Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Marco Ornelas
Edición Español-Inglés
Spanish-English Edition
2020
Sociología histórica del cristianismo
(Ensayos sobre historia cultural)
Marco Ornelas
Edición Español-Inglés
Spanish-English Edition
2020
1
Primera edición/ First Edition, 2020.
2
Contenido/ Contents
Prólogo de Jaap den Hollander..........................................................................................5
Foreword by Jaap den Hollander....................................................................................23
Prefacio del autor...............................................................................................................39
Author’s Preface................................................................................................................41
1. Dissidentia (Español)...................................................................................................43
1. Dissidentia (English)....................................................................................................55
Referencias/ References...............................................................................................65
2. Comunicación apocalíptica cristiana: una mirada sociológica ..............................67
2. Christian Apocalyptic Communication: A Sociological Outlook.........................81
Referencias/ References...............................................................................................94
3. El don de lenguas como kriya: la conexión hinduista............................................99
3. Speaking-in-Tongues as Kriya: The Hindu Connection.......................................125
Referencias/ References.............................................................................................147
4. Misiología anglosajona que observa: relaciones entre ciencia y religión en la
sociedad moderna, 1859-1920.......................................................................................151
4. Observing Anglo-Saxon Missiology: On the Relations between Science and
Religion in Modern Society, 1859-1920.....................................................................187
Referencias/ References.............................................................................................220
5. La Historia verdadera: monólogo historiográfico y metaficción polifónica. . .223
5. The True History: Historiographic Monologue and Polyphonic Metafiction...241
Referencias/ References.............................................................................................258
6. Entre el cielo y la tierra: el laicismo estatal en México.......................................261
6. Between Heaven and Earth: State-Laicism in Mexico.........................................271
Referencias/ References.............................................................................................281
7. Cuauhtémoc y Chief Joseph: semánticas cristianas de misión y el indigenismo
protestantizado en México.............................................................................................283
7. Cuauhtémoc and Chief Joseph: Mission Christian Semantics and Protestantized
Indigenismo in Mexico...................................................................................................293
Referencias/ References.............................................................................................301
Posfacio: Cristianismo y complejidad moderna.........................................................303
Postface: Christianity and Modern Complexity.........................................................315
Sobre el autor/ About the Author.................................................................................327
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(Página en blanco/ Blank page)
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Prólogo de Jaap den Hollander1
Introducción
Me siento honrado por la invitación del autor para escribir el prólogo de este libro, tanto
más por cuanto que no nos hemos conocido en persona. Nos conocemos por el Internet
debido a nuestro mutuo interés en la obra de Niklas Luhmann y por los correos que hemos
intercambiado sobre la relación entre nuestras respectivas disciplinas, la sociología y la
historia. Nos hemos preguntado, por ejemplo, si tiene sentido buscar los orígenes de la
sociedad moderna como la define Luhmann, como una sociedad basada en la diferenciación
de subsistemas funcionales tales como la religión, la política, el derecho, la economía, la
ciencia o el arte. Como posible estudio de caso nos preguntamos si la Controversia sobre
las Investiduras entre el Emperador y el Papa (año 1100 de nuestra era) pudo haber
desatado el proceso de diferenciación.2 Este asunto ha sido debatido largamente por
sociólogos e historiadores alemanes y está lejos de haberse resuelto del todo.3 Parece ser
que el problema es que la teoría de Luhmann no permite explicaciones históricas en
términos de causas y orígenes, lo que nos lleva de vuelta al problema más amplio de la
relación entre la historia y la sociología.
1 Jaap den Hollander es Profesor Emérito en el Departmento de Historia de la Universidad de
Groningen, Holanda. Sus áreas de especialidad incluyen la historia contemporánea, la filosofía
de la historia y la teoría de sistemas sociales. Email: j.c.den.hollander@rug.nl La traducción
española es de Marco Ornelas.
2 Idea respaldada por el conocido medievalista Joseph R. Strayer, al menos para la
diferenciación entre religión y política. Véase su On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State
(Princeton, NJ; Princeton University Press, 1970), 22: “Como todas las victorias, la victoria de
la iglesia en el Conflicto sobre las Investiduras tuvo consecuencias imprevistas. Al afirmar su
carácter único, al separarse tan claramente de los gobiernos laicos, la iglesia inconscientemente
afinó los conceptos sobre la naturaleza secular de la autoridad. Las definiciones y los
argumentos pueden variar pero el gregoriano más militante tuvo que admitir que la iglesia no
podía desarrollar todas las funciones políticas, que los gobernantes laicos eran necesarios y
tenían una esfera en la que debían operar. Podían estar sujetos a la orientación y corrección de la
iglesia pero no eran parte de su estructura administrativa. Los gobernantes laicos encabezaban
otro tipo de organización para la que no existía todavía un término genérico. En resumen, el
concepto gregoriano de iglesia casi demandó la invención del concepto de Estado. Y lo hizo tan
enfáticamente que escritores modernos encuentran extremadamente difícil evitar describir el
Conflicto sobre las Investiduras como un conflicto entre la iglesia y el Estado ”.
3 Karl Gabriel, Christel Gärtner, Detlef Pollack, ed. Umstrittene Säkularisierung. Soziologische
und historische Analysen zur Differenzierung von Religion und Politik (Berlin; Berlin University
Press, 2012). Muy bueno ahí mismo desde un punto de vista sociológico: Hartmann Tyrell,
“Investiturstreit und gesellschaftliche Differenzierung – Überlegungen aus soziologischer Sicht”,
39-77.
5
Lo que las dos disciplinas tienen en común es su ambición de entender la sociedad como un
todo. El resto de las ciencias sociales y humanidades, con excepción tal vez de la
antropología, se concentra en una actividad o dominio social específico. En vista del
tamaño de la tarea, las dos disciplinas tienen que recurrir a una variadísima especialización.
Ambas reflejan de hecho la diferenciación funcional de la sociedad moderna con un
impresionante rango de subdisciplinas que va desde la sociología de la religión a la historia
del arte. El problema es cómo integrar todo este conocimiento especial. En este punto
debemos encarar las diferencias. Puesto de manera llana, los historiadores escriben
narrativas mientras que los sociólogos desarrollan teorías. El criterio para comparar los dos
métodos es el tiempo, en tanto y en cuanto las teorías adoptan un enfoque sincrónico
mientras las narrativas echan mano de un enfoque diacrónico. Parece obvio combinar los
dos enfoques, en particular cuando se estudia un tópico como la evolución social. Pero esta
no es la manera en que Luhmann lo entiende, ya que él se mantiene deliberadamente
distante de las narrativas históricas como se muestra en el siguiente pasaje:
Ellos [los historiadores] combinan la narración con la explicación causal con la
condición de hacer justicia a las fuentes disponibles. Ninguna teoría de la evolución
social puede o quiere competir con esto. Desde una perspectiva sociológica y en
especial desde un análisis teórico-sistémico, las explicaciones causales son tan
difíciles que no son aconsejables en el nivel de proposiciones teóricas generales. Y en
cuanto a la narración, el sociólogo carece de talento para improvisar.4
La teoría de la evolución social de Luhmann tiene mucho que ofrecer desde un punto de
vista sincrónico, ya que proporciona una buena descripción de cada uno de los tipos de
sociedades que distingue. En lo que se queda corta es en lo que a diacronía se refiere, pues
deja en la oscuridad la transición entre tipos de sociedades. Esto trae a la memoria las
epistemes de Michel Foucault, igual de ilustradoras y discontinuas.5 De la misma forma en
que una episteme moderna salta en Foucault, de manera semejante la sociedad moderna
aparece en escena en Luhmann. En tanto los historiadores entretejen con dificultad sus
narrativas del pasado con un ojo en la continuidad de sus historias, estos autores parecen
concebir el pasado a través de un prisma teórico que muestra claras líneas divisorias. En el
4 Niklas Luhmann, Theory of Society, I (Stanford, Cal.; Stanford University Press, 2012), 344.
5 Michel Foucault, Les mots et les choses: Une archéologie des sciences humaines (Paris;
Gallimard, 1966).
6
caso de Luhmann el prisma está formado con sistemas autorreferentes que recuerdan las
mónadas de Leibniz en tanto que no muestran relaciones causales con el mundo
circundante. Entonces surge la pregunta de si la brecha entre sistemas y narrativas puede
ser salvada de algún modo.6
Para lidiar con tamaño problema formularé tres preguntas más pequeñas en respuesta al
pasaje arriba citado. Primero, ¿por qué las explicaciones causales son tan difíciles de
abordar para los sociólogos y en especial para los teóricos de sistemas? Segundo, ¿es
correcta la visión que tiene Luhmann del método de los historiadores? Mi suposición es que
la interpretación causal en la narración histórica es una verdad a medias porque las
narrativas también pueden ser utilizadas de manera no causal, evolutiva. Si esta suposición
es correcta, entonces podemos preguntarnos, en tercer lugar, si es posible una consideración
más equilibrada sobre la relación entre la teoría de sistemas y la narración histórica.
Sistemas
7
que Luhmann considera la evolución social puesto que los tres mecanismos de variación,
selección y reestabilización constituyen un ciclo basado en la casualidad.8
8
el “se vuelven” parece quedar fuera de lugar en una teoría de sistemas clausurados
operativamente, Luhmann tiene que admitir que instituciones como el Estado moderno o el
mercado libre no salieron de la nada. En esta línea de razonamiento, no sería extraño buscar
las raíces de la sociedad moderna en la Edad Media, como han hecho numerosos
historiadores desde que Charles Haskins introdujo en 1927 la idea de un “Renacimiento del
siglo xii”.10 Luhmann discute algunos ejemplos en su magnum opus sólo para descartarlos
como instancias de una teoría de factor monocausal. Esto no queda del todo justificado pero
el caso es que él no retoma el asunto, tal vez porque el problema es demasiado “difícil” de
resolver para un sociólogo.11
Narrativas
10 Charles Homer Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (Cambridge, Mass.; Harvard
University Press; 1927)
11 Vuélvase a la nota 4.
12 Niklas Luhmann, Theory of Society, I (Stanford, Cal.; Stanford University Press, 2012), 301:
“La evolución se debe a la evolución. Se hace posible al desarrollar las condiciones para la
diferenciación de sus mecanismos. Cómo es que todo empezó, debemos explicarlo con la teoría
del ‘big bang’ o con mitos semejantes”.
9
La segunda pregunta se refiere a la mirada de Luhmann sobre la naturaleza de la narración
histórica y más particularmente a la idea de que este tipo de narrativa se dirige naturalmente
a la explicación causal. Creo que esta mirada tiene como antecedente la polémica de
Luhmann con los sociólogos e historiadores de izquierda en los años 1960 y 1970, en
especial con Jürgen Habermas, el autoproclamado guardián del Proyecto de la Ilustración.
En su cátedra inaugural La Ilustración Sociológica de 1967, Luhmann abrió la
confrontación contra el entendimiento que los progresistas tenían de la modernidad.13 Como
hicieron los románticos del siglo xix, argumentó en favor de “clarificar la Ilustración”
(Abklärung der Aufklärung), lo que involucraba la crítica ideológica de las “grandes
narrativas” que se habían hecho populares en el siglo xix. Estas narrativas imaginaban la
historia como un proceso de desarrollo conducido por factores monocausales tales como la
Razón, el Espíritu del Pueblo (Volksgeist), los Grandes Hombres, la División del Trabajo,
la Revolución Industrial o la Lucha de Clases. Aunque con frecuencia los progresistas se
endilgaban a sí mismos el adjetivo de “evolucionistas”, sus historias no tenían nada que ver
con la evolución de Darwin que está caracterizada por la contingencia más que por el
determinismo.
13 Una versión revisada de la cátedra fue publicada en Soziale Welt, Vol.18 (1967), 97-123, y
después en Soziologische Aufklärung 1, (Opladen; Westdeutscher Verlag, 1974), 66-91.
14 Niklas Luhmann und Jürgen Habermas, Theorie der Gesellschaft oder Sozialtechnologie -
Was leistet die Systemforschung? (Frankfurt am Main; Suhrkamp, 1971). Véase también Niklas
Luhmann, “Evolution und Geschichte” en: Niklas Luhmann, Soziologische Aufklärung 2
(Opladen; Westdeutscher Verlag 1975), 150-170.
10
Hasta el siglo xviii los historiadores trabajaban con el espíritu del principio de “autopsia”
(ver uno mismo) de Heródoto.15 La veracidad de sus recuentos se medía por la distancia que
mediaba respecto de los acontecimientos que narraban. Un testigo directo era más valioso
que un rumor pero lo mejor era que el historiador describiera lo que había visto con sus
propios ojos. Esto significa que el historiador premoderno se encontraba más cerca del
reportero moderno que del historiador moderno. Escribía primordialmente sobre
acontecimientos contemporáneos a partir de sus propias observaciones. La forma de
representación que acompañaba este trabajo era el anal o crónica que carecía de una trama
con un claro inicio y final, y que sencillamente seguía la cronología de acontecimientos.
Esta tradición griega fue legada a la Europa medieval por Isidoro de Sevilla y siguió siendo
utilizada hasta el siglo xviii.16 Tan tarde como en 1759 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing todavía
podía escribir que “solamente merece el nombre de verdadero historiador quien escribe la
historia de su propio tiempo y de su propio país”.17 El hecho de que varios historiadores
alemanes del siguiente siglo encontraran estas palabras ofensivas muestra un cambio de
fondo entre 1750 y 1850.18
En los días de Niebuhr y Ranke los historiadores comenzaron a hacer historia sobre la base
de fuentes primarias que indicaban la manera en que la gente en el pasado había visto su
propio tiempo. Correspondientemente, se convirtieron en observadores de segundo orden al
cambiar el foco de atención de la historia contemporánea al pasado distante.19 Esto implica
15 G. Schepens, L’“Autopsie” dans la methode des historiens grecs du Ve siècle avant J.-C.
Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen , Letteren en Schone Kunsten
van Belgie, Klasse der Letteren 42, nr. 93 (Brussels: Koninklijke Academie, 1980).
16 Isidor of Seville, Etymologiae. Liber I: De Grammatica, XLI De historia: “Apud veteres enim
nemo conscribebat historiam, nisi is qui interfuisset, et ea quae conscribenda essent vidisset”.
(“Entre los Antiguos nadie escribía historias, a menos que hubiese sido testigo y visto por sí
mismo aquello que habría de contarse”.) El texto puede consultarse en la página de Latin Library
of The Classics: http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/isidore/1.shtml (último acceso 8 de mayo 2020).
17 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend, Dritter Teil, VIII, 23
August 1759: “Überhaupt aber glaube ich, daß der Name eines wahren Geschichtschreibers nur
demjenigen zukömmt, der die Geschichte seiner Zeiten und seines Landes beschreibet. Denn nur
der kann selbst als Zeuge auftreten”. (“Después de todo, pienso que solamente merece el nombre
de verdadero historiador quien escribe la historia de su propio tiempo y de su propio país. Pues
de este modo sólo él puede cumplir el papel de testigo”.) Consúltese el texto en Zeno.org:
http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/Lessing,+Gotthold+Ephraim (último acceso 8 de mayo 2020).
18 Fritz Ernst, “Zeitgeschehen und Geschichtschreibung: Eine Skizze”, Die Welt als Geschichte.
Eine Zeitschrift für Universalgeschichte 17 (1957), 137-189, esp 171ss.
19 Compárese mi “Beyond Historicism: From Leibniz to Luhmann”, Journal of the Philosophy
of History, 4 (2010), 210-225.
11
que los historiadores modernos trabajan en la retaguardia de la historia. En contraste con el
cronista tradicional, quien sólo escribía sin molestarse por darle un cierre a sus narraciones,
el historiógrafo moderno escribe una narración con un final claro y, por implicación,
también con un inicio.20 La narrativa histórica estilo moderno presupone un(a) autor(a) que
mira hacia atrás a los acontecimientos que describe. Desde esta posición se producen las
“frases narrativas”, una noción introducida por Arthur Danto para indicar descripciones que
solo pueden ser escritas en retrospectiva.21 Por ejemplo, la frase “La Guerra de los Treinta
Años comenzó en 1618” sólo pudo ser dicha en 1648 o más tarde. La retrospectiva puede
resultar en una mirada parcial del pasado presente, bien conocida por los historiadores
como el pecado de “anacronismo”, pero también proporciona información adicional no
accesible a los actores históricos, a saber, el conocimiento de su futuro. Los protagonistas
de los acontecimientos de 1618, por ejemplo, todavía no saben que una terrible y
prolongada guerra acaba de comenzar. Este conocimiento adicional hace de la narrativa una
forma de representación histórica superior a la crónica.
20 Una exposición clara de esta diferencia se encuentra en: Hayden White, “The Value of
Narrativity in the Representation of Reality” en Idem, The Content of the Form. Narrative
Discourse and Historical Representation (Baltimore; The Johns Hopkins University Press,
1987), 1-26.
21 Arthur C. Danto, Narration and Knowledge (New York; Columbia University Press, 2007).
22 Frank Ankersmit, Sublime Historical Experience (Stanford, Cal.; Stanford University Press,
2005), 356-363.
12
El tema de las consecuencias no intencionadas recibió un énfasis político con la Ilustración
radical, nacida en la república holandesa entre los adeptos de Spinoza. Francamente
impactante fue la doctrina de Bernard Mandeville de que los vicios privados pueden
convertirse en virtudes públicas.23 Este fue un golpe directo a la tradición aristotélica de
filosofía moral o práctica que valoraba la acción individual (praxis) de acuerdo con los
efectos benéficos que conllevaban para la sociedad. Siguiendo la idea de Mandeville, los
filósofos escoceses moldearon la filosofía moral en una ciencia social estilo moderno que
ponía especial atención a los sistemas sociales y estructuras que parecían llevar una vida
propia.24 Sólo necesitamos pensar en la “mano invisible” de Adam Smith. El verdadero
punto aquí es que el surgimiento de la ciencia social estuvo acompañado por un nuevo tipo
de historiografía evolucionista que, iniciando en el momento presente, se remontaba al
pasado preguntándose cómo es que ciertas instituciones habían logrado constituirse. Un
caso emblemático es Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767) de Adam Ferguson con el
conocido fragmento:
Cada paso y cada movimiento de la multitud, incluso en lo que se llama eras
ilustradas, se realizan con la misma ceguera al futuro; y las naciones tropiezan con
establecimientos que ciertamente son el resultado de la acción humana, pero no de la
ejecución de ningún diseño humano.25
Concluyo mi respuesta a la segunda pregunta diciendo que las narraciones históricas per se
no se oponen a la noción de evolución social como lo muestra la Ilustración escocesa. En el
siglo xix esta tradición fue opacada primero por la filosofía de la historia especulativa y,
luego, por la historiografía convencional. Filósofos como Hegel y Marx se inspiraron en los
filósofos escoceses cuando señalaron el papel de factores impersonales tales como la
“astucia de la razón” o la “falsa conciencia”. No obstante, las convirtieron en fuerzas
determinísticas que desdibujaron toda responsabilidad individual.26 Historiadores de la
escuela de Ranke, por otro lado, insistieron tercamente en la teoría tradicional del actor. Es
23 Jonathan I. Israel, Radical Enlightenment. Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-
1750 (Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2001), 623-627.
24 Para la influencia de Mandeville en los filósofos escoceses y teóricos liberales tardíos véase:
F. A. Hayek, “Dr. Bernard Mandeville: Lecture on a Master Mind” , Proceedings of the British
Academy 52 (1966): 125-41.
25 Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767). Cambridge Texts in the
History of Political Thought (Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 2001), 119.
26 Véase para Hegel: James P. Henderson and John B. Davis, “Adam Smith’s Influence on
Hegel’s Philosophical Writings” Journal of the History of Economic Thought 13-2 (1991), 184-
204.
13
cierto que también algunos se inclinaron a considerar a las naciones o Estados como actores
individuales pero en la mayoría de los casos se mantuvieron a distancia de las estructuras y
sistemas discutidos en las ciencias sociales. Esto ha cambiado en los últimos cincuenta años
y sería interesante ver si existe un nuevo prospecto de historiografía evolucionista, sobre
todo relacionada con la teoría de Luhmann.
Sistemas y narrativas
27 Humberto Maturana and Francisco J. Varela, Autopoiesis and Cognition. The realization of
the Living (Dordrecht, Boston, London; D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1980).
