Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe Volume 27 Issue 2 Article 6 5-2007 Murzaku's "Catholicism, Culture, Conversion: The History of the Jesuits in Albania (1841-1946)" - Book Review Dermot Quinn Seton Hall University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree Part of the Catholic Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Eastern European Studies Commons Recommended Citation Quinn, Dermot (2007) "Murzaku's "Catholicism, Culture, Conversion: The History of the Jesuits in Albania (1841-1946)" - Book Review," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 27 : Iss. 2 , Article 6. Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol27/iss2/6 This Article, Exploration, or Report is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. BOOKREVlEW lnes Murzak:u, Catholicism, Culture, Conversion: The Hist01y of the Jesuits in Albania (1841-1946) [Orientalia Christiana Analecta 277, Pontificio lnstituo Orientale, Rome, 2006], pp. 280, index, appendix. Reviewed by Dennot Quinn. One of the best books ever written about the Balkans - one of the best books about any remote, far-flung, treacherous region of Europe - is Edith Durham's High Albania, published in 1913 and a collector's item ever since. What Rebecca West did for Yugoslavia before the Second World War, Durham did for Albania before the First. She was an outsider looking in, captivated and amazed by the harsh integrity of the place where historical memories were long and tempers short, where vendetta was a way of life (and death), where a religion of peace - Christianity in the fonn of cheerful and ebullient Franciscan missionaries - stntggled to contain a deeper tradition of war.