Category / Reconciliation & Peacebuilding

by daviddawson462742281

Supersessionism and Indigenization in Iberian Christendom, pt 4

The Vision of Human Flourishing and the Agency of the Colonies

The science of geography emerged in the early modern period during the emerging new European empires. The field of chorography developed in which the inhabitants, climate, and vegetation of a specific geographical location are studied. Such research provided the level of detailed knowledge necessary to “support imperial power over a distant territory, varied and extensive” (Rivett, 2014). The science of geography was also essential to Spain’s American colonies, intimately connected to the catechization and subjugation of native peoples. Maps and descriptions of the Amazon Basin composed by Jesuits demonstrate the inseparable connection between Catholic missions and imperial conquest (Rivett, 2014). 

The relationship between the Iberian Crowns and emergent colonial governments is often depicted through a center-periphery dichotomy, between metropolis and colonies (Rivett, 2014). This view of a fixed opposition portrays “asymmetrical power relations between complex political and economic structures in the core, and weak or nonexisting states in the margins”. Recent scholarship has portrayed the situation of Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Americas differently, identifying multiple domestic centers of power with networks connecting to peripheries. With this has come the recognition of “internal regional differentiation” and the development of “local agencies” (Rivett, 2014). 

The example of Quito is exemplary, which was depicted in writings of Spanish and Creole evangelists as “a new Rome, spreading civility to the margins and leading the spiritual conquest of its own periphery” (Rivett, 2014). Up to the late 17th century, many of the evangelizers were Creoles or Spaniards who had spent most of their lives in the American colonies. Many of these were also involved in scientific work in the areas of “botany, cartography, chorography, and geography, setting the stage for future scientific developments”. The ethnographic and geographic literature they produced prepared the way for a “renewed missionary enterprise”, going “Beyond the scientific and political interest in territorial definition and recognition, these texts spoke of the possibility of spiritual conquest and redemption”. Thus, we can see that part of the impetus for the spread of Iberian Catholicism was a vision of flourishing that coupled spiritual growth with political and scientific progress (Rivett, 2014).

Recent research also indicates that the American missions of the early modern era were initially imagined as “transitional way stations to ‘civilization’, not as enduring settlements” (Bamji, 2013). The missions generally developed in the maelstrom of uprooted communities in flight caused by colonialism. Thus, Christianity in the Americas emerged in a provisional state, becoming identified principally with unsettling, upsetting, and disordering. If the indigenous peoples being dispossessed were moving towards a mission town this was interpreted as “acceptance of the Christian acculturation project”. And if these communities moved away towards the hinterlands, this was seen as a rejection of the gospel (Bamji, 2013). 

            The traditional historical depiction of the missions has been one of invasion where peaceful native environments were disrupted. But recent scholarship argues that the missions were established at a time and place of convulsion and uprooting of indigenous communities caused by colonialism. This perspective is problematic in that it separates state colonialism from religious evangelization. But it stands to reason that      the missions were established during a liminal period of turmoil and the extraordinary movements of communities. Formerly historians primarily described missions as building stark boundaries between cultures. But today some argue that missions built or extended “cultural bridges” (Bamji, 2013This line of reasoning does not make light of the violence that occurred during this meeting of cultures. But an attempt is made to “look beyond forceful imposition” to discern other means by which the American missions operated. Some have posited that the missions “pulled together overlapping networks of spiritual practitioners”, and advanced “shared intangibles such as music, language, heroic ideas, dreams, and even iconoclasm” (Bamji, 2013). Thus, these religious communities emerged as an amalgam of colonial and indigenous contributions. 

The Effectiveness of Organization of Space, Surveillance, and Communication

Michel Foucault (1986) referred to Iberian Catholic missions in the Americas as “heterotopias” that represented a “contestation of the space” in which the indigenous peoples lived. He described the missions as “absolutely regulated” sites “in which human perfection was effectively achieved”. Foucault (2003) described this “Christian pastoralism” as a means for governing the soul which developed into a model of government from above and self-government from within. The friars were obligated to know the actions of their sheep via confession, which in turn taught the sheep to govern their actions since they would become known (Foucault, 2003). And above both shepherd and sheep watched the all-knowing eye of God. 

