Category / Sociology of Religion

by daviddawson462742281

Rise of the Religious “Nones”

Sociologist of religion Linda Woodhead has done important work on the rise of the religious “nones”, i.e., those who claim no affiliation with any organized religion (Woodhead, 2017). Her reserach demonstrates that increased secularization in the UK is not due mostly to adults walking away from their religious traditions. The greatest demographic source of the rise of the religious nones is teenagers raised in religious homes that opt to not follow their parents’ religion.

Many nones do attest to some form of spiritual practice in their daily lives. It is interesting to note which form of spiritual practice they are most averse to. Think of what spiritual practices are most common – prayer, scripture reading, pilgrimage, worship, etc. Woodhead’s research indicates that attending public worship of some other form of formal gathering is the most unpopular spiritual practice among religious nones.

I found this fascinating – why is it that the UK population is increasingly averse to attending formal religious gatherings but still widely practices prayer, scripture reading, and meditation?

I love going to my local church, so much of whose ritual connects me to experiences rooted in my childhood. I have lived long-term on three continents as a missionary but I always found a local Christian community I grew to love. But I recognize that my faith journey really began in earnest with a radical conversion experience in my late teens. I can’t imagine myself ever having found interest in local church attendance if it wasn’t for the life crisis and conversion experience I had in my youth. It was during that formative time that I came to understand why people are drawn to faith communities.

This isn’t to say that I never miss a Sunday service. There have been periods where it took my wife and I months, even years to finally find a church we could call home. But I wonder how Christians like myself can help make the curch a place people want to come to in contexts like Western Europe.

References

The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. (2016, December 15). The Growth of “No Religion” — Secularisation but Not as Predicted | Prof. Linda Woodhead [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC-9hgBtwgM

Woodhead, L. (2017). The Rise of “No Religion”: Towards an Explanation. Sociology of Religion, 78(3), 247–262. Atla Religion Database with AtlaSerials. https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srx031

by daviddawson462742281

The Need for Qualitative Missions Research

I was privileged to receive my foundational missionary and theological training in the U.S. in the 1990s. My initial training was in Youth With a Mission, and then I went to study at Life Pacific Bible College, although I didn’t complete my studies there. I also sat under the teaching ministry of several excellent churches of the denominations Foursquare, Assemblies of God, and Calvary Chapel. In these contexts, I received much invaluable head and heart knowledge, mostly of Biblical studies, Theology, and church / missions history. While thankful for this, looking back today I perceive a lack of social science training in the models of ministry education I received. 

The social sciences include fields such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, and political science. As a missionary today, I feel that someone with this vocation could do very well to invest in these fields as a core aspect of cross-cultural Christian service. Interestingly, both the fields of anthropology and missiology have suffered in recent decades due to questions of the validity of outsider interference in indigenous cultures. Missionaries have consistently argued that such outsider interference in indigenous societies is inevitable. Whether religiously motivated or not, social science professionals can help the interaction of cultures to produce fruitful results versus harmful ones. 

When most people think of research, they likely conceptualize quantitative research, which is focused on measuring quantifiable data such as numbers, statistics, and trends. Much vital quantitative research has been done by missionaries to determine areas of need and opportunity in contexts varying from urban metropolises to remote villages. Less understood by most is qualitative research, which seeks to understand meaning through translation, description, and thematic analysis (Tisdell et al., 2025, p. 19). In quantitative research the primary instruments are non-human technological ones that do mathematical and statistical analysis. But in qualitative research the researcher is the primary instrument. The qualitative researcher’s focus is on participants of some social phenomena (Tisdell et al., p. 20-21). The goal is to discover and understand a human cultural phenomenon such as experiences and perspectives (Ellis & Hart, 2023, p. 1760). Qualitative research seeks to produce detailed descriptions of individuals’ experiences as they understand them, articulated in their own words (Chenail et al., 2011; Daniel 2019). 

In the 2010’s I began doing social science research in Brazil using data from local academic journals and scholarly publications. This was when I was doing my MA in Global Leadership at Fuller Seminary. But my approach to research at that time still focused entirely on texts rather than interactions with real people. During my doctoral studies which began three years ago, I have developed a passion for qualitative research. As a missionary, I have access to so many people with important experiences and perspectives that could benefit the church and missions efforts. People are often wary of sharing their experiences in fear of being exposed or misinterpreted in harmful ways. Most anthropologists extended field work consists of several months to a few years. But missionaries can develop rapport with communities through decades of engagement. In this way, missionaries can gain access to data unavailable to secular sociologists and anthropologists. 

