Jesuit missionary pedagogy in the New Kingdom of Granada. The development of popular missions in the visit of Diego Francisco de Altamirano (1688-1696)

Abstract

This article intends to review some of the pastoral strategies deployed by some members of the Society of Jesus during the development of the so-called popular missions, in Spain of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and how they were reflected in the american sphere, from the analysis of a specific case located in the viceroyalty of Nuevo Granada. It is intended to account of the missionary methodology through the management carried out by the jesuit Diego Francisco de Altamirano as visitor of the province of New Granada, between 1688 and 1696, a period in which his provincial visit took place. We start from a more general argument, focused on the spiritual objectives of the Society during the modern period, which consisted in the indoctrination and re-affirmation of the doctrine among urban societies. Thanks to the revision of a series of instructions written by the jesuit Altamirano, some conclusions may be offered concerning the execution of the missionary enterprise in the territories of the New World.