God at work in spite of the Doctrine of Discovery
November is mission month. Help us
celebrate what God is doing in the
world and how God calls us to share
the good news with others. Here
are some tools to plan a Mission
Sunday celebration. We hope you’ll
find them helpful.
What is the Doctrine of Discovery?
God is doing amazing things in our world! Look around you: God is at work
in our neighborhoods around the world. Despite the tragedies of the past
and present, God is in both the suffering and the life-giving moments.
This Mission Sunday, we’ll explore how God works in spite of the
Doctrine of Discovery, and more broadly, hatred in the name of Christ. Join
us as we repent of past and present violence, and celebrate the diversity of
God’s kingdom.
It started with the early explorers. They were accompanied by priests
with the goal of bringing Christianity to the New World from Spain in
1492. The Papal Bull “Inter Caetera,” issued by Pope Alexander VI a year
later, played a central role in the Spanish conquest of this New World. The
document supported Spain’s strategy to ensure its exclusive right to the lands
“discovered” by Columbus. This philosophy has become the primary world
view of colonization, domination, exploitation, and Christianization of the
world by people of Western European origins for the past 500 years. At its
core is the claim that all land not settled by European Christians is available
for their development and settlement, and that those people currently living
on and using the land have no claim of ownership or rights of use.
Even as late as 1823, this “Papal Bull,” called the Doctrine of Discovery,
was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court in a series of decisions.
Chief Justice John Marshall justified the way in which colonial powers laid
claim to lands belonging to foreign sovereign nations. The doctrine has been
primarily used to support decisions invalidating or ignoring indigenous
and aboriginal possession of land in favor of colonial or post-colonial
governments into the present.
Additional resources