Liberation Theologies | Bibliography | Early Tradition
CHAPTER 2: The Early Tradition of Liberation
The Early Church to the Renaissance
50. Boff, Leonardo. Saint Francis. A Model for Human Liberation. John W. Diercksmeier, trans. New York: Crossroad/Continuum, 1982.
Not so much a biography as a spiritual portrait of the liberated person and an extended meditation on certain basic Franciscan themes. These include Francis as a model of gentleness and care; the preferential option for the poor; Francis’ life of liberation: his emphasis on an integral of the human, both body and spirit; Francis’ contribution to a church of the poor and “base” as the people of God; and Francis as the symbol of the individuated, whole person who integrates both the positive and negative, the opposites of eros and pathos, life and death, and the acceptance of life’s contradictions with a tenderness and communion with nature that overturns consumerist materialism and rationality.
51. Hoornaert, Eduardo. The Memory of the Christian People. Robert R. Barr, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.
This is a history of the early church from the viewpoint of liberation theology, away from the standard “Eusebian” model, as Hoornaert calls it, of a steady triumphalist march toward Christian domination, and toward a history from below, one that can be used as a model for the base Christian communities of today. Hoornaert draws upon what he calls the lost traditions of the Christian people, though he uses many standard texts, well-known to students of the period, including the apocrypha, the Syrian Didache, the Apostolic Constitutions and the Shepherd of Hermas. Among Hoornaert’s heros are Tertullian, Justin Martyr, and Ignatius of Antioch.
Christian marginalization and its theology of the margin was fundamental to the first three centuries, but these factors were lost, sometimes deliberately, in a church in awe of Roman structures and rapidly converting to the successful discourses of Hellenism. In so doing the simple, ethical and political message of Christianity’s Judaic roots was lost on the official level, while the very many valuable aspects of late ancient paganism: a concern for health, family, land, peace were swept under the rug of an increasingly legalistic religion.
A valuable and original approach well founded on the sources and secondary materials.
52. Kee, Alistair. Constantine Versus Christ. The Triumph of Ideology. London: SCM, 1982.
This is an examination of Constantine and his rule from the viewpoint of Political theology and in an attempt to close the divide between the secular and the religious in our contemporary, as well as in our historical, analyses. Topics include the religion of Constantine, his religious policy, and his ideology, all in an attempt to explain the roots of Christianity’s current marriage to political ideologies.
53. Lesbaupin, Ivo. Blessed Are the Persecuted. Christianity in the Roman Empire, A.D. 64-313. Robert R. Barr, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.
This is an interpretation of martyrdom and persecution from the perspective of liberation theology. The author surveys the persecutions of Christians by the Roman Empire, the causes, and Roman legislation. He then treats Christian organization designed to sustain these persecutions on structural, physical and spiritual levels. The most important chapters of the book deal with a theology of persecution and a reading of Revelations for a contemporary audience, designed to offer hope amid persecution.
54. Rowland, Christopher. Radical Christianity. A Reading of Recovery. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.
Examines Christianity’s “foundation documents” in the New Testament in the light of liberation theology. Themes range from the hidden messiah, the prophetic and protest traditions to Christian apocalyptism. Christianity has always demonstrated its ability to call for and bring about radical transformations in social and political systems. This book illustrates this through Western history from its biblical roots in Jewish messianism and Christian expectations of the Kingdom, through the Apocalypse, medieval apocalyptism, including Joachim of Fiore and the Spiritual Franciscans, the Protestants, including Thomas Münzer and Winstanley, and concluding with Brazil, Nicaragua, and South Africa. Interesting survey. Good, unannotated, bibliography.
55. Troeltsch, Ernst. The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches. Olive Wyon, trans. New York: Harper & Row, 1960.
An historical survey of the development of Christian ethics, stemming from the same tradition as Niebuhr’s (40), that saw Christian ethics as essentially quietist. Cogently argued and researched, this is an excellent and fundamental work in the quietist tradition that has influenced so many Catholics and Christians throughout the world.
