Natural and Political Conceptions of Community

Book excerpt: In Natural and Political Conceptions of Community, Christoph Haar examines the role of the household community in Jesuit political thought. Introducing a fresh perspective on the early modern Jesuit academic discourse, the book explores how leading Jesuit thinkers drew on their theologically inspired conceptions of the family community to determine the usefulness as well as the limitations of the political realm. Natural and Political Conceptions of Community is about the place of the household in Scholastic theoretical works. The book demonstrates that Jesuits considered the human being as a household being when they determined the origin and purpose of the political community, producing a notion of politics that integrated their account of human nature with the sphere of law, rights, and virtues.