Human Sacrifice : Religious Act or Vicious Desire?: Testing the Limits of Tolerance with Vitoria and Las Casas
Tolerance is often considered a modern social development. However, a robust, if distinctly unmodern, concept of tolerance can be found in the work of Thomas Aquinas. The object of tolerance is a perceived evil which is endured for the sake of averting a greater evil. The paper explores how the conc...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2017
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| In: |
Journal of Early Modern Christianity
Year: 2017, Volume: 4, Issue: 2, Pages: 227-261 |
| RelBib Classification: | BR Ancient religions of the Americas CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations KAE Church history 900-1300; high Middle Ages KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history NCA Ethics |
| Further subjects: | B
Temperance
B Human Sacrifice B Natural Law B Tolerance B virtue of religion |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Tolerance is often considered a modern social development. However, a robust, if distinctly unmodern, concept of tolerance can be found in the work of Thomas Aquinas. The object of tolerance is a perceived evil which is endured for the sake of averting a greater evil. The paper explores how the concept of tolerance which Bartolomé de las Casas and Francisco de Vitoria inherited from Thomas Aquinas was deployed and stretched in response to the Amerindian cult of human sacrifice. Both Spanish Dominicans concur in regarding human sacrifice as an evil act, but they base their judgment on different principles. Las Casas interprets human sacrifice as a question of religion. Vitoria considers it a question of temperance. The result is that Las Casas counsels toleration of the practice, whereas Vitoria justifies military intervention on behalf of the innocent. |
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| ISSN: | 2196-6656 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Early Modern Christianity
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/jemc-2017-0008 |