Description is not the only way qualitative research can be used, it can also aim to prove theory or to give voice to marginalized communities. Qualitative research can be used to promote justice and denounce inequality. We live in a time where many missions organizations face a crisis of purpose due to pluralism and cultural relativism. Engaging in the social sciences is a way that Christian doing cross-cultural service can make significant contributions. Missionaries can raise awareness of the needs of underserved communities by investigating their experiences and perspectives. In a time where missions work is seen as a holdover from Western colonial exploitation, qualitative research is a way for Christians to demonstrate our love and respect for human cultures. Just as Jesus’ incarnation demonstrates God’s open attitude towards human culture, of all people missionaries should have the greatest intercultural curiosity. And just as Scripture commands us to love the Lord with all our minds, surely there are those who will be called to contribute significantly to social science research. If a missions culture emerges that values such endeavors, perhaps we will see a generation arise such as that of Daniel. I pray that servants of God will show themselves to increasingly be of exceptional excellence in intercultural research. Would that this be done to the glory of the Creator from whom all cultural creativity and value flows. 

References

Chenail, R. J., Duffy, M., St. George, S., & Wulff, D. (2011). Facilitating coherence across

qualitative research papers. The Qualitative Report, 16(1), 263. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2011.1052

Daniel, B. K. (2019). Using the TACT framework to learn the principles of rigour in qualitative

research. Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 17(3), 118

Ellis, J. L., & Hart, D. L. (2023). Strengthening the Choice for a Generic Qualitative Research Design. The Qualitative Repor, 28(6), 1760

Tisdell, E.J., Merriam, S.B. & Stuckey-Peyrot, H.L. (2025). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (5th ed.). Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 978-1394266456.

by daviddawson462742281

Mission as Intercultural Reconciliation in Europe

Theory of Race and Iberian Christendom, part 5

As stated in the introduction, the focus of my service in Europe/Iberia is advocating for what I call mission as intercultural reconciliation (MIR). This is a post-supersessionist vision of Christian mission based on the one new man motif. In this section I will elaborate some practical suggestions for MIR gleaned from my analysis of CRT and ORS (supersession as origin of race). 

MIR as Means for Addressing Cultural Imperialism in Europe/Iberia

The idea of white supremacy explored by thinkers like Du Bois, Bell, and Jennings could be rearticulated in the Iberian context with emphasis on the European appropriation of the gospel as an exclusive possession of its own culture. The black-white binary common to US-American racial theory has incompatible aspects regarding Europe. However, other historical struggles between peoples and acts of collective oppression abound in European history. Most significantly in relation to racism today, the Christian message of intercultural reconciliation was substituted with one of cultural imperialism. The legacy of this cultural imperialism is one of the greatest barriers in Europe towards accepting the gospel. During the 30 Years War Catholics and Protestants struggled for supremacy only to achieve a stalemate like the status quo at the beginning of the conflict. This paved the way for Enlightenment relegation of religion to the sphere of the individual’s private convictions. The result has been a European spiritual climate where religion is associated with despotism and power struggles. 

Morley’s (2022) analysis of CRT in a European application gives credence to the notion that Europeans are attracted to postcolonial ideologies. There is a desire to work for justice with the recognition of how the legacies of race and empire must be addressed. Morley’s analysis of the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement globally shows that US-American research and activism related to racism is still influential. Her research indicates the wider perspective of organizations such as TWAIL which US-American race theory can learn from. The examples of how global political struggles use racial categorization to justify war and exploitation help convince Europeans of the need for racial reconciliation. This paves the way for a new vision of the gospel as a means for intercultural healing (Morley, 2022). 

Moschel’s (2007) research also points to the felt need of Europeans for answers to their own problems of racial violence. Portugal and Spain have become immigrant nations recently and thus feel the strains of racial integration. The influx of Eastern Europeans since the collapse of communism has brought intergroup discrimination and xenophobia that is not based on skin color but is no less serious (Moshel, 2007). 

With the understanding that racism in Europe is based on fault lines historically defined in religious terms (Rubin, 1999) indicates the need for a different approach than in the US-American context. A post-supersessionist missiology of reconciliation in Europe must focus on the perversion of the gospel that occurred in the European project of uniting the church and political power. The Holocaust and antisemitism are the most vibrant images in European memory related to racial violence (Moschel, 2007). And the rejection of scientific racism in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s which changed the discourse to one of prejudice, intolerance, and xenophobia means reconciliation must be framed in those terms rather than with a black-white binary. The Slavic peoples of the East have been despised in Western Europe for millennia, and this is a need for reconciliation that doesn’t involve groups of different skin color. Again, in the European context the need for reconciliation center pm cultural differences not biological ones (Moschel, 2007). 

A post-supersessionist missiology of cultural reconciliation in Europe must consider that these cultural conflicts are harder to pinpoint than US-American racial conflicts (Moschel, 2007). And in Europe the tendency has been to try to deal with cultural conflicts through large organizations such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the European Union. The fact that each nation member of the European Union has its own provisions prohibiting racism and discrimination means that individual nations will need to be addressed rather than developing blanket approaches to the European continent (Moschel, 2007). 

