The Freedom of the Gospel: Aquinas, Subversive Natural Law, and the Spanish Wars of Religion (original) (raw)

This article responds to the recent challenge directed at the Thomistic tradition for ignoring the modern/colonial problem of race by claiming that the Spanish conquests in the New World precipitated a critical debate about religious coercion centered on the permissibility of using war and slavery to convert Amerindians. It argues that key Dominican theologians (Domingo de Soto and Bartolome de las Casas) trained in Thomistic commentary categorically rejected medieval/early modern justifications for religious wars by appealing to an apostolic ethic of evangelization grounded in the scholastic tradition of natural law. The result was an unprecedented defense of human equality and natural rights protecting the spiritual and political freedom of Amerindian peoples.