Zavala-Pelayo (2020) describes the “hard and soft geo-political techniques” used by Jesuit missions in the Americas to promote the “universalist logic of a European Christianity that assumed as its primary task, literally, the making of a Christian orbis terrarum” (“lands of the world”). The soft geo-political techniques included the “management, control, and surveillance” of the territories, their exploration, protection, and grand-scale occupation. Much financial investment was made, for example, in protecting Spanish colonies in Argentina and Paraguay from renegade armies in the neighbor Portuguese colony of Brazil. The Jesuit occupation of vast territories was achieved through the systematic “reorganization of the local indigenous socio-politics, the restructuration of local spaces, and the creation of community spaces” (Zavala-Pelayo, 2020).

 The restructuration of space went beyond the establishment of the mission to the redistribution of spaces within the community, and donation of land to other missions (Zavala-Pelayo, 2020). The Jesuits said of the natives, “they keep their town very well organized, clean and tidy, and their homes in the same way”. The reducciónes were meant to be established near water with access to fishing, good lands with no risk of flooding and no mosquitos. These carefully planned sites were deliberately constructed in streets and blocks – one per every four Indians. Each house would have its own orchard and garden. And provision was made for the house of the priest, as well as farms for growing cotton, fruit trees and vegetables, and space for raising pigs, chickens and doves (Zavala-Pelayo, 2020).

The soft geo-political techniques the Jesuits used included the production and registry of socio-geographic knowledge, geographical counselling, and networked management (Zavala-Pelayo, 2020). The Jesuits helped settle frequent disputes regarding land borders and helped orient new settlements according to vast geographical records. A system of furlough existed so that the friars would return to mission headquarters after stipulated time periods on the field. There were very effective lines of communications between Jesuit missionaries regarding their needs, challenges, and help was able to be relatively quickly mobilized to their avail (Zavala-Pelayo, 2020). 

References

Bamji, A., Janssen, G. H., & Laven, M. (2013). The Ashgate Research Companion to the Counter-Reformation. Taylor & Francis Group. 

Foucault, Michel (1986). Of Other Spaces. Diacritics. 

Foucault, Michel (20030. Abnormal. Lectures and the College de France 1974-1975. London: Verso.

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

Zavala-Pelayo, E. (2020). Religion and space in colonial South America: A technology of geo-political rule and terrestrial-spatial subjectivity in the Jesuit missions of the Banda Oriental. Religion, 50(4)

by daviddawson462742281

Supersessionism and Indigenization in Iberian Christendom, pt 3

The Socioeconomic Situation and Scope of the Missions

The social upheaval for the hundreds of thousands of indigenous people who joined Catholic missions left is hard to overstate. They left “small, dispersed, and mobile communities to live in large, settled mission towns with Catholic priests” (Sarreal, 2014). For many natives, the missions were a refuge from the pressures associated with Spanish conquest. This is striking in light of the vigorous nature of the enculturation process the indigenous experienced on the missions. The Spanish Crown expected the missions to be means of forming the indigenous peoples into citizens of the empire. They were taught Catholic doctrine, European cultural practices, and settled agriculture. It is hard to think of a modern educational experience with such multidisciplinary, integrated, and all-encompassing scope (Sarreal, 2014). 

The Jesuits alone housed more than 265,000 natives in their missions by 1767 throughout the Americas (Sarreal, 2014). The Jesuit missions of the Rio de la Plata region in current-day Argentina and Uruguay are widely considered to have been “the most successful in terms of the number of indigenous inhabitants, economic prosperity, and historical importance”. To each mission, two Jesuits would be assigned, but these could never force hundreds or thousands of indigenous people to come or to stay. Instead, it was in the face of Spanish and Portuguese colonialism that multitudes of natives joined the missions. By the eighteenth century, most Guarani members of the Jesuit missions were multiple generation residents steeped in mission culture. This way of life consisted of “biological, technological, organizational, and theological systems that incorporated aspects of both native and Jesuit-inspired customs and practices”. In other missions that depended on immigration and new converts, such comprehensive cultural change was not the case. The eventual decline of the Guarani missions in the late 18th century was due to the Spanish Crown’s reforms and intervention. Even still, due to the agency of the Guarani these missions endured until the end of the colonial period (Sarreal, 2014). 