MIR as Answer to Contemporary Spanish Desire for Pluralist Society

My reading in contemporary Spanish race relations indicates the relative lack of research in comparison to other parts of Europe such as Germany, France, and the United Kingdom (Feros, 2017). The fact that it was under Roman control of Iberia that a unified Christian Hispania emerged lasting for six centuries shows the importance of the church to Spanish identity (“HISPANIA ROMANA,” n.d.). It was during this time that Latin replaced the indigenous languages and polytheistic religion was replaced by Christianity during Emperor Theodisius’ reign in the 4th century. The Romans also established the concept of the state, introduced laws, organized the land into provinces, and laid the foundations for urban civilization (“HISPANIA ROMANA,” n.d.). Hispania became one of the most Romanized provinces of the Empire, from where many great figures in Roman history emerged (“HISPANIA ROMANA,” n.d.). 

A post-supersessionism missiology of cultural reconciliation must be aware of the deep connection between Catholic faith and whiteness to Spanish identity. Spanish Catholics must be made aware of the formation of their identity as the ideal nation or race preserved across time (Feros, 2017). A Christian identity juxtaposed to the rest of Europe but most significantly Jews, Arabs, American natives, And Africans from Spanish colonies (Feros, 2017) must be rejected to restore the biblical vision of one new humanity. The construction of Spanish Catholic identity must be recognized as not resulting from a pious or evangelistic instinct but from the collusion of elites to form a religious identity that united the various kingdoms and provinces. The reemergence of tensions between Catalan, Castilian, and Basque identities in the late 20th century, helps shed light on the failure of Christian white supremacy to establish an all-encompassing Spanish identity and harmonious flourishing of a united population (Ferros, 2017). 

Attempts in Spain at the beginning of the 21st century to establish a religiously and racially universalist national identity can be seen as a point of consensus with the biblical vision of one new humanity. The vision of Ephesians 2 does not set itself against other visions of human reconciliation and harmony. On the contrary, restoration of the one new humanity vision as the clearest representation of Christianity offers a more attractive and relevant vision of the church. 

References

by daviddawson462742281

How Critical Race Theory is Received in Europe

Theory of Race and Iberian Christendom, part 4

Lessons From CRT

Du Bois’ gift theory emphasizes the special contributions each race can give to human culture (Farmer & Farmer, 2020). In contrast, Jennings’ depiction of race doesn’t seem open to such a positive potential. Du Bois attributes these gifts to the common experiences of a race of people, which generate characteristics that can be life-giving to global humanity. Jennings’ ORS theory doesn’t seem open to this type of redemptive vision because the modern concept of race is essentially flawed and harmful.

Du Bois’ description of white supremacy as positing that whites are not negatively affected by race in comparison to other races (Farmer & Farmer, 2020) is intriguing. If the white race is burdened with the task of leading the lost non-white cultures of the world to the “lily-white ‘heaven’ of humanity” (Farmer & Farmer, 2020), this is a deeply negative view of human cultures. It is as if the cultures of Europe up to the 3rd century were wiped away as they were baptized into the gospel. This means that whites should reject any part of their culture before the dawn of Christendom. This seems like a good starting point for convincing white European Christians of the terrible implications of white supremacy. 

Bell’s concept of an “idolatrous faith” that sees whiteness as a “property right” to protect is a powerful concept (Golden, 2022). The primordial human instinct of protecting one’s individual and collective status is something hard to deny. Bell describes Christianity as becoming “divorced from its implementation” through this idolatrous faith (Golden, 2022). This is a helpful description of what happened with the advent of supersessionism in Europe which led to the co-opting of the gospel as a pretext for racial domination. 

Bell’s concept of the enduring challenge of racism seems to agree with Jenning’s (2010) notion of the white-black binary. It can be debated whether the white-black binary applies across all cultures in today’s globalized world. But it seems reasonable that the white-black binary is a harmful reality existing in some parts of the world and influencing others. The black-white binary should be recognized if not necessarily eradicated, a la Bell’s racial realism. Bell’s concept of idolatrous faith depicts the “deep cognitive structure” of racism. And his critique of Enlightenment approaches to eradicate racism through reason is compelling (Golden, 2022). Bell’s commentary on the relation between racism and religious structure can convince Christians already wary of the evils of institutionalized religion. 

Williams’ argues convincingly that white US-Americans hold a deep fear of blacks, but the same fear cannot be expected globally to wherever whites and blacks coexist (Scholar, 2006). That said, Willams’ motif of racial fear can be used as a point of reference in dialogues about xenophobic and discriminatory phenomena in other cultures. Her argument for the greater influence of structural factors rather than personal factors as explanation for crime has merit. But caution is needed to avoid using such a notion to relieve individuals of their personal responsibility (Scholar, 2006).

Williams seems more hopeful than Bell in the possibility of real racial justice in the US-American context. She accepts that the color-blind society desired by liberals is impossible without addressing racism (Scholar, 2006). While color-blindness may be a vision to inspire us, in the present Williams argues for putting away fear, seeking accountability, and creatively finding solutions to racial injustice (Scholar, 2006). 