14
Sin embargo, esta no es toda la historia porque la clausura operativa de los sistemas de
sentido es usualmente seguida por una segunda clausura, una clausura reflexiva.28 Me
gustaría ilustrar este punto con “el segundo nacimiento del infante humano”, para citar el
título de un libro famoso y clásico de psicoanálisis sobre el desarrollo de infantes escrito
por Margaret Mahler.29 Cuando un recién nacido es separado de su madre, en términos de la
teoría de sistemas se convierte en un sistema clausurado operativamente que produce sus
propias células. No obstante, en contraste con muchos animales en situación semejante, el
infante humano permanece dependiente de su madre por un período demasiado largo, en
especial para su autorregulación, de manera que durante el primer año la relación del
infante con ella tiene un carácter simbiótico. Esto significa que el bebé todavía no puede
diferenciar tajantemente entre sí mismo y su madre. No es hasta que el infante es capaz de
hacer una representación simbólica interna de sí mismo distinto(a) de su madre (un otro)
cuando comienza un “proceso de separación-individualización”.30
Los luhmannianos podrán reconocer aquí la figura de la reentrada, por medio de la cual el
sistema hace una representación interna de su propia distinción respecto del entorno. Esta
reentrada permite al sistema utilizar la distinción auto/ héterorreferencia con la que es capaz
de distinguir entre un mundo interior y uno exterior. En este punto tiene lugar la segunda
clausura y un “interior” comienza a configurarse. Por cierto que la clausura nunca llega a
completarse del todo. Permanecerá en proceso como lo muestra la confusión mágica de los
mundos interior y exterior que en el fondo siempre está al acecho. Mientras crecemos,
superamos gradualmente esta confusión. Pero tan pronto nos cansamos, nos debilitamos,
28 Véase a.o. Luhmann, Theory of Society, I, 39-40: “En la comunicación sobre la comunicación,
los temas y funciones de la comunicación pueden a su vez convertirse en temas —una reentrada
de la distinción en sí misma. El sistema se clausura a sí mismo en el nivel reflexivo, logrando así
un estado de doble clausura que le garantiza una alta flexibilidad interna pero también impone la
intransparencia a todo observador”. El término “clausura reflexiva” viene de Heinz von Foerster.
29 Margaret S. Mahler, Fred Pine, and Anni Bergman, The Psychological Birth of the Human
Infant: Symbiosis and Individuation (New York; Basic Books, 1975). El libro de Mahler fue
duramente criticado por Daniel Stern, aunque Applegate argumenta que sus puntos de vista no
son irreconciliables. Véase Jeffrey S. Applegate, “Mahler and Stern: Irreconcilable
Differences?”, Child and Adolescent Social Work, 6-3 (1989), 163-173.
30 Compárese la tesis de Herbert Mead de que la mente y la conciencia surgen cuando los niños
aprenden a representarse a sí mismos ante sí mismos tomando el rol de otros tales como la madre
o el maestro. Más tarde los niños adquieren conciencia de un otro generalizado o colectivo.
Véase George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self, and Society (Chicago; University of Chicago Press,
1967).
15
nos drogamos o nos enamoramos, aparece de nuevo para amenazar nuestra identidad
individual.
Si desviamos nuestra atención de los sistemas psíquicos a los sistemas sociales podemos
observar el mismo desarrollo. Lo explico utilizando la distinción de Luhmann entre tres
tipos de autorreferencia.31 Esta distinción se corresponde con los tres niveles sistémicos de
elemento, estructura y todo sistémico. En un nivel elemental la autorreferencia significa que
eventos comunicativos de corta duración se concatenan en forma recursiva. Cada acto
comunicativo se relaciona con uno antecedente y a su vez proporciona conectabilidad con
un posible sucesor. Este es el nivel en que la clausura operativa sucede. Sigue el nivel
estructural en el que encontramos mecanismos reflexivos que pueden ser descritos como
selecciones de selecciones. Las estructuras no son sino selecciones derivadas de variaciones
en el proceso comunicativo. Su función se intensifica tan pronto cuando se aplican a sí
mismas, a la manera de aprender a aprender (en la educación), investigar la investigación
(la metodología), gobernar a quienes gobiernan (la burocracia), o tomar decisiones sobre
decisiones (planeación). Estos son los mecanismos reflexivos. Finalmente arribamos al
nivel de la reflexión que tiene que ver con el sistema como un todo. Este es el nivel de la
auto-observación y la autodescripción donde la reentrada y la segunda clausura acontecen.
La definición de Luhmann de la observación como una forma que distingue, implica que la
auto-observación toma tiempo porque involucra el cambio de una distinción a otra. En el
nivel elemental los sistemas hacen una distinción operativa entre sí mismos y el entorno.
Les permite dirigir la atención al entorno o a sí mismos, pero no pueden observar
(¡distinguir!) la distinción misma (el sistema y el entorno juntos). Este es el antiguo
problema sujeto-objeto, pero en esta nueva formulación es fácil ver la solución. Consiste en
introducir un observador externo capaz de observar al sistema en cuestión en su propio
entorno. Este observador externo es de hecho un observador de segundo orden porque
puede distinguir la distinción que es un punto ciego para el observador de primer orden.
31 Niklas Luhmann, Social Systems (Stanford, Cal.; Stanford University Press, 1995), 443-444.
16
Es importante hacer notar que hay dos formas de la observación de segundo orden, una
sincrónica y otra diacrónica. En el primer caso tratamos con una relación social entre dos o
más observadores; en el segundo estamos hablando de auto-observación. Ahora bien, la
“auto-observación” suena algo más bien paradójico pues cómo puede un sistema observarse
a sí mismo mientras observa. La respuesta es que esto es imposible “ya que el ojo no se ve
a sí mismo”, como lo frasea Shakespeare. La única manera de darle sentido a la auto-
observación es distinguir entre un ser consciente (self) presente que observa y un ser
consciente pasado que es observado. ¿Cómo se puede saber que los dos seres pertenecen a
uno y el mismo “ser”? El problema se hace más manejable cuando adoptamos la definición
de Luhmann de la observación como distinción. Esto es así porque obviamente un sistema
no puede distinguir la distinción con la que está operando pues ello necesitaría de una
distinción orientadora (Leitdifferenz) nueva y alternativa. Sólo cuando alternamos de una a
la otra puede suceder que un sistema pueda ver atrás hacia su anterior modo de
observación. Esta es la médula de la auto-observación como Luhmann la entiende y ahora
podemos ver más claramente que por definición es una actividad histórica.
Los dos tipos de observación de segundo orden mencionados se corresponden con dos tipos
de identidades, una sincrónica y la otra diacrónica. En el primer caso la identidad se
establece contrastándola con otros sistemas contemporáneos. Luhmann menciona el
ejemplo de “teorías reflexivas” desarrolladas por muchos sistemas funcionales a partir del
siglo xviii tales como la teoría política, la teoría educativa, la teoría económica, la teoría del
arte, entre otras. Estas teorías posicionaron al subsistema en cuestión vis-a-vis con otros
subsistemas y la sociedad en general. En el segundo caso la identidad significa permanencia
en el cambio. Proporciona una respuesta a la inquietante pregunta de si el sistema de hoy es
el mismo que el de ayer. Esta pregunta motivó el estudio de la historia en la temprana
modernidad y en especial a partir del siglo xviii. Desde el punto de vista de la teoría de
sistemas es importante que esta orientación hacia la historia involucrara un cambio de la
hétero-referencia a la autorreferencia y por tanto a una mayor autonomía. Mostraré este
cambio con ejemplos tomados de la historia jurídica y la historia del arte.
17
Tanto el derecho como el arte tenían tradiciones que las orientaban a la “naturaleza”. En el
caso del sistema jurídico esto se manifestó con la importancia dada al derecho natural. La
creencia en una ley general e inmutable se tambaleó cuando en el siglo xvi (mos gallicus),
los humanistas franceses comenzaron a ver la historia legal en forma moderna. No obstante,
tomaría unos pocos siglos antes de que el derecho natural fuera desplazado por la doctrina
autorreferencial del positivismo jurídico. El arte también acostumbraba definirse en
términos de la naturaleza como lo muestran dichos tales como “todo el arte no es sino
imitación de la naturaleza” (omnis ars imitatio naturae est) o “la naturaleza es la maestra
del arte” (natura magistra artis). Aunque es cierto que desde el Renacimiento el arte
comenzó a orientarse hacia su propio pasado, proceso que culminó con la fundación de la
historia del arte moderno por Winckelmann en el siglo xviii. A partir de entonces los
artistas comenzaron a definirse en oposición a sus predecesores con un nuevo sonido o
estilo mediante movimientos avant-garde.
Para terminar mi respuesta a la tercera pregunta me gustaría hacer notar la historia cultural
como un posible vínculo que conecta la teoría de sistemas y la narración histórica. Aunque
Luhmann fue ambivalente a la hora de utilizar el concepto de cultura, tuvo valiosas ideas
sobre ella en conexión con la observación de segundo orden.32 De acuerdo con él, el
concepto de cultura incorporó su función moderna, comparada, en el siglo xviii. Cuando el
principio de igualdad natural ganó terreno, pareció conveniente buscar diferencias no
naturales o culturales entre la gente, no sólo sincrónicamente sino también
diacrónicamente. Es así como nacieron los estudios culturales. La comparación sincrónica
de culturas se convertiría en el campo de la antropología social o cultural. La comparación
diacrónica de una misma cultura se establecería como la especialidad de la historia cultural.
En los dos casos la observación de segundo orden fue el nuevo método de investigación.
Desde la perspectiva de la teoría de Luhmann la historia cultural es especialmente relevante
porque representa una intentona de trascender los puntos de vista específicos de los
diferentes sistemas funcionales para dar la autodescripción de la sociedad como un todo.
32 Sobre la actitud ambivalente de Luhmann hacia la cultura, compárese: Niklas Luhmann:
“Kultur als historischer Begriff”. En: Idem: Gesellschaftsstruktur und Semantik. Studien zur
Wissenssoziologie der modernen Gesellschaft Vol. 4 (Frankfurt am Main; Suhrkamp, 1995), 31–
54. Un artículo introductorio en inglés se encuentra en: Rudi Laermans, “Systems Theory and
Culture: Drawing Lessons from Parsons and Luhmann” en: David Inglis and Anna-Mari Almila,
ed., The SAGE Handbook of Cultural Sociology (Los Angeles; Sage, 2016), 178-193.
18
Como tal, puede ser un complemento útil de la teoría de sistemas, en especial donde se la
concibe como una instancia de observación de tercer orden con la capacidad de observar la
auto-observación y autodescripción de los sistemas sociales.33 El quinto y último capítulo
de su Theory of Society está dedicado enteramente a este punto.
Conclusiones
33 Niklas Luhmann, Law as a Social System (Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2004), 461:
“Permanecemos en la posición de un observador de tercer orden que observa la auto-observación
y autodescripción del sistema”.
34 Ernst Mayr, What Makes Biology Unique? Considerations on the autonomy of a scientific
discipline (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 32: “Como sucede con buena parte
de la creación de teoría, el científico inicia con una conjetura y prueba su validez a todo lo largo,
de la misma manera en la biología evolutiva el científico construye una narración histórica que
luego es probada por su valor explicativo ”. Véase para un debate más amplio sobre el papel de
las narrativas en la biología evolutiva: H. Nitecki and Doris V. Nitecki, ed., History and
Evolution. “Proceedings of the Spring Systematics Symposium held at the Field Museum of
Natural History in Chicago in May, 1989” (New York; SUNY Press, 1992).
19
antigua o en China, por ejemplo. Estos imperios contaban ya con señales de diferenciación
funcional pero en apariencia no cristalizaron en la transformación de la sociedad existente.
¿Qué fue entonces tan distinto en la Europa cristiana? Es difícil ignorar el papel jugado por
la religión. La religión fue especial en al menos dos cosas. Primero, fue la precursora del
proceso de diferenciación funcional como Luhmann lo reconoce abiertamente.35 Lo que fue
importante en este respecto fue la separación de la iglesia vis-a-vis el mundo (mundus,
saeculum), que se remonta al cristianismo temprano pero que adquirió una nueva
dimensión mediante “la revolución papal” de los siglos xi y xii.36 En segundo término, lo
que fue especial fue que la conjunción de política y religión perdió su carácter “natural”
después del edicto papal Libertas ecclesiae de 1079. Los gobernantes siempre habían
utilizado a la religión de manera natural para reforzar su poder político, pero a partir de
entonces ya no pudo darse por sentado.
35 Niklas Luhmann, “Die Ausdifferenzierung der Religion” en: Idem, Gesellschaftsstruktur und
Semantik. Studien der Wissensoziologie der modernen Gesellschaft , III (Frankfurt am Main;
Suhrkamp, 1993), 270: “Cuando de diferenciación funcional se trata, la religión es la primera en
entrar a la historia moderna. Esto solo proporciona un apoyo al supuesto de que jugó un papel
especial en la transformación de la sociedad iniciando en la Edad Media tardía”.
36 El término fue introducido por Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy y ampliamente utilizado por Harold
J. Berman, Law and Revolution. The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition (Cambridge,
Mass., London; Harvard University Press, 1983).
20
21
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22
Foreword by Jaap den Hollander37
Introduction
I feel honoured by the author’s invitation to write a foreword to his book, the more so since
we never met in the flesh. We know each other from the Internet through our mutual
interest in the work of Niklas Luhmann and the emails we exchanged about the relation
between our respective disciplines, sociology and history. We asked ourselves, for
example, whether it makes sense to look for the origins of modern society as it is defined
by Luhmann, that is a society based on a differentiation of functional subsystems such as
religion, politics, law, economy, science, or art. As a possible case study we considered the
question whether the Investiture Controversy between Emperor and Pope (ca. 1100 CE)
might have triggered the differentiation process.38 This question has been extensively
debated by German sociologists and historians, but there is no clear affirmative answer.39
The problem seems to be that Luhmann’s theory does not allow for historical explanations
in terms of causes and origins, which brings us back to the wider problem of the relation
between history and sociology.
37 Jaap den Hollander is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of
Groningen, Netherlands. His areas of expertise include Contemporary History, Philosophy of
History, and Social Systems Theory. Email: j.c.den.hollander@rug.nl
38 An idea supported by the well-known medievalist Joseph R. Strayer, at least for the
differentiation between religion and politics. See his On the Medieval Origins of the Modern
State (Princeton, NJ; Princeton University Press, 1970), 22: “Like all victories, the victory of the
Church in the Investiture Conflict had unforeseen consequences. By asserting its unique
character, by separating itself so clearly from lay governments, the Church unwittingly
sharpened concepts about the nature of secular authority. Definitions and arguments might vary,
but the most ardent Gregorian had to admit that the Church could not perform all political
functions, that lay rulers were necessary and had a sphere in which they should operate. They
might be subject to the guidance and correction of the Church, but they were not a part of the
administrative structure of the Church. They headed another kind of organization, for which
there was as yet no generic term. In short, the Gregorian concept of the Church almost demanded
the invention of the concept of the State. It demanded it so strongly that modern writers find it
exceedingly difficult to avoid describing the Investiture Conflict as a struggle of Church and
State”.
39 Karl Gabriel, Christel Gärtner, Detlef Pollack, ed. Umstrittene Säkularisierung. Soziologische
und historische Analysen zur Differenzierung von Religion und Politik (Berlin; Berlin University
Press, 2012). Also there and very good on the sociological view is: Hartmann Tyrell,
“Investiturstreit und gesellschaftliche Differenzierung – Überlegungen aus soziologischer Sicht”,
39-77.
23
What both disciplines have in common is their ambition to understand society as a whole.
The rest of the social sciences and humanities, anthropology perhaps excluded, focuses on a
specific social activity or domain. In view of the enormity of their task both disciplines
have to resort to a far-reaching specialization. They actually mirror the functional
differentiation of modern society in an impressive range of sub-disciplines, ranging from
the sociology of religion to the history of art. A common problem is how to integrate all
this special knowledge. At this point we have to face up to the differences. Put simply,
historians write narratives while sociologists develop theories. The criterion to compare
both methods is time, inasmuch theories usually adopt a synchronic and narratives a
diachronic approach. It seems obvious to combine these approaches, especially when
studying a theme like social evolution. But this is not the way Luhmann looks at the matter,
because he keeps deliberately aloof from historical narratives as the following passage
shows:
They [sc. the historians] combine narration with causal explanation with the proviso
of doing justice to accessible sources. No theory of societal evolution can or wants to
compete with this. For the sociological perspective and especially for systems-
theoretical analysis, causal explanations are so difficult that they are inadvisable at
the level of general theoretical propositions, and for narration, the sociologist lacks
improvisational talent.40
Luhmann’s theory of societal evolution has much to offer from a synchronic point of view,
as it gives a good description of each of the types of society it distinguishes, but it is
wanting diachronically speaking, in so far as it leaves in the dark the transition from one
type of society to another. One is reminded of Michel Foucault’s epistemes, which are
equally illuminating and discontinuous.41 In the same way that a modern episteme pops up
with Foucault, modern society appears on the stage with Luhmann. Whereas historians plod
their narrative way through the past with an eye for continuity, these authors seem to view
the past through a theoretical prism showing sharp dividing lines. In Luhmann’s case the
prism consists of self-referential systems reminiscent of Leibniz’ monads in that they show
40 Niklas Luhmann, Theory of Society, I (Stanford, Cal.; Stanford University Press, 2012), 344 .
41 Michel Foucault, Les mots et les choses: Une archéologie des sciences humaines (Paris;
Gallimard, 1966).
24
no causal relationships with the surrounding world. The question therefore arises whether
the gap between systems and narratives can be bridged at all.42
To deal with this huge problem I shall formulate three smaller questions in response to the
passage just quoted. Firstly, why are causal explanations so difficult for sociologists and
especially systems theorists to tackle? Secondly, is Luhmann’s view of the historian’s
method correct? My assumption is that the causal interpretation of historical narration is a
half-truth because narratives can also be used in a non-causal, evolutionary way. If this
assumption proves to be correct, we can ask, thirdly, whether there is room for a more
balanced view of the relation between systems theory and historical narration.
Systems
As to the first question, it is important to know that from the very start of his career
Luhmann took issue with the notion of causality. Although he acknowledges that the
distinction between cause and effect can be a useful observation scheme in certain
circumstances, from his first publications onwards he defends a functionalist method which
offers no room for causal explanations.43 In his later work on social systems causality gets
completely out of the picture, because these systems are defined as operationally closed,
which means that they have no direct contact with the environment. Of course, there are
external stimuli, but it is up to the system to decide what to do with them. Direct causal
influence from the outside world is excluded, except in the extreme case of total
annihilation. Causality is also missing in Luhmann’s view on social evolution, because the
three mechanisms of variation, selection, and restabilisation form a cycle based on chance.44
42 The question is put by several authors. See a.o. N. Katherine Hayles, “Making the Cut: The
Interplay of Narrative and System, or What Systems Theory Can’t See”, Cultural Critique 30
(1995), 71-100; Albrecht Koschorke, “Die Grenzen des Systems und die Rhetorik der
Systemtheorie” in: Albrecht Koschorke and Cornelia Vismann, ed., Widerstände der
Systemtheorie. Kulturtheoretische Analysen zum Werk von Niklas Luhmann (Berlin; Akademie
Verlag, 1999), 49-63; Geoffrey Winthrop-Young, “On a Species of Origin: Luhmann's Darwin”,
Configurations 11-3 (2004), 305-349.
43 Luhmann, Niklas. “Funktion und Kausalität”. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und
Sozialpsychologie 14 (1962): 617. Reprinted in: Idem, Soziologische Aufklärung 1, (Opladen;
Westdeutscher Verlag, 1974), 9-30.
44 Niklas Luhmann, Theory of Society, I (Stanford, Cal.; Stanford University Press, 2012), 345:
“A theory of societal evolution renounces causal explanations (or limits them to minimal sectors
of macrosocietal evolution). It replaces the causal schema by the assumption of circular
25
The thread in Luhmann’s theory of societal evolution is social differentiation, which shows
itself in three basic types, namely segmentary, stratificatory, and functional. The first type
can be found in acephalous societies consisting of segments (families, clans, tribes) which
are equal in principle, because they descend from the same (mythical) ancestor. The second
type is based on the inequality of social strata (castes, classes), often in conjunction with
unequal centre-periphery relations. The third type is reserved for modern society. It shows a
differentiation of functional subsystems (religion, politics, economy, science, art), which
are equal in their inequality, which means that they cannot be ranked in a hierarchical
model such as social classes.
Luhmann’s theory of societal evolution excels in its synchronic aspect, that is to say it
provides an illuminating and instructive picture of each of the various types of society.
Historians can learn much from it. For example, their four-tier structure of economic,
political, social, and cultural history looks rather primitive in comparison with Luhmann’s
model of functional differentiation. On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that
Luhmann’s account of societal evolution fails to establish a diachronic link between the
different types of society.45 One of the difficulties is that operationally closed systems have
a circular structure, so that one cannot speak of processes ending or beginning. Another
difficulty is that there is no room for gradual development. In the case of Luhmann’s
systems it is all or nothing. As the saying goes, one cannot be just a little pregnant.
In the practice of writing, however, Luhmann has to compromise when giving his own
narrative account of the evolution of society. He then falls back on his concept of
“differentiation”, which implies gradualness and continuity. So we can read in his work
about systems becoming more autonomous, because they gradually lose their dependency
on the outside world. Although the word “becoming” seems out of place in a theory of
operationally closed systems, even Luhmann has to admit that institutions like the modern
state or the free market did not come out of the blue. Pursuing this line of reasoning it
evolutionary conditions”.
45 See for a more thorough argumentation: Barbara Kuchler, “Das Problem des Übergangs in
Luhmanns Evolutionstheorie”, Soziale Systeme, 9-1 (2003) 27-53.
