Finally! Vatican Repudiates Doctrine of Discovery

Major religious news came through on Thursday, March 30.  The Vatican has finally put distance between itself and the three treacherous papal bulls of the 15^th century promulgated by two popes that in effect granted carte blanche permission for “Christian nations” to rape indigenous cultures with impunity because they were not Christian.  A horrible chapter in church and religious history, finally disowned.

Some of the awakening in the Vatican occurred when Pope Francis made his trip to Canada this past year and met with some indigenous leaders who brought up the topic with him.

I have brought it up in many of my writings including my recent book on Julian of Norwich.  The Doctrine of Discovery after all was premised on the theology of fall and redemption that ignores a theology of the goodness of creation such as Julian espoused.  Thus, in my book on her, I pose the question this way:

What if, instead of demanding redemption of non-Christian peoples in Africa and the Americas, the European explorers had put the goodness of creation at the forefront of their spirituality?  How different would history have been if Julian’s religious vision which leads with the goodness of creation prompted the encounters between Europe and indigenous peoples the worldover? 

And I present a challenge to the theology behind the Doctrine of Discovery. 

Let’s be blunt. Though Augustine laid the groundwork for it in the fourth century with his misbegotten, unbiblical, and un-Jewish concept of original sin, the ascendency of the related doctrines of the fall and redemption in Western Christianity took flight with the bubonic plague. (The East rejected original sin outright.) This version of Christianity was a religion of fear, not trust; of anthropocentrism, not creation; of dominance, not love and compassion. These “doctrines” gave power to Christian kings and queens to confiscate lands and enslave peoples in Africa and the “New World” soon called the Americas. A fall/redemption theology was at the heart of this imperial conquest by “Christian” potentates.

Like a wildfire, with heat and high winds fanning the blaze, the doctrine of discovery spread over the next century with the Protestant reformers and the egotistical and “neurotic” (Stendahl) and introverted question “Am I saved?” that Protestantism preached and Roman Catholicism sold.  This religion took western Christianity far off track—a detour away from love of creation and recognizing nature as a source of revelation and the divine, which Hildegard, Francis, Aquinas, Eckhart, and Julian espouse.  

To be continued

Adapted from Matthew Fox, Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic—and Beyond, pp. xxxviii, 114ff.

To read a transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.

Banner image: “A Metis family poses with their Red River carts in a field in western North Dakota. (1883) “
The Metis were among the indigenous groups who met with the Pope in 2022. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Queries for Contemplation

How are you going to celebrate this awakening by the Vatican to the rights and dignity of indigenous peoples everywhere and its admission of bad religious teachings?

Recommended Reading

Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic–and Beyond

Julian of Norwich lived through the dreadful bubonic plague that killed close to 50% of Europeans. Being an anchoress, she ‘sheltered in place’ and developed a deep wisdom that she shared in her book, Showings, which was the first book in English by a woman. A theologian way ahead of her time, Julian develops a feminist understanding of God as mother at the heart of nature’s goodness. Fox shares her teachings in this powerful and timely and inspiring book.
“What an utterly magnificent book. The work of Julian of Norwich, lovingly supported by the genius of Matthew Fox, is a roadmap into the heart of the eco-spiritual truth that all life breathes together.”  –Caroline Myss
Now also available as an audiobook HERE.