Luther and Las Casas: Coloniality, Theology, and the Concept of the Human

Much scholarship relating to theology’s colonial legacies has focused on Catholic and particularly Iberian discussions relating to the European encounter with and violent conquest of the Américas, such as the papal bulls of donation or the debates at Valladolid. Comparatively less scholarship has examined the extent to which the Protestant reformers developed discursive and theological concerns that intersect or overlap with those of the Catholic theologies of colonialism. This paper proposes to examine the theologies of two theological contemporaries, Martin Luther (1483-1546) and Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484-1566), in order to explore possibilities for foregrounding colonial discourses as transcending denominations and therefore constituting broader intra-European theological concerns. Examining works such as Luther’s *Dass Jesus Christus ein geborener Jude sei (That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew)* and Las Casas’ *Del Único Modo de Atraer a los Pueblos a la Verdadera Religión (The Only Way of Attracting All the Peoples to the True Religion)* in conversation reveals similar concerns regarding the theological and political status of non-Christians, the rhetorical and political strategies for projects of conversion and catechesis, and shared conceptions of the human more generally. This paper seeks to contribute a fuller understanding to the extent to which Protestant reformers such as Luther, despite their apparent historical remove from projects of colonialism, might have contributed to the broader epistemological, political, and indeed, theological conditions for Protestant coloniality in the 17th century and later.