26
would not seem odd, therefore, to look for the roots of modern society in the Middle Ages,
as numerous historians have actually done ever since Charles Haskins introduced the idea
of a “twelfth-century Renaissance” in 1927.46 Luhmann discusses some examples in his
magnum opus only to dismiss them as instances of a mono-causal factor theory. This seems
not entirely justified, but the point is that he does not seriously pursue the matter for
himself, perhaps because the problem is too “difficult” for a sociologist to solve.47
Summarizing my answer to the first question I would like to conclude that Luhmann may
have had good reasons to downplay the role of causality in the case of operationally closed
systems, but by completely banning causal and temporal relations from his evolutionary
theory he makes it difficult, if not impossible, to discuss the transition from one societal
system to another. This means that in the end he is unable to give the full picture of societal
evolution, which is what he aspires to do considering his thesis about “the evolution of
evolution”. This thesis implies that “evolution is due to evolution”.48 What Luhmann means
is, that the evolution changes as to character and speed over time, because the functions of
variation, selection and restabilisation gradually become separated from one another. This
may explain among other things why everything changes faster and faster over the
centuries. But in order to buttress this thesis it is necessary to establish a distinct link
between the successive types of society.
Narratives
The second question is concerned with Luhmann’s view on the nature of the historical
narrative and more particularly with his idea that this kind of narrative naturally aims at
causal explanation. My guess is that this view goes back to Luhmann’s polemic with leftist
46 Charles Homer Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (Cambridge Mass.; Harvard
University Press; 1927)
47 See note 40.
48 Niklas Luhmann, Theory of Society, I (Stanford, Cal.; Stanford University Press, 2012), 301:
“Evolution is due to evolution. It makes itself possible by developing the conditions for the
differentiation of its mechanisms. How everything began, we must leave to the ‘big bang’ theory
or like myths to explain”.
27
sociologists and historians during the 1960s and 1970s, especially with Jürgen Habermas,
the self-proclaimed keeper of the Enlightenment Project. In his inaugural address
Sociological Enlightenment of 1967 Luhmann opened his attack on the progressivists’
understanding of modernity.49 Like the Romantics of the early 19th century he argued for a
“clarification of the Enlightenment” (Abklärung der Aufklärung), which involved a critique
of the ideological “great narratives” that had become popular in the 19th century. These
narratives pictured history as a developmental process driven by mono-causal factors like
Reason, Volksgeist, Great Men, Division of Labour, Industrial Revolution, or Class
Struggle. Although they often adorned themselves with the adjective “evolutionary”, these
histories had nothing to do with Darwin’s idea of evolution, which is characterized by
contingency rather than by determinism.
In this context it is understandable that Luhmann often opposes evolutionary theory and
historical narration in his work, for instance in his famous polemic with Habermas
published in 1971.50 Even so, this does not alter the fact that this opposition involves a
biased understanding of historiography. I think we can do more justice to what historians
actually do, if we consider them professional second-order observers. It is well-known that
Luhmann saw second-order observation as a cognitive characteristic of modern society, but
apparently he did not realize that historians were the leading exponents of it.
Until the eighteenth century historians operated in the spirit of Herodotus’ principle of
“autopsy” (seeing for yourself).51 The truthfulness of their accounts was measured by the
distance from the events they described. A direct eyewitness was better than hearsay but
best of all was that the historian described what he had seen with his own eyes. This means
that the pre-modern historian stood nearer to the modern reporter than to the modern
historian. He wrote primarily about contemporary events on the basis of his own
49 A revised version of the lecture was published in Soziale Welt, Vol.18 (1967), 97-123, and
later in Soziologische Aufklärung 1, (Opladen; Westdeutscher Verlag, 1974), 66-91.
50 Niklas Luhmann and Jürgen Habermas, Theorie der Gesellschaft oder Sozialtechnologie -
Was leistet die Systemforschung? (Frankfurt am Main; Suhrkamp, 1971). See also Niklas
Luhmann, “Evolution und Geschichte” in: Niklas Luhmann, Soziologische Aufklärung 2
(Opladen; Westdeutscher Verlag 1975), 150-170.
51 G. Schepens, L’“Autopsie” dans la methode des historiens grecs du Ve siècle avant J.-C.
Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen , Letteren en Schone Kunsten
van Belgie, Klasse der Letteren 42, nr. 93 (Brussels: Koninklijke Academie, 1980).
28
observations. The accompanying form of representation was the yearbook or chronicle,
which had no plot with a clear beginning or end but simply followed the chronology of
events. This Greek tradition was passed on to medieval Europe by Isidore of Seville and
stayed valid until the eighteenth century.52 As late as 1759 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing could
still write “that only he deserves the name of a true historian who writes the history of his
own time and his own country”.53 The fact that various German historians took offence at
these words in the century that followed shows a change of heart between 1750 and 1850.54
In the days of Niebuhr and Ranke historians started to write history on the basis of primary
sources, which showed how people in the past had looked at their own time. Accordingly,
they became second-order observers, changing their focus from contemporary history to a
distant past.55 This implies that modern historians always operate at the rear end of history.
In contrast to the traditional chronicler, who just wrote on without bothering about any
closure, a modern historiographer writes a narrative with a definite ending and, by
implication, also a beginning.56 The modern-style historical narrative presupposes an author
who looks back at the events which s/he describes. From this position “narrative sentences”
are produced, a notion Arthur Danto introduced for descriptions that can be written only in
hindsight.57 For example, the sentence “The Thirty Years’ War started in 1618” could have
been uttered only in 1648 or afterwards. Hindsight may result in a biased view of the past
present, well-known to historians as the sin of “anachronism”, but it also yields additional
52 Isidor of Seville, Etymologiae. Liber I: De Grammatica, XLI De historia: “Apud veteres enim
nemo conscribebat historiam, nisi is qui interfuisset, et ea quae conscribenda essent vidisset.”
(“Among the Ancients nobody wrote history, unless he had witnessed and seen by himself what
had to be described”.) See the text in the Latin Library of The Classics Page:
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/isidore/1.shtml (accessed May 8, 2020).
53 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend, Dritter Teil, VIII, 23
August 1759: “Überhaupt aber glaube ich, daß der Name eines wahren Geschichtschreibers nur
demjenigen zukömmt, der die Geschichte seiner Zeiten und seines Landes beschreibet. Denn nur
der kann selbst als Zeuge auftreten”. (“After all, I think that only he deserves the name of a true
historian who writes the history of his own time and his own country. For only he can fulfill by
himself the role of eyewitness”.) See the text at Zeno.org:
http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/Lessing,+Gotthold+Ephraim (accessed May 8, 2020).
54 Fritz Ernst, “Zeitgeschehen und Geschichtschreibung: Eine Skizze”, Die Welt als Geschichte.
Eine Zeitschrift für Universalgeschichte 17 (1957), 137-189, esp 171ff.
55 See my “Beyond Historicism: From Leibniz to Luhmann”, Journal of the Philosophy of
History, 4 (2010), 210-225.
56 The difference is exposed in a clear way in: Hayden White, “The Value of Narrativity in the
Representation of Reality” in Idem, The Content of the Form. Narrative Discourse and
Historical Representation (Baltimore; The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), 1-26.
57 Arthur C. Danto, Narration and Knowledge (New York; Columbia University Press, 2007).
29
information, not accessible to historical actors, namely knowledge of their future. The
protagonists of the events in 1618, for instance, did not yet know that a terrible, long-lasting
war had just begun. This additional knowledge makes the narrative superior to the chronicle
as a form of historical knowledge representation.
I will not delve into the nature of the historical narrative, but it is important to mention here
that it need not strictly follow a chronological storyline. It is true that many historians
tacitly subscribe to a traditional actor theory and frame their narrative as a causal process in
which one event accounts for the other. But their position as second-order observers
enables them to see things that their historical informants failed to see, for instance the
unintentional consequences of certain actions or decisions. In this connection Francesco
Guicciardini could be mentioned as a forerunner of modern historical consciousness,
because his history of Italy was partly prompted by the tragic experience that the Sack of
Rome (1527) was the unforeseen effect of his own well-intentioned advice to Pope
Clemens VII to risk a conflict with Emperor Charles V.58
The theme of unintentional consequences got a more political slant in the Radical
Enlightenment, which arose in the Dutch Republic among adepts of Spinoza. Downright
shocking was Bernard Mandeville’s doctrine that private vices can become public virtues.59
This was an outright blow to the Aristotelian tradition of moral or practical philosophy,
which measured individual action (praxis) according to the beneficial effects on society.
Following up Mandeville’s idea the Scottish philosophers moulded moral philosophy into a
modern-style social science which paid due attention to social systems and structures that
seemed to live a life of their own.60 We only need to think of Adam Smith’s “invisible
hand”. What is really at issue here is that this rise of social science was accompanied by a
new kind of evolutionary historiography which, starting from the present day, worked its
way back into the past by asking how certain institutions had come into existence. A case in
58 Frank Ankersmit, Sublime Historical Experience (Stanford, Cal.; Stanford University Press,
2005), 356-363.
59 Jonathan I. Israel, Radical Enlightenment. Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-
1750 (Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2001), 623-627.
60 For Mandeville’s influence on the Scottish philosophers and later liberal theorists see: F. A.
Hayek, “Dr. Bernard Mandeville: Lecture on a Master Mind” , Proceedings of the British
Academy 52 (1966): 125-41
30
point is Adam Ferguson’s Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767) with the well-
known quotation:
Every step and every movement of the multitude, even in what are termed
enlightened ages, are made with equal blindness to the future; and nations stumble
upon establishments, which are indeed the result of human action, but not the
execution of any human design.61
The conclusion of my answer to the second question is that historical narratives do not per
se conflict with the notion of social evolution, as the tradition of the Scottish Enlightenment
shows. In the nineteenth century this tradition became overshadowed by the speculative
philosophy of history on the one hand and mainstream historiography on the other.
Philosophers like Hegel and Marx took their cue from the Scottish philosophers when they
pointed at the role of impersonal factors such as the “cunning of reason” or “false
consciousness”. However, they transformed them into deterministic forces blotting out all
individual responsibility.62 Historians of the Ranke School, on the other hand, clung
stubbornly to the traditional actor theory. It is true, that some tended to see nations or states
as individual actors as well, but generally speaking they kept aloof from the structures and
systems discussed in the social sciences. This has changed in the last fifty years, however,
and it would be interesting to see if there is a new prospect for evolutionary historiography,
especially in conjunction with Luhmann’s theory.
The third question to be answered concerns the possibility of combining systems theory
with historical narration. The strategy of my answer will lie in using Luhmann’s distinction
between first and second closure. There is a time lag here, which brings an element of
gradualness and, accordingly, historicity into system development.
To get the meaning of the notion “first closure”, we must realize that Luhmann’s circular
system concept contrasts with the traditional, linear concept of a system. By “linear” I mean
61 Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767). Cambridge Texts in the
History of Political Thought (Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 2001), 119.
62 See for Hegel: James P. Henderson and John B. Davis, “Adam Smith’s Influence on Hegel’s
Philosophical Writings” Journal of the History of Economic Thought 13-2 (1991), 184-204.
31
in this context a reasoning from parts to a whole, where the parts are given as ready-made
items and the whole is just an assemblage like a clock or an automobile. The ontology of a
world created by God was actually the archetype of old-style systems theory. The world
was seen as an allopoietic machine, as Maturana and Varela would say, that is a machine
made by someone else.63 The dominant ontological distinction was that between whole and
parts, with the accompanying problem of how the whole can be defined from the viewpoint
of the parts. The autopoietic machine, on the other hand, is a system that creates its own
elements, i.e. cells in the case of living organisms. It has a circular and self-referential
structure consisting of cells producing an organism which in its turn is responsible for the
production of the same cells. Asking what came first, the organism or the cells, turns out to
be a chicken-or-egg problem. Assuming along with Luhmann that the autopoietic model of
an organism also applies to sense systems (Sinnsysteme), like the individual psyche and
social communication, it does not make any sense to look for a historical beginning.
This is not the whole story, however, because the operational closure of sense systems is
usually followed by a second, reflexive closure.64 I would like to illustrate this with the
“second birth of the human infant”, to quote the title of a famous psychoanalytic classic on
child development written by Margaret Mahler.65 When a new-born child is separated from
its mother, in terms of systems theory it becomes an operationally closed system which
produces its own cells. In contrast with many young animals, however, the human child
remains dependent on its mother for a fairly long period, especially for its autoregulation,
so that during the first year its relationship with her has a symbiotic character. This means
that the baby cannot yet differentiate sharply between itself and the mother. Not until the
63 Humberto Maturana and Francisco J. Varela, Autopoiesis and Cognition. The realization of
the Living (Dordrecht, Boston, London; D. Reidel publishing Company, 1980)
64 See a.o. Luhmann, Theory of Society, I, 39-40: “In communication about communication,
topics and functions of communication can in turn become a topic—a reentry of the distinction
into itself. The system closes itself at the reflexive level, thus attaining a state of double closure,
which guarantees high internal flexibility but also imposes intransparency for every observer”.
The term “reflexive closure” comes from Heinz von Foerster.
65 Margaret S. Mahler, Fred Pine, and Anni Bergman, The Psychological Birth of the Human
Infant: Symbiosis and Individuation (New York; Basic Books, 1975). Mahler’s work was sternly
critized by Daniel Stern, but Applegate argues that their views are not irreconcilable. See Jeffrey
S. Applegate, “Mahler and Stern: Irreconcilable Differences?”, Child and Adolescent Social
Work, 6-3 (1989), 163-173.
32
child is able to make a symbolic internal representation of itself and the (m)other does a
“separation-individuation process” start.66
Luhmannians may recognize the figure of “re-entry” here, by means of which a system
makes an internal representation of its own distinction from the environment. This re-entry
enables the system to use the distinction between self-reference and hetero-reference, by
means of which it is able to distinguish between an inner and an outer world. At this point
the second closure sets in and an “interior” starts taking shape. The closure is never
altogether complete, by the way, and it will remain work in progress, as is shown by the
magical confusion of inner and outer worlds, which is always lurking in the background. As
we grow up, we gradually overcome this confusion, but as soon as we are tired, weak,
drugged, or in love, it again tends to threaten our individual identity.
Shifting our focus from psychic to social systems we can see the same development. I
account for this by using Luhmann’s distinction between three kinds of self-reference.67
This distinction corresponds with the three systemic levels of respectively element,
structure, and systemic whole. On the elementary level self-reference means that short-
lived communicative events are concatenated in a recursive way. Each act of
communication links up with a predecessor and in turn provides connectability to a possible
successor. This is the level at which operational closure takes place. Next, at the structural
level we find reflexive mechanisms, which can be described as selections of selections.
Structures are nothing else but selections from variations in the communication process.
Their function becomes intensified as soon as they are applied to themselves, in the way of
learning to learn (education), researching research (methodology), governing governors
(bureaucracy) or making decisions about decisions (planning). These are the reflexive
mechanisms. Finally, we arrive at the level of reflection which concerns the system as a
whole. This is the level of self-observation and self-description, where re-entry and second
closure come into play.
66 Cf. George Herbert Mead’s thesis that mind and consciousness arise as children learn to
represent themselves to themselves through taking the views of others such as the mother or a
teacher. Later, children acquire an awareness of a generalized or collective other. See George
Herbert Mead, Mind, Self, and Society (Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 1967).
67 Niklas Luhmann, Social Systems (Stanford, Cal.; Stanford University Press, 1995), 443-444.
33
Luhmann’s definition of observation as a form of distinguishing implies that self-
observation takes time, because it involves the change from one distinction to another. At
the elementary level systems make an operative distinction between themselves and their
environment. It enables them to focus on either the environment or themselves, but they
cannot observe (distinguish!) the distinction itself (system and environment together). This
is the old subject-object problem, but in this new formulation it is easy to see the solution.
It lies in the introduction of an external observer being able to see the system in question in
its own environment. This external observer is in fact a second-order observer, because s/he
is able to distinguish the distinction which is a blind spot to the first-order observer.
It is important to realize that there are two forms of second-order observation, a synchronic
and a diachronic one. In the first case we have to do with a social relation between two or
more observers, in the second case we are speaking of self-observation. Now ‘self-
observation’ sounds rather paradoxical. For how could a system observe itself while
observing? The answer is that this is impossible, “for the eye sees not itself”, as
Shakespeare put it. The only way to make sense of self-observation is to distinguish
between a present self, which observes, and a past self which is observed. But how does
one know that the two selves belong to one and the same “self”? The problem becomes
more tractable, when we adopt Luhmann’s definition of observation as distinction. For,
obviously, a system cannot distinguish the distinction with which it is actually operating, as
this would require a new, alternative guiding distinction (Leitdifferenz). Only when the
switch from one to another has taken place can a system hope to look back at its earlier way
of observing. This is the essence of self-observation, as Luhmann understands it, and we
can see more clearly now that it is by definition a historical activity.
Corresponding with the two kinds of second order observation just mentioned are two kinds
of identity, a synchronic and a diachronic one. In the first case, identity is established in
contrast with other contemporary systems. Luhmann mentions the example of “reflexive
theories” developed by many function systems since the 18th century, such as political
theory, educational theory, economic theory, art theory, and so on. These theories
34
positioned the subsystem in question vis-a-vis other subsystems and society at large. In the
second case identity means permanence in change. It provides an answer to the unsettling
question whether today’s system is the same as yesterday’s. This question gave rise to the
study of history in the early modern period and especially since the 18th century. From the
viewpoint of systems theory it is important that this orientation towards history involved a
switch from hetero reference to self-reference and thus to more autonomy. I shall illustrate
this switch with examples from legal history and art history.
Both law and art had a tradition of orienting themselves towards “nature”. In case of the
legal system this manifested itself in the prominence of natural law. The belief in an
overarching and unchanging law was shaken, when during the 16th century (mos gallicus),
French humanists started to look at legal history in a modern way. It took another few
centuries, however, before natural law eventually made room for the self-referential
doctrine of legal positivism. Art too used to define itself in terms of nature, as is illustrated
by sayings such as “all art is but imitation of nature” (omnis ars imitatio naturae est) or
“nature is art’s teacher” (natura magistra artis). Since the Renaissance, though, it likewise
started to orient itself to its own past, a process that culminated in the founding of the
modern history of art by Winckelmann in the 18th century. From that moment onwards
artists began to define themselves in reaction to their predecessors as an avant-garde with a
new sound or a new style.
Finishing my answer to the third question I would like to draw attention to cultural history
as a possible link connecting systems theory and historical narration. Although Luhmann
was ambivalent about using the concept of culture, he had valuable insights into it in
connection with second-order observation.68 According to him, the concept got its modern,
comparative function in the 18th century. When the principle of natural equality gained
ground, at the same time it became expedient to look for non-natural or cultural differences
between people, not only in a synchronic but also in a diachronic way. This marked the
68 For Luhmann’s ambivalent attitude towards culture, see: Niklas Luhmann: “Kultur als
historischer Begriff”. In: Idem: Gesellschaftsstruktur und Semantik. Studien zur
Wissenssoziologie der modernen Gesellschaft Vol. 4 (Frankfurt am Main; Suhrkamp, 1995), 31–
54. An introductory article in English is: Rudi Laermans, “ Systems Theory and Culture: Drawing
Lessons from Parsons and Luhmann” in: David Inglis and Anna-Mari Almila, ed., The SAGE
Handbook of Cultural Sociology (Los Angeles etc.; Sage, 2016), 178-193.
35
birth of cultural studies. The synchronic comparison of cultures would become the field of
social or cultural anthropology. The diachronic comparison of one and the same culture
became the specialisation of cultural history. In both cases second-order observation was
the new research method. From the perspective of Luhmann’s theory the case of cultural
history is especially relevant, because it represents an attempt to transcend the specific
viewpoints of the different function systems and to describe the self-description of society
as a whole. As such it could be a useful complement to systems theory, especially where
this theory is understood as an instance of third-order observation suited to observing the
self-observation and self-description of social systems.69 The fifth and last chapter of
Luhmann’s Theory of Society is in fact entirely devoted to this subject.
Conclusion
Generally speaking, the study of evolution seems to require the collaboration between
theory and narrative. This applies to the study of biological evolution, if we may believe the
authoritative opinion of Ernst Mayr.70 And it seems to apply also to the study of social
evolution, judging by the problems of Luhmann’s theory. Formally, Luhmann hopes he can
do without the support of historical narration, but informally he falls back on it as soon as
he describes the societal evolution in terms of “differentiation”, “increasing complexity”, or
“growing autonomy”. The end result is unsatisfactory, because the different types of society
are isolated from one another like evolutionary islands. In the end Luhmann’s theory does
not seem that different from the kind of phase-theory which historians are blamed for. It
seems advisable, therefore, to examine as to how theory and narrative can be combined in a
new and constructive way. My suggestion tends towards cultural history. This historical
specialism has much to gain by Luhmann’s systems theory, but at the same time it can
69 Niklas Luhmann, Law as a Social System (Oxford etc.; Oxford University Press, 2004), 461:
“We remain in the position of a third-order observer who observes the self-observation and self-
description of the system”.
70 Ernst Mayr, What Makes Biology Unique? Considerations on the autonomy of a scientific
discipline (Cambridge, etc.: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 32: “Just as in much of theory
formation, the scientist starts with a conjecture and thoroughly tests it for its validity, so in
evolutionary biology the scientist constructs a historical narrative, which is then tested for its
explanatory value”. See for a wider debate on the role of narratives in evolutionary biology: H.
