Africans in Spanish Catholic Thought, 1568–1647

Abstract

In this article I examine the theological milieu of the Society of Jesus during the early modern era. I argue that Spanish Jesuit theologians and chroniclers in the Americas and the Philippine Islands conceptualized Africans, whether enslaved or free, not so much as potential members of the Church but as threats to the Church. By identifying the Jesuits’ latent theology about Africans during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, I attempt to move the scholarly conversation about Jesuit–African interactions beyond hagiographical accounts surrounding Alonso de Sandoval, S.J. and Pedro Claver, S.J.

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