Province News

New Book by Fr. Charlie Ronan, SJ
Thursday, March 21, 2002

Fr. Charlie Ronan, SJ, is the author of the new book Juan Ignacio Molina: The world’s Window on Chile
Fr. Charlie Ronan, SJ, has recently published and completed Juan Ignacio Molina: The world’s Window on Chile. Fr Ronan’s new book, which will be distributed as part of Series 9 of American University Studies in History, is a biography of the Chilean Jesuit, Juan Ignacio Molina.

Molina, who lived from 1740 to 1829, was a historian, naturalist, and author. He wrote Storia Naturale del Chili and Storia Civile del Chili. Fr. Molina spent most of his life in Bolonga, Italy, after the Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish Empire in 1767. Until his death he remained an ardent defender of the Americas and regularly challenged the false writings of writers like Corneille de Pauw and William Robertson.

In addition to this book, Fr. Ronan has authored the biography of the Mexican Jesuit, Francisco Javier Clavigero, and co-edited Jesuit Encounters on the New World: Jesuit Chroniclers, Geographers, Educators, and Missionaries in the Americas, 1549-1767, and East Meets West: The Jesuits in China, 1582-1773. He has also contributed to a number of historical and scholarly journals.

The book is available at Peter Lang Publishing Group