The Colonial Period
56. Bataillon, Marcel. Erasme et l’Espagne. Paris: Droz, 1937.
Traces Erasmus’ influence on the Spanish humanists, discusses translations of his works, and follows his persecution and condemnation by Spanish ecclesiastics of the Counter Reformation. Useful for tracing his influence through the Humanists and the court of Cardinal Ximénez to the missionary orders, including the Franciscans and Dominicans whom the crown sent out to evangelize and protect the native Americans.
57. Dussel, Enrique. A History of the Church in Latin America: Colonialism to Liberation 1492-1979. 3rd ed. Alan Neely, trans. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1981.
The best historical background for the development of Catholic peacemaking and liberation in Latin America. But Dussel’s book is more than this. It is a theology of liberation written through history, with careful attention to historical fact and accuracy, for only through the “praxis” of history can the church fully appreciate the meaning of liberation.
The book’s four parts include a hermeneutical introduction on the theology of domination and liberation; Latin American culture, and relations between church and culture; Christendom in the West Indies from 1492 to 1808, which covers both chronological narrative and thematic analysis of evangelization; the neocolonial period from 1808 to 1962 examined from historical, structuralist-institutional, social, cultural, and theological viewpoints; and finally a survey of the church and Latin American liberation from 1962 to 1979, including a description of recent events: the national security state, violence, bourgeois elites and the masses, the church’s evolution in councils and in praxis, and the theological significance of these events.
Dussel’s work is often difficult for the nontheologian, all the more so since liberation theology depends so much on drawing its data from the living world of Catholic practice and application to real social and political conditions. The reader is thus often faced with interpretive schematizations of the events narrated that compel reevaluation of accepted methods of viewing Latin America and its history. Nonetheless, the result is well worth the effort. Dussel’s historical processes are dialogues between world views that have not yet ended, not Marxist dialectical confrontations between classes or economic systems that must end in the victory of one or the other. His analysis of pre-Columbian cultures pinpoints the truly devastating effect of the Spanish conquest and lays the groundwork for understanding all further European efforts either to conquer or convert and protect the native Americans. He also reminds the reader of the limitations of the Spanish culture that came to dominate the region: its authoritarianism; its feudal concepts of land, work, and personal relations; and the cultural shock inflicted on the native Americans by Spanish technology, society, and theological universe.
Along with Dussel’s analyses comes a continuous narrative of Catholic efforts at liberation from the time of Antonio de Montesinos through the career of Bartolomé de Las Casas (65 to 81), the Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians, the New Laws and the New Law bishops, reform church councils that attempted to redress the atrocities of the conquistadors and emphasize the Christian nature of the conversion process. Dussel claims that Las Casas and these other clerics are the true fountainhead of liberation theology: their efforts to protect the native Americans and to restore to them their human dignity is based directly on the Gospels and the Old Testament books of liberation and prophetic protest.
Dussel’s major theme for the neocolonial period is the struggle between the church and the colonial aristocracy over the survival of the feudal patronato, the system under which the native Americans had been subjected to a feudal serfdom worse than slavery. In this light Dussel cites the efforts of the Jesuits and the other missionary orders. Despite the decadence of the Bourbon period (1700-1808) and its legacy of deserted missions, accommodation, and an ensuing anticlericalism, Dussel stresses that an active lay spirituality survived and made new strides in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While this was not always in keeping with strict Tridentine orthodoxy, it did lay the groundwork for the activist approach of Latin America’s peoples and gave rise to liberation theology as understood today.
58. —. History and Theology of Liberation. A Latin American Perspective. John Drury, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1976.
Essentially a distillation of much of his History of the Church but with the emphasis on the larger theological schema rather than on historical narrative.
59. Goodpasture, H. McKennie, ed. Cross and Sword. An Eyewitness Account of Christianity in Latin America. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989.
Documents range from Columbus to the 1980s. Pages 14-27 include selections from Las Casas, Motolinía, Pedro de Gant (Peter of Ghent), and de Sahagun. Other chapters include texts on the Jesuit reduciones and on base ecclesial communities in Nicaragua today. Useful introductory materials.
