Title: Loyola's acts
First published: 1997
Description: In this revisionist study of the Acta of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus and a major figure of the Counterreformation, Marjorie O'Rourke Boyle argues that the text - revered by the Jesuits as his autobiography and considered a literal, documentary account - is, rather, epideictic rhetoric, an exemplary mirror of vainglory.

Written in the tradition of renaissance studies on individualism, Loyola's Acts offers a powerful heuristic for interpreting a wide range of texts within the Christian tradition from the patristic to the baroque ages. Boyle's secular treatment of a canonized saint offers revealing insight into how a prestigious sixteenth-century figure like Loyola understood himself.

Thus, Loyola's text becomes a fascinating window through which Boyle interprets and illuminates renaissance culture, rhetoric, and spirituality.
Subjects: Biography, Christian saints, Renaissance Rhetoric, Rhetoric, Renaissance, Autobiographies as Topic, Biografie, Saints, Autobiografieën, Jesuiten, Autobiografía (Ignatius, of Loyola, Saint), Retorica, 11.54 Roman Catholicism, Ignatius, of loyola, saint, 1491-1556, Rhetoric
Places: Spain
People: Ignatius of Loyola, Saint (1491-1556)
LC classification: BX4700.L7 A3 1997