By Nicholas J. Mattei
The Counter Reformation was a movement within the Roman Catholic church that began in the 16th century as a reaction to the Protestant Reformation. It officially lasted from 1545 to 1648[1]. However, the effects of the Counter Reformation reach into modern times. This is because one of the lasting results of the Counter Reformation, the Society of Jesus, a.k.a. the Jesuit Order, is still alive and well in the Roman Catholic world.[2] In a way, the Counter Reformation never really ended, and its effects can still be felt today throughout the world through the conduit of the Jesuit Order. To see how this is so, we must briefly survey the beginnings and actions of the Jesuit order and then follow their activity down through the centuries and around the world until we come to our modern context.
The Jesuit Order was founded by a man named Ignatius Loyola; a Spanish soldier who converted to the Roman Catholic church after a being severely injured in a battle.[3] He led a life of extreme asceticism and wrote a book called Spiritual Exercises, which would become very influential in the life of his future disciples.[4] J. A Wylie remarks, “There are few more remarkable books in the world. It combines the self-denial and mortification of the Brahmin, with the asceticism of the anchorite, and the ecstasies of the school man.”[5] Those following the exercises would go through four weeks of isolation, meditation, fasting and the like.[6] Wylie goes on to say of the exercises that,
The method prescribed was an adroit imitation of that process of conviction, of alarm, of enlightenment, and of peace, through which the Holy Spirit leads the soul that undergoes that change and very deed. This Divine transformation was at that hour taking place in thousands of instances in the Protestant world. Loyola, like the magicians of old who strove to rival Moses, wrought with his enchantments to produce the same miracle.[7]
Loyola also experienced many dreams and visions, and one result of these visions was his view of Christ as a general. From this a subsequent desire formed within Ignatius to build an army for Christ.[8]
During the 1530’s Ignatius began acquiring disciples and laying the foundation for this new army, or society, that he would head.[9] Ignatius made his followers take vows of perpetual chastity and poverty, as well as vows of supreme allegiance to himself as their superior and, to gain the Pope’s favor, a vow of unconditional temporal allegiance to the Pope.[10] This ultimately lead to the Pope’s official recognition of Ignatius’ society in 1540.[11] Pope Paul III was the Pope that sanctioned the order under the name of the “Society of Jesus.”[12] Some of the founding members of the society included men like Peter Le Fevre and Francis Xavier.[13] Ignatius’ biographer Bouhours tells us that Ignatius is said to have gathered his newly formed society around him and spoke to them saying, “Ought we not to conclude that we are called to win to God, not only a single nation, a single country, but all nations, all the kingdoms of the world?”[14] Naturally, Ignatius became the first general of the order, and then subsequently drew up the constitutions of the order.[15]
The Constitutions of the Jesuit Order, formed by Ignatius and added to by his successors, lay out a structure that closely resembles a military chain of command.[16] The superior general has absolute power and control over all those in the order and from him a pyramid of hierarchy of command flows down all the way to the new initiates.[17] The general even “commands under the penalty of mortal and venial sin.”[18] The ethical code by which they operate under is directed by three axioms, the first being that the end sanctifies the means.[19] The second is the doctrine of probabilism which basically teaches “when one does not know whether an action would be sinful or permissible, he may rely on a “probable opinion” for its permissibility even though a more probable opinion calls it sinful.”[20] The third is that of directing the intention, which teaches that,
The soul . . . does the act, so far as it is moral or immoral. As regards to body’s share in it, neither virtue nor vice can be predicated of it. If therefore, while the hand is shedding blood, or the tongue . . . uttering a falsehood, the soul can so abstract itself from what the body is doing as to occupy itself the while with some holy theme, or fix its meditations upon some benefit or advantage likely to arise from the deed, which it knows, or at least suspects, the body is at that moment engaged in doing, the soul contracts neither guilt nor stain, and the man runs no risk of ever being called to account for the murder, or theft, or calumny, by God, or of incurring his displeasure on that ground.[21]