60. Hanke, Lewis. The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1949.
Two factors inherent in the Spanish colonial system helped establish a basis for the struggle for peace and justice in the New World. Spanish legal formality thoroughly saturated every aspect of Spanish European and colonial life far beyond the legal fiction of the requerimiento used as a pretext for aggressive wars of conquest. A widespread freedom of speech was also encouraged by the Spanish monarchy, within the bounds of religious orthodoxy, and open discussion and movement of news from America was a vital aspect of Spanish policy.
There were, therefore, elements of Spanish culture that worked in favor of Bartolomé de Las Casas and the other missionary workers for peace and justice in the New World. From Montesinos on a series of denunciations of Spanish colonial leadership was not only voiced heroically in America, but also faithfully transmitted and reported to the Spanish court. This made possible the commissions of inquiry that followed up charges made in the letters and writings of the missionaries. The open and often heated debates that these reports produced resulted in the Laws of Burgos, the New Laws, the appointment of the New Law bishops to implement royal reform decrees, and the termination of many of the most onerous of the Spanish colonial oppressions.
Hanke details the workings of an entire “Indian lobby” at the Hapsburg court that did much to persuade Charles V, and Philip II later, to check the greed and brutality of the colonial aristocracy. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this combination of legalism and free speech was the Valladolid debate between Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda in 1550/51 over the basic human rights and nature of the Americans. The debate was decided in Las Casas’ favor and resulted in the Royal Council’s openly questioning the justice of wars against the native Americans and, ironically, the banning of Sepúlveda’s views in Spain. A basic work in the area.
61. Latourette, Kenneth Scott. Three Centuries of Advances, A.D. 1500-A.D. 1800. New York: Harper & Row, 1939. Vol. 3 of History of the Expansion of Christianity. 7 vols. New York: Harper & Row, 1937-1945. Reprint, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1976.
This remains the best single work on missionary activities in the early modern period. This volume surveys the general movement of missionary activity and details the lives of many of the most important missionaries and peacemakers in the Americas and what is now the Third World. These include Bartolomé de Las Casas (65–81), the Jesuits and the Flemish Franciscans in Mexico and California, Luis Cancer de Barbastro in Florida, Alfonso Sandoval and Pedro Claver in Colombia, Francis Xavier in the Orient, Robert de Nobili in India, and Diego de Herrera and Domingo de Salazar in the Philippines. Very useful reference material.
62. Muldoon, James. Popes, Lawyers and Infidels. The Church and the Non-Christian World 1250-1550. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979.
Pages 8-24 review Las Casas’ attack on the legal fiction of the requerimiento that underpined the entire Spanish conquest as a just war.
63. Neill, Stephen. A History of Christian Missions. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1964.
Pages 140-449 trace the early modern missions of the Catholic church, among others, from Nicholas V’s Romanus pontifex in 1454, through the bulls of demarcation of Alexander VI and the activities of the missionary orders in the New and Third Worlds. Surveys the lives of Francis Xavier and the Japan missionaries and martyrs and traces the progress of the Jesuit and Ursuline missions in Canada. Neill sets the Latin American missions in the context of Spanish genocide, the encomienda system, and the missionary peacemakers who campaigned to stop them. These include Antonio de Montesinos, Bartolomé de Las Casas, and Bishop Zumárraga of Mexico. Neill also traces the reaction against the creation of an indigenous clergy under Gregory XIII and in a series of councils in the New World through the sixteenth century.
By the time of Francesco Ingoli’s tenure over the Propaganda, however, the church had again begun to move away from the political domination of the colonial powers and to insist on peaceful persuasion as the chief means of conversion. Later chapters provide useful background material for Catholic missions into the twentieth century. The researcher needs to remember that these missions were, almost without exception, nonviolent attempts to spread Christianity and to protect non-Europeans from the exploitation of their colonial masters. Good background for the foundations of liberation theology as a fundamentally Christian response. At times, especially on pages 140-240, his account seems to rely heavily on Latourette. See 61.
64. Santa Ana, Julio de, ed. Separation Without Hope? Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1980.
The subtitle reads, “Essays on the Relation Between the Church and the Poor During the Industrial Revolution and the Western Colonial Expansion.” Contributors include André Biéler, John Kent, Julio Barreiro, Sam M. Kobia, among others. Much of the thrust of this collection focuses on the negative impact of Christianity as a force of Western imperialism or on the churches as bulwarks of the established order.