Evaluation of CRT Applied to European Context

Morley (2022) analyzed applications and reactions to CRT in global contexts related to issues such as migration and the environment. She states that “global crises such as migration and climate change are laying bare the persistent impacts of structural racism and colonial subordination around the world”. She sees CRT as offering valuable insights for people involved practically and academically on human rights issues that cross borders. Morley contends that “racial and colonial logics (…) pervade international law and its application”. She sees much benefit in practitioners and scholars working on human rights “centering race, and its connection with empire, in their work” (Morley, 2022). 

Indeed, recent protests of anti-black racism and police brutality in the U.S. have reverberated across the globe. Many groups around the world, including US-Americans, turned to the United Nations Human Rights Council and other international bodies to “seek justice and hold the state accountable for racial justice” (Morley, 2022). The US-American leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement aligned themselves with other “racialized and marginalized” groups around the world, such as Palestinians. Black migrants stranded in Tijuana trying to cross over into the U.S. adopted the phrase “No puedo respirar” (“I can’t breathe”) associating themselves with the “racial logics oppressing black Americans” (Morley, 2022). 

Morley (2020) uses the example of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) which convened in 2019 and 2020 to uncover, “‘how international law originated in and still perpetuates empire,’ a term that encompasses the European colonial powers of the past and the settler- and neo-colonialism of the present day”. The impetus for TWAIL was the Asian-African Bandung Conference convened in 1955 to address “the role of the Third World in the Cold War, economic development, and decolonization”. Questions addressed included: 

whether the decolonization period, and the international law and institutions that have arisen from it, has actually led to the sovereign equality of formerly-colonized states within the international system.! Or is the sovereignty of these Third World states contingent on whether it serves the interests of First World nation-states?. 

One powerful example is as follows: 

The international community legitimized foreign intervention into Libya in part because the Arab League had endorsed it. Yet, the African Union, with which Libya aligned itself, had been advocating for a non-military solution instead of intervention. By reframing Libya as Arab and not African, the international community was able to characterize its intervention as legitimate. Subsequently, when the European Union’s focus shifted to preventing unauthorized African migration, the narrative was again racialized. The migrants were framed as Black Africans moving through Libya, an Arab transit country, to reach Europe. In this context, Europe now sought to partner with Libya to ensure that it enforced its borders and prevented Africans from transiting through the country. (Morley, 2020)  

Moschel (2007) states that CRT has had little attention in the continental European legal world, which up till the early 1990s was under the illusion that racism “belonged to history”. But starting in the 1990s racist or xenophobic events began to occur almost daily in every state within the European Union. Spain and Portugal, not considered to that time as “immigrant nations” were not an exception. This new phenomenon has been termed “new racism”, coinciding with the collapse of Communism and the influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe. The end of communism also meant that liberal, deregulated market economics now spread across the globe initiating the era of globalization. As a result, poorer countries’ economies and societal structures were disrupted leading to increased immigration to Europe. The European nations as well were thrown into a crisis stemming from the breakdown of traditional societal and political structures” which led to insuring and isolation which “transformed into scapegoating of ‘other’ groups” (Moschel, 2007). 

But analysts have posited that Europe and US-America have a measure of difference related to perceptions and histories of race and racism (Moschel, 2007). The concept of racism consisting of a dominant majority that targets other minority groups as being biologically inferior and consolidating this posture into social and political structures is common to both Europe and US-America. Some research posits that racism in the United States is based on the historical construction of discrimination based on skin color in hostility towards Africans, Native Americans, and Asians, applied in the modes of slavery, segregation, and miscegenation (Moschel, 2007).

In Europe, on the other hand, “social fault lines and mechanisms of oppression were often defined in religious terms” (Rubin, 1999). The history of Europe is full of religious holy wars, pogroms, and persecution in which Jews, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims and other religious “others” were discriminated against (Moschel, 2007). In other words, while in US-America color of skin was primordial to racism, in Europe it was mainly connected to the Holocaust and antisemitism. The rejection in Europe of scientific racism during the 1950s and 1960s explains in part why the discourse on racism preferred terms such as “prejudice, intolerance, antisemitism, of xenophobia”. From this perspective, the grounds for explaining racism are cultural differences instead of biological ones (Moschel, 2007). 

In addition to this, Europeans tend to “distance themselves from laws concerning slavery, segregation, miscegenation and the related one-drop of blood rule” (Moschel, 2007). The rationale is that particularly after World War II such racial laws were abolished in Europe, if they ever existed at all. As such, the problems that American racial laws address don’t apply in Europe. As a result, it has been argued that dealing with racism in Europe is harder because there is no “clear legal symbol to fight against”. On the international level, three institutions address legal approaches to racism in Europe: the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the European Union. Then each individual member nation has its own provisions prohibiting racial discrimination in their constitutions. As is the case with many critical legal movements, CRT is focused on national systems resulting in a predominantly internal domestic critique (Moschel, 2007). 