Nitecki and Doris V. Nitecki, ed., History and Evolution. “Proceedings of the Spring Systematics
Symposium held at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in May, 1989” (New York;
SUNY Press, 1992).
36
improve this theory when it comes to understanding the historical self-description of
systems.
I would like to wind up with a short narrative “improvisation” on the problem of the
Investiture Controversy with which I began. As a historian I wonder why modern society
evolved in medieval Europe and not, say, in ancient Rome or China. Signs of functional
differentiation were already visible in these empires, but apparently they did not result in a
transformation of the existing society. What, then, was so different in Christian Europe? It
is hard not to look at the role of religion. What was special about it was at least two things.
Firstly, it was a forerunner in the process of functional differentiation, as Luhmann fully
acknowledges.71 What was important in this respect was the self-other distinction of the
Church vis-à-vis the world (mundus, saeculum), which went back to early Christianity but
got a new dimension through “the papal revolution” of the 11th–12th centuries.72 Secondly,
what was also special was that the conjunction of politics and religion lost its “natural”
character after the papal edict Libertas ecclesiae of 1079. Rulers had always used religion
in a natural way to bolster their political power, but from now on this was no longer a
matter of course.
I am not suggesting that the Investiture Controversy marked the beginning of the separation
between Church and State, if only because as yet there was no modern state in the 11th
century and the popes did their best to turn the tables by creating a theocracy. So, it would
be anachronistic to read too much of our own time in this part of medieval history. But we
may safely assume that the reflexive closure of the religious system around 1100 created a
non-religious space in which secular function systems could flourish. Naturally, this growth
was gradual and slow. It would take many centuries before the Church discovered that its
influence was reduced to its own domain by the worldly activities of politics, law,
71 Niklas Luhmann, “Die Ausdifferenzierung der Religion” in: Idem, Gesellschaftsstruktur und
Semantik. Studien der Wissensoziologie der modernen Gesellschaft , III (Frankfurt am Main;
Suhrkamp, 1993), 270: “When it comes to functional differentiation religion enters modern
history with a head start. This alone provides support to the assumption that it had a special role
in the transformation of society beginning in the later Middle Ages” ( my translation).
72 This term, introduced by Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, became widely known by Harold J.
Berman, Law and Revolution. The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition (Cambridge, Mass.,
London; Harvard University Press, 1983).
37
economy, science, or art. This process of “secularization” was deplored in modern times,
but looking back it seems fair to say that it all started with the creation of a “secular world”
in the first place.
38
Prefacio del autor
Los siete ensayos que se compendian en este libro son el producto acabado de la
práctica sin concesiones de las libertades de cátedra y de investigación, tan
escasas hoy en día en universidades y centros de investigación. La sociología
histórica del cristianismo bien pudiera representar una materia doblemente
interdisciplinaria: en la integración de grupos de trabajo y en la imposibilidad
individual de casarse con la especialidad de origen excluyendo todas las otras (en
especial la historia cultural). El orden de presentación de los ensayos sigue al de
su elaboración de manera que puedan expresar por un lado la maduración de las
hipótesis y, por el otro, el paso natural de la investigación básica a la aplicada.
Los tres últimos ensayos (La Historia verdadera, El laicismo estatal en México y
Semánticas cristianas de misión) tienen como referente central a México, bien
para repensar la conquista de la Nueva España (la transformación de Eurasia en el
mundo llano o planeta tierra), para hacer un repaso del nacimiento del Estado
nacionalista revolucionario a la luz de las semánticas posibles en las relaciones
entre política y religión en la actual sociedad moderna, o para revisar el
indigenismo nacionalista mexicano desde las semánticas cristianas de misión.
39
En todos los ensayos el imperativo ha sido elaborar narrativas sociohistóricas
interconectadas donde lo local y lo global se entremezclan y superponen (quedan
“acoplados”). Lejos de intentar generar lineamientos de política social se pretende
superar trabas parroquiales para atisbar, si no es que ayudar a discernir, la
complejidad de la sociedad mundial en que vivimos.
40
Author’s Preface
The seven essays which are collected in this book are the finest product of the
practice without concessions of academic freedom in teaching and research, so
lacking today in universities and research centers. The historical sociology of
Christianity could well represent a doubly interdisciplinary subject: in the
integration of working groups and in the individual impossibility of marrying the
specialization of origin in exclusion of all others (in particular cultural history).
Essays’ order of presentation follows that of their elaboration so that they can
express on one hand the rippening of hypotheses and, on the other, the natural step
which goes from basic to applied research.
The last three essays (The True History, State-Laicism in Mexico, and Mission
Christian Semantics) make special reference to Mexico, either to rethink the
conquest of New Spain (the transformation of Eurasia into the plain world or
planet Earth), to review the birth of the revolutionary nationalist State in the light
of the possible semantics in the relations between politics and religion in today’s
modern society, or to revise the revolutionary nationalist indigenismo taking into
consideration mission Christian semantics.
41
In all essays the imperative has been to write down interconnected socio-historical
narratives where the local and the global intermingle and overlap (“couple”). Far
from trying to generate social policy guidelines, this work is intended to overcome
parochial obstacles in order to glimpse, or help to discern, the complexity of the
world society in which we live.
The postface was added to answer the question about the way modern society
integrates, contrary to what an orthodox view of the theory would postulate (the
low integration of modern societies). Modern societies are indeed quite messy but
it is also true that they are far from being societies in permanent change. In my
opinion, the “mystery” is solved through institutions and the decisions they make
within them. Another way of saying it: for better and for worse, modern societies
stabilize themselves by force of decisions.
42
1. Dissidentia (Español)
Introducción 73
43
Para una historia de la iglesia cristiana, el principal elemento de variación resultan
ser posiciones teológicas heterodoxas o afirmaciones opuestas a los dogmas
sancionados por la iglesia. 76 La función de la comunicación cristiana no
conformista fue definir una semántica cristiana particular y alternativa y permitir
la consolidación de varios patriarcados de la iglesia. Aquí, las distinciones
orientadoras son ortodoxia/ herejía (canónico/ apócrifo cuando se refiere a la
tradición testamentaria, e iglesia hegemónica/ iglesia cismática cuando se le ve
desde una perspectiva organizacional).
76 Para la argumentación en detalle refiérase Ornelas (2016, 35-65), capítulo segundo sobre
herejías y organización cristiana.
44
la iglesia latina occidental en 1517 (iglesias protestantes), donde tradiciones
cristianas locales (Wyclif, Hus, Lutero, Calvino, Zwinglio, Grebel) exigieron su
independencia de Roma. Esta es la razón por la cual
…la evolución histórica [de la iglesia] parece estar caracterizada por una
reducción progresiva de la ecumenicidad de los concilios —de universales a
occidentales, de occidentales a romanos— y también de su horizonte. La
hegemonía del servicio a la fe vivida de la comunidad parece que ha sido
paulatinamente sustituida por la funcionalidad al servicio de la institución
eclesial (Alberigo 1993, 13-14).
Esto abre el camino a una cristiandad que combina estrechamente iglesia y Estado.
45
En el siglo ix, la división entre el cristianismo occidental (patriarcado romano) y
el oriental (patriarcado constantinopolitano) se hizo evidente. En ese momento, un
conflicto de jurisdicción sobre el sur de Italia y Dalmacia escaló en la
controversia sobre el filioque, un punto dogmático relacionado con el uso de la
cláusula “y del Hijo” en la fórmula del credo, que llevó a relaciones conflictivas
entre ambos patriarcados.
46
desplazamiento de Alejandría como el patriarcado con primacía en oriente, y
culmina después de largas disputas dogmáticas contra gnósticos, arrianos,
nestorianos y monofisitas 77 con el cisma de las iglesias cristianas orientales
durante el Concilio de Calcedonia en 451.
Muy al contrario de una interpretación para el período que enfatiza las tendencias
cesaropapistas de los gobernantes seculares (desde Constantino una característica
que siguió la costumbre y el uso aceptado), lo que realmente está sucediendo es
una abrumadora centralización del poder en manos del patriarca romano. En este
período, los patriarcas romanos alcanzan sus más altos poderes y también sus
principales defectos: el lanzamiento de Cruzadas, la apropiación de las
indulgencias, la creación de la Inquisición pontificia y el excesivo protocolo y
opulencia en la celebración de la Eucaristía.
77 Contra la ortodoxia eclesiástica, los gnósticos postulaban una filosofía dualista que opone dos
principios (bueno/ malo; luz/ oscuridad; espíritu/ materia), e incluye la creencia en un dios
ignorante (demiurgo) que creó el mundo material malvado (Markschies 2002, 37-38) Los
arrianos negaban la divinidad de Cristo. Los nestorianos rechazaban a María como madre de
Dios. Los monofisitas argumentaban, sin negar la doble naturaleza de Cristo, que la naturaleza
humana de Jesús había sido absorbida en favor de su divinidad.
47
papal y la aparición de poderosas órdenes religiosas (Mitterauer 2010, 150-151).
El poder translocal adquirido así transformaría al patriarcado romano en un poder
proto-colonial aliado a los futuros poderes de Europa occidental:
Sin embargo, a fines del siglo xi, el papado, que durante al menos dos
décadas había estado instando a los gobernantes seculares a liberar a
Bizancio de los infieles, finalmente logró organizar la primera Cruzada
(1096-1099). Una segunda Cruzada se lanzó en 1147 y una tercera en 1189.
Estas primeras Cruzadas fueron las guerras extranjeras de la Revolución
Papal [Reforma Gregoriana]. No solo aumentaron el poder y la autoridad del
papado, sino que también abrieron un nuevo eje hacia el este al mundo
exterior y convirtieron el Mar Mediterráneo de una barrera defensiva natural
contra la invasión desde fuera en una ruta para la expansión militar y
comercial de Europa occidental (Berman 1983, 100-101).
78 Compárese Luhmann (2007b, 37). Este libro se publicó póstumamente (Luhmann 2000). La
traducción inglesa la publicó Stanford University Press (Luhmann 2013b).
48
implica un significado religioso específico diferente de otros significados en la
sociedad:
79 Este libro compila los dos artículos más importantes que Luhmann escribió en vida sobre el
sistema de la religión (Luhmann 1977, 77-181; Luhmann 1989, 259-357). Una traducción inglesa
de La dogmática religiosa puede encontrarse en Luhmann (1984).
80 Frase con que inicia el capítulo cuatro sobre diferenciación.
49
sociales, cada una con diferentes modos de producción. La diferenciación en
Durkheim se entiende como división del trabajo social, característica de
sociedades con solidaridad orgánica, opuesta a sociedades simples cuya
solidaridad es mecánica. 81 La idea de la división del trabajo fue importada a la
sociología desde la ciencia económica, junto con su valoración positiva.
81 Para una revisión de las más importantes teorías sociológicas compárese Ritzer & Stepnisky
(2011).
50
diferenciación societal externa, mientras que la diferenciación interna se expresa a
través de varias confesiones de fe (en el sistema religioso), partidos políticos (en
el sistema político) o teorías y métodos de investigación (en el sistema científico).
Es importante advertir que los sistemas sociales diferenciados de los que habla la
teoría se refieren única y exclusivamente a comunicación, de modo que cuando se
habla del sistema de la religión, la política o el deporte, la teoría se refiere solo a
la comunicación religiosa, política o deportiva. Nos enfrentamos a una teoría
sociológica de la comunicación que comprende en principio que la sociedad está
compuesta únicamente por la comunicación.
51
Si existe un legado de las reformas protestantes del siglo xvi para el mundo
moderno, es que allanaron el camino hacia la especialización y la fragmentación
de las comunicaciones religiosas. 82 Junto con la iglesia luterana, el cristianismo
occidental fue, y sigue siendo, desmembrado en varias iglesias: calvinista,
zwingliana, anabautista, anglicana, metodista, presbiteriana, etc. En este sentido,
el protestantismo provocó que otros tipos de comunicaciones hicieran lo mismo:
especializarse y fragmentarse (diversificarse). Por ejemplo, de la Dieta de Speyer
en 1526 viene el principio cuius regio, eius religio (de acuerdo con la religión del
rey, así será la del reino), con el cual cada príncipe protestante reclamó para sí
mismo el derecho de adoptar una religión y organizar una iglesia propia de
acuerdo con los dictados de su conciencia y, claramente, de acuerdo con las
reformas religiosas en curso. De esta manera, la diferenciación religiosa reforzó
la diferenciación política en Estados principescos al alimentar nociones
incipientes de poder soberano. 83
82 Para la argumentación en detalle véase Ornelas (2016, 66-95), tercer capítulo sobre
comunicaciones luteranas y contrarreforma.
83 Los historiadores ahora aceptan la Controversia de las Investiduras de finales del siglo xi y
principios del xii como el más claro antecedente del nacimiento del Estado moderno y,
consecuentemente, como precondición de la diferenciación iglesia-Estado. Compárese Strayer
(1970, 3-56), Berman (1983, 85-119) y Mitterauer (2010, 144-193).
52
cercano a la historia conceptual: antes del siglo xvi, el concepto de religión era
indistinguible de muchas otras comunicaciones. No es hasta la llegada de los
protestantismos que la religión adopta el significado moderno (diferenciado) de
comunicaciones relacionadas exclusivamente con lo trascendental. 84
53
(Página en blanco/ Blank page)
54
1. Dissidentia (English)
Introduction 85
55
For a Christian Church history the main variation element turns out to be
unorthodox theological standpoints or assertions opposed to ecclesiastical
sanctioned dogmas. 88 Non-conformist Christian communications function was that
of defining a particular and alternative Christian semantics, and allowing for
various ecclesiastical patriarchates to consolidate. Here, the guiding distinctions
are orthodoxy/ heresy (canonical/ apochriphal when referred to the testamentary
tradition, and hegemonic Church/ schismatic Church when viewed from an
organizational perspective).
When Church history is viewed through these guiding distinctions, the protruding
theoretical statement is that dogma formation is linked to ecclesiastical
organization (consolidation of patriarchates together with its territorial
jurisdiction) as well as to their rivalry (in general the question about the primacy
of patriarchates). The more creepy and daring the beliefs asserted dogmatically,
the greater the need to make religious generalizations, that is, to affirm one’s own
theological opinion against the opinions held by other organized churches, in
order to establish them as criterion of membership:
Broadly and as examples of this, the first Church schism of the eastern non-
Chalcedonian churches (451) —Coptic, Armenian, Syrian and Ethiopian—
corresponds to the rivalry between Alexandria and Antioch (and in general all
eastern episcopates). The second schism of the Greek Orthodox Church (869/879)
corresponds to the rivalry between Byzantium and Rome. Finally, the last schism
of the Western Latin Church in 1517 (Protestant Churches), where local Christian
88 For the detailed argumentation compare Ornelas (2018, 87-170), second chapter on heresies
and Christian organization.
56
traditions (Wycliffe, Hus, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Grebel) demanded their
independence from Rome. This is why
Since Constantine the Great, Roman imperial policies and the Christian Church
intermixed to the point that the most important councils or synods of the Church
began to be convened by the Roman Emperor and, the way round, Church
councils’ decisions were incorporated into the Roman legislation:
It was clearly within the emperor’s powers to revise the laws and several
such revisions were made. But he could also add Novels ( Novellae), new
laws or constitutions. The Byzantines, living as they did in a theocratic
society, found it hard to be sure where things temporal ended and things
spiritual began. Thus the laws of their state frequently incorporated legal
rulings of the church. Where a necessary qualification for citizenship was
Orthodoxy in religious belief, it was natural that the canons of the church
councils which had defined that belief should also be the law of the land.
Justinian had decreed that “the canons of the first four councils of the
church, at Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon, should have the
status of law. For we accept as holy writ the dogmas of those councils and
guard their canons as laws” (Nicol 1997, 65).
This opens the way to a Christendom which closely combines Church and State.
By the ninth century, the division between Western (Roman patriarchate) and
Eastern (Constantinopolitan patriarchate) Christianity became evident. At this
time a conflict of jurisdiction over southern Italy and Dalmatia escalated into the
filioque controversy, a dogmatic point pertaining to the use of the clause “and the
Son” in the creed formula, which led to conflicting relations between both
patriarchates.
57
The Council of Constantinople IV has the peculiarity of having taken place in a
twofold version (869 and 879). The Roman version of 869 condemned Photios I,
Byzantine patriarch, for eliminating the filioque clause from the creed, and
decided on the order of precedence of the patriarchates: Rome, Constantinople,
Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem (Jedin 1960, 47ff). The Byzantine version of
879 reinstated Photios as legitimate patriarch and rejected the decisions taken by
Romans ten years before.
The Catholic Church recognizes the ecumenical character of this council; the
Greeks do not. The schism did not consummate thanks to the Saracen incursions
in Italy and to the weakness of the Carolingian empire, but progressively became
final in the eleventh century with the re-edition of the filioque controversy and
later on with the sack of Constantinople by westerners of the fourth crusade in
1204 (Mitre 2000, 35ff). Never again a general council took place in the East:
The breaking points for an alternative periodization of Church history are set in
accordance with the guiding distinctions established before. The first period is
that of Christian Antiquity (first to fifth centuries AD). On the level of organized
Christianity, it points to the hegemony and later displacement of Alexandria as the
patriarchate with primacy in the East, and culminates after lengthy dogmatic
disputes against Gnostics, Arians, Nestorians and Monophysites 89 with the schism
of the eastern Christian churches during the Council of Chalcedon in 451.
89 Against Church orthodoxy, Gnostics postulated a dualist philosophy which opposes two
principles (good/ bad; light/ darkness; spirit/ matter), and includes the belief in an ignorant god
(demiurge) who created the material evil world (Markschies 2002, 37-38). Arians denied the
divinity of Christ. Nestorians rejected Mary as mother of God. Monophysites argued, without
denying the double nature of Christ, that the human nature of Jesus was absorbed in favor of his
divinity.
58
The second period goes from the sixth to the ninth centuries, until the Council of
Constantinople IV (869-879). During this time the disqualification of
Monophysitism is confirmed as well as all forms of compromise with eastern non-
Chalcedonian churches. Properly speaking, it is the period in which
Constantinople consolidates as the “new Rome”, and the immediate one following
the massive invasions of “barbarian” peoples to Western Europe and North Africa.
Finally, the third and last period when the Investiture Controversy takes place,
from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries. This period follows the schism of
Photios I, and ends with the schism of the Latin Church, which would give rise to
the evangelical Protestant churches.
Apart from papal councils themselves, the concentration of power on the Roman
patriarch may be found in three distinctive elements: the Roman Curia (“no
secular administration could come anywhere near it”), the figure of the papal
legate, and the emergence of powerful religious orders (Mitterauer 2010, 150-
151). The translocal power acquired thus will transform the Roman patriarchate
into a proto-colonial power allied to western European powers-to-be:
At the end of the eleventh century, however, the papacy, which for at least
two decades had been urging secular rulers to liberate Byzantium from the
infidels, finally succeeded in organizing the First Crusade (1096-1099). A
second crusade was launched in 1147 and a third crusade in 1189. These first
crusades were the foreign wars of the Papal Revolution [Gregorian
Reformation]. They not only increased the power and authority of the papacy
59
but also opened a new axis eastward to the outside world and turned the
Mediterranean Sea from a natural defensive barrier against invasion from
without into a route for western Europe’s own military and commercial
expansion (Berman 1983, 100-101).
Originally, religion was secured by society itself. Not in the sense that every
action was always religiously qualified. Neither social communication nor
the surrounding nature were totally and completely sacralized. But in its
foundations, religion and society were not distinguishable from one
another… The historical-evolutionary event which we want to analyze under
the tag “differentiation process of religion”, ends with this possibility. The
process of differentiation involves a renunciation to redundancy. Religion
does not assure today either against inflation or against an unwanted change
of government, or against the outcome of a passion, or against the scientific
90 Compare Luhmann (2007b, 37). This book was posthumously published (Luhmann 2000). The
English version was published by Stanford University Press (Luhmann 2013b).
60
refutation of one’s own theories. It can not interfere with other functional
systems (Luhmann 2009, 195). 91
The theory of differentiation in sociology has a very long history. It is present not
only in Niklas Luhmann, but also in important classical and contemporary
sociologists such as Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Max Weber, and
Talcott Parsons: “Since its establishment, sociology has been concerned with
differentiation” (Luhmann 2007a, 471ff). 92 The concept is used to produce the
unity of differences or, if you will, to indicate the unity through plurality or
diversity.
91 This book is a compilation of the two most important articles that Luhmann wrote in life
about the system of religion (Luhmann 1977, 77-181; Luhmann 1989, 259-357). An English
version of Religious Dogmatics could be found in Luhmann (1984).
92 Opening phrase of chapter four on differentiation.
93 For a revision of major sociological theorists compare Ritzer & Stepnisky (2011).
61
economics, politics, erotica). These orders of life will tend to adjust to a
rationality according to ends.
Talcott Parsons’ theory of the general system of action (AGIL schema of four
functions with their different constituent ends and media) explains societal
development as a growing differentiation based on role differences and this, in
turn, provides the explanation of modern individualism.
