Introduction

This issue of the Rocznik Filozoficzny Ignatianum is devoted to the contribution of the Polish Jesuit Tomasz Dunin Szpot (1644/45–1713) to the study of Jesuit missions in China, as documented in his principal manuscript works preserved in the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu in Rome. The volume opens with an article by Marek Inglot SJ devoted to the early development of the Society of Jesus in the context of its initial missionary orientation, as expressed in the Formula Instituti (1540) and further developed in the Constitutions. The author demonstrates that the key features of the order – availability, mobility, and the universal character of its mission – were already present in the vision of Ignatius of Loyola and his first companions. The article also examines the formation of a global apostolic project based on obedience to the pope, as well as the development of ad gentes missions and educational institutions that shaped Jesuit activity in the early modern period.