Bartolomé de Las Casas
65. Fernandez, Manuel Gimenez. “Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas: A Biographical Sketch.” See 67, pp. 67-125.
A useful survey of his life and the main issues and events that shaped it, with careful attention to chronology. Fernandez reminds us of Las Casas’ connection with Adrian of Utrecht, Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros, and others of Erasmus’ circle at the Spanish court. He thus sets Las Casas’ work for peace and justice in the New World within the context of Spanish court politics and the rivalries of the various religious orders conducting missions in America. The article also discusses papal efforts to defend native Americans.
66. Friede, Juan. “Las Casas and Indigenism in the Sixteenth Century.” See 67, pp. 127-234.
Friede summarizes much of his theory that the actions of Las Casas and other defenders of the native Americans stemmed as much from economic self-interest as from any morality. Las Casas’ efforts grew out of the need to organize the new colonies both politically and economically and to protect the work force put at the friars’ disposal by their “reforms.”
67. Friede, Juan and Benjamin Keen, eds. Bartolomé de Las Casas in History. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1971.
An excellent collection of essays by prominent scholars of the Spanish conquest and early colonial period. Includes 65, 66, 73, and 80.
68. Hanke, Lewis. All Mankind Is One. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1974.
Studies the debate between Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, a Jesuit theologian and opponent of Erasmus, held in the presence of the royal Spanish court at the palace at Valladolid in 1550/51. The debate centered on Sepúlveda’s adherence to the Aristotelian view that all barbarians, i.e. non-Europeans, were naturally inferior and thus just objects for conquest and enslavement, being less truly human than “civilized” peoples. Las Casas’ arguments for the God-given equality of all peoples and against the injustice of the Spanish conquest won the day and resulted in important reforms of the colonial administration. This book is of fundamental importance for the study of Las Casas and other colonial forbearers of liberation theology. An excellent bibliography.
69. —. Aristotle and the American Indians. London: Hollis & Carter, 1959.
Focuses on the Valladolid debate of 1550/51 between Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. Hanke traces the sources of Sepúlveda’s theory and contrasts them to the words and actions of many Catholic missionaries in the New World, such as Juan de Zumárraga and Motolinía, whose strong condemnations of Spanish exploitation implicitly bore a rebuttal of Aristotle’s theory and helped develop the traditions that have led to liberation theology.
70. —. Bartolomé de Las Casas. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1951.
This is still the best single volume available for an introduction to Las Casas. Hanke divides his study into three parts: Las Casas’ struggle for justice during the Spanish conquest; his achievement as a political theorist and historian, analyzing his writings and their impact; and Las Casas as an anthropologist, that is, his attempts to understand the culture of the native Americans and to translate the message of Christianity into a form they could accept and adopt.
71. —. Bartolomé de Las Casas, Bookman, Scholar and Propagandist. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952.
On his work as a historian and apologist for the native Americans.
72. —. Spanish Struggle.
See 60, passim.
73. Keen, Benjamin. “Approaches to Las Casas, 1535-1970. ” See 67, pp. 3-63.
On historiography. Las Casas himself was a major source of the “Black Legend” of Spanish atrocity and injustice in the New World. His accounts made vivid reading and effective propaganda against the Catholic Monarchy when used by Protestant reformers and later Dutch rebels and English competitors. At the same time, these external attacks helped reduce Las Casas’ popularity in Spain, as he began to be seen as a turncoat. In the Enlightenment, however, he again became a hero of humanity against the forces of violence and injustice. In revolutionary Europe sentiment for him was so strong that a movement was launched to have him canonized, while he became the nemesis of conservatives and reactionaries. Keen sums up American opinion and then warns that there is a real danger of a “White Legend” growing up around Las Casas and his associates that over-stresses their efforts for peace and justice and leads us to ignore the grim reality behind the “Black Legend.”
74. Las Casas, Bartolomé de. Apologetic History. In Lewis Hanke, trans. and ed. All The Peoples of the World Are Men. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 1970.
