In the forward of this book, Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, SJ, president of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar, offers a succinct summary when he writes that “the Society of Jesus was born from a place of vulnerability or lameness, but grew doggedly through multiple encounters in time and space to attain a solid and successful global missionary footprint. That is the genius of the Jesuit ethos – never one thing but a fascinating spiritual and social specimen of creative fidelity to the past and audacious pilgrimage toward the future.”

Enyegue writes this book from the perspective of the Central African culture from which he came. Such a history, the forward notes, might be the first of such by an African (thus its originality), in a context of shifting demographics in the Church and the Society of Jesus, and questions about the identity of its institution and mission. This book chronicles the establishment of the Jesuit ethos, from the story of a limping saint, to the formation of a global order, to the new mission of the Society resulting in its suppression and restoration, and finally to its crowning achievement: that of a Jesuit Pope.

The “secret” of the Jesuits, according to the book, is simply God. That is, Ignatius sometimes seemed to see in the “smallness” of the Society the metaphor of the divine seed. The “little” Society may well have become great and have under its branches thousands of Jesuits working in hundreds of works; but it was to remain “little” because it should never be an end in itself. It was this “secret” that served as the condition of possibility for the interculturality of the Society, and thus for its universal claim. 

Enyegue spends a fair amount of time explaining how the Society resituated virtue and holiness at the heart of the Society’s ministries so as to evangelize Africa and Asia. At the same time, he chronicles the reasons behind the suppression of the order and its eventual restoration. Finally, Enyegue describes with great joy the election of Jorge Bergoglio, SJ, the first Jesuit in history, as the new Roman Pontiff, who indicated that it was necessary to return the Church to the poor. Enyegue finishes by saying that “the history of the Society is above all that of an institution that is spiritual before it is social. This is its ethos; this is also the key to interpreting its history.” For historical devotees of the Jesuits, this book is a must read.