Evidences of Truth
The writings of Francisco Rodrigues SJ (1515–1573) have influenced generations of confessors in areas under the patronage of the Iberian crowns, including India, China, Japan, and the Philippines. The collective book project ‚Evidences of Truth‘, led by Rômulo da Silva Ehalt, aims to explore the life and times of this often overlooked figure in the history of Jesuit missions in Asia under the Portuguese Padroado, shedding light on Normative Knowledge Production in Early Modern Portuguese Asia.
Through comparative and innovative analyses, the project aims to illuminate Rodrigues’ political engagements, the internal conflicts within the Society of Jesus during its initial decades in Portuguese India, the manifold applications of canon law and theology in the pragmatic normative literature produced in Jesuit colleges, as well as the contradictions and continuities in the production of normative literature in Asia as compared to the Americas.