Hanke’s title refers to the debate within Spain as to whether the native Americans were even human beings. He traces Las Casas’ evolving notions of universal kinship and human rights, first in defense of the native Americans and, later, in defense of the freedom of black slaves. Hanke concludes that Las Casas’ message is in exactly the same spirit as that of John XXIII’s Pacem in Terris. See 104.
75. —. A Collection of His Writings. George Sanderlin, ed. New York: Knopf, 1971.
Not seen.
76. —. The Devastation of the Indies. A Brief Account. Herma Briffault, trans. New York: Seabury Press, 1974.
Here is the chief source of the “Black Legend,” the history of Spanish genocide in the New World. While historians may question Las Casas’ statistics of the number of native Americans actually killed by the Spanish, his record of war, massacre, atrocity, abuses of basic human rights, torture, and enslavement are more vivid than anything until the Holocaust. The book caused a sensation and immediate royal investigations into the conduct of their colonial empire in the New World. It has been used as a weapon against the Spanish and Catholic treatment of native Americans ever since. Las Casas’ goal was quite different, however: to awaken the consciences of his compatriots to the grim reality behind their new-found wealth and empire. In this regard it looks forward to such contemporary works as Penny Lernoux’s Cry of the People. See 389.
77. —. History of the Indies. Andrée Collard, trans. and ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
Las Casas was among the first generation of New World colonists, and his first-hand sources go back to the voyages of Columbus, which he also recalled. His work is thus a fundamental source for the period of discovery and conquest. More than this, however, it is Las Casas’ narrative of the struggle of the missionary peacemakers, including himself at center stage, for peace and justice in America. Much of what we know of this struggle comes from Las Casas, but his account seems reliable on most points. A good English edition.
78. —. In Defense of the Indians. Stafford Poole, C. M., trans. and ed. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1974.
Las Casas’ examination of native American culture, its importance and its dignity, and its right to be protected against the depredations of the Spanish conquerors.
79. —. Las Casas as a Bishop. A New Interpretation. Helen Rand Parish, trans. and ed. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1980.
This is an edition and a facsimile of a newly discovered autograph letter of Las Casas (Kraus MS 139), written to Charles V in 1543. It contains the newly appointed bishop’s “program” for his work on nonviolent conversion among the native Americans of Chiapas. Las Casas’ proposals include nonviolence, strengthening the ecclesiastical arm and protectorate over the Indians, and the promotion of a new type of colonization: by small farmers who will live in peace side by side with the native population. The letter also demonstrates Las Casas’ attempt to use the penitential system of the confessional to force restitution to the natives. An excellent edition that confirms Las Casas’ hopes of liberating the Amerindians from the grasp of the conquistadors.
80. Losada, Angel. “The Controversy between Sepúlveda and Las Casas in the Junta of Valladolid.” See 67, pp. 279-307.
Among the issues debated were Sepúlveda’s contention that Aristotle and the Old Testament had stressed the difference between Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian. Traces Las Casas’ successful rebuttals.
81. Wagner, Henry Raup, and Helen Rand Parish. The Life and Writings of Bartolomé de Las Casas. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1967.
A new biography based on extensive reexamination of the primary documents. Contains a “Narrative and Critical Catalogue” of La Casas’ works.
Individual Mission Areas
82. Burrus, Ernest J., ed. and trans. The Writings of Alonso de la Vera Cruz. The Original Texts with English Translation. 5 vols. Rome and St. Louis, MO: Jesuit Historical Institute, 1968-1976.
De la Vera Cruz was a lawyer at Salamanca who left Spain in 1536 to join the Augustinian mission in Mexico. He quickly became a strong defender of native American rights against the conquistadors, emphasizing their God-given human rights and allying with Las Casas to fight for justice. While Vera Cruz was far more moderate in his defense than Las Casas, between 1562 and 1573 he was able to use his position at the Spanish court to protect the rights of both American and Philippine peoples.