All of these axioms are intended to be used to achieve the end goal of the Jesuit Order which, as G. B. Nicolini comments, is to do away with Protestantism:
I cannot too much impress upon the minds of my readers that the Jesuits by their very calling, by the very essence of their institution, are bound to seek, by every means, right or wrong, the destruction of Protestantism. This is the condition of their existence, the duty they must fulfill, or cease to be Jesuits.[22]
The process by which one is admitted into the society is extremely rigorous, including being cut off from one’s family and former life, it is also undergirded by the Spiritual Exercises and it is intended to produce an intense loyalty and submission to the order.[23] Alexander Duff in his comparing the drilling and discipline of the Jesuits to the soldiers under Alexander the Great down to Napoleon says, “Why, the drilling and the discipline of all these combined cannot, in point of stern, rigid, and protracted severity, for a moment be compared to the drilling and discipline which fitted and moulded men for becoming full members of the militant institute of the Jesuits”[24] This intense program was needed says Wylie,
To confront the armies of Protestantism and turn back the advancing tide of light and liberty. Touched with Divine fire, the disciples of the Gospel attained at once to a complete renunciation of self, and magnanimity of soul which enabled them to brave all dangers and endure all sufferings, and to bear the standard of a recovered Gospel over deserts and oceans, in the midst of hunger and pestilence, of dungeons and rack and fiery stakes. It was vain to think of overcoming warriors like these unless by combatants of an equal temper and spirit, and Loyola set himself to furnish such.[25]
The Constitutions also lay out an incredibly ambitious universal mission. This includes worldwide missionary service, interreligious dialogue, ecumenical activity, as well as an educational and intellectual apostolate that seeks to influence schools, universities, multimedia, and research in philosophy and theology.[26] This also includes a social apostolate that seeks to establish social centers and the influence of government and labor unions.[27] And the influence intended is of course that of Roman Catholic theology and Jesuit values.
As we have now seen the origins and foundations of the Society of Jesus, we must document their spread throughout the world and their influence down through centuries to our present day. As the society spread throughout Europe, they persecuted Jansenists and Protestants alike.[28] One example of this can be seen in France where,
The Jesuits pressured Louis XIV into revoking the Edict of Nantes in 1685, marking the culmination of a long process by which Protestant privileges had been gradually withdrawn. Very soon large numbers of Huguenots, among them some of the country's wealthiest, most industrious citizens, emigrated to Germany, Holland, England, and America.[29]
The Jesuit Order also used the Inquisition to further persecute Protestants in Catholic lands. But, not only did Jesuit persecution of Protestants increase, so did their influence over kings, as William Cathcart remarks, “At one period they were the spiritual directors of nearly all Catholic monarchs, and as a result had boundless influence over governments and nations.”[30] Eventually, even the Roman Catholic monarchs in Europe could not stand the intrigue and the immoral carrying-on’s of the Jesuits, so in the 18th and 19th century the Jesuit order was systematically expelled from many European nations such as in 1759 in Portugal, 1762 in France, 1767 in Spain and Naples, and in 1820 in Russia.[31] The most dramatic expulsion was when in 1773 Pope Clement XIV officially suppressed the order.[32] Soon after this Pope Clement died of poisoning.[33] Cathcart comments on the state of the Jesuits during the late 18th and early 19th century stating that, “When the Jesuits fell by the pen of Clement, they had 22,782 members scattered over the world. On the 7th of August 1814, Pius VII reestablished the Society of Jesus according to its ancient rules.”[34] As we can see from there founding a few hundred years prior, the Jesuits had grown in number and spread all over the known world. To their spread, influence and activities outside of Europe we now turn.
