{"id":124,"date":"2011-03-25T15:55:23","date_gmt":"2011-03-25T14:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/schoolofsalamanca\/?p=124"},"modified":"2011-03-28T10:10:17","modified_gmt":"2011-03-28T08:10:17","slug":"called-to-peaceful-evangelization-a-new-book-on-las-casas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/schoolofsalamanca\/2011\/03\/25\/called-to-peaceful-evangelization-a-new-book-on-las-casas\/","title":{"rendered":"Called to peaceful evangelization: a new book on Las Casas"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day in Madrid I had the chance to drop by the bookstore of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient\u00edficas near\u00a0the Prado museum. A division of Spain’s government, the CSIC has an excellent record of publishing Spanish translations of original Latin works\u00a0pertaining to\u00a0Spanish debates concerning the New World. Among the older generation of titles, some of which are still in publication, are the books belonging to the Corpus Hispanorum de Pace series. Important writings of Vitoria, Las Casas, Pe\u00f1a, Jos\u00e9 de Acosta, and Alonso de la\u00a0Vera Cruz on the questions of just war, evangelization,\u00a0political authority, and Amerindian religion all belong to this series. Each of these books\u00a0contains\u00a0helpful essays authored by\u00a0late scholars such as\u00a0Luciano Pere\u00f1a Vicente and Vidal Abril\u00a0Castell\u00f3,\u00a0who situate these writings in the sixteenth-century historical context and official crown policy.<\/p>\n

The CSIC also publishes stand-alone works written by contemporary scholars on this period. One that immediately grabbed my attention was Llamado a la misi\u00f3n pac\u00edfica: la dimensi\u00f3n religiosa de la libertad en Bartolom\u00e9 de las Casas <\/em>(Called to Peaceful Evanglization: The Religious Dimension of Freedom in Bartolom\u00e9 de las Casas) written by Ram\u00f3n Valdivia Gim\u00e9nez. It was released in 2010 and is published in conjunction with the University of Sevilla. The author is\u00a0a priest from Sevilla who wrote this work as\u00a0an extension of his\u00a0dissertation. As far as I know, it is the first major Spanish publication on Las Casas to make full use of the release of his Obras completas<\/em> published\u00a0by Alianza Editorial. The book\u00a0follows in the footsteps of\u00a0two previous studies on Las Casas, Ram\u00f3n Queralt\u00f3 Moreno’s El pensamiento filos\u00f3fico-politico en Bartolom\u00e9 de las Casas<\/em> and Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez’s En busca de los pobres de Jesucristo<\/em>, by\u00a0focusing on the\u00a0philosophical and theological\u00a0arguments of both\u00a0his defense of the Amerindians and the religious right of Christians to proselytize while remaining distinct and novel\u00a0in its analysis.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The book has nine chapters that are organized into three different sections. I have provided an outline of the book below:<\/p>\n

Part\u00a0One\u00a0–\u00a0Foundations of the Religious Dimension of Freedom in Las\u00a0Casas\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chapter One. Basic\u00a0Principles<\/em> (This\u00a0chapter offers a brief bio of Las Casas’ life and highlights\u00a0the philosophical, theological, and juristic genres of discourse he employs in his writings. It concludes with\u00a0 an overview of the trends of\u00a0twentieth-century\u00a0Las Casas\u00a0scholarship)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chapter Two. Philosophical and theological sources<\/em>\u00a0(This chapter considers\u00a0the major\u00a0philosophical and theological sources of Las Casas’ thought that includes Aristotle, Cicero, Scripture, Augustine, Aquinas, Renaissance humanism, and the\u00a0School of Salamanca)<\/p>\n

Chapter Three.\u00a0Legal sources<\/em> (This chapter, which is far too brief, considers some of the legal terminology that Las Casas employs in his\u00a0articulation of the religious dimension of freedom)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Part Two – The Heretical Violation of Christian Freedom<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chapter Four.\u00a0From\u00a0fantasy to the\u00a0human person:\u00a0Lascasian anthropology<\/em>\u00a0(This chapter situates Las Casas’ anthropology alongside that of\u00a0his greatest opponent who rejected the political and religious freedom of the Amerindians, Sep\u00falveda. It also offers\u00a0important reflection\u00a0on John Mair’s discussion of enslavement and the question of African slavery in Las Casas)<\/p>\n