            Some historians have highlighted that Jesuit missions protected the Indians from being taken advantage of and maintained the Guaraní language and other parts of native lifestyle. But less positive analysts draw attention to Jesuits’ depriving the indigenous of freedom, forcing them to change their culture, physically abusing them, and exposing them to disease (Sarreal, 2014). Research shows that a communal structure of shared labor, collective ownership, and administration of mission property was the foundation of the “mission economy”. The native members did not generally work for pay, participate in commerce, or own their own property. Rather, they depended mainly of provisions from communal supplies and worked in groups or individually. Communal property was more prevalent, but a culture of shared ownership did not make the missions “proto-socialist societies” as has been proposed by some research. Inequalities did exist among the natives, and although a level of prosperity existed, the economic system was not efficient. Contributions from the Jesuit order were needed, as well as protection from the colonial authorities. These factors and the lack of competition led to a system that survived but could not thrive (Sarreal, 2014).

After the decline of the missions to the Guarani, reformers proposed exposing the natives to the colonial market economy to intensify acculturation and assimilation (Sarreal, 2014). The result was the destruction of the missions and the benefit of a privileged minority of natives, especially those who could use mission property. The more vulnerable who depended on the missions suffered while “skilled and well-connected” Guarani benefitted (Sarreal, 2014). While these developments represent the decline of the missions, they do not indicate a general decline of Iberian Catholicism in the Americas. For as the missions declined, a level of Christian enculturation had been achieved that laid the foundation for the Catholic church to be the majority religious (nay, exclusive) of Latin America. 

Different Indigenous Receptivity to Missions based on Sedentary Vs Nomadic

The culture of different indigenous peoples also affected how mission life developed, where it thrived and where it was harder to encourage. The encounter in 1492 and beyond between Iberian Catholic colonizers and native populations introduced the latter to Old World diseases and a “sea-change in the demographic patterns of the native populations of the Americas” (Jackson, 2015). Warfare, changes in subsistence patterns, competition between native and European men for sexual partners also contributed to severe population loss (Jackson, 2015). Significant variety existed between different populations where religious orders attempted to establish missions. The Jesuit missions of Paraguay in the Rio de la Plata region and the Chiquitos mission in current day eastern Bolivia were both established among sedentary 

Where missionaries attempted to establish missions among nomadic populations they encountered more difficulties. Imposing new sociological norms offended nomadic culture, such as different paradigms for division of labor by gender (Jackson, 2015). The more difficult process of implementing these changes among nomadic populations led missionaries to impose harsher forms of control. This led to increased conflict and disruption, which explains the different results of attempts at social and political organization among sedentary and non-sedentary indigenous communities. On the Paraguay and Chiquitos mission frontiers a “kinder and gentler form of colonial domination” was used (Jackson, 2015). 

Jackson (2015) draws attention to the difference made by the demographic situation of the different indigenous tribes evangelized by Iberian Catholic missions. Growth was sustainable where missions were established among demographically viable populations with high fertility and high mortality rates. In comparison, missions established among demographically weak populations such as nomadic hunters and gatherers were less sustainable. 

Some missions such as the Paraguay and Chiquitos offered a buffer zone from the more abusive elements of Iberian colonialism (Jackson, 2015). Jackson’s concludes that the epidemic sickness that devastated native populations was neither generated nor exacerbated at the missions. Rather, disease spread to the missions from other highly populous communities such as Buenos Aires. The mortality rates at the missions were like those of “virgin soil” epidemics of the time. In missions such as the Chiquitos that were more geographically isolated, the mortality rates were much lower (Jackson, 2015). 

The Incentivizing Power of Indigenous Resistance (on the Colonizer)

There was often violent indigenous resistance to evangelization in the peripheral areas of Spanish colonies in the Americas. This helped define missionaries as “warriors for Christ engaged in relentless struggle against defiant tribes and the demonic forces that in their view kept the indigenous population in darkness and resistance to Christianity” (Rivett, 2014). From the beginning of the Catholic missions in the Americas,

European Christian images and values made the missionizing friars the protagonists of a drama of male heroism clothed in virtue, selflessness, and utter dedication to the salvation of the souls of peoples about whom they had the greatest doubts. The purpose of evangelization was not martyrdom, even if some friars hoped for it, but when martyrdom occurred it was used to buttress the evangelization campaign and bring material and military support to the missions. (Rivett, 2014). 

Christianity was rebelled against and repudiated persistently during the 18th century (Rivett, 2014). 

