Oecuménisme ” au XIXe Siècle, Jésuite Russes et Union des Église d’après les Archives Romaines de la Compagnie de Jésus

Abstract

This book continues the practice of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) to go down its history and reveal important dimensions of its life and apostolate. In this fourth volume of the excellent new series from Monumenta Historica, we find an interesting revelation about the works of Jesuits on ecumenism. The Jesuits discussed in this volume are Russian Jesuits who worked in France. The captivating thing about this book is that it discloses efforts made to reunite the Oriental and Latin Catholic Churches after the initial efforts of Council of Lyon (1274) and Council of Florence (1439). With a historical hindsight, one can say that political reasons were responsible for the failure of the Councils. While reading the correspondences contained in this book, one can also say that political considerations were behind many calls to ‘prudence’. For example, political ideologies, surely, are at the root of many internal disagreements among Jesuit companions about the orientations particular initiatives on ecumenism should take.