Could somebody explain in few words, what exactly were the goals of the Jesuit order?
So far I seem to be confised by polar opinions and evidence (at least, those look opposing for me) - on the one hand, they are commonly referred as watchdogs of Catholic Faith, sly, cunning, and determined to spread and strengthen it by all means, and their education might have been really very religious, even compared to other Catholic institutions - like the fact that they educated king Sebastian of Portugal to be such a devoted Catholic, that he preferred to prepare crusade to Morocco (and died there) before other government affairs or making a heir.
But on the other hand, there were numerous Jesuit missions like those in Japan or Reducions in Paraguay, which seem to be anybody but missionaires - in Paraguay they seem even to encourage local native indians to maintain their old systems, traditions and even beliefs.
So my question is - do I miss some bigger picture of Jesuit big strategy, or they were just too fragmented into fractions, thus providing different policies, or the order was jsut changing during centuries?
So far I seem to be confised by polar opinions and evidence (at least, those look opposing for me) - on the one hand, they are commonly referred as watchdogs of Catholic Faith, sly, cunning, and determined to spread and strengthen it by all means, and their education might have been really very religious, even compared to other Catholic institutions - like the fact that they educated king Sebastian of Portugal to be such a devoted Catholic, that he preferred to prepare crusade to Morocco (and died there) before other government affairs or making a heir.
But on the other hand, there were numerous Jesuit missions like those in Japan or Reducions in Paraguay, which seem to be anybody but missionaires - in Paraguay they seem even to encourage local native indians to maintain their old systems, traditions and even beliefs.
So my question is - do I miss some bigger picture of Jesuit big strategy, or they were just too fragmented into fractions, thus providing different policies, or the order was jsut changing during centuries?