Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- The Americas -- Missionizing Mexico: Ecclesiastics, Natives, and the Spread of Christianity / Mark Christensen -- The Andes / Aliocha Maldavsky -- The Missions of Paraguay: Rise, Expansion and Fall / Guillermo Wilde -- Early Modern Catholic Missions in Brazil: The Challenge of the Outsiders / Anne McGinness -- New France1 / Dominique Deslandres -- Africa -- Catholic Missions and Local Rulers in Sub-Saharan Africa / Alan Strathern -- Islamic World -- Missionaries and French Subjects: The Jesuits in the Ottoman Empire / Adina Ruiu -- Ambiguous Belongings: How Catholic Missionaries in Persia and the Roman Curia Dealt with Communicatio in Sacris1 / Christian Windler -- Asia -- South Asia / Ines G. Županov -- Missions in Vietnam / Tara Alberts -- The Christian Missions in Japan in the Early Modern Period / M. Antoni and S.J. J. Ucerler -- Imperial China and the Christian Mission / R. Po-chia Hsia -- The Structures -- Finances of the Missions / Fred Vermote -- Missionaries: Who were They1 / Christoph Nebgen.

Available to subscribing member institutions only.

A survey of the latest scholarship on Catholic missions between the 16th and 18th centuries, this collection of fourteen essays by historians from eight countries offers not only a global view of the organization, finances, personnel, and history of Catholic missions to the Americas, Africa, and Asia, but also the complex political, cultural, and religious contexts of the missionary fields. The conquests and colonization of the Americas presented a different stage for the drama of evangelization in contrast to that of Africa and Asia: the inhospitable landscape of Africa, the implacable Islamic societies of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires, and the self-assured regimes of Ming-Qing China, Nguyen dynasty Vietnam, and Tokugawa Japan. Contributors are Tara Alberts, Mark Z. Christensen, Dominique Deslandres, R. Po-chia Hsia, Aliocha Maldavsky, Anne McGinness, Christoph Nebgen, Adina Ruiu, Alan Strathern, M. Antoni J. Üçerler, Fred Vermote, Guillermo Wilde, Christian Windler, and Ines Zupanov.