In describing the establishment of New France in North America, Sydney Ahlstrom comments that, “not a cape was turned nor a river entered but a Jesuit led the way.”[35] Throughout the New World in both North and South America the Jesuits exerted a large influence. A stunning example of this is seen in the territory of New Spain in South America in the Jesuits’ Reductions in Paraguay. When the Jesuits arrived on the shores of South America, they portrayed themselves as very kind and loving to the indigenous peoples who had been so ravaged by the Spanish.[36] As they spread throughout the region gaining proselytes, they focused their energies specifically on the fertile plains of Paraguay.[37] Here they established their base of operations and started to gather the indigenous people into neatly arranged towns in which they, the Jesuits were sovereigns.[38] They taught the people, in these towns called Reductions, how to cultivate the land, as well as different artisan skills.[39] They trained them for military service and taught them the rudimentary elements of the superstitious Roman Catholic faith.[40] Yet there was a real catch to all of this for the indigenous people. The Jesuits fixed strict hours of work and play as well as curfews which if violated resulted in public corporeal punishment.[41] All of the produce was gathered into storehouses and evenly distributed to each person, everyone was dressed similarity and the only property each person owned was the small plot of land outside their homes.[42] Without the permission of the Jesuits, no one could leave the Reduction and no outsider could come in.[43] Does this not sound eerily familiar to us in the modern world? Nicolini makes this revealing analysis of the situation that the Jesuits created when he says, “In fact, their form of a republic was nothing else than that Communism . . .the only difference being, that the Jesuits substituted themselves for the state or community.”[44] These Jesuit Reductions were also implemented in North America as well.[45]
As the Jesuit influence grew in the New World just as it did in Europe, it was also met with those who disdained their creeds and deeds. This is seen in two examples from two Presidents of the United States of America. The second President of the U.S.A, John Adams, had this to say about the Jesuit Order,
I do not like the reappearance of the Jesuits…. Shall we not have regular swarms of them here, in as many disguises as only a king of the gipsies can assume, dressed as printers, publishers, writers and schoolmasters? If ever there was a body of men who merited damnation on earth and in Hell, it is this society of Loyola’s. Nevertheless, we are compelled by our system of religious toleration to offer them an asylum.[46]
This same sentiment was shared by the 16th President of the U.S.A, Abraham Lincoln, who stated that,
The Protestants of both the North and South would surely unite to exterminate the priests and the Jesuits . . . which daily land on our shores, under the pretext of preaching their religion . . . are nothing else but the emissaries of the Pope, of Napoleon III, and the other despots of Europe, to undermine our institutions, alienate the hearts of our people from our constitution, and our laws, destroy our schools, and prepare a reign of anarchy here as they have done in Ireland, in Mexico, in Spain, and wherever there are any people who want to be free. [47]
This sentiment no doubt was felt by Lincoln even more acutely when had received word that Pope Pius IX had sent a letter to Jefferson Davis in support for the South’s cause in the Civil War.[48]
Much more could be said about the Jesuit Order’s other dealings in China, England and Japan, where their activities caused the whole Japanese people to be closed off to Christianity for centuries, but that is beyond the scope of this paper. So, we now turn to the distinguishing doctrines and teachings that Jesuit scholars and priests released into the world and are still being believed and propagated among us.
The first two doctrines that we will examine that were produced by Jesuit scholars, and then subsequently adopted by others, are Preterism and Futurism. Preterism is the view that the majority of the book of Revelation was fulfilled during the 1st century. This interpretation of Revelation was popularized by the Spanish Jesuit Luis Alcazar during the 17th century by his work entitled Investigation of the Hidden Sense of the Apocalypse.[49] During this time virtually the whole of Protestantism had interpreted the book of Revelation with the historicist view which sees Revelation symbolically laying out church history until the 2nd coming of Christ. Within this view the Papacy was identified as the Antichrist and the Whore of Babylon. However, within the Preterist view that Alcazar advocated, the 1st century Roman Emperor Nero was the Antichrist, and not the Papacy.