            The opposition missionaries faced rose a central issue: what was the nature of the indigenous people? Some accepted Christianity and were therefore seen as different from those who didn’t. Those who rejected the gospel became the embodiment of the evil present in human nature, of those under the influence of demons. But the real reason was that hunters and gatherers in the Northern regions did not want to live in reducciones – towns set up under ecclesiastical or royal authority to facilitate colonization. It was when faced with the threat of losing their customary nomadic life and religious traditions that indigenous communties responded violently. In the late 16th century, the northern provinces known as New Spain were thought of as islands of Christian “civilization”. But they were surrounded by what were considered “barbarian” indigenous communities that resisted conversion (Rivett, 2014). 

The view that indigenous resistance was demonically empowered motivated evangelistic efforts. This was based on the Christian understanding of spiritual warfare, i.e., “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (New International Version, 2011, I Jn. 4:4). And the fear of nearby barbarous communities would not only motivate the friars to evangelize more fervently. The colonial settlers would see the conversion of neighboring indigenous communities as a necessity. The conversion of the natives would be sought scrupulously by settlers when possible, or alternatively through forced conversion and massacre. 

References

Jackson, Robert H. (2015). Demographic Change and Ethnic Survival Among the Sedentary Populations on the Jesuit Mission Frontiers of Spanish South America, 1609-1803: The Formation and Persistence of Mission Communities in a Comparative Context (Vol. 00016).

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

Sarreal, Julia J. S. (2014). The Guaraní and Their Missions: A Socioeconomic History. Stanford University Press

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. 

by daviddawson462742281

Generalizations About the Poor Overshadow Innovation and Agency

Lisa Cliggett’s Grains From Grass (2005) studies the Gwembe Tonga people of Zambia. This research reveals diverse socioeconomic strategies developed to deal with the complexity of globalization (p. 3). We see development among the Tonga as happening through labor migration, negotiating kinship paradigms of assistance, and religious practice. These forms of finding sustenance can be studied statistically looking at groups but are employed and altered by individuals. Indeed, the individualism demonstrated in various forms of socioeconomic self-preservation counter romantic Western notions of such societies being inherently collectivist and altruistic (p. 2). 

It may seem like a stretch, but this situation made me reflect on my own socioeconomic experience as a missionary from the West. I have spent most of my life outside Southern California where I was born, in two countries – Brazil and Portugal – where supporting myself and my family are much easier with my vocation than back home. Although I come from a Pentecostal tradition that emphasizes divine guidance and prophecy, I believe that my wife and my choice of location has been affected by economic realities. After 16 years in Brazil, my wife and I moved back to Southern California for 3 years but eventually moved on to Portugal. The cost of living in that part of the U.S. was a very real part of our decision to move. We could have stayed in the U.S. but our vocation as missionaries meant this would likely result in a loss of financial support. 

For most missionaries, donations are the main source of income, but increasingly other forms of financial sustainability are sought. This should be done with supporters’ knowledge to preserve accountability and not undermine the validity of a missionary’s appeal for donations. Again, I realize the great different in the Gwembe Tonga experience and my own, but the reality of individual agency versus oversimplified generalizations is shared. I feel that long-term missionaries today are not helped by being given only a few legitimate options for financially supporting their work. 

Cliggett (2005) promotes using a “framework of vulnerability that highlights difference in terms of a group’s resources and its ability to control those resources” that “forces us to develop a more complex vision” of such societies (p. 16). Again, I blush at trying to connect the economic situation of the Gwembe Tonga to my context in Portugal, but I do see some relevance. The Portuguese media constantly discuss the exodus of young people to other parts of Europe looking for better wages (Portugal at a risk of poverty below the EU average, n.d.). A tradesperson, for example, can make 3 or 4 times more in a country like France or Germany. However, diverse groups of immigrants to Portugal are thriving as they compare its economic opportunities to those of former Portuguese colonial nations which they come from (Monteiro, 2024). More recently, increased amounts of immigrants to Portugal are coming from South Asia, who find the country an easier port of entry than other European nations. 

At the same time, Portuguese economists constantly criticize the culture of nepotism and “amigismo” (closing economic circles among friends) as the prime source of its relative poverty and underperformance in Western Europe (Pimentel, 2021). There is no other nation I know in Europe that has an economy like Portugal’s in comparison to its powerful neighbors. As I think of my children’s economic future here in Portugal, I am forced to think of where there are thriving sources of innovation and opportunity. As I look around the metro area of Lisbon where we live, it is obvious that economic prosperity exists here. This is like my experience living in large cities of Brazil. The Brazilian media constantly spoke of the lack of economic opportunities in the nation in comparison to other countries. However, in these huge, teeming metropolises I was aware of millions of people who were finding a way to survive and often thrive. Cliggett’s work encourages me to look beyond the media portrayal of national economics which always makes money off bad news. As a missionary, I believe Cliggett’s work provides encouragement towards a rejection of negative economic stereotypes of the nations we serve. 