The three primordial societal types, from lesser to greater complexity, are: a)
segmentary societies (tribal in type), composed by equal segments; b) stratified
societies (aristocratic, class or caste in type), composed by unequal segments; c)
functionally differentiated society (modern society), composed by different social
systems (religion, economics, politics, law, science). This view of modern society
is regarded as external societal differentiation, while internal differentiation
expresses itself through various confessions of faith (in the religious system),
political parties (in the political system), or theories and research methods (in the
scientific system).
It is important to note that the differentiated social systems of which the theory
speaks about refer only and exclusively to communication, so that when one
speaks of the system of religion, politics or sports, the theory refers only to
religious, political or sports communication. We are faced with a sociological
theory of communication which understands in principle that society is composed
by communication only.
62
Once the basic background of the theory of social differentiation has been
reviewed, the most important thesis of social systems theory related to the system
of religion can be put forward: sixteenth-century Protestant reformations are but
the expression of the internal differentiation of religion, which is concomitant
with the emergence of a new societal type: the functionally differentiated society.
Thus, Protestantisms have to do with the evolutionary momentum in which
European societies moved from a form of stratified differentiation to a modern
one:
The late middle ages and the Reformation added a critique of merit and a
radical shift towards grace to the general Christian emphasis on the factors
of salvation… Based on some very controversial ideas, Weber assumes that
this shift created motives for rational economic and even rational scientific
action. However, what is more important is that the process dismantled
interferences of religion in the economy and science which had taken the
form of relatively concrete evaluations of action relevant to salvation… The
evolutionary success probably lay more in the strong disentanglement and
differentiation of systems than in the special effectiveness of an ascetic
motivation for salvation (Luhmann 1984, 79-80).
94 For the detailed argumentation compare Ornelas (2018, 171-240), third chapter on Lutheran
communications and Counter-Reformation.
63
religious differentiation reinforced political differentiation in princely states by
feeding incipient notions of sovereign power. 95
95 Historians now accept the Investiture Controversy of the late eleventh and early twelfth
centuries as the clearest antecedent of modern State inception, and consequently as a pre-
condition to Church-State differentiation. For this compare Strayer (1970, 3-56), Berman (1983,
85-119) and Mitterauer (2010, 144-193).
96 For the full argumentation compare Nongbri (2013).
64
Referencias/ References
Berman, Harold. 1983. Law and Revolution. The Formation of the Legal Western
Tradition. Cambridge/ London: Harvard University Press.
Luhmann, Niklas. 1984. Religious Dogmatics and the Evolution of Societies. New
York/ Toronto: Edwin Mellen Press.
65
Luhmann, Niklas & Raffaele De Giorgi. 1992. Teoria della società. Milano:
Franco Angeli.
Mitre F., Emilio. 2000. Las herejías medievales de Oriente y Occidente. Madrid:
Arco Libros.
Mitterauer, Michael. 2010. Why Europe? The Medieval Origins of Its Special
Path. Chicago/ London: University of Chicago Press.
Ornelas, Marco. 2018. Modern Religious Differentiation: The Latin Mass (1517-
1570). Mexico: Independently Published.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1790664047
Ritzer, George & Jeffrey Stepnisky (eds.). 2011. The Wiley-Blackwell Companion
to Major Social Theorists, Vols. I and II. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Strayer, Joseph R. 1970. On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State. New
Jersey: Princeton University Press.
66
2. Comunicación apocalíptica cristiana: una mirada
sociológica
Resumen
¿Cómo es que una de las más importantes teorías sociológicas de la comunicación
–la teoría de sistemas sociales– trata con la religión y más concretamente con el
apocalipsis cristiano? Este artículo proporciona una respuesta a esta pregunta. La
respuesta pasa por relacionar las enseñanzas de la escatología apocalíptica
cristiana con períodos específicos de construcción dogmática y comunicación
religiosa organizada.
Introducción 97
67
Una explicación naturalista de la comunicación apocalíptica cristiana
¿De dónde proviene esta mirada más pedestre y humilde sobre la comunicación
apocalíptica? La tradición occidental de pensamiento que es directamente
responsable de ella se remonta a finales del siglo xix y principios del xx en las
obras de eminentes antropólogos sociales y sociólogos tales como Edward Tylor
(Cultura primitiva, 1871), James George Frazer (La rama dorada, 1890), Emile
Durkheim (Las formas elementales de la vida religiosa, 1912), Bronislaw
Malinowsky (Los argonautas del Pacífico Occidental, 1922), y Edward Evans-
Pritchard (Brujería, magia y oráculos entre los Azande, 1937). Estos trabajos
tienen en común especificar un análisis funcional y evolutivo de la religión.
100 Compárense Pals (2008), Cipriani (2004) y los textos seleccionados por Robertson (1980).
68
sustanciales en las concepciones evolutivas; y 3) que las razones dadas por los
fieles para explicar su comportamiento religioso no pueden ser tomadas como las
únicas válidas porque la mayoría de las veces carecen de una base racional o de
un consenso intersubjetivo. 101
Hasta este punto, deberá quedar claro que la teoría de sistemas sociales es
considerada como una (si no es que la más importante) teoría sociológica de la
comunicación. 103 El fin último de toda comunicación, ya sea religiosa o de
cualquier otro tipo, es ser aceptada o rechazada. La comunicación religiosa sólo
puede desarrollarse y estabilizarse como una cultura en la medida en que puede
establecer un conjunto de expectativas permanente y socialmente aceptado. Hay
dos maneras en que esto se puede lograr: a través de la religión o a través de los
medios simbólicos (dinero, amor, fe/karma, poder, verdad) de sistemas sociales
101 Otra manera de decirlo: no es necesario ser fiel para interesarse en el estudio de las
religiones, o no sólo quien practica una religión está en condiciones de entender de qué trata el
asunto. De hecho, esto es algo fácil de decir, pero el tema difícilmente puede considerarse
resuelto. Tómese a Knott (2000) como un buen ejemplo de ello.
102 Es por esto que un sociólogo no puede confiar en el principio absoluto de un estudio
“autónomo” de la religión, como propone Eliade (1972), aunque acepta al mismo tiempo el valor
de sus estudios para el conocimiento del contenido ritual y doctrinal de las religiones. Un
estudio científico y sociológico de la religión siempre da por sentada una héterorreferencia, es
decir, una observación de la religión desde otra perspectiva, siendo esta otra perspectiva la que
proporciona la ciencia social. Tal vez este punto de vista permite distinguir el ámbito de la
teología y los estudios religiosos del de la sociología de la religión.
103 Compárese a Schützeichel (2015, 275ss), en especial el capítulo 12: Luhmann y la auto-
referencia de la comunicación.
69
modernos y autónomos (Luhmann 1998). La religión es considerada por la teoría
como el primer mecanismo utilizado por las sociedades para asegurar
comunicación exitosa (o una aceptación generalizada de la comunicación)
(Luhmann 2009, 80ss). 104
70
Las llamadas expresiones concretas de la comunicación religiosa –los rituales y
las doctrinas– están interconectados e interrelacionados de tal manera que son
considerados dinámicamente en un proceso socio-histórico co-evolutivo. Los
rituales se basan en la interacción cara a cara, razón por la que producen un
exceso de sociabilidad. El ritual socializa, es decir, proporciona un significado
religioso inmediato y compartido. En sociedades de tipo tribal prácticamente toda
interacción social está ritualizada: la religión y la sociedad resultan ser una y la
misma cosa.
71
minoría oprimida debe tomar medidas drásticas para prepararse para una
catástrofe inminente” (Aune 2005, 234ss).
72
comunicación religiosa? Este artículo responde por la afirmativa. Si se considera
un largo período de tiempo –empezando en el siglo ii aC, cuando las ideas
apocalípticas aparecieron en el Antiguo Testamento–, hasta que aparece la
doctrina de los dos reinos en san Agustín (La Ciudad de Dios), opuesta a la
realización del reino de Dios en esta tierra (Schwarz, 1984, 501), habrán de
transcurrir seis centurias para permitir un proceso evolutivo y doctrinal cristiano
que enfatizara una vida futura después de esta vida terrenal con fuertes rasgos
apocalípticos, y que caracterizarían a la Edad Media tardía. Veamos.
La idea de cualquier tipo de vida futura que seguiría a esta vida terrenal todavía
no está presente en el Eclesiastés (AANT 2010, 31; Ehrman 2008, 189). Las ideas
apocalípticas judeocristianas sólo se encuentran en el libro de Daniel en el
Antiguo Testamento (Dan 7-12), que los eruditos ahora datan en el siglo ii aC.
Típicamente, las doctrinas apocalípticas se desarrollan en el Nuevo Testamento,
en especial en el Apocalipsis o Revelación de Juan. Así que si tuviéramos que
señalar el inicio del desarrollo de una doctrina apocalíptica judeocristiana
tendríamos que referirnos al libro de Daniel en el Antiguo Testamento, al
Apocalipsis de Juan en el Nuevo Testamento y a la cúspide de este desarrollo en
La Ciudad de Dios de Agustín. Los especialistas también han señalado que estos
desarrollos se asociaron a períodos históricos con dificultades sociopolíticas
extremas, respectivamente: con la rebelión macabea para enfrentar la tiranía del
gobernante seléucida Antíoco Epifanio (167 aC), con las persecuciones cristianas
–la neroniana, que culpó a los cristianos del gran incendio de Roma del año 64 de
nuestra era, o la posterior persecución de los años 90 de parte de Domiciano
(Aune 2005, Ehrman 2008, 197ss)–, y, como veremos finalmente, con la caída de
Roma en manos de los godos en el año 410.
108 Compárese Portalié (CE 2003). Antes de su conversión al cristianismo, Agustín sostuvo
posturas maniqueas.
73
gran herejía del norte de África, rigorista en su tipo, que rechazó la facilidad con
que se restablecía la comunión a los obispos que habían cometido apostasía bajo
la persecución romana. El punto en disputa era: ¿debían considerarse válidos los
sacramentos administrados por obispos apóstatas? Los donatistas sostenían una
enfática negativa, contra la opinión de Agustín sobre la objetividad sacramental:
la virtud salvífica de los sacramentos no depende de la dignidad moral de quien
los administra (Eliade 1999, 74). Además, los donatistas subrayaban la
independencia de la iglesia del poder político. Pero, por supuesto, el siglo iv fue
una época de expansión cristiana, y el rigorismo cristiano no fue bien visto por las
autoridades eclesiásticas. En 314, un sínodo en Arles falló contra los donatistas.
Lo que se considera más importante es que este fue el primer sínodo convocado a
iniciativa de Constantino el Grande y considerado por esa razón “una gran
desviación de los precedentes conocidos, una que tendría consecuencias de largo
alcance. Por primera vez, un emperador romano había tomado la iniciativa de
convocar un concilio de obispos, en cualquier escala. Su acción elevó
instantáneamente el estado de tal reunión y cambió su naturaleza” (Drake 2006,
118). 109 El nuevo matrimonio entre las políticas eclesiásticas e imperiales debe
tomarse en cuenta como un desarrollo paralelo al desarrollo de la doctrina de
Agustín de los dos reinos. 110
109 Parece ser que en la tradición judeocristiana, y tan temprano como en el siglo ii dC, forzada
por la herejía marcionista (Ehrman 2003, 95ss), surgieron y se desarrollaron herejías
estrechamente vinculadas a la distinción comunicativa canónico/apócrifo, desencadenada por la
organización de la comunicación cristiana. En otras palabras, en el cristianismo primitivo, la
doctrina y la tradición testamentaria correctas se desarrollaron a resultas de las decisiones de los
primeros sínodos y concilios de la iglesia (Ehrman 2003, 229ss). Una fuerte comunicación
cristiana organizada, que en el siglo iv se volvió ferozmente centralizada y jerárquica, parece ser
lo que distingue la escatología apocalíptica cristiana de, digamos, la “escatología relativa” del
budismo Theravada tal como lo muestra Ladwig (2014) para finales del siglo xix en Laos y
Tailandia.
110 Estrictamente hablando, el Edicto de Milán de 313 era sólo un edicto de tolerancia religiosa.
Fue hasta el año 380, con el Edicto de Tesalónica ( Cunctos Populos), que el cristianismo se
convirtió en la religión imperial. Compárese Artola (1968, 21-22) y Marco, Pina y Remesal
(eds.) (2002, 154).
74
romano de Occidente. 111 Para los patriarcados de la iglesia esto significó: el
desplazamiento de Alejandría como el principal patriarcado en Oriente en favor de
Constantinopla, que pasaría a ser en adelante la “nueva Roma”. La disputa
teológica entre Nestorio, obispo de Constantinopla, y Cirilo, obispo de Alejandría,
no puede ser plenamente evaluada sin tener en cuenta esta circunstancia (Perrone
1993, 68). Además, esto constituiría en última instancia el trasfondo del primer y
mayor cisma del cristianismo hasta entonces: la separación de las iglesias no
calcedónicas (copta, siria, armenia y etíope) de su comunión con la ortodoxia
(Mitre Fernández 2000, 24).
Lo que siguió fue una situación extraordinaria en la que Roma permaneció fuera
de la jurisdicción territorial del emperador romano de Oriente, pero en la terrible
necesidad de negociar con los llamados “bárbaros”, primero los godos y más tarde
los francos. No es de extrañar que en el año 800, el papa León III coronara a
111 No debe olvidarse que diez de los 22 libros que componen la obra de Agustín son una
extensa apología y polémica cristiana contra los paganos, negando la idea de que la catástrofe
que cayó sobre Roma podría explicarse porque los romanos habían abandonado a las deidades
paganas en favor del único Dios cristiano. Compárese san Agustín (2011).
75
Carlomagno en Roma. Desde entonces la expresión griega basileus romeion
(emperador romano) dejó de ser exclusiva del emperador en Constantinopla para
ser compartida en adelante con un occidental, primero franco, más tarde alemán,
otra circunstancia para alimentar el sentido de agravio entre Oriente y
Occidente. 112
112 La rivalidad entre los patriarcados de Roma y Constantinopla era evidente desde el siglo ix.
La disputa de Roma con el patriarca Focio de Constantinopla en el año 863, con respecto a la
jurisdicción del sur de Italia y Dalmacia y sobre el filioque, fue el comienzo de la misma. Para
explicar el cisma de la iglesia ortodoxa griega se pueden señalar también distintas tradiciones
litúrgicas, la interminable disputa sobre el filioque con el patriarca Cerulario de Constantinopla
en 1054 y el saqueo de Constantinopla por los “peregrinos” de la cuarta cruzada en 1204.
Compárese Mitre Fernández (2000, 35ss) y Jedin (1960, 47ss).
113 Véase Cozens (1964), Mitre Fernández (2000; 2003) y Seguy (1981). Las doctrinas de los
cátaros, así como las de Joaquín y más tarde las de los fraticelli, husitas y anabautistas fueron
consideradas heréticas por la comunicación cristiana organizada, es decir, decisiones conciliares
se dirigieron contra todas ellas.
76
checo Juan Hus, dieron a los fieles el derecho a proclamar la palabra de Dios.
Ellos rechazaron el purgatorio y las oraciones por los muertos, al igual que las
reliquias y el culto a los santos y sus estatuas. Antecediendo en casi un siglo a
algunas de las críticas que hiciera Martín Lutero, cuestionaron las indulgencias y
sostuvieron que los cristianos tenían el derecho a la comunión bajo las dos
especies. Aprobaban dos sacramentos: el bautismo y la eucaristía, que en adelante
podía ser dicha por los fieles en su propio idioma. Los husitas rechazaban toda
autoridad religiosa: la función del papa no era dar órdenes al pueblo sino servirlo
de cualquier manera posible. 114
114 En 1421, el emperador Segismundo declaró una cruzada contra los husitas, fue derrotado en
el campo de batalla y se retiró humillado para firmar un tratado con los rebeldes. Compárese
Hindley (2006, 368ss).
115 Compárese Seguy (1981, 262ff) y Stauffer (1981).
116 Los principios de libertad de conciencia, separación entre la iglesia y el Estado y plena
libertad en cuestiones religiosas, tan esenciales para la democracia actual, se consideran una
contribución directa del anabautismo. Véase Bender (1944).
117 Cien mil campesinos influidos por las opiniones radicales de Thomas Müntzer fueron
asesinados en los campos de Alemania. Los especialistas ahora separan las obras de Lutero
tomando la guerra de los campesinos como punto de quiebre. Compárese Edwards (2003) y (LO
2001, 271).
77
malvados) (Luhmann 2009, 155ss). Incluso los cristianos tenían que soportar la
comunión sacramental con los pecadores, al menos hasta el arribo del día del
juicio. Este nuevo paso en la construcción del dogma tuvo su paralelo en las
cruzadas, donde los cristianos se encontraron cara a cara con los no cristianos:
Conclusiones
118 Compárese Atkinson (1980, 154) para una explicación de cómo la penitencia era practicada
por los primeros cristianos y cómo terminó bajo el control de la jerarquía eclesiástica.
78
Aunque la ciencia no proporciona respuestas para todos los problemas, la mayoría
de ellos ciertamente se benefician de este pedestre y humilde modo de
observación. Uno de los principales expertos mundiales en la teoría de sistemas
sociales ha establecido que al final, esta teoría es una teoría de la observación que
admite abiertamente que un punto de vista definitivo sobre cualquier asunto es
casi imposible de alcanzar (Torres 2011). Esto es algo que no debe darse por
sentado, en especial cuando siempre existe la tentación de absolutizar el punto de
vista proporcionado por la ciencia.
79
para rebasar su forma tribal. Para decirlo sin rodeos, una diferenciación
comunicativa básica debió haber aparecido, así como roles sociales que
permitieran la distinción entre laicos y clérigos, o entre otras corporaciones
sociales y la iglesia como un cuerpo organizado de comunicación.
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2. Christian Apocalyptic Communication: A Sociological
Outlook
Abstract
How does one of the most important sociological theories of communication
–social systems theory– deals with religion and more specifically with Christian
apocalypticism? This article provides an answer to this question. The answer runs
along the lines of connecting the apocalyptic eschatological teachings of
Christianity to specific periods of dogma construction and organized religious
communication.
Introduction119
Generally speaking, one can expect that a systematic Christian apocalypticism120 comes as a
result of societies being able to overcome an incipient stage of development given primarily
by segments (clan/totem belonging, sex, age group). This is the least that can be expected
from a sociological theory that relates societal types (segmentary/stratified/functionally
differentiated or modern societies) to the two forms of religious communication and their
concrete expressions: rituals and doctrines.121 A related theoretical statement would have to
be put forward from the very start: the communicative possibilities of apocalyptic
eschatology depend on the communicative possibilities of society at large. As far as it goes,
this article claims a more earthly and humble view of apocalyptic eschatological teachings,
that which makes dependent communications on apocalypticism on characteristics of the
communications held in society as a whole.
119 Originally published in Ornelas (2014). This version incorporates slight modifications.
120 “The term ‘apocalyptic’, an adjective functioning as a noun, is synonymous with the noun
‘apocalypticism’, and both are transliterated forms of the Greek adjective apokalyptikos,
meaning ‘revelatory’, while ‘apocalypse’ is a transliteration of the Greek noun apokalypsis,
‘unveiling, revelation’. The English words ‘reveal’ and ‘revelation’ are transliterations of the
Latin verb revelare and noun revelation” (Aune 2005, 233-234). Apocalypticism in turn is
interchangable with the term “millennialism”, in reference to the thousand-year reign of Christ
as described in Rev 20.
121 Luhmann (2007a, 471ff) for a theory of social differentiation; Luhmann (2007b; 2009) for
his general view on religious communication.
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A Naturalistic Explanation of Christian Apocalyptic Communication
Where does this more earthly and humble view come from? The Western tradition of
thought that is directly responsible for it goes back to the late nineteenth and beginning of
the twentieth centuries in the works of eminent social anthropologists and sociologists such
as Edward Tylor (Primitive Culture, 1871), James George Frazer (The Golden Bough,
1890), Emile Durkheim (The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, 1912), Bronislaw
Malinowsky (Argonauts of the Western Pacific, 1922), and Edward Evans-Pritchard
(Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande, 1937). These works have in common
to specify a functional and evolutionary analysis of religion.
The remote background of these studies lies on the Illustration theory of “natural religion”.
The Illustration conceived of an idea of a natural religion, universal in character, which
became the first faith of human beings and the common philosophy of all races (Pals 2008,
27ff). This was a theist religion which postulated a God creator who devised the laws that
governed the world, including the moral laws which guided human behavior. This natural
religion contained a criticism of revealed religions and of the institutions that represented
them. Natural religion had been the religion of humankind long before it was corrupted by
churches, dogmas and clerics. Above all, natural religion established that religions could be
naturally explained in much the same manner as physics had explained the laws of nature.
The theory of social systems used in this article is generally oriented by this theoretical
tradition122 and shares with it three assumptions: 1) the principle of the psychic uniformity
of the human species, that is, that all human beings are essentially equal regarding their
basic mental capacities; 2) the reality of sociocultural evolution, even though there might
exist substantial differences in evolutionary conceptions; and 3) that reasons given by the
faithful to explain their religious behavior cannot be taken as the only valid ones because
most of the times they lack a rational base or an inter-subjective consensus.123
122 Refer to Pals (2008), Cipriani (2004), and selected texts by Robertson (1980).
123 Another way of putting it: it is not necessary to be a faithful to be interested in the study of
religions, or not only one who practices religion is in condition to understand what religion is all
about. Indeed, this is something easy to say but the matter is hardly settled down. Take Knott
(2000) as a good example of this.
