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Heterosexual Melancholia and Mysticism in the Early Society of Jesus

jmarin{at}hds.harvard.edu

In the last decades of the sixteenth century the Society of Jesus prohibited its members the reading of several mystical texts. A theme that cuts across these texts is the use of erotic language to describe the relationship between the soul and God. I argue that what lies behind the prohibition is the fear that desire, especially homoerotic desire, would be a threat to Jesuit identity. I use Judith Butler’s concept of heterosexual melancholia to illuminate this episode in Jesuit history.

Key Words: Jesuits • heterosexual melancholia • spirituality

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