Colonialism, Christ, Capitalism: Reformation, Christianities, and the Advent of Modernity

3 credits · Divinity School

The period popularly known as "Reformation in Europe" also overlapped with the birth and expansion of the early modern Empires: Spain, Portugal, England, France, and the Dutch Republic. This class transcends the boundaries between religious, political and economic history, with particular attention to the development of theologies of salvation among the Catholic and Protestants; articulation and defense of racial hierarchies encoded within Christian theo-grammar; and justification and promotion of capital and goods for the dual sake of Empire and Ecclesia. In so doing, the class will serve the purpose of contextualizing the currently popular concepts of colonialism, capitalism, and critique of religious nationalism. Key texts will be drawn from both Catholic and Protestant traditions, as well as from materials pertaining to the racial and religious Others from the "New World." [3]