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The naturalistic explanations of religion sooner than later derived in what is called the
functional study of religions. Religion was explained by the help it gave to other social
institutions such as kinship, productive activities and political control. Religion was
explained from and for society, or as put in a recent paper on the state of the art: “the
understanding of the religious dimension is fundamental for a profound understanding of
society as a whole” (Beltrán Cely 2007). Thus, the function of religion became the
description and study of the relations between religion and society.124
To this point, it should be clear enough that Luhmann’s theory stands as a (if not as the
most important) sociological theory of communication.125 The fate of all communication,
whether religious or otherwise, is to be either accepted or rejected. Communication can
only perform and become stable as a culture inasmuch as it can deliver a permanent and
socially accepted set of expectations. There are two ways in which this can be
accomplished: through religion or through the symbolic media (money, love,
faith/karma, power, truth) of modern and autonomous social systems (Luhmann 1998).
Religion is regarded as the first mechanism used by societies to assure successful
communication (or a generalized acceptance of communication) (Luhmann 2009,
80ff).126
124 This is why a sociologist cannot trust in the absolute principle of an “autonomous” study of
religion, as proposed by Eliade (1972), though accepting at the same time the value of his
studies for the knowledge of the ritual and doctrinal content of religions. A scientific study of
religion always takes for granted an other reference, that is, observing religion from another
perspective, this other perspective being the one given by social science. Maybe this viewpoint
allows one to distinguish the field of theology/religious studies from that of sociology of
religion.
125 Refer to Schützeichel (2012), in special Chapter 12: “Luhmann and the Self-Reference of
Communication”.
126 There exists a convergent perspective from evolutionary biology in the theory of multilevel
selection proposed by Wilson (2002). Wilson’s central thesis is that not only moral schemes but
particularly religions accomplish the function of a stabilizing selection at a group level.
Examples given by him: Calvinism in Geneva in the middle of the sixteenth century, the temple-
water system in Bali, Judaism, and early Christianity until the fall of Rome. See also Wunn
(2003) from an exclusively biological perspective.
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Until the definitive arrival of modern society in the eighteenth century, religious
communication helped the purpose of binding communication with religious ideas
–including those on apocalypticism–, that is, religious communication supported other
social institutions in achieving agreements. Kings ruled by divine grace, and in fact there
was not a relevant social problem which did not find religion handy to its purposes.
People was educated and healed with a religious meaning in between, and even art could
not depart from it.127
What is most important is that what ultimately matters is communication itself (the fact
that something is being said), and not the truth of it.
There exist powerful myths, for example the myth of the God who became
human… But those myths only exist as condensed communication. We can,
therefore, in the context of a sociological theory, conceive of religion as an
exclusively communication event. We then deal exclusively with religious
communication, with religious meaning which actualizes in communication as
the meaning of communication (Luhmann 2007b, 37).128
Beliefs and religious doctrines usually have the opposite meaning: they suppose a
religious meaning that is taken away from immediate interactive situations. This is how
an abstract religious symbolism appears (Luhmann 2009, 100ff). This process of de-
127 It is remarkable how close is this understanding of religion from the one given by Burke
(1975), who regards religion as a kind of rhetoric, that is, as a persuasive language.
128 Here one can find the main objection put forward to those who, from the viewpoint of
science, want to convince everybody that religion is but a sheer lie, for example, the
controversies held by Dawkins (2006). It is clear that this “communicational turn” in sociology
has not received enough attention even within the scientific community itself.
84
ritualization supposes more complex societies that have at their disposal writing and
diverse technical means of dissemination which allow the fixing of various religious
meanings. As more complex societies come into existence, a new phenomenon takes
place, the appearance of doctrines and dogmas sanctioned by churches.
In any case, Christian apocalyptic communication has four underlying tenets: dualism,129
by which is meant “that there were two fundamental components of reality in our world,
the forces of good and the forces of evil”; pessimism, that is, “we cannot improve our lot
in this age, an age of evil, misery, and anguish”; vindication, that is, God “will vindicate
his holy name, and the people who call upon his name, in a show of cosmic force”; and
imminence: all this “will happen very soon. It is right around the corner. It is imminent”
(Ehrman 2008, 215ff).
129 It would be very difficult to deny the contribution/mutual influence of dualist philosophies,
in particular Gnosticism, to/and Judeo-Christian apocalypticism. For example, Schwarz (1984,
471ff) begins his treatise on Christian eschatology acknowledging the possibility of shared
teachings between the Judeo-Christian tradition and Zoroastrianism. Also, compare Aune (2005,
239) and Toner (CE 2003), without accepting, of course, “the superiority of Christian
eschatological teaching”.
85
The Last Angel (Roerich 1942)
The idea of any kind of afterlife is not yet present in the Ecclesiastes (AANT 2010, 31ff;
Ehrman 2008, 189ff). Apocalyptic Judeo-Christian views are only found in the book of
Daniel in the Old Testament (Dan 7-12), which scholars now date in the second century
BC. Typically, apocalyptic doctrines are developed in the New Testament, in special in
The Apocalypse or Revelation of John. So if we had to point to the development of an
apocalyptic Judeo-Christian doctrine we would have to refer to the book of Daniel in the
Old Testament, to the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament, and to the peak of this
development in Augustine’s City of God. Specialists have also noted that these
developments were paired to historical periods of sociopolitical hardship: the
86
Maccabean Revolt to confront the tyranny of the Seleucid ruler Antiochus Epiphanes
(167 BC), Christian persecutions –either the Neronian, who blamed on Christians the
great fire of Rome of 64 CE, or the later persecution of the 90s by Domitian– (Aune
2005; Ehrman 2008, 197ff), and, as we will see, with the fall of Rome in the hands of
Goths in 410, respectively.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) was born in Numidia. One main concern in his sermons
was to dispute the position of Donatists (Edwards 2004, 100ff), although he also held
controversies against Manicheans and Arians.130 Donatism was a major heresy in North
Africa, rigorist in its kind, which rejected the ease with which communion was re-
established to bishops that had committed apostasy under Roman persecution. Were
sacraments given by apostate bishops valid? Donatists held an emphatic no, against the
opinion held by Augustine on sacrament objectivity: the salvific virtue of sacraments
does not depend on the moral dignity of the person who ministers them (Eliade 1999,
74). Besides, Donatists stressed the independence of the church from political power.
But, of course, the fourth century was a time for Christian expansion, and Christian
rigorist positions were not welcomed by ecclesiastical authorities. In 314, a synod in
Arles found against Donatists. What is considered more important is that this was the
first synod called by the initiative of Constantine the Great, and considered for that
reason, “a major departure from precedent, one that would have far-reaching
consequences. For the first time, a Roman emperor had taken the initiative in convening
a council of bishops, on any scale. His action instantly elevated the status of such a
meeting and changed its nature” (Drake 2006, 118).131 The newly marriage of
130 See Portalié (CE 2003). Before his conversion into Christianity, Augustine held Manichean
views.
131 It seems that in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and as early as in the second century CE,
forced by the Marcionite heresy (Ehrman 2003, 95ff), the appearance and development of
heresies is closely linked to the canonical/apocryphal distinction, triggered by organized
religious communication. In other words, in early Christianity right doctrine and right
testamentary tradition evolved from efforts at Christian organization, that is, were brought about
by the decisions of the early synods and councils of the church (Ehrman 2003, 229ff). A strong
organized Christian communication, which by the fourth century became fiercely centralized and
hierarchical, seems to be what distinguished Christian apocalyptic eschatology from, say, the
“relative eschatology” of Theravada Buddhism as depicted by Ladwig (2014) for late nineteenth
century Laos and Thailand.
87
ecclesiastical and imperial policies should be taken into account as a parallel
development of Augustine’s doctrine of the two kingdoms.132
Augustine’s doctrine of the two kingdoms also accompanies the major sociopolitical
development of the fifth century in the Mediterranean basin: the fall of the Western
Roman Empire.133 To the traditional patriarchates of the church this meant: the
displacement of Alexandria as the main patriarchate in the East in favor of
Constantinople, which became the “new Rome”. The theological dispute between
Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, and Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, could not be fully
evaluated without considering this circumstance (Perrone 1993, 68). Moreover, this
would eventually constitute the background for the first major schism of Christianity:
the separation of the non-Chalcedonic churches (Syrian, Coptic, Armenian and Ethiopic)
from their communion with orthodoxy (Mitre Fernández 2000, 24).
132 Strictly speaking, the Edict of Milan of 313 was only an edict of religious tolerance. It was
until 380, with the Edict of Thessalonica (Cunctos Populos), that Christianity turned into the
imperial religion. Compare Artola (1968, 21-22) and Marco, Pina, and Remesal (eds.) (2002,
154).
133 It should not be forgotten that ten out of the twenty-two books that compose Augustine’s
work are an extended Christian apology and polemic against the pagans, denying the idea that
the catastrophe that fell onto Rome could be explained for Romans having deserted the pagan
deities in favor of the one and only Christian God. Compare san Agustín (2011).
88
What followed was an extraordinary situation in which Rome remained outside the
territorial jurisdiction of the Roman emperor of the East, but in terrible need to come
into terms with the so called “barbarians”, first the Goths and later the Franks. No
surprise, in 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne in Rome. Since then the Greek
expression basileus romeion (Roman emperor) was not anymore exclusive of the
emperor in Constantinople, but had to be shared with a westerner, first Frank, later on
German, another circumstance to feed the sense of grievance between East and West.134
Not all non-conformist Christian communication held rigorist views to the point of
becoming millenarian, apocalyptic in nature. What is certain is that all millenarian
thought was intrinsically anti-sacramental and anti-hierarchical (Ornelas 2018, 87-170).
Millennialism announced the coming of the afterlife as a matter of fact, which is why it
often turned violent. As early as in the second century CE, Montanists appeared in
Phrygia preaching the end of the world, claiming that women could minister sacraments,
and inviting to martyrdom. In this respect –low consideration for the human life in this
world–, Montanists preceded the Cathari of the Late Middle Ages. The Late Middle
Ages saw an explosion of millenarian doctrines in Joachim of Flora, the Czech Hussites
and the Anabaptists of the Reformation period.135
Joachim of Flora was the reformer of the Cistercian order whose millennialism
appointed the year 1260 as the beginning of the parousia, when monks would govern the
world and Humanity would turn to evangelical poverty. This doctrine was taken by
spiritual Franciscans (fraticelli) to criticize the temporal wealth and power of the church
that soon became a protest against the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The Hussites, followers
134 The rivalry between the patriarchates of Rome and Constantinople was evident since the
ninth century. The dispute of Rome with the patriarch Photius of Constantinople in 863,
regarding the jurisdiction of southern Italy and Dalmatia and concerning the filioque, was the
beginning of it. To explain the schism of the Greek Orthodox church one can also point to
distinct liturgical traditions, the unending dispute on the filioque with the patriarch Caerularius
of Constantinople in 1054, and the plundering of Constantinople by “pilgrims” of the fourth
Crusade in 1204. Compare Mitre Fernández (2000, 35ff) and Jedin (1960, 47ff).
135 Compare Cozens (1964), Mitre Fernández (2000; 2003), and Seguy (1981). The Cathari as
well as Joachim’s doctrine and later on fraticelli, Hussites and Anabaptists were considered
heretical by organized Christian communication, that is, councils’ decisions were addressed
against them all.
89
of the Czech reformer Jan Hus, gave the faithful the right to proclaim God’s word. They
rejected the purgatory and prayers for the death, and also disliked relics and the cult of
saints and of their statues. Anteceding in almost one century Martin Luther’s claims,
they criticized indulgencies, and sustained that Christians had the right to communion
under the two species. They approved of two sacraments: Baptism and the Eucharist,
which could be ministered by the faithful in their own language. Hussites rejected all
religious authority: the Pope’s function was not to command the people but to serve it in
any possible way.136
Finally, Anabaptists represented the radical wing of the Reformation movement.137 Their
doctrine placed emphasis in the exclusive baptism of adults. They conceived of the
church as based in voluntary adherence: the church exists where the faithful join for
celebration. They opposed any religious institution as elongation of civilization or the
national State, and rejected any apostolic succession.138 Anabaptism is said to have
promoted the Peasants’ War in Germany (1524-1525), the outcome of which withdrew
Martin Luther people’s support to his reform.139
136 In 1421, the emperor Segismund declared a crusade against the Hussites, was defeated in the
battlefield and retreated humiliated to sign a treaty with the rebels. Compare Hindley (2006,
368ff).
137 Seguy (1981, 262ff) and Stauffer (1981).
138 The principles of freedom of consciousness, church-state separation, and free will in
religious matters, so essential for today’s democracy, are considered a direct contribution of
Anabaptism. See Bender (1944).
139 One hundred thousand peasants influenced by the radical views of Thomas Müntzer were
killed in the fields of Germany. Specialists now separate Luther’s works taking the Peasants’
War as a breaking point. Compare Edwards (2003) and LO (2001, 271).
90
judgment day. This further step in dogma construction had its parallel in the crusades,
where Christians met face-to-face with non-Christians.
Crusades also triggered further ecclesiastical decisions and dogma construction, like the
indulgences granted to crusaders by the Lateran council I in 1123. The Lateran council
IV in 1215 (Melloni 1993, 159ff) decided on the consideration of the Pope as vicarius
Christi, and in the field of liturgy, the dogma of transubstantiation. The control of the
sacrament of penance by the ecclesiastical hierarchy could be regarded as another
important development that accompanied this new emphasis in apocalyptic
eschatology.140
The fervent hope for the coming of the Lord was gradually replaced by the
sacrament of penance, through which one was assured of entrance into heaven,
and by an increasingly elaborated system of purgatory. Once people pass
through this vale of tears, they would enter eternal bliss, since the church as the
visible representative of the heavenly city mediated their salvation. Salvation at
the end of world history was exchanged in favor of salvation at the end of
individual history. The cosmic dimension of eschatology receded and the
existential component gained (Schwarz 1984, 505).
Conclusions
Even though science does not provide answers for all human problems, most of them
certainly benefit from this more earthly and humble mode of observation. One of the
world’s leading experts in the theory of social systems has established that in the end,
this theory is pretty much a theory of observation, one which openly admits that a
140 See Atkinson (1980, 154ff) for an explanation of how penance was practiced by the early
Christians and how it ended up under the control of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
91
definitive viewpoint on any matter is hardly ever reached (Torres 2011). This is
something that should not be taken for granted, especially when there is always the
temptation to totalize the viewpoint provided by science.
Communication, indeed, is the spinal cord of society. And what is said in the social
realm, about anything and from any viewpoint, could very well be addressed in a
positive fashion and with the methods of science. There exists a solid tradition in social
anthropology and sociology which is very close to this understanding of societies and of
their religious communication. Within this tradition, rituals and doctrines have been
recognized as the two basic components of religions. This is to say: rituals and dogmas
are ways of saying things.
As rituals are performed and doctrines explained, some meaning is proposed, somehow
–rituals and dogmas communicate in their own proper manner–. Now it seems quite
baroque to focus on the discussion of the so called “reality” or truthfulness of God,
karma, heavenly realms, the afterlife, and the like, when what matters, from the
naturalistic point of view adopted in this paper, is the communicational reality of all
these, and of course that all these are things said by people to guide themselves into and
make sense of the world where they live –an obscure one, if you wish, as Christian
apocalypticism typically depicts–.
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, this development began in the second century BC and
reached its peak in the fifth century CE. It is very difficult to subject communicational
evolutionary processes to precise dates, but it seems that Augustine’s City of God helps
92
the purpose of establishing a solid ground for Christian apocalyptic eschatology. As we
have seen, a dualist Christian communication on the afterlife and apocalypticism are
closely intertwined. The doctrine of the two kingdoms was a necessary point of
departure which stressed an afterlife with strong apocalyptical overtones characteristic
of the Late Middle Ages.
The emphasis on apocalyptic doctrines will be linked to three succinctly referred events:
1) to the marriage of ecclesiastical and Roman imperial policies, directed in the first
place to set aside the strong Christian rigorist tradition –qualified as heretical–, which
did not help the purpose of turning Christianity into the imperial religion; 2) to the face-
to-face encounter with the infidel, in the Christian case that concerns us, with Muslims
(crusades); and 3) to the individualization of the sacrament of penance, which would end
up in control of a strongly centralized ecclesiastical (Catholic) hierarchy.
93
Referencias/ References
Aune, David E. 2005. Understanding Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic. Word &
World 25 (3): 233-245.
Bender, Harold S. 1944. The Anabaptist Vision. Church History 13 (1): 3-24.
Dawkins, Richard. 2006. The God Delusion. Great Britain: Bantam Press.
94
Ehrman, Bart D. 2008. God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most
Important Question –Why We Suffer. New York: Harper.
Ehrman, Bart D. 2003. Lost Christianities. The Battles for Scripture and the
Faiths We Never Knew. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Knott, Kim. 2000. The Scholar and the Devotee. Hinduism. A Very Short
Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1-11.
Luhmann, Niklas. 1998. Sistemas sociales. Lineamientos para una teoría general.
México: Anthropos/ UIA/ CEJA.
Lutero Obras (LO). Edición preparada por Teófanes Egido. 2001. Salamanca:
Sígueme.
Ornelas, Marco. 2018. Modern Religious Differentiation: The Latin Mass (1517-
1570). Mexico: Independently Published.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1790664047
san Agustín (de Hipona). 2011. La ciudad de Dios. (Introd. Francisco Montes de
Oca). México: Porrúa.
Wilson, David. 2002. Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion and the Nature of
Society. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
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3. El don de lenguas como kriya: la conexión hinduista
Resumen
Este artículo enfatiza que los fenómenos de glosolalia/ kriya son distintas formas
de comunicar significados religiosos dependientes de contextos rituales
particulares –como tales, los fenómenos de glosolalia/ kriya carecerían de
significado si no es porque se dice que representan el “don del Espíritu Santo” o,
alternativamente, el “despertar de la kundalini”. Dicho literalmente: desde el
punto de vista adoptado en este artículo, la manera de frasear los fenómenos de
glosolalia/ kriya apunta a un encuadre religioso particular (el fraseo es el
encuadre). El puente que llevó de una cultura a otra fue posible, históricamente
hablando, mediante un proceso colonial particular (el British Raj en la India) y a
través del trabajo misionero protestante (la Misión Mukti en Puna, India) que a su
vez dio paso a una hibridación cultural que impactó la vida de pueblos enteros.
Procesos comunicativos híbridos se hicieron factibles mediante la vida de Pandita
Ramabai (1858-1922).
R. Carlos Nakai
Introducción 141
99
diferencia de la xenoglosia, no es inmediatamente reconocible como lengua
extranjera (alemán, francés o japonés).
Las palabras kriya y karma comparten la misma raíz sánscrita ( kri, que significa
“hacer”). Kriya significaría una acción, hecho o esfuerzo. En el conocido
fragmento del Mahabharata, la Bhagavad Gita o Canción del Señor, Krishna se
refiere, entre los posibles caminos que conducen a la liberación spiritual, al karma
yoga.
Este artículo enfatiza que los fenómenos de glossolalia/ kriya son distintas formas
de comunicar significados religiosos dependientes de contextos rituales
100
particulares –como tales, los fenómenos de glosolalia/ kriya carecerían de
significado si no es porque se dice que representan el “don del Espíritu Santo” o,
alternativamente, el “despertar de la kundalini”. Dicho literalmente: desde el
punto de vista adoptado en este artículo, la manera de frasear los fenómenos de
glosolalia/ kriya apunta a un encuadre religioso particular (el fraseo es el
encuadre). Una teoría sociológica de la comunicación religiosa consideraría los
fenómenos de glosolalia/kriya como símbolos simbióticos, esto es, como la
capacidad de los cuerpos para interferir con la comunicación religiosa (Luhmann
2007a, 295ss; Luhmann 2009, 153ss). Por supuesto que hay múltiples formas en
que los fenómenos de glosolalia/ kriya pueden ser religiosamente comunicados; en
lo que sigue proporcionaremos ejemplos de éstas.
Lo que aquí interesa destacar es que el puente que llevó de una cultura a otra fue
posible, históricamente hablando, mediante un proceso colonial particular (el
British Raj en la India) así como por el trabajo misionero protestante (la Misión
Mukti en Puna, India) que a su vez dio paso a una hibridación cultural que
impactó la vida de pueblos enteros. Trataremos de mostrar cómo procesos
comunicativos híbridos se hicieron posibles mediante la vida de Pandita Ramabai
(1858-1922).
