The Theologian and the Empire: A Biography of José de Acosta (1540–1600)

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Although Jesuit contributions to European expansion in the early modern period have attracted considerable scholarly interest, the legacy of José de Acosta (1540–1600) is still defined by his contributions to natural history. The Theologian and the Empire presents a new biography of Acosta, focused on his participation in colonial and imperial politics. The most important Jesuit active in the Americas in the sixteenth century, Acosta was fundamentally a political operator. His actions on both sides of the Atlantic informed both Peruvian colonial life and the Jesuit order at the dawn of the seventeenth century.
Copyright Year:
2024
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Published
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978-90-04-68086-9
Publication:
06 Feb 2024
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Published
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978-90-04-46204-5
Publication:
07 Feb 2024
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Andrés I. Prieto is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Colorado Boulder. He has published on colonial Peru and Jesuit history, including Missionary Scientists (Vanderbilt, 2011). He also served as associate editor of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Jesuits (2017).
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part 1: The Formative Years


1 The Making of a Jesuit (1540–57)
 1 The Acosta Family
 2 An Early Vocation
 3 The Formation of a Jesuit
 4 A Writer in the Making

2 The Young Scholar (1557–71)
 1 Valladolid and the 1558 Lutheran Repression
 2 Acosta the Theologian
 3 The College Years
 4 The Overseas Vocation

Part 2: Peru


3 A Theologian for the New World (1572–74)
 1 A Troubled Province
 2 Acosta’s First Tour of the Andes

4 The Trial of Francisco de la Cruz (1574–76)
 1 Angels, Demons, and a New American Church
 2 The Politics of the Inquisition
 3 De la Cruz and the Evangelization of Native Andeans
 4 Rethinking Accommodation

5 The Visitor and the Viceroy (1575–78)
 1 The Problem of the Doctrinas
 2 An Inquiry into the Spanish Rights to Peru
 3 Between Idealism and Pragmatism
 4 De procuranda indorum salute and the Colonial Project
 5 Juli

6 Labors and Tribulations (1577–81)
 1 The Provincial at Work
 2 Plotting the Expansion of the Jesuit Province
 3 Acosta’s Last Trip through the Andes
 4 The Battle for San Pablo
 5 Stamping out Lascasismo

7 The Third Lima Council (1582–85)
 1 The Banning of Mestizos
 2 Valera, Acosta, and Accommodation
 3 Acosta and the Third Council of Lima
 4 Evangelization and the Creation of a Colonial Self

Part 3: Between Spain and Rome


8 Writing the Historia natural y moral de las Indias (1584–89)
 1 Acosta’s Last Years in the Americas
 2 Sánchez, Acosta, and Iberian Imperialism in Asia
 3 From De natura novi orbis to the Historia natural y moral de las Indias
 4 The Historia natural y moral and the De auxiliis Controversy

9 The Memorialista Crisis (1588–91)
 1 A Shifting Political Landscape
 2 The Politics of the Spanish Inquisition
 3 Acosta and Sánchez in the Court of Philip II
 4 Acosta’s First Trip to Rome
 5 Acosta, Visitor

10 The Fifth General Congregation (1591–1600)
 1 The Acosta Brothers’ Gambit
 2 The Fifth General Congregation
 3 The Final Years

Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
Academic libraries and readers interested in colonial Latin America, early modern empires, religious history, Jesuit history, early modern intellectual history, and the history of science.
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