A Violent Evangelism: The Political and Religious Conquest of the Americas / Edition 1

by Luis N. Rivera

Overview

In this thought-provoking book, Luis Rivera argues that evangelical reasoning and symbolism were appropriated to justify the armed seizure of people and land in the New World and to validate the conversion, peaceful or forced, of the natives. He recaptures the sixteenth-century political debates—where priests and theologians are both voices of dissent against the Spanish military conquest and fervent defenders of it. Rivera contrasts "discovery" and conquest and examines the tragic outcome: demographic collapse—from the islands Columbus first sighted to the Inca empire in Peru.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780664253677
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	09/01/1992
Edition description:	1st ed
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.84(d)
Lexile:	1520L (what's this?)

About the Author

Luis N. Rivera is Henry Winters Luce Professor Emeritus of Ecumenics and Mission at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.

Editorial Reviews

Rivera (humanities, Univ. of Puerto Rico) recontructs the 16th-century debate about the European appropriation of the New World. He chronicles the development of the questionable theology used to justify the overthrow of indigenous American peoples. As a counterweight to the rationalizations of conquest--the bestiality of the natives, the universal authority of the Church--Rivera repeatedly invokes Bartolome de Las Casas's passionate defense of the ``Indians,'' which anticipates some of the major arguments and concerns of contemporary liberation theology. Rivera's powerful critique of the Whig interpretation of Columbus's voyage is enhanced by his careful marshaling of documentary evidence and by his restrained tone. The book deserves a prominent place in the crowded field of works addressing the Columbus quincentenary. For academic and larger public libraries.-- Steve Gowler, Wofford Coll. Lib., Spartanburg, S.C.

Library Journal