Burrus is an acknowledged expert on Vera Cruz and on the entire issue of the role of the missionaries in fostering peace and justice during the colonial period. Here he presents the results of his exhaustive editing and translation project in five volumes of facing Latin (and some Spanish) with English translation. Vol. 1 contains Sermons and Letters, 2 the Defense of the Indians. Their Rights, 3 a facsimile of the tract with index, 4 Defense of the Indians. Their Privileges, and 5 Letters and Reports. Vera Cruz’ theological arguments on behalf of the indigenous populations went hand in hand with Las Casas’ Humanist, historical approach. His work, while infused with his Scholastic philosophical and theological categories and forms of discourse, looks forward to the liberation theologians of the twentieth century. Each volume contains an excellent bibliography.
83. Caraman, Philip. The Lost Paradise. The Jesuit Republic in South America. New York: Seabury Press, 1976.
The historical background to the film, The Mission, and a fascinating account of the Jesuit attempt in what is now modern Paraguay to save their native American converts from the depredations of conquistadors and slave traders. After failing at attempts at itinerant missions, the Jesuits accepted a commission from Philip II to convert the native Americans by nonviolent means, without exploitation. They proceeded to set up a colonial state, a series of reducciones complete with secular and religious institutions: church, schools, hospitals, courts, and – eventually – a strong military force that kept aggressors at bay in a series of bloody battles. They combined this with journeys to the colonial capitals to preach against the injustices of the Spanish regime or to liberate prisoners from Brazilian slave traders.
Ultimately, however, the Jesuit experiment was a failure. Their paternalistic control provided the Americans with little skill in self-government or ability to resist colonial exploitation. “Liberation” was an independence defined and maintained from the top down and thus unsuccessful. In the end the reducciones melted away into the forests. This is fascinating adventure reading combined with sobering lessons in the nature of political and cultural liberation.
84. Deck, Allan F. Francisco Javier Alegre. A Study in Mexican Literary Criticism. Rome: Jesuit Historical Institute, 1977.
Alegre was one of the expatriate Mexican Jesuits who carried on a running criticism of Latin American tyranny from the salons of Enlightenment Europe. His works helped build the foundations for the political liberation of the region. While Deck does not deal explicitly with Alegre’s criticisms of Spanish colonial rule and his enlightened Humanism, he does provide some biographical and intellectual background and a thorough and useful bibliography.
85. Ennis, Arthur, O.S.A. Fray Alonso de la Vera Cruz, O.S.A. (1507-1584). A Study of His Life and Contribution to the Religious and Intellectual Affairs of Early Mexico. Louvain: Augustiniana, 1957.
A good introduction, largely supplanted by Burrus (see 82).
86. Fogel, Daniel. Junipero Serra. The Vatican and Enslavement Theology. San Francisco: ISM Press, 1988.
This is a work that sets history in the service of polemic. At issue is the impending canonization of Serra at the instigation of John Paul II. John Paul’s assertion that Serra, and his fellow missionaries, defended Indian rights against the depredations of their fellow Spanish, and his use as an exemplar of tradition and obedience, is enough for Fogel to realize that Serra must, indeed, be of the same camp as the current Vatican reactionaries.
The book then traces the development of Christology in early Christianity, the Spanish crusade ideal, and the politics of sanctification. Fogel then reviews Serra’s missionary life, the native Americans of California, and the impact of European colonization.
We next segue to John Paul II’s attack on liberation theology and the “counter-reformation” elsewhere (120) dealt with in far greater detail. Since Serra has been befriended by John Paul II, he is obviously guilty by association. The Franciscan missionary is finally made the enemy of gay and lesbian liberation, women’s theology, and liberation theology. A sketchy bibliography.
87. Geiger, Maynard, O.F.M. Franciscan Missionaries in Hispanic California 1769-1848. A Biographical Dictionary. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1969.
The Spanish missionaries in California were adventurous heroes committed to nonviolent conversion. Their lives gripped the popular imagination of New Spain and provided a counterbalance to the tales of the conquistadors. Geiger’s book provides a useful reference guide to the lives of many of these adventurers.
88. Kennedy, J. H. Jesuit and Savage in New France. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950.
The Jesuit mission in Canada was a marriage of the order’s thorough grounding in Christian humanism and its members’ willingness to acculturate to the languages, customs, and poverty of the Americans. Despite this intellectual preparation, however, the Canadian mission was still an act of martyrdom, both in the conditions imposed on these Europeans and in their physical deaths, which the Jesuits saw as an imitation of Christ. For the Jesuits the New World offered the opportunity to return to the first centuries of the church, to opt for the poverty and suffering of the first age, among a people morally and intellectually equal to the Europeans but untouched by the centuries of religious decline. A study of the Jesuits’ early history in the Americas will remind the reader that recent martyrdoms in Central America are not unique or new for the order.
