Natural and Political Conceptions of Community: The Role of the Household Society in Early Modern Jesuit Thought, c.1590–1650. Christoph Philipp Haar. Jesuit Studies: Modernity through the Prism of Jesuit History 17. Leiden: Brill, 2019. viii + 314 pp. $158

According to Harr, “the household community was firmly located on the horizon of Jesuit thought on natural and political conceptions of community” (276). Based on his various contentions, Haar thus sums up his thesis: “the Jesuits sought to combine political right based on contract . . . with the general, or legal justice that produced a stable, peaceful community and that represented a standard by which to measure the community's legitimacy” (279). [...]in addition to discussing the views of leading Jesuit voices of the period such as Suárez and Molina, Haar has broadened our understanding by incorporating into his study the writings and insights of a number of lesser-known but important Jesuit theorists. [...]it contributes to our considerably expanding knowledge of the early Society of Jesus and its intellectual and pastoral impact.