Latest / Homebrewed Christianity
Empire Hard, Empire Soft: Joerg Rieger on Las Casas and the Conquest That Learned to Be Nice
This is the fourth live Q&A for The Christ Empire Couldn't Keep, and this week we're in the Americas with Bartolomé de las Casas — Joerg's pick over Martin Luther for the Reformation-era chapter, and the hinge of the whole course. Here's why. Las Casas owned an encomienda. He had Native people working for him. He was, in Joerg's words, a slave driver. Then he woke up, gave the land away, freed the people, and spent the rest of his life arguing against the conquest. Gustavo Gutiérrez read him as a precursor to liberation theology, and when Joerg got into the sources, he thought: not so fast…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.