Stichweh mismo escribió no hace mucho un artículo sobre las crisis de los
sistemas de funciones y decidió comenzarlo con esta afirmación: “En la
investigación y teorización sociológica contemporánea debe aceptarse en cierta
medida la idea de la diferenciación funcional” (Stichweh, 2011b). De tomarse en
serio, esta afirmación podría desarrollarse en cinco ideas complementarias:
101
a) La gente no puede andarse en la sociedad moderna sin diferenciar
comunicaciones de manera contextual y situacional, no al menos si quiere evitar
preguntas sobre su sana cordura. Dicho de otro modo: no se puede ir por el mundo
sin reconocer las diferencias comunicativas y situacionales entre un banco, un
partido político, un hospital, un templo, la casa, un centro de investigación
universitario, etc.;
e) Los programas de los distintos sistemas sociales (Luhmann 1989, 44ss) apuntan
a las reglas por medio de las cuales uno puede legítimamente comunicarse de
conformidad con un medio simbólico y su código comunicativo particular. Por
ejemplo, el programa de la comunicación cristiana pentecostal trata de fe religiosa
102
cuando se ha recibido el bautismo del Espíritu Santo a través del don de lenguas,
entre otros eventos. En otras palabras, la glosolalia sólo puede incorporarse
plenamente en el programa del cristianismo pentecostal por su consideración
como “bautismo del Espíritu”.
103
evolutivo concluye con la sociedad mundial. Sobre esta base puede tenerse una
mejor idea de la híper-complejidad de la sociedad moderna.
Si las operaciones de los sistemas sociales están compuestas nada más que de
comunicaciones, como lo hace esta teoría, toda temporalización de la
comunicación debe concebirse antes que cualquier otra cosa como una secuencia
artificial de comunicación, esto quiere decir que la secuencia se construye de
manera un tanto arbitraria, de ahí precisamente su carácter de historia (Luhmann
1998, 90ss). Esta consideración no debe pasarse por alto, en particular debido a
que este artículo ensaya una observación de la historia del pentecostalismo
moderno de dimensiones mundiales, planetarias.
Estrictamente hablando, el texto que sigue ofrece una observación cruzada del
surgimiento del pentecostalismo moderno dada por las ciencias sociales, en
particular dada por el programa (teoría) de sistemas sociales de las ciencias
sociales. Las observaciones cruzadas (comparaciones) entre sistemas sociales y
religiones son consustanciales a esta teoría sociológica de la comunicación. Como
se puede observar, la ciencia como tal, en la teoría de sistemas sociales, deja de
observar a la sociedad desde un punto de vista externo y privilegiado, como si la
hiciera desde una torre de marfil. Lo que la teoría afirma para la comunicación
religiosa también se asume para la comunicación científica misma. ¿No es éste un
104
tratamiento más que justo, de parte de la ciencia, de las relaciones que establecen
la ciencia y la religión?
105
Todavía más, un estudio de Kavan (2004) en Nueva Zelanda da por sentado que
los pentecostales y los practicantes de yoga experimentan la glosolalia. En
ocasiones, la glosolalia puede producirse bajo “estados alterados de conciencia”.
La transmisión de energía de parte de un maestro espiritual a practicantes de yoga
(llamada shaktipat) es parecida a lo que los pentecostales experimentan como
bautismo del Espíritu Santo, que en la mayoría de los casos desencadena
experiencias de glosolalia (Kavan 2004, 174).
Kavan también reporta que los practicantes de yoga “en ocasiones experimentan la
glosolalia como kriya (manifestación) del proceso purificatorio y sus experiencias
espirituales parecen más cercanas a las de los pentecostales” (Kavan 2004, 171-
172). Ella concluye que los pentecostales y carismáticos experimentan la
glosolalia la mayoría de las veces en un estado de conciencia normal pues esto se
espera de ellos, es decir, los pentecostales consideran la glosolalia como una
experiencia extraordinaria aunque como señal necesaria de la intervención del
Espíritu Santo: “La rutinización de la glosolalia y la disminución de la experiencia
espiritual parecen estar vinculadas” (Kavan 2004, 178). Así, la glosolalia entre
cristianos neozelandeses es más un estado autoinducido, simulado, que una
auténtica experiencia de tipo trance.
106
No nos interesa aquí afirmar dónde fue que apareció primero la glosolalia, ni
sugerir la idea de que la glosolalia se originó primero en un escenario cultural
particular y de ahí pasó a otro. Aunque la teoría no descarta relaciones causa-
efecto, en especial cuando éstas son evidentes, la causalidad es más bien una idea
chata cuando de lo que se trata es de representar la complejidad sociocultural.
Aquí favorecemos el concepto de “equifinalidad”, por medio del cual se quiere dar
a entender que distintos estados sistémicos pueden llevar a un mismo resultado, el
avivamiento pentecostal.
107
Las primeras noticias de avivamientos pentecostales en el continente americano
provienen o bien de Charles Parham en Topeka, Kansas en 1900 o de William J.
Saymour de la Misión de la Azusa Street en Los Ángeles, California en 1906
(Robeck Jr. 2014; Bastian 2006). Robeck Jr. resalta que ambos avivamientos de
hecho estuvieron directamente relacionados, ya que Parham visitó a Seymour en
Los Ángeles aunque se separaron por diferencias entre ellos. Estos avivamientos
fueron seguidos en 1909 por el avivamiento pentecostal chileno dirigido por May
Louise y Willis Hoover, misioneros anglicanos en Valparaíso. En Orellana (2016)
puede encontrarse una recensión histórica del pentecostalismo chileno a través de
sus dos principales iglesias: la Iglesia Metodista Pentecostal y la Iglesia
Evangélica Pentecostal.
Garma & Leatham (2004, 146-147) sostienen que fue una mujer, Romana
Valenzuela, la primera en introducir el culto pentecostal al noroeste de México.
Ella había entrado en contacto con la Misión de la Azusa Street en 1912, se
convirtió en evangélica y fundó en 1914 en Villa Aldama, Chihuahua, la Iglesia
Apostólica de la Fe en Cristo Jesús. La iniciativa de Romana Valenzuela fue
seguida por las Asambleas de Dios, que fueron introducidas a México en 1918.
El punto de inflexión en esta política se dio hasta seis años después con la
celebración del Congreso Misionero de Panamá en 1916:
1905-7, fecha proporcionada por Anderson para el avivamiento Mukti, parece ser
una fecha muy tardía. Fuentes históricas apuntan en cambio a 1896,
inmediatamente después del encuentro de Ramabai con el reverendo Gelson
Gregson en el campamento Lanouli (compárese lo que sigue). Un punto de partida
importante del pentecostalismo moderno fue la Convención de Keswick que tuvo
lugar en 1875 en Cumbria, Inglaterra. Para una historia de los primeros años de la
Convención de Keswick, organizada por un pastor anglicano, Thomas D. Harford-
Battersby, y un cuáquero, Robert Wilson, puede recurrirse a Harford (1907).
La Misión Mukti de la India también tuvo una influencia directa para el desarrollo
del pentecostalismo en Chile. Minnie Abrams, antigua misionera episcopal
111
metodista y asistente de Ramabai en la Misión Mukti, conocía a May Louise
Hoover. Abrams envió a Hoover recuentos del avivamiento Mukti contenidos en
su folleto de 1906 The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire,
que en su segunda edición más tarde ese año incluyó una discusión de la
restauración del don de lenguas. Esta fue la primera teología pentecostal del
bautismo del Espíritu puesta en papel y 30 mil copias del escrito circularon
ampliamente. Como resultado de este folleto y de la subsiguiente
correspondencia de Abrams con los Hoover, las iglesias metodistas de
Valparaíso y Santiago estaban ansiosas y rezaban por un avivamiento
similar. El avivamiento pentecostal comenzó en 1909, creando un cisma en
la iglesia episcopal metodista, y Willis Hoover se convirtió en el líder de la
nueva iglesia pentecostal metodista chilena que se constituyó en sus inicios
con quienes fueron expulsados de entre los metodistas (Anderson 2014, 16).
112
puranikas– son los conocidos predicadores públicos de la religión entre los
hinduistas (Dyer 192?, 21).
Es así que
los grandes volúmenes que forman las escrituras del hinduismo le fueron
todos accesibles y ella pudo conocer sus contenidos y doctrinas. A los doce
años de edad había aprendido de memoria 18 mil versos de los Puranas. Este
aprendizaje religioso constituye la educación más valiosa de un bramín
perteneciente a la casta sacerdotal, de la que formaba parte la familia de
Ramabai (Dyer 1900, 10-11).
Aparte del canarés (o kannada) y del sánscrito, mediante sus viajes Ramabai
también llegó a dominar el maratí, el indostánico (o hindustaní) y el bengalí.
La literatura sagrada hinduista tenía una postura clara a propósito del lugar de la
mujer en sociedad y de sus posibilidades de realización espiritual:
…había dos cosas en las que todos estos libros –los Dharma Shastras [libros
relacionados con usos, costumbres y leyes], las épicas sagradas, los Puranas
y los poetas modernos, los conocidos predicadores de hoy día y los hombres
ortodoxos de las castas superiores– estaban de acuerdo: en que las mujeres
de cualquier casta, como clase, eran malas, muy malas, peores que demonios,
tan poco sagradas y tan falsas que ellas no podían obtener moksha como los
hombres… Las extraordinarias acciones religiosas que ayudan a una mujer a
alcanzar moksha son el definitivo abandono de su voluntad en manos de su
esposo. La mujer debe adorar a su esposo con devoción absoluta como a un
único Dios y no debe conocer otro placer en la vida que el de mostrar una
degradante esclavitud hacia él. La mujer no tiene derecho a estudiar los
Vedas y el Vedanta y así, sin conocerlos, nadie puede conocer a Brahma; sin
conocer a Brahma nadie puede alcanzar la liberación y por lo mismo la
mujer, como tal, no puede obtener la liberación espiritual (es decir, moksha)
(Dyer 192?, 26-27).
Todo esto trajo como resultado una profunda insatisfacción religiosa. En sus
propias palabras:
113
algo más que lo que los Shastras podían ofrecerme, pero desconocía qué era
lo que buscaba (Dyer 192?, 29).
114
Una víctima de la hambruna (Dyer 1900, 80)
Ramabai dejaría en claro que, aunque la religión Brahmo era mucho mejor que el
hinduismo tradicional, no la satisfacía en lo más mínimo:
116
La religión hinduista no contenía ninguna esperanza para mí; la religión
Brahmo no estaba muy clara puesto que no era más que lo que el hombre
quería para sí. Él escoge y junta cualquier cosa que le parezca buena de todas
las religiones que conoce, y confecciona una especie de religión para su
propio uso. La religión Brahmo no tiene otro fundamento que la propia luz
natural del hombre y el sentido de bondad o maldad que posea en común con
la humanidad. No podía satisfacerme y no me satisfizo; no obstante, me
gustaba y creía que algo de lo que planteaba era mejor que lo que la religión
hinduista tradicional enseñaba (Dyer 192?, 32).
Cuando Ramabai regresó a la India, fue bienvenida con entusiasmo por los
reformadores hinduistas:
117
…la principal bienvenida de Ramabai a la India fue de parte de los
reformadores hinduistas conocidos como Brahmo Samaj. Los líderes de esta
fraternidad eran producto en buena medida de la educación misionera.
Habían sido educados en colegios misioneros. Estaban convencidos de los
beneficios del cristianismo y de su superioridad social frente al hinduismo,
aunque habían rechazado al Señor Jesucristo. Ellos ya no creían en las
fábulas ridículas contadas en los shastras hinduistas. Habían adoptado
muchas costumbres cristianas y se habían empapado con una mezcla de
hinduismo inofensivo y doctrinas unitarias; habían establecido reglas que
permitían que las viudas se volvieran a casar y que aumentaban la edad a la
que las niñas podían permanecer solteras. En resumen, habían establecido
una especie de transición al cristianismo que distanció a muchos jóvenes
prometedores e hizo que su conciencia fuera acallada tan efectivamente
como si hubiesen permanecido en las garras de la idolatría (Dyer 192?, 10).
El Brahmo Samaj puede considerarse como una iniciativa reformista que acercó el
hinduismo al cristianismo. Uno de sus principios fundamentales, la hermandad de
todos los seres humanos, contrastaba notablemente con el sistema de castas del
hinduismo y vino a ser la característica distintiva del tipo de hinduismo que fue
introducido a Occidente por Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) y años más tarde
por Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952).
Si bien es cierto que el budismo y hasta el sikhismo pueden ser considerados, con
una separación de dos milenios entre ellos, como movimientos tempranos de
reforma hinduista que se volvieron nuevas religiones de por sí, el Brahmo Samaj
permaneció dentro del hinduismo –Eliade y Couliano (1992, 177) se refieren a él
como neo-hinduismo– y promovió la revaluación del legado espiritual del
hinduismo no sólo para la India sino para la sociedad mundial. En este sentido
podría establecerse la hipótesis de que fue a través del Brahmo Samaj que el
118
hinduismo se convirtió en una religión universal, esto es, dejó de ser una religión
atada a la casta, a la dieta, al territorio y demás, mundialmente disponible para
todos aquellos que estuvieran dispuestos a adoptarla.
¡Qué distinta era la verdad de Dios de la falsa idea que había mantenido
desde mi niñez más temprana! Esta idea consistía en que debía tener méritos
para ganarme la felicidad presente o futura, los placeres de Svarga [los
mundos celestiales] o la completamente inconcebible condición de moksha o
de liberación (Dyer 192?, 39).
119
Hacia 1895, previo a una nueva hambruna en 1897, Ramabai experimentó un
anhelo espiritual y finalmente fue tocada por el Espíritu Santo:
Leí en los periódicos que el señor Gelson Gregson iba a celebrar servicios
misioneros especiales en Bombay… En abril, en el campamento Lanouli,
escuché de nuevo la prédica del señor Gregson. Su predicación era la de
quien había recibido, estaba lleno del Espíritu Santo y conocía las cosas
profundas de Dios. Entonces le abrí mi corazón a una amiga y le platiqué de
mi intenso deseo de alcanzar el don del Espíritu Santo; fuimos juntas y
platicamos con el señor Gregson. Le hice muchas preguntas que respondió
satisfactoriamente en los términos de las escrituras. Luego oramos porque
recibiera el Espíritu Santo, pero no fue sino hasta el anochecer de ese día que
sentí conscientemente Su presencia en mí. Desde entonces he recibido
muchas bendiciones y estoy por siempre agradecida a Dios por mostrarme el
camino de esta vida bendita (Dyer 1900, 51).
121
personalmente responsable y por quienes velaba como si se tratara de sus
hijas adoptivas (Dyer 192?, 12).
Conclusiones
La segunda conclusión tiene que ver con el carácter universal de los fenómenos de
glosolalia/ kriya y con la posibilidad de referirse a ellos como símbolos
simbióticos, esto es, considerarlos como un mismo evento sujeto a una múltiple
programación religiosa, dependiendo de escenarios rituales/ culturales variados:
como trance chamánico, como don de lenguas o como el despertar de la kundalini.
Finalmente, debe hacerse notar la factibilidad histórica del cambio estructural, que
se relaciona con la sincronización de condiciones históricas variadas que hicieron
posible “tender un puente” entre culturas: la presencia colonial británica en la
India (el British Raj), las dificultades económicas extremas vividas a la vuelta del
siglo xix en la forma de hambrunas permanentes, una intensa actividad educativa
y misionera inglesa (el movimiento de reforma hinduista Brahmo Samaj) y,
122
finalmente, la conversión de una viuda de casta bramín al cristianismo (Pandita
Ramabai y su Misión Mukti).
123
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124
3. Speaking-in-Tongues as Kriya: The Hindu Connection
Abstract
This article emphasizes that glossolalia/ kriya phenomena are different ways of
communicating religious meanings depending on particular ritual contexts –as
such, glossolalia/ kriya phenomena are religiously meaningless, unless they are
said to be “gifted by the Holy Spirit” or, else, to represent “an awakening of
kundalini”. Literally speaking: from the point of view adopted in this paper, the
way of phrasing glossolalia/ kriya phenomena points to a particular religious
framing (the phrasing is the framing). The bridging of the gap between cultures
was made possible, historically speaking, through a particular colonial process
(the British Raj in India), and Protestant missionary work (The Mukti Mission in
Pune, India) which in turn gave way to cultural hybridism with impact in the lives
of whole peoples. Hybrid communicational processes became a feasible event
through the life of Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922).
R. Carlos Nakai.
Introduction 143
143 This is a revised version of the presentation given at the 33rd. Biennial Conference of the
International Society for the Sociology of Religion that took place in the Catholic University of
Louvain, Belgium (2-5 July, 2015). This research has the generous support of the Mexican
taxpayer through Conacyt-Mexico. A slightly different version was first published in Ornelas
(2018b, 39-62).
125
In twentieth century Christianity, glossolalia acquired importance with the
appearance of Evangelical revival groups –so called Pentecostals– who claimed
that glossolalia was not only an ecstatic religiously induced state, but could as
well signal having “been touched by the Holy Spirit”.
The words kriya and karma share the same Sanskrit root ( kri, meaning “to do”).
Kriya would mean an action, deed or effort. Krishna lists, among the possible
paths to spiritual attainment, that of karma yoga in the known fragment of the
Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita or Song of the Lord.
The study of glossolalia has been given lately much attention due to the fact that
Pentecostalism represents one of the most dynamic world religious communication
systems, and because speaking-in-tongues is considered by most Pentecostal
churches as evidence of being gifted by the Holy Spirit. Moreover, a classical
study (May 1956) has shown that glossolalia includes a wide range of
manifestations –from uttering simple sounds to speaking foreign languages–, and
that glossolalia phenomena may be found in different religious and cultural
settings.
This article emphasizes that glossolalia/ kriya phenomena are different ways of
communicating religious meanings depending on particular ritual contexts. As
such, glossolalia/ kriya phenomena are religiously meaningless, unless they are
said to be “gifted by the Holy Spirit” or, else, to represent “an awakening of
kundalini”. Literally speaking: from the point of view adopted in this paper, the
way of phrasing glossolalia/ kriya phenomena points to a particular religious
126
framing (the phrasing is the framing). A sociological theory of religious
communication would regard glossolalia/ kriya phenomena as symbiotic symbols,
that is, the body’s capacity to interfere with religious communication (Luhmann
2007a, 295ff; Luhmann 2009, 153ff). Of course, there are multiple ways in which
glossolalia/ kriya phenomena may be religiously communicated; in what follows
we will see examples of these.
What matters here is that the bridging of the gap between cultures was made
possible, historically speaking, through a particular colonial process (the British
Raj in India), and Anglican missionary work (The Mukti Mission in Pune, India)
which in turn gave way to structural change with impact in the lives of whole
peoples. We will be interested in showing how hybrid communicational processes
became a feasible event through the life of Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922).
Stichweh (2011b) himself wrote a paper on function system crises, and decided to
begin it with this assertion: “In contemporary sociological research and theorising,
a certain acceptance of the idea of functional differentiation is to be observed”. If
taken seriously, this assertion could be developed further in five ideas:
127
b) The communicational differentiated society in which we live has various
communication systems (in what follows social systems; during his lifetime
research Luhmann identified several social systems: politics, economics, law,
religion, science, education, intimacy/ family, art, sports, mass media, and health).
Social systems are universal in character, that is, they function regardless space/
geographical limitations. This is the most sound foundation for the hypothesis that
we now live in one world society (Luhmann 2007a, 108-129);
e) The programs of different social systems (Luhmann 1989, 44ff) point to the
rules by which one may legitimately communicate according to a particular
symbolic medium and communicative code. For example, the Pentecostal
Christian communication program deals with transcendental communication when
one has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit through speaking-in-tongues,
among other events. In other words, glossolalia could only be fully incorporated
within the program of Pentecostal Christianity by its consideration as “baptism of
the Spirit”.
The semantic closure of different social systems happened unevenly in history and
was related to various occurences, contingent in nature, whose examination is the
focal point of the theory of sociocultural evolution (Luhmann 2007a, 325-469).
Modern society presupposes the co-evolution of social systems in the direction of
communicational autonomy and specialization. As an illustration, the operational
closure of the religious system clearly began by the time of the sixteenth century
Protestant Reformations (Luhmann 2009, 164ff, 272ff). The closure of the system
of art initiated during the Italian Renaissance (Luhmann 2005, 223ff), and that of
the political and legal systems could be clearly noticed by the late eighteenth
century French Revolution, and with the drafting of the first European political
constitutions (Torres 2004, 380ff).
In general, it could be said that societies began to turn into a world society,
always in a partial and gradual fashion, in the fifteenth century. At this time in
history humanity broke the boundaries who cut her off from identifying the true
territorial extension of the planet. This evolutionary process leads to world society
by the end of the eighteenth century. On this basis one can figure out a better idea
of the hyper-complexity of world society.
129
If the operations of social systems are composed exclusively by communications,
every temporal construction of communication must necessarily include artificial
sequences of communication, which is to say that the communication sequence is
built rather arbitrarily, precisely what is meant by the history of any particular
event (Luhmann 1998, 90ff). This circumstance should not be overlooked since
this study rehearses a worldwide, planetary observation of the history of modern
Pentecostalism.
130
In the Andean region, the curanderos (healers) mumble prayers as they ingest
drugs and suck the area of the patient’s affliction. Glossolalia is also found among
the Niue shamans of south Polynesia, whereas people allegedly possessed by
demons show a similar behavior in China. A native priest bows and mumbles
before the idols at a Zapotecan (Mexican) funeral ceremony.