Since Alcazar’s treatise was released, this view has made inroads into the Protestant world. First it was picked up by German rationalists in the 18th and 19th century and then it was popularized in America by the work of Moses Stuart.[50] In the 20th and 21st centuries in America the view has grown even more popular and has found its way into the Churches of Christ and even into some Reformed circles, especially those of the Reconstructionist persuasion.[51]
The Futurist view, which was produced by the Jesuit theologian Francisco Ribera in 1585 in his work entitled In Sacrum Beati Ioannis Apostoli, & Evangelistiae Apocalypsin Commentari, takes the other extreme in interpreting the book of Revelation.[52] He sees the majority of the book of Revelation being fulfilled in a future period that lasts 3 ½ years. Ribera interpreted the Antichrist to be a man who arrives on the stage of history in its final hours and deceives many and rules the whole world for a short time.
This view of eschatology has also found its way into the Protestant world. It has been mixed in with Dispensationalism and from the 19th century until our present day it has ascended to be the dominant majority position amongst evangelicals all over the world. Once again, the historical Protestant view of the Papacy being the Antichrist is countered with this teaching.
The third doctrine we will examine that was produced by Jesuits is that of Molinism. This teaching was introduced by two Jesuit theologians, Pedro da Fonseca (1528-1599) and Luis de Molina (1535-1600)[53], hence why it is termed “Molinism.” Molinism is an attempt to find a middle way between God’s sovereignty and human free will. It does this by proposing that God has three types of knowledge, they are natural knowledge, middle knowledge and free knowledge.[54] These terms are defined as follows,
Natural Knowledge: God’s knowledge of all possible worlds. The content of this knowledge is essential to God. Middle Knowledge: God’s knowledge of what every possible free creature would do under any possible set of circumstances and, hence, knowledge of those possible worlds which God can make actual. The content of this knowledge is not essential to God ... Free Knowledge: God’s knowledge of the actual world. The content of this knowledge is not essential to God.[55]
Middle knowledge is the key to Molinism, and it is used to preserve man’s libertarian free will.[56] Matt Slick summarizes the teaching with this statement, “it is the position that God knows what a person would have been like and done in different situations. Based on this knowledge God then creates a world that best expresses his ultimate desires.”[57] In the end Molinism mitigates against the Reformed doctrines of total inability/depravity and limited atonement, and really even unconditional election and irresistible grace. It still keeps alive the Arminian and Roman Catholic view of man. As with the other doctrines stated above, Molinism has made inroads into evangelical circles and in our present context it is supported and taught by evangelicals like Ken Keathley and William Lane Craig.[58]
The fourth peculiar doctrinal teaching that comes from a Jesuit theologian is that of the spiritual evolution of man. The 20th century French man Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was that Jesuit theologian.[59] He coined the term “Omega Point” which was his teaching that all of creation is evolving and spiraling towards divine unification.[60] In his book Christianity and Evolution, Teilhard goes on to teach that, “What I am proposing to do is to narrow that gap between pantheism and Christianity by bringing out what one might call the Christian soul of pantheism or the pantheist aspect of Christianity.”[61] He also states, “Now I realize that, on the model of the incarnate God whom Christianity reveals to me, I can be saved only by becoming one with the universe. Thereby, too, my deepest ‘pantheist’ aspirations are satisfied.”[62] Teilhard also speaks of a cosmic Christ or a “universal Christ” when in the same book he remarks, “I believe that the Messiah whom we await, whom we all without any doubt await, is the universal Christ; that is to say, the Christ of evolution.”[63] Teilhard has been called the father of the New Age movement, and justifiably so as his teaching falls neatly in line with so much of what we see today in New Age circles. For instance, when he says, “a religion of the future (definable as a “religion of evolution”) cannot fail to appear before long: a new mysticism, the germ of which (as it happens when anything is born) must be recognizable somewhere in our environment, here and now.”[64] Teilhard also proclaims in his book The Phenomenon of Man that “The outcome of the world, the gates of the future, the entry of the super-human...will open only to an advance of all together, in a direction in which all together can join and find completion in a spiritual renovation of the earth.”