SOURCE: "Aboriginal Cultures and the Christ," in Theological Studies, Vol. 53, No. 2, June, 1992, pp. 288–312.

In the following excerpt, Starkloff presents Las Casas as a model for a "culturally sensitive " approach to promoting Christian faith.

Our model for a cultural Christology for mission among aboriginal peoples originates historically in the campaign of the great apologist for the Amerindians, Bartolomé de las Casas (1474–1566). There has been so much discussion of him, especially during the recent controversies over the Columbus quincentennial, that there would hardly seem to be anything more to say. But his political and theological writings do indeed help open the way to a Christology for aboriginal cultures.

Las Casas's life is becoming better known with contemporary historical writing, but it may be helpful here to mention the high points of that long and dramatic life. Las Casas came to "the new world" about one decade after Columbus's first voyage...