Category / European Christianity

by daviddawson462742281

Supersessionism and Indigenization in Iberian Christendom, pt 2

The Symbiotic Relationship that Fueled Iberian Colonialism

Catholicism and European economic interests had been closely linked since the beginning of the early modern period. Portugal coupled religion and politics to sustain their conquests during its period of overseas expansion in South America, Africa, and Asia (Rivett, 2014). In the 16th century, the Spanish church was one of the largest in Europe, and obtaining clerical office increased the fortunes of the oligarchs who lived off the sale of jurisdictions, noble titles, unfarmed lands, rents, and municipal taxes (Yun-Casalilla, 2019). The Austrian and Spanish branches of the Habsburg monarchs were traditionally close, but there was increasing doubt among policymakers in Madrid regarding the value of the Viennese connection (Storrs, 2006). The Spanish Habsburgs began to see their foreign allies as “self-seeking and unreliable” (Storrs, 2006). At times the Austrian Hapsburgs used the church as an outlet for the expansion of their power, despite opposition from the Spanish Crown. Thus, the church was increasingly turned into an institution linked to economic power struggles (Yun-Casalilla, 2019). 

The Iberian colonies in the Americas were an essential part of the rise of ecclesiastical institutions which received streams of donations. These resources were not primarily designated from church coffers but solicited from the faithful based on a religious rationale for colonization (Yun-Casalilla, 2019p. 184). It was an enormous territory but the church expanded quickly through religious orders such as the Dominicans, Franciscans, Hieronymites, and Jesuits most of all. In 1543, the Spanish Crown gained complete power to establish episcopal jurisdictions in their colonies and eventually to control ecclesiastical appointments. The spiritual capital and prestige of both the Spanish Crown and the Catholic church mutually benefited from this partnership. In particular, the identification of the church as a bastion against Protestantism moved the Catholic faithful to contribute to things like the Crusades. The Spanish Hapsburgs imposed a confessional character upon their dominions, based on being heirs to both the empire of Charlemagne and their liberation of the Iberian peninsula from the Moors (Yun-Casalilla). 

In Spain and Portugal, the occupation of high ecclesiastical positions legitimized the ruling elites more than in any other European states (Yun-Casalilla, 2019). This moral economy produced Spanish and Portuguese exceptionalism. The Spanish nobility became the “hierarchical center of the European Catholic nobility and its marital market”. Whereas the Protestant lands after the thirty years war saw the progressive fragmentation of their part of Christendom into a variety of churches, the Catholic lands remained united under the pontificate of Rome (Yun-Casalilla, 2019).

The Portuguese and Spanish societies were exceptional in their social ability to “reproduce their political structures” (Yun-Casalilla, 2019), which depended on Iberian Catholicism. The Church was an integral part of the heart of the Iberian monarchies, it “served not only to justify empires but also the system for the transfer and mobilization of fiscal and military resources”. Whereas religious fractures led to alternative forms of the state in England and the Netherlands, religious orthodoxy in Iberian kingdoms remained fundamental, providing the framework “for the forms of allocation of productive resources” (Yun-Casalilla, 2019). 

As colonial societies developed, important changes in ecclesiastical organization occurred in the Americas, the zone of greatest Spanish presence. These colonies became full of parishes, ecclesiastical councils, and archbishoprics to which important sources of income were allocated in the form of land, tithes, and even industries. Organizations of Catholic laity such as charitable foundations, piety projects, and confraternities were influential, in addition to the expansion of religious orders (Yun-Casalilla, 2019). 

These power structures were modeled on Iberian society and were a force against the indigenization of American Catholicism (Yun-Casalilla, 2019). But at the same time traditional indigenous beliefs were mixed with Catholic practice to a high degree. And it was religions’ link to the mainstream population that gave it it’s “stabilizing power upon the social system”. The church was key in creating and sustaining social order amid great internal differences. Thus, Iberian Catholicism in the Americas had the double-boosting effects of a strong colonizer infrastructure coupled with much incorporation of indigenous beliefs (Yun-Casalilla, 2019). 

The Emergent Clerical Order – Fervency and Contextualization

In a theoretical sense, the fervor of Spanish missions to the Americas came from Counter Reformation ideology out of Rome. But in a practical sense the zealous nature of these missions drew from eight centuries of warfare and struggle to reconquer the Iberian Peninsula from Islamic invaders, i.e., La Reconquista (Hsia, 2017). As a result of this conflict, Spanish Catholicism became more radicalized in its religious fervor, becoming less tolerant and more focused on orthodoxy and reform. And the concern for orthodoxy went beyond Jews and Arabs, the clergy were also under pressure due to prevalent laxity (Hsia, 2017). 