[65] This all together advance is of course an advance towards the Omega Point where all of creation will arrive to a unified cosmic conscience brought in by a cosmic Christ. Again, Teilhard lays out his vision for the future, “A general convergence of religions upon a universal Christ who fundamentally satisfies them all: that seems to me the only possible conversion of the world, and the only form in which a religion of the future can be conceived.”[66] Just as with the other teachings, so too this teaching from Teilhard has influenced evangelicals in our day. Nearly half of professing evangelicals in America believe that God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.[67] Michael de Semlyen adds this observation concerning the advance of the New Age Movement,
The New Age Movement is undoubtedly advancing on many fronts, not at least in the Church which ‘will not endure sound doctrine…having itching ears’. Many Christians have drunk deep drafts of New Age potions; for example….hypnosis, yoga, inner healing, meditation, psychical research and awareness training; and many have imbedded new doctrines and heresies, based on the humanistic and positive thinking of Teilhard, Norman Vincent Peale and others.[68]
The last two Jesuitical doctrines we will look at both converge at the Second Vatican Council in 1962. These are the teachings of Liberation Theology and Ecumenism/Interfaith pluralism. Ecumenism is “a movement that promotes worldwide unity among all religions through greater cooperation.”[69] Ecumenism was introduced at the Second Vatican Council by a man named Karl Rahner. Karl Rahner was a German Jesuit priest, and it is argued that he is one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century.[70] Rahner was one of the architects of Vatican II and he was known for his ability to put philosophy and theology into dialogue.[71] Rahner devolved the category of “Anonymous Christianity” which teaches that
On the one hand, God’s salvific will is universal . . . Yet, on the other hand, the Catholic tradition holds a belief that salvation is possible only through faith in Jesus Christ and the membership into the Church . . . this conflict is solvable through the notions of the “supernatural existential,” as the condition for all persons in their transcendentality to receive God’s grace and “universal-transcendental revelation,” which becomes God’s self-communication to all people as transcendent beings. . .those who do not confess Jesus Christ explicitly and do not become members of the Catholic Church, “must have the possibility of a genuine saving relation with God” (Rahner 1993, 54) and therefore they are called “anonymous Christians.”[72]
This teaching not only allows for the salvation of others from non-Christian religions, it even allows for the salvation of atheists, as Rahner said, “Some kind of faith in God is basically there, whether they know it or not . . . They are a part of a Christianity that does not call itself Christianity . . . 'pagans' who have received grace, but who are not aware of it.”[73]
With this teaching in hand, the Second Vatican Council came out with The Decree on Ecumenism, which calls for the unification of all Christian Churches.[74] This type of thinking is also reflected in the World Council of Churches in which the Roman Catholic church and different Protestant churches are members. This ecumenical spirit coming out of Vatican II has influenced many Protestants and has eroded the distinctions between Catholics and Protestants.[75] This spirit was also on full display during the “Together 2016” event held in Washington D.C. and in the document, “From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017.”[76] This doctrine of Ecumenism is also propagated by the current Pope[77], Pope Francis I, who is himself a Jesuit.[78] He has even gone so far as to sign the Document on Human Fraternity with Muslim Imams.[79]
The last doctrine that was at least partially produced and then fully endorsed by the Jesuits is that of Liberation theology. 20th century Jesuit theologians Jon Sobrino[80] and Juan Luis Segundo[81] were architects in this theology. Segundo viewed theology not as an academic profession but as a revolutionary activity.[82] And this can be seen in the essential teaching of Liberation theology. At its core Liberation theology sees man’s social needs has his greatest need.[83] It teaches that the church must give preference to the poor and seek to liberate them from their socio-economic circumstances.[84] This is done by the church attempting to bring about social and political change and ultimately aligning itself with the working class.[85] Basically all theology should be done through the lenses of the poor.[86] Liberation theology has of coursed been critiqued for being very close to Marxism and Socialism.[87] It is also associated with the current social justice movement. And that term, social justice, was interestingly enough coined by a 19th century Italian Jesuit named Luigi Taperelli d’Azeglio in his work A Theoretical Treatise on Natural Law Resting on Fact.[88] Though Liberation Theology started in South America it has spread throughout the world and morphed into the forms of black liberation theology and feminist liberation theology, which introduces new groups, outside of the poor, as the oppressed that must be liberated from their oppressors.[89]