89. McNaspy, C. J., S.J. Conquistador without Sword. The Life of Roque Gonzalez, S.J. Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1984.
On the most important founder of the Jesuit reduciones in Paraguay.
90. —. and Jose Maria Blanch, S.J. Lost Cities of Paraguay. Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1982.
A history of the Jesuit reducciones of Paraguay.
91. Phelan, John Leddy. The Millennial Kingdom of the Franciscans in the New World. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press; London: Cambridge University Press, 1956; revised, 1970.
Focuses on the life and often contradictory thought of Geronimo de Mendietta, O.F.M. (1525-1604), a Spanish missionary in Mexico. Mendietta’s life is as interesting for his theories as for the missions that grew out of them. Through Mendietta’s own Historia eclesiatica indiana (Ecclesiastical History of the Indies) and his biography by Juan de Torquemada, O.F.M. it emerges that Mendietta saw the Spanish Empire as the universal millennial kingdom of the last days that would bring all the peoples of the world to Christianity. While much of his historical thought derived directly from the apocalyptic Joachimism of Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros and his Franciscan circle, Mendietta agreed with Sepúlveda and other just-war theorists in seeing war as a valid means of bringing this universal monarchy about. He saw the Spanish conquest in the light of the Old Testament wars of the Israelites and Cortes as a new Moses.
If the time of Cortes was the Golden Age of the New World, one of unspoiled purity that was close to the life of the primitive church, Mendietta’s own age was closer to the apocalyptic time of troubles that preceded the coming of the New Jerusalem. His own Franciscan Order had pointed the way to the restoration of the primitive church, and the native Americans were the true children of this age in their poverty, simplicity, and humility. Yet the Franciscans had therefore to protect them from the moral pollution and greed of their European overlords. In order to guarantee their “evangelical liberty” the Franciscans would therefore have to reeducate the native Americans to form their own commonwealth. Mendietta thus opposed any policy that would force the Hispanization of indigenous peoples and stressed that existing social and cultural structures that did not clash with Christianity must be retained.
While he was therefore very much a man of his times in accepting the role of force in the conquest of the New World, he looked forward to some aspects of liberation theology in stressing that the Hispanization of Latin America did not equal its Christianization, and that, in fact, it might be the very opposite. He thus, paradoxically, opposed all efforts to force them to conform to Spanish institutions, including the encomienda.
Phelan’s work is remarkable both for its early appreciation of the role of Joachimite prophesy in the religious thought of the time and in his discernment of a theology of liberation at work in colonial Latin America.
92. Ricard, Robert. The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico. An Essay on the Apostolate and Evangelizing Methods of the Mendicant Orders in New Spain, 1523-1572. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1966.
While the special emphasis of the mendicants – Franciscans, Dominicans, Hieronymites, and Augustinians – in converting the New World may have differed somewhat from order to order, their basic outlook was essentially the same: the creation of a safe refuge for both body and soul from exploitation and brutality, education to create a native elite, instruction in new trades and crafts, a religious cycle and liturgy that would build on the remnants of pre-Columbian practice and world view. The mendicants hoped that these methods of nonviolent persuasion would attract the Americans to the Christian life with a deep-rooted appreciation for its truths. While paternalistic, their theological outlook contains many of the elements of today’s liberation theology.
93. Ronan, Charles E. Francisco Javier Clavijero, S.J. (1731-1787), Figure of the Mexican Enlightenment. Rome: Institutum Historicum; Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1977.
Clavijero was another of the Mexican emigré intellectuals who carried on a campaign against the political and cultural tyranny of late colonial Latin America. His Ancient History of Mexico picks up where Las Casas left off, combining a deep understanding of pre-Columbian civilization with criticism of the Spanish conquest. His ultimate goal was to show native American culture and individual status as the equal of the European and so press for full human rights in the New World.
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