Church leadership was divided into regular clergy and the secular clergy, the former are members of a religious order who live according to a rule while the latter are priests living in the general society (Louth, 2022). In general, the secular clergy focused on administering the religious life of the Spanish colonists and the regular clergy engaged the task of evangelizing the natives (Hsia, 2017). While the secular clergy answered to the Crown, the regular clergy answered to Rome. During the reconquest, the regular clergy had become an important force in re-evangelizing territories. The first Spanish missionaries to the Americas were characterized by a vision of evangelism that emphasized “austerity, simplicity, and a preach-by-your-works ideology”. Many embraced millenarian eschatological views that believed the evangelization of the indigenous peoples of the Americas would usher in Christ’s return. Over time, the regular clergy became privileged and powerful. This generating competition with the secular clergy, who would eventually affirm their dominance during the colonial period (Hsia, 2017). 

The members of the religious orders, friars, had planned to groom natives to be trained as clergy for the task of evangelization. Their strategy was to begin with the elites so that these in turn would influence the general population (Hsia, 2017). But the result was not exactly what the friars wanted, the population was evangelized but the result was a Catholicism mixed with indigenous beliefs and practices. The focal point for the work of the friars was the missionary schools where small books with pictures were used to catechize the illiterate. The instruction method of the early years has been described as “an eclectic tapestry of images, song, and oral mediums”. The missionary schools taught natives in different groups with different instruction according to their class in indigenous culture. The native elites received training preparing them to teach their fellow natives, take confession, do administrative tasks, and preach (p. 29). These native church workers and also helped teach their language to the friars. In sum, it can be said that for the native population the experience of Catholicism was predominantly native not Spanish (Hsia, 2017).

Although initially controversial, eventually the translation of Scripture and liturgical texts into native languages was embraced and thrived (Hsia, 2017). Regions where translation and distribution of sacred literature didn’t occur saw inferior church growth. Other regions saw growth spurred using printing presses to distribute literature. Indeed, “The printing press played a key role in the Counter Reformation for both Protestants and Catholics in educating their respective folds. In Spain and its American colonies, the printing press became a means to regulate the communication of the Catholic message (Hsia, 2017). 

Soon however, the natives did begin producing their own Christian texts with variant versions of biblical motifs and narratives (Hsia, 2017). But the emergence of unorthodox should not necessarily be attributed to indigenous authors’ inability to understand the Christian doctrine. Nor should we assume that unorthodoxy was an  intentional form of resistance or blatant rejection of Catholicism. Rather, these unconventional teachings are best understood through the lens of preexisting native practices. Numerous examples exist where the natives reinterpreted historical events or biblical stories in ways that best suited their present needs” (Hsia, 2017). The indigenous peoples of modern-day Mexico adapted their engagement with Christianity to meet personal needs and desires that were fluid. A similarity can be drawn between these attitudes and behaviors and those of many Christians in the West today. Some native Christians added things to conventional religious practice, others subtracted from it what was deemed unneeded. Yet such modifications should not seen as “defiance” or  “rejection” by those who engage in them since most would still define themselves as “good Christians.” (Hsia, 2017). 

References

Hsia, Ronnie. P. (2017). A companion to early modern Catholic global missions. Brill. 

Religious transformations in the early modern Americas / edited by Stephanie Kirk and Sarah Rivett. (2014).

Storrs, C. (2006). The resilience of the Spanish monarchy, 1665-1700 / Christopher Storrs. Biola Library ebooks.

Yun-Casalilla, Bartolomé (2019). Iberian World Empires and the Globalization of Europe 1415–1668. Palgrave Macmillan

by daviddawson462742281

Supersessionism and Indigenization in Iberian Christendom, pt 1

Introduction

I am a missionary with 30 years of service in the Iberian diaspora world. I grew up in the majority-Hispanic East San Fernando valley of Los Angeles county. I then worked in urban missions in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods of Los Angeles before marrying a Brazilian and serving in that nation for 16 years. I currently live in Portugal and my contextual focus includes Spain. I consider myself someone called to the Iberian diaspora, by which I refer to Spain, Portugal, the nations of Latin America, and their immigrant communities worldwide. Such a broad scope of service may appear ostentatious or overstretched. But over the years, my work has transitioned from practitioner to theoretical and I have found that my social science research – most significantly in Brazil and Portugal – leads to implications relevant to the Iberian diaspora described above. I, I am interested in sociological phenomena that impacts both the colonized and colonizer in the Iberian cultural matrix. 