This teaching of Liberation Theology, like Ecumenism, was also promoted and advanced in the Second Vatican Council and subsequently endorsed by the current Pope, Pope Francis, as we can see from this quote,
The Jesuits were important actors in the Catholic Church in the 1960s when changes in Catholicism occurred before and after the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). The members of the Society of Jesus were active participants in movements calling for the “inculturation” of Christianity and the “liberation theology” coming from the Third World, two sides of the same process of globalization of Catholicism. It is from this time onward that the center of gravity moved away from Rome to South America, Asia, and Africa. The Jesuits also participated in the transition from a triumphant church to a church based on service to the poor. This is the social, cultural, and theological background in which the future pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope, spent the early years of his ecclesiastical career.[90]
Liberation Theology has also crept into the evangelical church, especially in America, were the current Social Justice movement mirrors much of what is found in Liberation Theology.
As we come to the end of our study, we can see the truly astounding magnitude of the impact that the Jesuit Order has had not only on the Church, but also on the world. What we have seen is just but a survey of the history of the actions, teachings and influence of the Jesuits, much more could be said. In this writer’s humble opinion, the Counter Reformation never really ended. It has lived on in the disciples of Ignatius de Loyola, the Jesuit Order. And as one looks around, the Counter Reformation has sadly been a stunning success, especially here in the West. One could easily apply these words from a Scotsman in England to America when he says,
The Ecumenical movement which you praise is the greatest disaster to affect the Christian Church this century. It has reduced the professing churches of this country to a collection of bloodless spineless and boneless organizations, which can hardly raise a whimper on the side of Christ and His truth. Small wonder that evil progresses as it does, and spiritual darkness becomes more intense as the years go by. You appear to regard a body of professing Christians, of sober conduct, and deep spirituality of mind, as fanatical and bigoted. If this be so then the eminent men of God, such as John Knox in Scotland, John Calvin and Martin Luther on the Continent, and Archbishop Cranmer in England were bigots in their contests, with errors of Popery. We are glad to be is such company.[91]
The Protestant, evangelical church of the West is confused, divided and seduced by strange doctrines, many of which come straight out of the Society of Jesus. Yet, when asked about the Counter Reformation or the Jesuit Order, most Protestants would not be able to tell you much about either, if they even know what they are in the first place, and this is half the battle. We need to know our history, and our lack of knowledge of history truly handicaps us. The Counter Reformation is not over, and neither should the Reformation be either. As Protestants in the West have rested on their oars, their enemies have been hard at work, never ceasing to undermine and undue the progress of the sons of the Reformation. But though her enemies surround her, the true Church of Jesus Christ will never fail, for her Savior and Lord has promised “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).
[1] “Counter Reformation” Date Accessed January 8, 2021, Euston, https://www.euston96.com/en/counter-reformation/.
[2]“What was the Counter Reformation?” Date accessed January 8th, 2021, Got Questions, https://www.gotquestions.org/Counter-Reformation.html.
[3] G. B. Nicolini, History of the Jesuits: Their Origins, Progress, Doctrines, and Designs (London, UK: George Bell and Sons, 1879), 10-13.
[4] Ibid, 15.
[5] J. A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism (London, UK: Cassell Peter & Galpin), 384.
[6] Ibid, 385.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid, 16.
[9] Ibid, 22-26.
[10] Ibid, 24-27.
[11] Ibid, 28.
[12]“Founding of the Jesuits”, Date accessed. January 8th, 2021, Jesuits in Ireland, https://www.jesuit.ie/who-are-the-jesuits/jesuit-history/founding-jesuits/.