The rigid structure of the law studies in Universities in Europe also represents an obstacle to CRT development (Moschel, 2007). The system is more rigid under strict government control, therefore changes in curriculum and introduction of new courses is much more difficult. Affirmative action in Europe is very underdeveloped, only France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands have significant projects aimed at certain categories of immigrants. Affirmative action is often seen as “positive discrimination” which would violate the principle of equality (Moschel, 2007). 

In Europe, topics of nationality and citizenship generally dominate discussions on race, ethnicity, and immigration because of the European Union (Moschel, 2007). At the core of the vision of the European Union is the notion of equality between citizens of member states. Therefore, what emerges is a bifurcated system with two separate groups with different status based on citizenship within the European Union. Ironically this means that the EU fosters racism in some ways even as it seeks to combat it. One group can travel and work freely while the other need entry and residence visas (Moschel 2007, Levaeau, 2002). 

Analysis of the Spanish Development of Concept of Race

While my context of service is the Iberian diaspora, I will limit a specific national inquiry in this paper to Spain. The combination of political unification and imperial expansion in the 15th century under the patronage of the Catholic Spanish obligated the peoples of Iberia and to face “troubling and enduring questions about national and racial identity” (Feros, 2017). From that time until now, the unification of Spain continues to be provisional with Catalonia still seeking to reaffirm its sovereignty. Therefore, debates about the meaning of the Spanish nation and the identity of its citizens remain constant in the early 21st century, exacerbated by the presence of “foreign” populations such as Jews, Muslims, and Latin Americans. Research into Spanish race relations emphasizes the need to understand how Spanish identity emerged as well as notions of human and cultural diversity in what came to be Spain (Feros, 2017). 

Historically, it has been generally established that Spain was first settled by peoples from the Mediterranean, North Africa, and later by Northern European Celts (Feros, 2017). The impetus for unification came from foreign arrivals – Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, and Visigoths – drawn by the peninsula’s maritime ports, resources, and climate. As the first to gain control of the entire peninsula, the Romans left a profound mark on what they termed “Hispania” – in the form of language, culture, and politics. The invasions of Moors in the early 8th century began a Muslim presence of almost 800 years in Iberia and one ended in 1492 with the complete conquest of Granada by the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabela. The result was the imposition of Catholicism as the single religion on the entire Iberian Peninsula, seen as the “bond that would force all its inhabitants to see themselves as members of one community” (Feros, 2017).

Nevertheless, for all the history of the Iberian Peninsula, there has been a “prolonged contest between distinct visions of the nation and the patria” (Feros, 2017). In Spain, the controversy was whether the monarch’s subjects should view it as their fatherland or Catalonia, Valencia, or Castile. This contestation was contested during the entire early modern period and into the nineteenth century. However, whereas in Britain and much of the rest of Europe the dispute was over different forms of Christianity, in Spain Catholicism reigned supreme, politics and culture being the point of contestation there (Feros, 2017). 

Some Spanish historians agree with the ORS hypothesis that the definition of race emerged through the invention of the Spain as the “ideal nation or race, with laudable origins and exemplary physical and mental characteristics, preserved immaculately across time and space” (Feros, 2017). Spanish-ness was composed of traits and qualities that separated the Spanish from other nations – Europeans but most of all Jews, Arabs, American natives, and Africans who lived in Spain’s colonies (Feros, 2017). 

Sociological research into Spanish identity today points to the fact that all the identities or nations of the Iberian Peninsula were invented – Catalan, Castilian, Basque, and Portuguese. The construction of the Spanish nation was based on the “collaboration between the elites and peoples of the various kingdoms and provinces, a shared quest for those elements that unified rather than differentiated” (Feros, 2017). It was this conception that motivated the constitution of Cádiz in 1812, where all regional differences were subsumed in an “all-encompassing Spanish identity and nation”. But today this idea is questioned with the rise in the 1990s of xenophobic attacks against immigrants of Arab and Latin American origin. Whereas until the 1980s Spain was more an exporter than recipient of immigrants, thereafter it came to have similar numbers to that of France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, all countries with larger overall populations (Feros, 2017). 

Considering debates regarding racism in Spain, as well as Catalan independence, most scholars and journalists invoke the absence of racialist theories during the early modern period in the country (Feros, 2017). Both Spanish and foreign scholars have sought to reinvent Spain as a “racial paradise for Jews and Muslims, (…) Native Americans and Africans”. This has been the predominant discourse of Spaniards from the 18th to 20th centuries, a national identity as “religiously and racially universalist”. But recent sociological research indicates that such interpretations “go against the weight of historical evidence”, showing the early modern Spaniards did not believe in “the equality of distinct peoples” nor did they defend the need of “uniting all of these peoples through racial mixture”. The ideal of “Convivencia between Christians, Jews, and Moriscos” didn’t exist during the Medieval period nor the early modern. The way forward for racial unity in Spain has been posited as substitution the “imposition of uniformity” with the recognition and acceptance of ethnic and cultural difference” (Feros, 2017). 