The practical aspect of my service is focused on Christian ecumenism. As a US-American serving in majority Catholic contexts for most of my missionary career, my primary goal is to serve the predominant church rather than try to convert its members away from their rich tradition. As such, Catholic studies are central to my work. I also work toward interfaith dialogue in ways that preserve traditional Christian witness while correcting how this witness has been distorted in the church’s conduct towards other religious communities. I have a passion to discover and foster ways that different religious communities can partner together in learning and serving the common good. 

I promote mission as intercultural reconciliation, hereafter referred to as MIR. This proposal is based on the apostle Paul’s declaration regarding the work of Christ: 

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; (New American Standard Version, 1995, Eph. 2:14-17)

The word reconcile here denotes “‘to change, exchange’ (especially of money); hence, of persons, ‘to change from enmity to friendship, (…) and in this text the phrase to reconcile completely is used, a stronger form meaning ‘to change from one condition to another,’ so as to remove all enmity and leave no impediment to unity and peace”. Used in this text, it signifies “the ‘reconciliation’ of believing Jew and Gentile ‘in one body unto God through the Cross’” (Reconcile, Reconciliation – Vine’s Expository Dictionary of NT Words -, n.d.).

Some translations use the phrase new humanity, which I appreciate as being more gender inclusive. However, I choose to use the male-specific term because of its compatibility with the biblical concept of Adam expounded in the New Testament referring to the redemptive work of Christ (Rom. 5:12-20). I feel that “one new man” speaks better to what I hope to express regarding intimate particularity of human culture. “One new man” feels more personal and embodied to me than “humanity”, but I hope my reader understand that by “man” I infer the plenitude of male-female expression in human culture. 

Unfortunately, the vision of one new man was thwarted by a supersessionist theology that abolished the Jewish expression in the church. This biblical interpretive framework affirms that, 

the promises and commitments of God would no longer apply to Israel because it had not recognized Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God but had been transferred to the Church of Jesus Christ which was now the true ‘new Israel’, the new chosen people of God (Cunningham, 2017). 

The prophetic symbol of the one new man formed of formerly alienated peoples was substituted by a vision of a church united by the nullification of cultural identity. Thus, the instinct of catholicity was born out of which came emphases on episcopal lineage and uniformity of doctrine and practice. The history of Christianity that ensued has been one of serial fragmentation, most significantly in the post-Reformation era. With each separating group claiming to represent the purest expression of Christian culture, devoid of human infiltration and contamination. 

The purpose of this series of articles is to research the key factors in the growth of Iberian Catholicism in the “American” colonies, named after the Italian explorer who first posited that Columbus had discovered a separate continent (Allen, 2016). I explore elements that led to Catholic Christianity becoming the majority religion of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies – what evangelistic methods were used and how the church was structured institutionally to sustain growth over time. My interest in the topic stems from the significant impact of supersessionism on this crucial phase of Catholic missionary history and how it shaped the Iberian diaspora. Through the missionary efforts of Jesuits, Franciscans, Dominicans and others during the Counter Reformation, the indigenous civilizations of what came to be known as the Americas were forever changed. The thesis of this paper is that promoting mission as intercultural reconciliation among the Iberian diaspora requires a reckoning with its Christian foundations, renouncing supersessionism and building upon indigenization. I propose that what emerged from Iberian Catholic missions in the American colonies was a mixture of these two phenomena, the first toxic and the second redemptive. I refer to the foundations of Iberian Christianity rather than its legacy because my focus is the early modern period of colonization in the Americas. My aim here is not to contemplate the legacy of the entire history of Iberian Christianity. 

I explore the symbiotic relationship between Iberian colonialism and the Catholic Church. I investigate what motivated Catholic missionaries and the agency of the indigenous peoples in clerical service and the development of the missions. Variation in the reception of the missions by sedentary versus nomadic indigenous communities will be examined. And the incentivizing power of indigenous resistance on then evangelistic zeal of missionaries will be referenced. We will see the agency of the indigenous members of the missions in science and technology, as well as the effectiveness of missionary administration. I conclude the paper with a brief commentary on the implications of my discoveries for my service promoting mission as intercultural reconciliation among the Iberian diaspora.

References

Allen, E. (2016, July 4). How Did America Get Its Name? | Timeless [Webpage]. The Library of Congress. https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2016/07/how-did-america-get-its-name

Cunningham, P. A. (2017). The Sources behind “The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable” (Rom 11:29): A Reflection on Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic-Jewish Relations on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate (No. 4). Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations, 12(1), 1–39.