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RACIONALIDADE, VONTADE, PROPENSÃO NATURAL DO NATIVO AMERICANO PARA O BEM EM BARTOLOMEU DE LAS CASAS: O MÉTODO E O MESTRE FORMADOR

2020; Universidad de Los Lagos; Volume: 7; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

0719-4706

José Joaquím Pereira Melo, Christina Aparecida dos Santos,

Religion and Society in Latin America

The discovery of the American continent by the Spaniards in the last decade of the 15th century has been marked by conflicts between different people and by uncertainties that brought about several issues particularly with regard to the natives´ rationality and the manner they should be treated and Christianized. Bartolomeu de Las Casas (1474-1566) always defended the existence of innate rationality that would make easier the natives´ formation. He designed an educational method that would be adequate for their Christianization and for their submission to the order that was being established. His method required that, among other attributes, the teacher would understand the acquisition of knowledge by rational beings and acknowledge that free will would be encouraged so that their intelligence would be employed. Instead of violence and coercion, the teacher should underscore sweetness, amiability, softness and meekness; he should live a correct life and have good speech. According to the concept of free will and the natural propensity of the natives for goodness to urge them on adequately, teachers would establish the necessary conditions so that they would accept the faith and the Christian religion and, by extension, submission to the colonizers. The aim of current discussion is an investigation on the teaching and learning method suggested by Las Casas. So that one would understand his method, current analysis investigated his book called On the only way to draw all people to the true Faith, considered to be the main reference for the study of a pliable way to attract native Americans to the Christian faith.