Now I will proceed gears to the second discussion prompt regarding gendered land ownership and accusations of witchcraft. I believe it is possible that Gwembe Tonga women may be accused as bulozi(witches) because of increased access to land inheritance from husbands. Elderly men are believed to engage in sorcery to “manipulate the supernatural world for human goals” (Cliggett, 2005, p. 131). Sorcery is believed to be the cause of sickness and death to their relatives (p. 134), and land inheritance disputes are common to so many cultures. Elderly men’s use of mystical powers sometimes backfires, resulting in witch hunts aiming to cleanse the community of evil and unfair practices (p. 136). Therefore, I think it is reasonable to assume that elderly women’s empowerment related to land makes them vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft like elderly men. 

References

Cliggett, L. (2005). Grains from grass: Aging, gender, and famine in rural Africa. Cornell University Press.

Pimentel, A. H., Marina. (2021, December 23). Maria José Morgado: “Cultura de impunidade, nepotismo e amiguismo tem feito de Portugal um país pobre e atrasado.” PÚBLICO. 

Portugal at a risk of poverty below the EU average. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2024, from https://www.portugal.gov.pt/en/gc23/communication/news-item?i=portugal-at-a-risk-of-poverty-below-the-eu-average

Monteiro, C. (2024, April 16). Migração: Factos e Números 2024. EAPN. https://www.eapn.pt/centro-de-documentacao/migracao-factos-e-numeros-2024/

by daviddawson462742281

What’s Unique About Christian Social Action? Does it Matter?

Christian Mission and International Development

The debate about religions and global development is something that affects the image and impact of Christianity. It is troubling that social science research questions whether religion should be viewed as something that adds value to development projects at all (Dronen, 2014). Missions scholars and practitioners need to take a serious look at how we fit within developmental frameworks, whether we agree with them or not. 

Norwegian missions to Africa provide an interesting example of “movement from the margin to the margins” in the form of rural farmers who worked among the Zulu population of rural South Africa (Dronen, 2022, p. 258). It is telling that the same foreign missions intervention was less effective among “more developed” communities such as the Muslim Fulbe and Mboum communities of Cameroon. Then there are the Dii people of Cameroon who saw the Norwegian mission as “a helpful tool” because they could teach them French, the primary trade language. In the Dii case, the developmental part of mission resulted from “a joint venture between the missionaries and the local population” (Dronen, 2022, p. 258-260). Both missionary and local community brought distinct ideas of development to the table and the result was a hybrid neither group would have formed on their own. General analysis of the developmental results of these Norwegian missions in Africa are ambiguous. Some praise the Norwegians’ contribution to progress while others critique the harmful effects of importing Western, colonial socio-economic values (Comaroff & Comaroff, 1991, p. 199). 

The NGO-ification of development in the Global South refers to when the biblical vision of redemption is superseded by a secular vision of development (Gifford, 2007). If the developmental projects of Global South churches cannot be discerned as distinct from other charity organizations (Swart, 2003), this represents a loss of prophetic witness. A reorientation mode that focuses on the “relational element” of partnership seems profitable, seeing development as a “dynamic relationship between donor and receiver” (Swart, 2004, p. 410-412). I think this approach aligns wisely with Paulo Freire’s (1970) concept of development beginning with an awareness in which marginalized communities take full responsibility for their own empowerment. 

The idea that development should be seen as a “never-ending process” where individuals contribute to personal and societal transformation is a needed counterpoint to individualistic Western conceptions (Myers, 1999, p. 17). Cases in Cameroon where young converts to Christianity revolted against their families to live with missionaries can be articulates as positive examples of radical conversion. However, a message encouraging young people to abandon their kin and culture can also be judged as one more form of Western imperialism (Dronen, 2022, p. 265). This missions approach can be described as descending from Descartes’ vision of the individual’s quest for personal freedom (Klassen, 2015, p. 33). Or perhaps this thinking influenced by Weber’s concept of individual economic emancipation. Weber emphasized the individual’s right to the surplus they produced, idealizing a person’s entrepreneurial self-reliance. These Western ideas contrast starkly with African philosophies where the individual is defined by their “relationship with the other”. Instead of enthroning individual rights to freedom and property, much African philosophical tradition proposes that personhood and vulnerability are interconnected” (Dronen, 2022, p. 267). 

