The Drama of Contrasting Judgments: The Jesuits as dehumanizers or as precursors of human rights?

• Autor(a) principal: Franco, José Eduardo
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Alves-Jesus, Susana Mourato
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Antíteses
• Texto Completo: https://ojs.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/antiteses/article/view/44462
• topic: Jesuits; Myth; Propaganda; Dehumanization; Human Rights; Jesuítas; Mito; Propaganda; Desumanização; Direitos Humanos

The intensive Pombaline anti-Jesuitic propaganda, in the context of the king’s decision of officially extinguishing the Society of Jesus in Portugal, on September 3, 1759, made turn the Jesuits into the quintessential de humanizers of human history, enemies of modern States and paganizers of the Church. According to the conspiracy doctrine typical of plot myths, the Jesuits are identified as the main, if not the only, root of all the evils that happened in the Church and in to the contemporary societies. This radically negative perspective creates an actual black myth and contrasts with other readings, some of which are radically different. As such, the Ignatians are also seen as the modernizers of the Church and qualified advisors to Kings and Princes, forerunners of human rights. This paper revisits and critically analyzes the characterization of these contrasting views, which make the Jesuits, both agents of dehumanization and humanization, from the perspective of the history of thought between the Early Modern and Modern periods. It also aims to know, beyond the blurry imagery created by anti- and pro-Jesuitic polemics, if we can consider the Jesuits relevant to a protohistory of human rights in the transition to the Contemporary Modern Period.