiting Eliano's Jewishness on his return to Egypt

The Coptic mission, Mediterranean geopolitics, and the mediation of Eliano's Jewish and Catholic identities

Eliano's reconciliation with his Jewishness in his later years.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Clines, Robert, 1984- A Jewish Jesuit in the eastern Mediterranean.

ISBN:

9781108485340

1108485340

9781108706865

110870686X

OCLC:

1101788258