References

by daviddawson462742281

Supersessionism and Indigenization in Iberian Christendom, pt 6

Conclusion

We have seen some of the key factors in the growth of Iberian Catholicism in the American colonies. The evangelistic methods used and the strategies for ecclesiastical structures were effective to sustain growth over time. I have argued that promoting mission as intercultural reconciliation among the Iberian diaspora requires a reckoning with its Christian foundations, renouncing supersessionism and building upon indigenization. Supersessionism was crucial during the early modern phase of Iberian missions and contributed to the cultures that form the Iberian diaspora today. This is true even for those who do not profess Catholic faith because the church’s influence on the Iberian cultures is unavoidable. But I contend that Iberian Catholic legacy should not be rejected but built upon. I have emphasized the value of the indigenization that occurred in the early phase of Catholic missions in the Americas. This indigenization emerged from the openness of some missionaries and some indigenous peoples to a new form of Christianity. Perhaps most of the missionaries saw native cultures as contributing nothing of value to Christian faith and practice. It is likely that most of the indigenous communities of the American colonies would describe their experience as being dispossessed, forcibly converted, and reinvented by colonial masters. 

I believe the primary impetus for the darkest elements of Iberian Catholic missions in the Americas was supersessionism. White Europeans appropriated the ancient messianic hope of the Jewish people, a dispossessed people powerless to oppose this offense. While it is true that Jesus fulfilled the promise that Israel would bless all nations, he never intended to start a new religion. Supersessionism presents Christianity as a universal message of salvation through faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for the sins of humanity. Iberian missionaries were correct in communicating the gift of salvation in Christ, but they erred in embodying the vision of the one new man. The message of reconciliation required the role of Israel as God’s chosen people so that no other nation could claim supremacy in the Kingdom of Christ. It was the exclusion of the special identity of Israel in salvation history that laid the grounds for Christian white supremacy. And this toxic vision fueled and justified the terrorizing colonial project. 

I believe that the heirs of Iberian Catholicism and the institutional forms that still exist should not be rejected but built upon. The indigenizing phenomenon is a wonderful part of Iberian Catholicism and should be celebrated. Mission as intercultural reconciliation is a vision that can honor the legacy of Iberian Catholicism. My hope is that the one new man vision can attract a new generation from the Iberian diaspora to the Spirit’s work today. By honoring Israel as the elder brother, the churches of every Gentile culture can find their place as part of the fulfillment of the one new man. This is the mystery Paul referred to: 

In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. (New International Version, 2011, Eph. 3:4-6) 

by daviddawson462742281

Supersessionism and Indigenization in Iberian Christendom, pt 5

Mission as Intercultural Reconciliation in the Iberian Diaspora

As explained earlier in this research, my focus is to promote mission as intercultural reconciliation (MIR). In this series of texts, we have seen how the Catholic Church and the Iberian states mutually established each other’s legitimacy in the colonizing project. And this legitimacy stemmed from the spiritual prestige attributed to both. More than in any other European states, the occupation of high ecclesiastical positions validated the ruling elites of Spain and Portugal. The early colonial era was a time of Spanish and Portuguese exceptionalism (Yun-Casalilla, 2019). The Spanish nobility became the center of European Catholic nobility and its marital market. The Iberian colonizers were exceptionally good at reproducing political structures wedded to Catholicism in the American colonies. And aspects of the ecclesiastical structures that emerged in these colonies both inhibited and promoted the indigenization of Latin-American Catholicism (Yun-Casalilla, 2019). 

Although the Protestant lands also adhered to supersessionism, the fragmentation into several churches meant that they could not represent the “people of God” like Spain and Portugal did. Therefore, proponents of mission as intercultural reconciliation in the Iberian diaspora today face a specific type of supersessionist legacy. The Anglo-Saxon and Continental European Protestantism developed a supersessionism expressed primarily in doctrine. Protestants hammered out supersessionist ideology in centuries of polemics against the Jewish foil. But the Iberian supersessionism didn’t depend primarily on theological argument, but on the prestige and authority of the Catholic Church.

The fact that this prestige had been wounded during the Protestant Reformation gave a particular stridency to Iberian Catholicism’s supersessionism. And the culmination of the Reconquista against the Moors in 1492 strengthened the Iberian Catholic kingdom’s claim to primordial representation of the people of God. The European castles of the Medieval era – most of which were Catholic – have been considered the greatest artistic accomplishment in human history (Hoje Falamos de Notre-Dame, Não Do Nosso Senhor – Contra-Corrente, n.d.). Therefore, proponents of MIR must recognize the prestige of Catholicism in the collective imagination of the Iberian diaspora. This problematizes confronting the cultural appropriation by the West of an ancient Semitic folk religion. The ancient messianic hope of the Jewish people was seized, universalized, and institutionalized by what became European Christendom. Although the message was universal, i.e., for all peoples, white Western Europeans were the idealized heirs called to catechize the nations into Catholic culture. 

