In Andrés I. Prieto’s Missionary Scientists, the author explores the missionary zeal and scientific activities of Jesuit priests in South America, starting in the late sixteenth century and ending in 1767 with the expulsion of the Jesuits from the continent. Dr. Prieto obtained his PhD and his Masters at the University of Connecticut, but he obtained his Bachelor’s from the Universidad Catolica de Chile, which is located in Santiago. He is the Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Some of Prieto’s recent works include “Confessing to be an Indian: Penance and the Creation of a Native Self in José de Acosta’s Missiology,” “From the Devil’s Herb to Saint Thomas’ Gift: The Christianization of Guarani Sacred Plants in the Jesuit Reductions in Paraguay,” and José de Acosta: A Jesuit at the Service of Empire, which is due to be published this year.
The author is clear in his introduction that he is delving into an aspect of South American history that has not been academically examined. The groundwork is laid for an exploration of the relationship between science and religion in the Jesuit missions, which were places where priests could dedicate themselves to studying theology and natural science simultaneously. Prieto organizes his book into three parts, where the focus is on a writer or prominent Jesuit, with the goal of demonstrating the underappreciated role South American Jesuits played in the development of science in the early modern period. In Chapter One, Prieto describes the sixteenth-century conflict between the viceroy of Peru and the Jesuits. The Jesuits were more focused on integration into the secular lives of the cities where they lived, whereas the viceroy was more concerned with bringing order to a country ravaged by civil war. This conflict forced the Jesuits into the countryside, as the viceroy assumed they would continue along their traditional missionary path. However, this ignited a scientific curiosity in the Jesuits. Readers are introduced to José de Acosta, a theologian and Jesuit whose magnum opus was entitled the Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias, where he laid out his understanding of New World nature and cosmology. The Historia is effectively a manifesto for empire, as one cannot have an understanding of the New World at this time without the Spanish Empire. Prieto shifts to the medical aspects of Jesuit science in Chapter Two. Focusing on Chile, Prieto describes how if a Spanish colonist fell ill, they chose the services of a machi, or Mapuche shaman, instead of those of a Spanish doctor or surgeon. However, the Jesuits characterized the machi as devil worshippers, silencing the perspective of them as healers, revealing the Jesuits outside of their missionary norm. The Jesuits had to overcome their biases against native medicine, especially native herbs, in order to treat patients effectively. In Chapter Three, he shifts to the parallels of what is happening in Paraguay and the difference between medical treatment in Paraguay compared to Chile. In the Paraguayan missions, medical treatment was deeply intertwined with religion. The Jesuits kept medicinal herbs under lock and key, and regulated the dosages for patients. This practice was meant to prevent native converts from returning to their ancestral gods, but it functioned as a highly effective method of social control. Chapter Four introduces the reader to Bernabé Cobo, a Jesuit who authored the History of the New World, of which only the first volume has survived. Cobo traveled across the Jesuit network of missions and obtained objects ranging from Paraguayan geodes to fossils from Lima. In his quest for knowledge about South American natural history, Cobo was confirmed in his belief that the Edenic landscape of South America reflected God’s omnipotence. With Chapter Five, Prieto examines the international nature of the Jesuit order by introducing Niccolò Mascardi, an Italian who studied under the Jesuits in Rome. While in Rome, he was involved with verifying Galileo’s observations of Jupiter’s moons. In 1652, Mascardi was sent to Chile and wanted to preach amongst the native peoples there. He was assigned to the Mission Buena Esperanza, which was highly successful as a Jesuit mission. Mascardi’s circumstances as being both a missionary and an astronomer were unusual at the time, especially as the Inquisition was putting Galileo on trial when Mascardi was a student in Rome. Chapter Six takes the reader back to the sixteenth century and José de Acosta’s book. The chapter is a deeper dive into Acosta’s work within the context of subsequent missionary experiences in Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina. Acosta’s work is also situated within the context of the sixteenth century relationship between science and religion, with debates over vana curiositas dominating the minds of theologians. Chapter Seven compares Acosta’s book and Cobo’s work by showing their different philosophical perspectives. Acosta thought that nature was part of God’s plan for humanity, while Cobo thought that it was a reflection of the glory of God. These two different perspectives come from distinct theological schools of thought about nature. Acosta was a follower of the Augustinian school, where everything in nature conformed to God’s plan for the universe, and that to attempt to explain it was a sin. Cobo followed the Thomistic school, where nature was part of God’s majesty here on Earth. Prieto details in Chapter Eight how Cobo compiled his History of the New World for publication, but he died before seeing it in print. In fact, it would take until the 1890s for the book to be published. Prieto explains that the delay in publication was caused by Cobo being somewhat of a renegade, as his Jesuit superiors wanted him to abandon his scientific research and fully devote himself to preaching. The epilogue culminates with the expulsion of the Jesuits from South America. Unfortunately, the Spanish authorities began to use the Jesuits as a scapegoat for the problems faced at the time, and the edict of expulsion was issued in 1767, thus exiling the Jesuits to Europe and ending their tenure in South America.
Missionary Scientists provides a reader with an in-depth analysis of the little-known role of South American Jesuits in furthering scientific understanding in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I would recommend this book to someone interested in the complex relationship between science and religion in this era, where Jesuits could be both missionaries and scientists. Instead of a standard narrative, the author chose to pull out selected Jesuits as case studies to provide insights into the intricacies of their missionary work, thus allowing the reader better insight into the primary sources and the ability to place them in a broader Atlantic context. The author’s well-written notes section provided easy-to-digest insight and commentary that furthered the understanding of Missionary Scientists. Perhaps some context would have been helpful in the introduction to understand why this topic has not been covered by modern historiography. The title of the book seemed like an oxymoron, as one would not typically associate missionaries with science, but Prieto shows us that the Jesuits augmented their missionary work with their scientific discoveries, seeing it as a way to further the glory of God.
