Fashioning the Soul in Colonial Río de la Plata: Religious Education in the Guaraní Missions, 1609–1768

A 1705 Guaraní translation of Juan Eusebio Nieremberg’s On the Difference between the Temporal and Eternal reveals advanced Jesuit spiritual formation techniques in the Río de la Plata missions, targeting both elite Indigenous readers and illiterate populations. The text, accompanied by engravings, demonstrates how Jesuits adapted Ignatian spiritual exercises to foster Guaraní-Christian subjectivity while integrating Indigenous concepts of the soul, language, dreams, and song into their educational framework. This rare linguistic and cultural adaptation provides evidence of sophisticated religious pedagogy in colonial missions, bridging Jesuit doctrine with Guaraní cosmological traditions.

Huffine, K. (2022). Fashioning the Soul in Colonial Río de la Plata: Religious Education in the Guaraní Missions, 1609–1768. Ethnohistory, 69(4), 429–449. https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-9881233