But despite supersessionism, there is much evidence that the Spirit of God was at work in the Iberian Catholic missions in the Americas. Natives were groomed for clerical functions and the task of evangelism (Hsia, 2017). And perhaps by targeting elites in these efforts, indigenous agency in the development of theology and worship was fostered. At the top of the Catholic hierarchy the theological premises of supersessionism validated the supremacy of the white European colonizer. But at the grassroots level, the experience of most indigenous members of the missions the experience of Catholicism was predominantly native not Spanish or Portuguese. The translation of Scripture into native languages using the printing press was intended to regulate the communication of the Catholic message. However, what ended up happening was the production of native Christian texts with variant versions of biblical motifs and narratives (Hsia, 2017). 

Drawing from the History of Indigenous Agency

Proponents of MIR in the Iberian diaspora can draw from the history of indigenous agency in the Americas. Unconventional teachings and practices should not be seen as resulting from an inability to understand Christian doctrine, or a desire to distort it. Rather, we should honor the helpful ways the natives reinterpreted biblical content to suit their needs. The fact that many natives found refuge from Iberian conquistadores should also be considered (Sarreal, 2014). The missions were built through a collaboration of various religious orders and native agency. By the 18th century the missions consisted of multi-generational residents steeped in this way of life. Promoting MIR among Latin American Catholics today requires understanding the two sources of the mission culture that develop. Both the missionaries and the indigenous peoples made biological, technological, organizational, and theological contributions (Sarreal, 2014). It can be argued that without the missions indigenous language and customs would have been eradicated by Iberian colonization (Sarreal, 2014). 

I have discussed the disastrous effects of disease and the imposition of social norms that violated indigenous cultures, particularly among nomadic indigenous communities (Jackson, 2015). This testimony should inform proponents of MIR regarding the damage a supersessionsist evangelistic supremacy can cause. In some contexts, the reconciliation of cultures faces a shorter “gap”, perhaps illustrated by the more fruitful reception of the gospel among the sedentary indigenous communities. But MIR practitioners must recognize when the space between cultures requires relatively greater time, patience, and Spirit-led ingenuity. 

We have also seen how indigenous resistance to evangelization fueled the passions of missionary efforts in mostly negative ways (Rivett, 2014). Opposition to the gospel was interpreted as evidence of demonic influence instead of resistance to incarceration in reducciones (Rivett, 2014). MIR offers a vision of Christian witness that seeks to see the operation of the Spirit in other cultures, even in other religions, according to the promise of the witness of the Spirit throughout the earth (John 16:8-11). 

We have seen research indicating the depth and vibrancy of scientific, technological, geographical, and anthropological work being done on the Iberian Catholic missions in the Americas (Rivett, 2014). This has been posited as contradicting the center-periphery dichotomy between European urban metropolis and primitive rural colonies (Rivett, 2014). MIR appreciates this motif in the history of missions as it engages the reversal of roles in world Christianity. MIR advocates should avoid the center-periphery perspective that has categorized much analysis of colonial missions. This caricature has omitted the agency and contributions of the majority indigenous membership of the missions. There was much oppression and subjugation by missionaries towards indigenous peoples. But the missionaries also arrived during a time of liminal turmoil among the indigenous cultures of the Americas.

Again, we must ask ourselves what the fate of these communities would have been if Iberian colonizers were not accompanied by Catholic missionaries? The point here is that MIR proposes a view of the global work of God that breaks forth across the globe. The Spirit’s work has consistently upended the status quo of Christian predominance and leadership on the world stage. MIR is flexible regarding national loyalties and is primarily concerned with identifying where the Spirit is at work and collaborating with it. When the center of the Spirit’s most vibrant activity shifts from the metropolis to the “periphery”, MIR is ready to learn from new cultural loci of Christian leadership. 

Lastly, the effectiveness of the missions’ organization of space, surveillance, and communication can be seen as either oppressive (Foucault, 1986) or cultivating. MIR recognizes that Christian doctrine has been denounced as a means for governing the soul through the rite confession and a consciousness of the all-seeing eye of God (Foucault, 2003). MIR rejects all forms of Christian surveillance and management which characterizes “ministry” that seeks to exploit and dispossess the cultural other and occupy their land (Zavala-Pelayo, 2020). On the other hand, we see in the story of Iberian missions in the Americas the careful planning of communities that had a sort of beauty. Can we say that the reducciónes were beautiful? We have seen accounts of the carefully planned streets and blocks, each house with its own orchard and garden, the house of the priest, the farmlands, and livestock spaces (Zavala-Pelayo, 2020). We have seen the vast networks of communication, map making, and land administration the missionaries promoted. MIR does not consider all forms of organization and structure in evangelistic efforts as oppressive. God can call members of his church to cross national and continental frontiers to bless other peoples in His name. This cross-cultural witness and service can include administrative and governmental work, if it defers to local authority. MIR seeks to act as a guest enjoying the hospitality of the host people of the land, which does not preclude helping build institutions of governance.