[13] G. B. Nicolini, History of the Jesuits: Their Origins, Progress, Doctrines, and Designs (London, UK: George Bell and Sons, 1879), 28.
[14] J. A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism (London, UK: Cassell Peter & Galpin), 387.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid, 388.
[17] Ibid, 388-389.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid, 394.
[20] “Probabilism”, Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/probabilism.
[21]J. A Wylie, The History of Protestantism (London, UK: Cassell Peter & Galpin), 395-396.
[22] G.B. Nicolini, History of the Jesuits: Their Origin, Progress, Doctrine, and Design (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854): v.
[23] John W. Padberg, The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norm (St. Louis, MO: The Institute of Jesuit Resources, 1996), 56-215.
[24] J. A Wylie, The History of Protestantism (London, UK: Cassell Peter & Galpin), 392.
[25] Ibid, 392-393.
[26] John W. Padberg, The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norm (St. Louis, MO: The Institute of Jesuit Resources, 1996), 277-307.
[27] Ibid, 308-310.
[28] William Cathcart, The Papal System (Philadelphia, P.A: Cathcart and Turner, 1872), 460.
[29] Samuel E. Waldron, HT13 Lecture Notes, (Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary, Owensboro KY) 77.
[30] William Cathcart, The Papal System (Philadelphia, P.A: Cathcart and Turner, 1872), 458.
[31] Ibid, 461.
[32] Ibid, 462.
[33] Ibid.
[34] Ibid, 463.
[35] Samuel E. Waldron, HT13 Lecture Notes, (Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary, Owensboro KY) 77.
[36]G. B. Nicolini, History of the Jesuits: Their Origins, Progress, Doctrines, and Designs (London, UK: George Bell and Sons, 1879), 300.
[37] Ibid, 300-301.
[38] Ibid, 301-302.
[39] Ibid, 302-303.
[40] Ibid, 305.
[41] Ibid, 304.
[42] Ibid.
[43] Ibid, 305.
[44] Ibid, 303.
[45]Jamie Shepard, “Nineteenth Century Jesuit Reductions in the United States”, Date Accessed, January 8th, 2021, D’Arcy McNickle, Library, https://library.skc.edu/nineteenth-century-jesuit-reductions-in-the-united-states-2/.
[46] Andrew Garofalo, “Lessons from the Jesuits: Being Merciful Soldiers”, Date Accessed, January 8th, 2021, Catholic Exchange, https://catholicexchange.com/lessons-from-the-jesuits-being-merciful-soldiers.
[47] Charles Chiniquy, Fifty Years in the Church of Rome (Kindle Edition, 2010), 553.
[48] Michael de Semlyen, All Roads Lead To Rome? (Gerrards Cross, UK: Dorchester House Publications, 1993), 132.
[49] Thomas Ice, “A History of Preterism” Date accessed January 8th, 202, Israel My Glory, https://israelmyglory.org/article/a-history-of-preterism/.
[50] Ibid.
[51] Ibid.
[52] “The Catholic Counter-Reformation And The Development Of Futurism” Date accessed January 8th, 2021, Reason and Religion, https://reasonandreligion.org/index.php/counter-reformation-futurism/.
[53] Paul Helm, “Molinism 101” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Ligonier Ministries, https://www.ligonier.org/blog/molinism-101/.
[54] Samuel E. Waldron, ST23 Lecture Notes, Lecture 32 (Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary, Owensboro KY), 2.
[55] Ibid.
[56] Matt Slick, “Molinism” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, CARM, https://carm.org/dictionary/molinism/.
[57] Ibid.
[58] Samuel E. Waldron, ST23 Lecture Notes, Lecture 32 (Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary, Owensboro KY), 5.
[59] “Pierre Teilhard de Chardin” Date accessed January 8th, 2021, Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pierre-Teilhard-de-Chardin.
[60] “What is Omega Point?” Date accessed January 8th, 2021, Spiritual Life, https://slife.org/omega-point/.