In contrast to the NGO-ification dilemma, some networks connect the Global North and the Global South in ways which preserve distinctly biblical principles of development. These networks foster economic security for their members by connecting associations of congregations with transnational business opportunities. This represents an effective combination of the African extended family network model with “individualist, capitalist, and marketplace markers” belonging to the Pentecostal-Charismatic discourse (Dronen, 2022, p. 269). 

Christian Mission and Social Action

Lap Yan Kung (2022) argues that advocacy is a key aspect of social action that can enrich Christian mission praxis. This working definition of social action is helpful: “a self-conscious human practice intended to transform social relationships, as well as a social structure to enhance human flourishing, where the agents experience self-realization”. And Kung (2022) describes three major components to social action: “intention, form, and consequence” (p. 276). Foucault rightly states that evaluating social action must recognize that power “circulates” and “functions in the form of a chain” never fully situated in one person’s hands (Gordon, 1980, p. 505). Kung (2022) rightly describes social action as an expression of “participatory citizenship which leads to the emergence of civil society” (p. 277). And social action is voluntary by nature, “a constructive force for building community, social cohesion, and social capital”. But the role of advocacy in God’s mission, the church’s participation in advocacy, and how this shapes it as a community divides opinion among Ecumenical Protestants and Evangelicals (Kung, 2022, p. 277, 274, 278). 

The relationship of creation and salvation to God’s mission is also relevant to social action. Robert Jenson (1999) describes creation and salvation as united in God’s mission: “God the Father is the sheer given of creation; God the Spirit is the perfecting freedom that animates creation; God the Son is the mediator of creation” (p. 25). But Kung (2022) rightly argues that “the unity of creation and salvation must be eschatological”. This does not amount to a denial of human enterprise and accomplishment but refers to the coming of God’s kingdom in the world (Kung, 2022 p. 279). Bevans and Schroeder (2011) are concerned with how the coming of the kingdom is articulated, presenting the concept of prophetic dialogue. Here justice is done in conversation rather than through one-way proclamations of judgment. 

I believe Gutierrez (1973) makes a helpful observation regarding how we articulate the kingdom message. Although socio-political liberation is distinct from liberation from sin, no hierarchy exists between the two (p. 176,177), no false dichotomy should be implied that is not found in Scripture. 

Unruh & Sider (2005) analyze different ways the relationship between Christian mission and social action has been understood. On the extreme social justice side, “the world is placed at the center of God’s activity, not the church”, while on the extreme culture wars side the church’s duty is to “identify and change those ungodly aspects of culture so that God’s kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven” Kung, 2022, p. 282). I find Unruh & Sider’s (2005) holistic model most attractive, in which “evangelism and social ministry are dynamically interconnected” (p. 134-146). I can agree with the Third Lausanne Congress affirmation of integral mission, which recognizes the brokenness of individuals, society, and creation, all of which lie within the scope of God’s love and mission (Kung, 2022, p. 281). I also identify with the Evangelical concept of transformational advocacy that promotes challenging “injustice and obstacles to human flourishing”. But this is done by “humbly engaging with people who can address the wrong” and trusting the Spirit of God to transform individuals and institutions. Religious liberty is an aspect of advocacy that the church cannot ignore because it a defense of human dignity. The Catholic principle of subsidiarity is also helpful, which suggests that “tasks and goals should be handled at the lowest, most local level capable of accomplishing them effectively”. This leads to a recognition and promotion of social action “so that people can exercise their freedom and learn to be responsible for managing and improving their lives”. This Catholic contribution to the discussion of civil rights and civil society represents helps form a Christian vision that promotes individual freedom and responsibility (Kung, 2022, p. 281, 285). 