References

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).

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

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

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 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

Lessons from Latin America on Secularism and Religious Pluralism

Towards an Ecumenical Vision?

Escobar (2012) describes the Crisis of Christendom in Latin America during the 20th century in which “vigorous minorities committed to evangelize” have challenged the Catholic status quo (p. 175). Dillon (2015) describes a similar situation in the U.S., where religious affiliation in the U.S. has declined in its “social desirability, or, and, in the actual relevance of religious affiliation” (p. 346). Although the historical foundations of US-America and Latin America are different, they share the common experience of a decline in Christendom. The first wave of challenge to Catholic supremacy in Latin America came with elites who favored the influence of Protestant missionaries as a means of promoting democracy and pluralism (Escobar, 2012, p. 176). The second challenge to the Christian status quo in Latin America came through the growth of Pentecostals, especially among the poor. Escobar (2012) describes Pentecostalism as “a movement coming ‘from below’, with its own religious and social dynamism and great expansive power” (p. 178). The rise from 5% to 15% of the US-American population affirming Pentecostal affiliation (Jacobsen, 2015, p. 208-9) since the 1950s shows the dynamism of this movement in that nation as well. 

The growth of Protestantism in Latin America during the second part of the 20th century was part of the larger phenomenon of a “massive exodus” from the Catholic Church whose centuries old form was “unable to cope with the challenges of the fast pace of social change” (Escobar, 2012, p. 177). And although the Catholic Church tried to these demands, such as with an emphasis on the marginalized poor, the poor themselves opted for Pentecostalism (Escobar, 2012, p. 178). Jacobsen (2015) describes the waves of growing Pentecostalism in US-America as reflecting the “increasing emphasis placed on experience instead of theology in almost all American churches” (p. 209). 

The growth of Pentecostalism in Latin America and the Catholic church’s response indicates the nuanced approach needed when Christianity attempts to follow the culture. While some adjustments of theology and practice have been fruitful throughout church history, some have not. Another way to view the matter of adjusting to culture is to be realistic about the results that may come. Whereas some Catholic faithful welcomed the new focus on the poor, others still found it to be too institutionally centered. This is perhaps an example of where a particular church must realize that its attempts at contextualization cannot impede people from opting for another church’s approach. An ecumenical vision that accepts God’s work through the diversity of Christian expression helps the different churches avoid discouragement and competition. 

Lessons from a Marginalized Christianity

The trend in US-America shows a different type of individualism since the 1960s expressed in a “culture of freedom and critique rather than of conformity and deference to external authority” (Dillon, 2015, p. 351). And more recently, the millennial generation has been described as “a generation of tinkerers” that adhere to a “mosaic of diverse beliefs and practices that is characteristic of the religiously affiliated and non-affiliated” (Dillon, 2015, p. 354). Particularly among younger US-Americans, the preference to be called spiritual than religious or to embrace double belonging to multiple religions indicates a “newly diverse and spiritually fuzzy landscape” (Jacobsen, 2015, p. 212). 

The challenge of the Christian status quo is present in Europe, North and South America regarding Catholic and Protestant opposition to same-sex relations (Dillon, 2015, p. 357-8). In contrast, although abortion attitudes vary much within the US-American Christian population, they have proven to be “highly stable over time” showing little variation among generations. Dillon (2015) interprets this phenomenon as indicating that “moral issues raise moral and value questions for individuals irrespective of religious identity and affiliation status” (p. 361). 

It seems that the Latin American Christian situation can inform the similar US-American situation of reduced centrality of Christianity in culture and society (Dillon, 2015, p. 363). There are significant demographic differences, such as the Latin American division between rich and poor versus the US-American fragmentation of diverse ethno-political interests. But the Latin American Catholic church’s two-pronged approach to cultural change is a lesson for US-American Christianity. Latin American Catholicism has attempted to change where necessary at the same time as it retains many foundational doctrines of the Christian faith. The decline of mainline US-American denominations can be interpreted as resting in part from the undermining of biblical authority which gives a sense of security and identity to its members.  

References

Dillon, Michelle. (2015). Christian Affiliation and Disaffiliation in the United States: Generational and Cultural Change. 

Escobar, Samuel. (2012). Christianity in Latin America Changing Churches in a Changing Continent. In C.E. Farhadian (Ed.), Introducing World Christianity (1st Ed., pp. 171-185). Blackwell Publishing. 

Jacobsen, Douglas. (2015). North America. In Global Gospel.