Christian Windler: Missionaries in Persia, Kartoniert / Broschiert

Klappentext

"In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Isfahan, the capital of the Safavid Empire, was host to a diverse array of European Catholic missionaries. This book examines the social roles adopted by the Discalced Carmelites and other missionaries in this multicultural metropolis. Attracted by the hope of converting the Shah, the European missionaries acted as diplomatic agents for Catholic rulers, hosts to Protestant merchants and healers of Armenians and Muslims. Through such activities the missionaries gained social acceptance locally, as well as economic independence from Rome. The flexibility they demonstrated in dealing with cultural diversity is a common feature of missionary activity throughout emerging global Catholicism. Clerics who set out to win over souls for the "true religion" turned into local actors who built their reputations by defining their social roles in accordance with the expectations of their host society, and it was only in the nineteenth century that Rome was able to obtain more centralised control over the church. The book shows how early modern Catholicism was confronted and shaped in multiple ways by experiences in Iran and other Asian empires"--