[61]“Father of the New Age Movement” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin – on List of “40 Influential Christian Books” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Lighthouse Trail Research, https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=27983.
[62] Ibid.
[63] Ibid.
[64] Warren B. Smith, “Evangelicals and New Agers Together”, Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, New Age to Amazing Grace, https://www.newagetoamazinggrace.com/evangelicals-and-new-agers-together.html.
[65] David Cloud, “Pierre Teilhard de Chardin” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Way of Life Literature, https://www.wayoflife.org/reports/pierre_teihard_de_chardin.html.
[66] Warren B. Smith, “Evangelicals and New Agers Together”, Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, New Age to Amazing Grace, https://www.newagetoamazinggrace.com/evangelicals-and-new-agers-together.html.
[67] “The State of Theology” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, https://thestateoftheology.com/.
[68] Michael de Semlyen, All Roads Lead To Rome? (Gerrards Cross, UK: Dorchester House Publications, 1993), 98.
[69] “Is ecumenism biblical?” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Got Questions, https://www.gotquestions.org/ecumenism-ecumenical.html.
[70] Guy Woodward, “Karl Rahner (1904-1984)” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://iep.utm.edu/rahner/.
[71] “Karl Rahner (1904-1984)” Date accessed. January 8th, 2021, Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Western Theology, http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/bce/rahner.htm.
[72] Ibid.
[73] John Vennari, “Karl Rahner’s Girlfriend” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Free Republic, https://freerepublic.com/focus/religion/1126324/posts.
[74] “Decree on Ecumenism”, Date accessed January 8th, 2021, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19641121_unitatis-redintegratio_en.html.
[75] “US Catholics and Protestants agree: 500 years after Reformation, they have more in common than not” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Religion News Service, https://religionnews.com/2017/08/31/us-catholics-and-protestants-agree-500-years-after-reformation-they-have-more-in-common-than-not/.
[76] Charlotte Hays, “After Five Centuries of Division, Catholics and Lutherans Consider Their Common Heritage”, Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, National Catholic Register, https://www.ncregister.com/news/after-five-centuries-of-division-catholics-and-lutherans-consider-their-common-heritage.
[77] Christopher Wells, “Pope renews ecumenical commitment on anniversary of Ut unum sint" Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Vatican News, https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-05/pope-renews-ecumenical-commitment-on-anniversary-of-ut-unum-sint.html.
[78] Matt Stefon, “Francis” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-I-pope.
[79] Christopher Wells, “Pope: Peace document born of faith in God, the Father of Peace” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Vatican News, https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-02/pope-francis-uae-press-inflight-press-conference.html.
[80] John Dear, “With John Sobrino at the SOA protest”, Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, National Catholic Reporter, https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/jon-sobrino-soa-protest.
[81]Kenneth Leech, “Liberating Theology: The Thought of Juan Luis Segundo” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Sage Journals, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0040571X8108400404.
[82] Ibid.
[83] “What is Liberation Theology?” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Got Questions, https://www.gotquestions.org/liberation-theology.html.
[84] Ibid.
[85] Ibid.
[86] Ibid.
[87] Ibid.
[88] Gene M. Van Son “Conservatism and Social Justice” Date accessed January 8th, 2021, American Thinker, https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2013/12/conservatism_and_social_justice.html#ixzz3njgbJx1k.
[89] “What is Liberation Theology?” Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Got Questions, https://www.gotquestions.org/liberation-theology.html.
[90] Frederic Gugelot, “A Jesuit Way of Being Global?: Second Vatican Council, Inculturation, and Liberation Theology”, Date accessed, January 8th, 2021, Oxford Handbooks Online, https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190639631.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190639631-e-37.
[91] Michael de Semlyen, All Roads Lead To Rome? (Gerrards Cross, UK: Dorchester House Publications, 1993),175.
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Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Ignatius_of_Loyola_(1491-1556)_Founder_of_the_Jesuits.jpg