Mission and Healing

Lakawa & Fitchett-Climenhaga (2022) observe that “the unnarratability and the unspeakability of trauma fundamentally disrupt our understanding of witness and its relationship with healing” (p. 293). As someone working in Christian reconciliation, I’m encouraged that this field has emerged as “one particularly prominent” area of thinking about healing. Lakawa & Fitchett-Climenhaga (2022) categorize three dimensions of reconciliation in mission studies, helping me situate my own research and service. This typology includes reconciliation as focused on “restoring fractured relationships”, reconciliation as “holistic (…) linking physical, psychological, social, and spiritual well-being”, and reconciliation as necessarily tangible and rooted in specific contexts. Lakawa & Fitchett-Clemenhaga (2022) give an encouraging description of how women in the Global South engage in healing mission. These women acted as “cultural brokers” who demonstrated respect for local concepts of the spirit world while using Christian healing practices. This is an example of healing mission that is “holistic, integrated, embodied, incarnated, and creatively transformative”. Lakawa & Fitchett-Clemenhaga (2022) describe a holistic non-Christian religious approach to life and death, “understood as wholeness and being in the right relationship with human and divine persons”. These women have attempted to take Christian teachings and practices and make them coherent to other worldviews, an inspiring and hopeful example (Lakawa & Fitchett-Clemenhaga, 2022, p. 294-8). 

Lakawa & Fitchett-Clemenhaga (2022) also explore the “belatedness of truth and the incomprehensibility of trauma” (p. 298), which challenges my concept of mission. Three problems related to trauma – temporality, memory, and difficulty of speech in the aftermath – demonstrate the need for alternative ways of engagement. Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well is bodily, involving physical touch. Understanding between Jesus and the woman arriving belatedly, she “touches rather than talks”, “talking comes after touching”. The woman is a resilient witnesses because she breaks through the sickness that had isolated her. Jesus is a resilient witness because he responds “to the voice of her wound that speaks through her touch”. In this encounter, “speech is embodied and the truth is witnessed in its enigmatic wholeness – it is told yet remains a mystery”. The voice of the woman can inform the language and practice of mission, healing, and witness in its portrayal of the “complexity of healing in the context of trauma and its aftermath” (Lakawa & Fitchett-Clemenhaga, 2022, p. 299-303).

Lakawa & Fitchett-Clemenhaga (2022) promote the practice of poetic witnessing as a means for healing and reconciliation (p. 306). This model inspires me to reengage with my love of the arts and their possible usefulness for healing. The proposal that dance and other forms of art can be used to “decipher and encode the unspeakability of loss and wounds” and become a “symbolic rendering that reimagines the future and the promise of healing in the aftermath” is something that I want to experiment with. I can see how the arts may offer “ways to communicate woundedness and healing when trauma undermines speech and veils truth”. Seeing healing as a continuous, multifaceted process “mutually witnessed through embodied experience” via the poetic witnessing model represents an innovative form of healing mission aimed at addressing trauma (Lakawa & Fitchett-Clemenhaga, 2022, p. 306-7). 

References

Bevans, Stephen B. & Schroeder, Roger P. (2011). Prophetic Dialogue: Reflections on Christian Mission Today. Orbis. 

Comaroff, Jean & Comaroff, John. (1991). Of Revalation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa, Vol. 1. University of Chicago Press. 

Dronen, Tomas S. (2014). Nordic Perspectives on Involvement in Africa. In Dronen, Tomas S. (Ed.), Religion and Development. Peter Lang. 

Dronen, Tomas S. (2022). Christian Mission and International Development. In Dronen, Tomas S. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies. OUP Oxford.

Freire, Paulo. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum. 

Gifford, Paul. (2007). “The Future of Christianity”, Inaugural Lecture, SOAS, London, June 4th. 

Gordon, Colin. (1980). Power / Knowledge. In Gordon, Colin (Ed.), Harvester. 

Gutierrez, Gustavo. (1973). A Theology of Liberation. Orbis. 

Jenson, Robert W. (1999). Systematic Theology, vol. 2, Oxford University Press. 

Klassen, John. (2015). “The Ecumenical Movement and Development. The Role of Personhood”, Missionalia 1

Kung, Lap Y. (2022). Christian Mission and Social Action. In Kung, Lap Y. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies. OUP Oxford.

Lakawa, Septemmy E. & Fitchett-Climenhaga, Alison. (2022). Mission and Healing. In Lakawa, Septemmy E. & Fitchett-Climenhaga, Alison. (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies. OUP Oxford.

Myers, Bryant L. (1999). Walking With the Poor. (Publisher?)

Swart, Igntius. (2003). Church, Mission, and Development: Revisiting the Pragmatic Debate, Missionalia 3, p. 406

Unrue, Heidi R. & Sider, Ronald J. (2005). Saving Souls, Serving Society: Understanding the Faith Factor in Church-based Social Ministry. Oxford University Press.