The Jesuit ideal

First off, let me say that I was severely let down by the ending of the book. Russell spends almost 400 pages building up to The Huge Reveal!!! but it turns out to be a huge letdown. Not only was the actual plot kind of weak (the reason Emilio kills Askama is... random coincidence!), but Russell's presentation is a serious anticlimax to a well-written, intense buildup - not to belittle rape, but it's pretty obvious, given his character, that Emilio's "prostitution" is involuntary, and while the circumstances are interesting, Russell portrays them in a clinical way that contrasts strongly with her earlier intensity - to the scene's detriment.

But this isn't a blog for a literary class!

I was very interested in Russell's portrayal of the Jesuit Society. She gives the impression of an ancient organization with timeless motivations - to the Jesuits, the mission to Rakhat is just another in a long history of missions to new worlds. Her Jesuit characters are selflessly motivated - Emilio just wants to make the world (worlds?) a better place, the Father General just wants to help Emilio, and even Voelker is trying to do the best thing for all of humanity.

Her priests aren't even particularly dogmatic. No one on the mission even attempts to convert Sofia - or even discuss theology with her in any depth. At various times, the Jesuits in The Sparrow refer to celibacy, the priesthood, and even belief in God as a fluid, subjective thing that works for some people at certain times. Jesus isn't much of a focus. Their attitudes are liberal, accepting, and passive.

Now, I'm not familiar with any branch of Catholicism, but Russell's priests seem to follow the Unitarian Universalist principle of encouraging and supporting each individual to find their personal spirituality (whatever that might be), rather than the usual Christian dogma that there is only one right way. Emilio and the others tend to find their faith in everyday labors, rather than prayer or supplication.

It's all very John Paul II, and differs greatly from the attitudes of Jesuit priests in Shogun, a favorite fiction of mine that follows a shipwrecked sailor through Japan around the year 1600. In this novel, the Jesuits are ambiguous characters, making morally questionable decisions in order to obtain political power in Japan. They are very different from Russell's scientific, data-first-religion-later priests.

I am skeptical not of the presence of Russell's open-minded, accepting priests that embody everything that true Christians (or true whatevers) are supposed to be. Certainly these people exist, even if they are generally overshadowed in the public consiousness by pushy, prejudiced Christians (an issue explored nicely in the latest arc of the comic Something Positive, the storyline starting here). No one criticizes the Jesuit mission for bringing back no information about faith on Rakhat, and for explaining no element of Catholicism to either the Runa or the Jana'ata. Perhaps it's merely a characteristic of the Jesuit Society, or at least Russell's fictional Society, to be more interested in academic study of new peoples than in religious conversion. But I find it improbable.

What does everyone think about the portrayal of a religious society where priests focus less on theology and more on faith, morals, and academia?