Chapter Five. From oppression to self-government: Lascasian politics <\/em>(This chapter is a deeper engagement and Las Casas’ critique of the secularization of power in Sep\u00falveda’s humanist politics that claims the Spanish authority of the Amerindians on the basis of moral and religious superiority)<\/p>\n

Chapter Six. From coercion to freedom: the philosophy of mission in Las Casas<\/em> (This chapter begins with the contrary methods of evangelization presented between Las Casas and the Franciscan Toribio Motolin\u00eda and later Sep\u00falveda. The primary aim of this chapter ties together the point of the second part of the book: that Las Casas’ ethic of evangelization and toleration of Amerindian religious practices is neither an argument for\u00a0cultural relativism nor religious indifferentism, but a strong commitment to the necessity of preaching the Gospel)<\/p>\n

Part Three – Conscience, Freedom, and Alterity: Trajectories of Lascasian Mission<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chapter Seven. The irruption of conscience<\/em> (This chapter engages more of the contemporary scholarship on the historical question of Spanish conquest by examining to what extent histories,\u00a0like Tzvetan Todorov’s,\u00a0have been exaggerated to make the conquest appear as a genocide. The author seeks a more balanced approach that recognizes the Crown’s attempt to wrestle with its own conscience and the role of the Dominicans,\u00a0beginning with Montesinos,\u00a0in this process. One of the central\u00a0issues of this call of conscience had to do with the freedom to accept baptism as a basis for peaceful evangelization. The author shows precisely how the position of the Spanish Dominicans informed, albeit in a limited way, both ecclesiastical and\u00a0imperial policy)<\/p>\n

Chapter Eight. The recognition of freedom<\/em> (This chapter, similar to Guti\u00e9rrez’s book, presents a historical overview of the ecclesiastical position on freedom in religious matters by charting a development from the idea of freedom of the Church to religious toleration to religious freedom. Rather than working anachronistically, the author speaks of Las Casas’s position\u00a0not in terms of religious freedom but as his thesis suggests–an advocate of the religious dimension of freedom. Nevertheless, the author places Las Casas in the context of twentieth-century discussions of religious freedom from both secular and Christian\u00a0perspectives thereby highlighting his lasting\u00a0contribution\u00a0to this issue)<\/p>\n

Chapter Nine. The acceptance of otherness <\/em>(This chapter concludes the work by focusing on what is definitive of Las Casas’s approach to the\u00a0issues of freedom and evangelization. That is, his ability to\u00a0defend the freedom of Amerindians as well as the freedom to preach, all the while he performs a reflexive critique of violent religious practices\u00a0of both the indigeneous and the Spanish. The chapter beautifully highlights the task of inculturation in Las Casas that is so often spoken of these days by showing\u00a0what Enrique Dussel has referred to as the\u00a0“trans-modern” dimension of his thinking and action)<\/p>\n

That does it for the outline. This book, which needs to be translated into English eventually, marks the beginning of a new generation of Las Casas studies that, I believe,\u00a0has learned\u00a0from the past century to move beyond the Las Casas versus School of Salamanca impasse. On the eve of commemorating five hundred years since his conversion, the coming century looks bright for relating this hopeful\u00a0story that belongs to all Christians as it does to all humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day in Madrid I had the chance to drop by the bookstore of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient\u00edficas near\u00a0the Prado museum. A division of Spain’s government, the CSIC has an excellent record of publishing Spanish translations of original Latin works\u00a0pertaining to\u00a0Spanish debates concerning the New World. Among the older generation of titles, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":236,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/schoolofsalamanca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/schoolofsalamanca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/schoolofsalamanca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/schoolofsalamanca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/236"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/schoolofsalamanca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/schoolofsalamanca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/schoolofsalamanca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/schoolofsalamanca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/schoolofsalamanca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/schoolofsalamanca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}