This thesis examines the Jesuit and Ignatian influence on the works of Juan Eusebio Nieremberg (1595-1658), who was a prolific and widely published author and a member of the Society of Jesus in Spain. He wrote several works across different literary genres both in Spanish and Latin, but was best known for his popular works in Spanish: two miscellanies of natural philosophy, Curiosa filosofía (1630) and Oculta filosofía (1633); a catechism, the Práctica del catecismo romano (1640); his ascetical treatises, especially De la diferencia entre lo temporal y eterno (1640); and his ‘advice-books’ to princes and nobles, most notably Causa y remedio de los males públicos (1642). As a member of the Jesuit Order, Nieremberg wrote these works with the intention to ‘save souls’, this being the main apostolic goal of the Society. While they provide people with knowledge (‘noticia’) – whether doctrinal, natural, spiritual, or political – these works teach readers to view human existence according to its true end: God’s will of salvation. All things of the temporal world are portrayed as a means to that end. In order to accomplish this goal, Nieremberg incorporates elements from Loyola’s Ejercicios espirituales (1548), the spiritual foundation of the Jesuit Order, and develops a rhetorical strategy which encourages readers to discern the will of God in the world they inhabit. He also develops this rhetoric according to some of the principal literary and artistic conventions of the seventeenth century, and provides an important example of how a prominent Jesuit writer came to express the apostolic and spiritual principles of his Order, but in the language and imagery of Spain’s Siglo de Oro.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:581401 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Hendrickson, D. Scott |
| Contributors | Thompson, Colin P. |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:484fe9c8-8ece-4c9d-b5e7-79523560656c |
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