Moreover, a study by Kavan (2004) in New Zealand takes for granted that
Pentecostals and yoga practitioners experience glossolalia. At times, glossolalia
may be produced under “altered states of consciousness”. The transmission of
energy by a spiritual teacher to yoga practitioners (called shaktipat) is similar to
what Pentecostals experience as the baptism of the Spirit, which in most cases
unleashes glossolalia experiences (Kavan 2004, 174).
131
Given the evidence provided by social anthropology and religious studies, it could
be said with certainty that glossolalia phenomena have been present in a great
variety of cultures since time immemorial. Also, it should be noted that
glossolalia, even within Christianity, is a much more complex phenomenon than
mere speaking-in-tongues, as an early account stated:
It is not our concern here to claim where glossolalia first originated, neither to
support the idea that it first originated in a particular cultural setting and from
there it passed into another. Although the theory does not rule out cause-effect
relations, especially when they are self-evident, these ideas are rather short when
it comes to representing sociocultural complexity. Here we favor the concept of
“equifinality”, by which is meant that different systemic states may produce one
same result, the Pentecostal revival.
132
physical/ organic levels, and persons with first and last name, in our present case,
Pandita Ramabai.
The Mukti 144 Mission and its Importance to the Pentecostal Revival
The first known accounts of Pentecostal revivals in the American continent seems
to be either that of Charles Parham in Topeka, Kansas in 1900, or that of William
J. Saymour of the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles, California in 1906
(Robeck Jr. 2014; Bastian 2006). Robeck Jr. notes that both were actually directly
connected, as Parham visited Saymour in LA, though they parted from each other
because they did not get along. These were followed in 1909 by the Chilean
Pentecostal revival led by May Louise and Willis Hoover, both Episcopalian
Missionaries in Valparaiso. A historical review of Chilean Pentecostalism can be
found in Orellana (2016) through its two main churches: the Iglesia Metodista
Pentecostal and the Iglesia Evangélica Pentecostal.
Garma & Leatham (2004, 146-147) credit a woman, Romana Valenzuela, with
being the first person of introducing the Pentecostal cult into northwest Mexico.
She had got in touch and converted to Evangelicalism through the Azusa Street
Mission in 1912, and founded her own congregation in Villa Aldama, Chihuahua,
in 1914, the Iglesia Apostólica de la Fe en Cristo Jesús. The Asambleas de Dios
(Assemblies of God) followed Valenzuela’s lead; they were introduced in Mexico
in 1918.
As was the case with Pentecostalism in Africa, it seems that global Pentecostalism
is linked to the previous ongoing existence of worldwide British colonial rule; an
assertion that could very well be applied to the British Raj in India (1858-1947)
and to Pune’s Mukti Mission. Anderson expresses it quite simply:
144 Mukti is a Sanskrit word that Christians feel comfortable to translate as “salvation”, though
a more proper definition would be that of “liberation or release” from samsara, the wheel of
birth, death and rebirth. It could be used as a synonym of moksha.
133
particularly strong in British colonial Africa, and especially in South Africa
(Anderson 2014, 20).
The turning point in this policy took place six years later with the celebration of
the 1916 Panama Missionary Congress:
134
Mexican liberals in 1867 (Ornelas 2018b, 65-73), and was strengthened with the
US victory in the 1898 Spanish-US War –which brought them control over Cuba
and the Philippines–, the US permanent control over the Panama Canal in 1903,
and US involvement in First World War.
What seems clear is that US missionary societies had no qualms about working
together with the colonial interests of their country. For example, for Samuel
Inman of the Central American Mission:
…the World War had helped to overcome the image of Latin America as a
land of little value for investment, or as an area “composed of indigenous
and illiterate people with little opportunity for trade”. This idea, according to
Inmann, was contradicted by the richness of nitrate from Chile, wheat from
Argentina, oil from Mexico, coffee from Brazil, sugar from Cuba, tin from
Bolivia and banana production from Costa Rica. “Now... businessmen are
convinced of how wrong that opinion is” (Piedra 2000, 91).
Anderson also has noted the importance of Evangelical periodicals –the periodical
of the Mukti Mission in Kedgaon, Pune: Mukti Prayer Bell (1906)– and
missionary networks for the spread of world Pentecostalism. In his opinion:
…the Welsh Revival (1904-5), the revivals in North-East and Central India
(1905-7) and the Azusa Street revival in the USA (1906-9) were all part of a
wider series of revivals that promoted Pentecostal beliefs and values
throughout the world. In particular, a convincing case can be made to situate
Pandita Ramabai’s Mukti Revival in Kedgaon, near Pune in 1905-7, within
135
the emerging Pentecostal movement; and Minnie Abrams, one of its leaders,
was instrumental in passing on the news of this revival to inspire the
emergence of Pentecostalism in the Methodist Church in Chile (Anderson
2014, 14).
India’s Mukti Mission paralleled the importance of the Azusa Street revival for
the emergence of world Pentecostalism. This observation of early modern
Pentecostalism, as we noted above with the concept of equifinality, is in line with
the idea of a multi-focal emergence of revival Evangelical Christian groups
worldwide. For a recent account refer to Wilkinson (2015) whom, apart from
bringing into question the alleged central role of the Azusa Street Mission,
provides interesting Pentecostal distribution figures for various continents as well
as its future trends. As a matter of fact, Pentecostal leaders in Los Angeles
considered their revival as a consequence of the previous Mukti revival:
It is clear that the eyewitness and participant in the Azusa Street revival
Frank Bartleman, its African American leader William Seymour, and the
writers of its periodical The Apostolic Faith saw the Indian revival as a
precedent to the one in which they were involved. It was seen as a
prototypical, earlier Pentecostal revival that they thought had become ‘full-
grown’ in Los Angeles (Anderson 2014, 15).
1905-7, date provided by Anderson for the Mukti revival, seems to be a very late
date. Historical sources point instead to 1896, immediately after Ramabai’s
meeting with Reverend Gelson Gregson at the Lanouli camp (compare what
follows). A major point of departure of modern Pentecostalism was the Keswick
Convention which first took place in 1875 in Cumbria, England. For a history of
the early years of the Keswick Convention, organized by an Anglican pastor,
Thomas D. Harford-Battersby, and a Quaker, Robert Wilson, compare Harford
(1907).
India’s Mukti Mission also had a direct influence for the dissemination of
Pentecostalism to Chile, as Minnie Abrams, former Methodist Episcopal
missionary and Ramabai’s assistant in the Mukti Mission, was acquainted with
May Louise Hoover. Abrams sent Hoover accounts of the Mukti revival contained
in her 1906 book The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire,
136
which in its second edition later that year included a discussion of the
restoration of speaking in tongues. This was the first written Pentecostal
theology of Spirit baptism, and thirty thousand copies were circulated
widely. As a result of this booklet and Abrams’ subsequent correspondence
with the Hoovers, the Methodist churches in Valparaiso and Santiago were
stirred to expect and pray for a similar revival. The Pentecostal revival began
in 1909, creating a schism in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Willis
Hoover became leader of the new Chilean Methodist Pentecostal Church
consisting at first of those expelled from the Methodists (Anderson 2014,
16).
It should be noted, though, that neither Abrams nor Ramabai considered speaking-
in-tongues the unique and exclusive evidence of the baptism of the Spirit, as many
Pentecostal churches claim nowadays. For this compare Merino (2012), who
provides a good systematization of Pentecostal theology.
Pandita Ramabai was born in 1858 in the district of Mangalore, India. Ramabai’s
father, Ananta Shastri, was a Brahmin reformer who thought that women could be
taught to read and write in Sanskrit, against the traditional social prescriptions of
Hinduism. Thus, Ramabai was indebted to her father’s disposition for having
learned Sanskrit as if it were her mother tongue. As a matter of fact, her parents
made a living as Puranikas:
Ever since I remember anything my father and mother were always travelling
from one sacred place to another, staying in each place for some months,
bathing in the sacred river or tank, visiting temples, worshipping household
gods and the images of gods in the temples, and reading Puranas [collections
of myths, legends and genealogy] in temples or in some convenient place.
The reading of the Puranas served a double purpose. The first and the
foremost was that of getting rid of sin and of earning merit in order to obtain
Moksha. The other purpose was to earn an honest living without begging.
The readers of Puranas —Puranikas, as they are called— are the popular and
public preachers of religion among the Hindus (Dyer 192?, 21).
In this way,
[...] the ponderous volumes which form the scriptures of Hinduism were all
accessible to her, and she became familiar with their contents and doctrines.
137
At twelve years of age she had committed to memory eighteen thousand
verses from the Puranas. This religious learning forms the highest education
of the Brahmin or priestly caste, to which Ramabai’s family belonged (Dyer
1900, 10-11).
Apart from Kanarese (or Kannada) and Sanskrit, through her travelling Ramabai
learned English, Marathi, Hindustani, and Bengali.
The Hindu sacred literature had a clear stand on the place of women in society and
of their possibilities for spiritual attainment:
[…] there were two things on which all these books —the Dharma Shastras
[books related to uses, customs and laws], the sacred epics, the Puranas and
modern poets, the popular preachers of the present day, and orthodox high
caste men, all were agreed— that women of high and low caste, as a class,
were bad, very bad, worse than demons, as unholy as untruth and that they
could not get Moksha as men… The extraordinary religious acts which help a
woman to get into the way of getting Moksha are utter abandonment of her
will to that of her husband. She is to worship him with whole-hearted
devotion as the only god, to know and see no other pleasure in life except in
the most degraded slavery to him. The woman has no right to study the
Vedas and Vedanta, and without knowing them no one can know the Brahma;
without knowing Brahma no one can get liberation, therefore no woman, as a
woman, can get liberation (i.e., Moksha) (Dyer 192?, 26-27).
138
Ramabai and her family fell in economic hardship at the time of the 1876-77
famine in the Madras Presidency. Actually, the famine took the life of her parents
and that of her older sister. Only her older brother survived it but, weakened, died
later in Calcutta. “It was during these wanderings with her brother that Ramabai’s
faith in the Hindu religion was shaken, though until twenty years of age she
worshipped the gods of brass and stone” (Dyer 1900, 17).
Here and elsewhere, Dyer’s assertions, Ramabai’s biographer and assistant during
the first years of the Mukti Mission, show a cultural bias. This is to be considered
an Anglican cross-cultural observation or other-reference (Luhmann 2007a,
697ff), although Ramabai might have approved such general stand in the matter.
To explain her brother’s ill health, Ramabai wrote:
139
My dear brother, a stalwart young fellow of twenty-one, spoilt his health and
wasted his finely built body by fasting months and months. But nothing came
of all this futile effort to please the gods —the stone images remained as
hard as ever, and never answered our prayers (Dyer 1900, 13).
Ramabai’s fate changed for better in Calcutta, seat of British colonial power and
first capital of the British Raj, where she lectured on the shastras. There, she got
in touch with Brahmins of the Brahmo Samaj, the Hindu reform movement… and
with Christians, who presented her with a Sanskrit translation of the Bible (Dyer
192?, 25). She also met there her future husband, Bipin Bihari Medhavi, of the
sudra caste, who died of cholera nineteen months after their civil marriage. Thus,
Ramabai became a widow and was left alone with her little daughter, Manorama.
140
Ramabai made clear that, even though the Brahmo religion was much better than
traditional Hinduism, it did not satisfy her at all:
The Hindu religion held out no hope for me; the Brahmo religion was not a
very definite one, for it is nothing but what a man makes for himself. He
chooses and gathers whatever seems good to him from all religions known to
him, and prepares a sort of religion for his own use. The Brahmo religion has
no other foundation than man’s own natural light, and the sense of right and
wrong which he possesses in common with all mankind. It could not and did
not satisfy me; still I liked and believed a good deal of it that was better than
what the orthodox Hindu religion taught (Dyer 192?, 32).
During the 1880’s Ramabai travelled to England (1883) and the United States
(1886-88). In 1883, when baptized as a member of the Church of England, she
would simply state that “I was hungry for something better than what the Hindu
Shastras gave. I found it in the Christian’s Bible and was satisfied” (Dyer 192?,
34). In 1887 Ramabai published The High-Caste Hindu Woman (Ramabai 1901), a
book entirely devoted to report to the US reader the abuse and prejudices of
orthodox Hinduism against women: how they were considered inferior to men, the
marriage of women at a very young age, the spread practice of female infanticide,
widow maltreatment, etc. Above all, this book contained an appeal to the US
reader for financial support to the enterprise to which Ramabai would dedicate the
rest of her lifetime.
141
When Ramabai returned to India, she was most welcomed by the Hindu reformers:
[…] the foremost welcome to India came to Ramabai from the Reform
Hindus, known as the Brahmo Samaj. The leaders in this fraternity were
largely the product of missionary education. They had been trained in
missionary colleges. Their intellects had been convinced of the benefits of
Christianity and of its social superiority to Hinduism; but they had rejected
the Lord Jesus Christ. They no longer believed in the preposterous fables of
their Hindu Shastras. They adopted many Christian customs and imbibed a
mixture of mild Hinduism and Unitarian doctrines; laid down rules
permitting the remarriage of widows, and raising the age at which girls might
remain unmarried. In short, they established a sort of halfway-house to
Christianity which turned many a promising youth aside and deadened his
conscience as effectually as if he had remained in the toils of idolatry (Dyer
192?, 10).
If it is true that Buddhism and even Sikhism could be considered, two millennia in
between them, as early Hindu reform movements which became new religions of
their own accord, the Brahmo Samaj remained inside Hinduism –Eliade and
Couliano (1992, 177) refer to it as neo-Hinduism– and triggered the revaluation of
the spiritual legacy of Hinduism not just for India but for world society. Along
these lines one could pose the hypothesis that through the Brahmo Samaj,
142
Hinduism became a universal religion, that is, it became a religion not attached
anymore to caste, diet, territory, and the like, available worldwide to everyone
willing to adopt it.
Ramabai recalled her approach to Christianity: “I had failed to see the need of
placing my implicit faith in Christ and His atonement in order to become a child
of God by being born again of the Holy Spirit and justified by faith in the Son of
God” (Dyer 192?, 36). And even provided a sort of theological reasoning on
salvation:
How very different the truth of God was from the false idea that I had
entertained from my earliest childhood. That was, that I must have merit to
earn present or future happiness, the pleasure of Svarga [heavenly worlds],
or the utterly inconceivable lost condition of Moksha or liberation (Dyer
192?, 39).
143
By 1895, previous to a new famine in 1897, Ramabai experienced a spiritual
yearning and finally was touched by the Holy Spirit:
I read in the papers that Mr. Gelson Gregson was to hold some special
mission services in Bombay… In April at the Lanouli camp meeting I heard
Mr. Gregson preach again. He preached as one who had received and was
filled with the Holy Spirit and knew the deep things of God. I then opened
my heart to a friend, and told her of my intense desire for the gift of the Holy
Spirit; and we together sought a conversation with Mr. Gregson. I asked him
many questions, which he satisfactorily answered in the words of Scripture.
We prayed then that I might receive the Holy Spirit; but it was not until the
evening of that day that I felt conscious of His presence in me. Since then I
have received much blessing, and am ever grateful to God for showing me
the way of this blessed life (Dyer 1900, 51).
Reverend Gelson Gregson, former British army chaplain, took part of the Keswick
Convention and was an active promoter of the charismatic spirituality which
characterized it in its beginnings (Battersby Harford 1907, 148). Apart from this
direct contact with Keswick spirituality, Ramabai traveled again to the United
States in 1898, when the support of the Ramabai Association to the Mukti Mission
144
was about to end. On her way back to India, she had the opportunity to attend the
Keswick Convention and to address it. In her own words:
While there I received much blessing, and was greatly refreshed in my spirit.
My heart was filled with joy to see nearly 4 000 people seeking and finding
the deep things of God. At that time the Lord led me to ask those present to
pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all Indian Christians. Five
minutes were given me to speak, and I made the very best use of them. I
requested God’s people to pray that 100 000 men and 100 000 women from
among the Indian Christians may be led to preach the Gospel to their country
people (Dyer 192?, 66).
Thus, the connection between the Keswick Convention and Pandita Ramabai’s
Mukti revival in India is out of question. Keswick spirituality followed the
missionary model adopted by Hudson Taylor (“missions of faith”) in the China
Inland Mission in 1865. This missionary model was later disseminated by William
Cameron Townsend and his Summer Institute of Linguistics/ Wycliffe Bible
Translators (SIL-WBT), considered one of the most important US faith missions
of the twentieth century (Aldridge 2012, 3ff; Hartch, 2006).
Ramabai, a widow herself, knew quite well the position of servitude and ignorance
which women, in special widows, were expected to endure:
[…] pupils began to come in, genuine Hindu widows with shaven heads,
plain brick-red garments, and no jewellery. All the internal arrangements of
the Home were designed to give perfect facility for Hindu customs to be
carried out. Ramabai herself maintained her Hindu ways of living as regards
food and clothing, though having become a Christian she was not permitted
to eat with the Hindu pupils or even to enter their cookroom or touch their
food lest she defile it! From the first there were two classes of pupils: the
widows aforesaid; and the daughters of reformed Hindus, the Brahmas, who
were less particular about keeping caste and who ate at the same table as
Ramabai. The latter included a number of destitute young women whom
Ramabai had rescued from moral danger, and for whose support she had
made herself personally responsible and who were looked upon as her
adopted daughters (Dyer 192?, 12).
Ramabai died in 1922. She witnessed the publication of the first edition of her
translation of the New Testament into Marathi (1913), and also attested the sad
and untimely death of her own daughter, Manorama, in 1921.
145
Conclusions
From all this three conclusions can be drawn. The first one is the equifinal
character of sociocultural complexity. The new sociocultural selection which
would spread in the twentieth century with the help of Anglo-Saxon colonialism
–Pentecostal Christianity– is to be understood in the light of an ongoing
evolutionary process which led to contemporary world society, and which
triggered the adaptation of Hinduism so that it could be offered as a universal
religion. Modern Pentecostalism emerges as a Christian semantics of world
society, whether this emergence is conceived through the concept of equifinality
or, alternatively, as a planetary drift supported by dense networks of Anglo-Saxon
missionaries (multidenominational) and in the worldwide circulation of printed
matter (missionary books and newspapers).
The last conclusion refers to the historical feasibility of structural change, which
is related to the timing of various historical conditions that make possible the
“bridging of cultures”: colonial presence in India (the British Raj), an extreme
economic hardship in the form of ever present famine in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries, an intense English educational and missionary activity
(the Brahmo Samaj Hindu reform movement), and finally, the conversion of a
learned Brahmin widow into a Christian (Pandita Ramabai and her Mukti
Mission).
146
Referencias/ References
Aldridge Jr., Fredrick A. 2012. The Development of the Wycliffe Bible Translators
and the Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1934-1982. Ph. D. Thesis, Department of
History and Politics, School of Arts and Humanities. University of Stirling.
Stirling, United Kingdom.
Avalon, Arthur. 1950 [1918]. The Serpent Power being the Shat-Chakra-Nirupana
and Paduka-Panchaka. Two Works on Laya Yoga, Translated from the Sanskrit,
with Introduction and Commentary. Madras: Ganesh & Co.
Battersby Harford, John. 1907. The Keswick Mission Council. The Keswick
Convention. Its Message, Its Method and Its Men, Charles F. Harford (Ed.), 143-
155. London: Marshall Brothers.
Brooke, Hubert. 1907. The Message. Its Method of Presentation. The Keswick
Convention. Its Message, Its Method and Its Men, Charles F. Harford (Ed.), 75-88.
London: Marshall Brothers.
Dyer, Helen S. 1900. Pandita Ramabai. The Story of her Life. London: Morgan &
Scott.
https://archive.org/details/panditaramabaist00dyer (9 de septiembre de 2019).
Dyer, Helen S. 192?. Pandita Ramabai. Her Vision, Her Mission and Triumph of
Faith. Glasgow: Pickering & Inglis.
https://archive.org/details/panditaramabaihe00dyeruoft (9 de septiembre de
2019).
147
Eliade, Mircea & Couliano, Ioan. 1992. Diccionario de las religiones. Barcelona:
Paidós.
Garma, Carlos & Leatham, Miguel. 2004. Pentecostal Adaptations in Rural and
Urban Mexico: An Anthropological Assessment. Mexican Studies/Estudios
Mexicanos 20 (1): 145-166.
Harford, Charles F. (Ed.). 1907. The Keswick Convention. Its Message, Its Method
and Its Men. London: Marshall Brothers.
https://archive.org/details/keswickconvent00unknuoft (9 de septiembre de 2019).
Henke, Frederick G. 1909. The Gift of Tongues and Related Phenomena at Present
Day. The American Journal of Theology 13 (2): 193-206.
Luhmann, Niklas. 1998. Sistemas sociales. Lineamientos para una teoría general.
Barcelona: Anthropos/ UIA/ Centro Editorial Javeriano.
Ornelas, Marco. 2018c. Modern Religious Differentiation: The Latin Mass (1517-
1570). Mexico: Independently Published.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1790664047 (9 de septiembre de 2019).
149
Piedra, Arturo. 2000. Evangelización protestante en América Latina. Análisis de
las razones que justificaron y promovieron la expansión protestante, 1830-1960.
Tomo 1. Quito: Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias (CLAI).
Ramabai, Pandita. 1901 [1887]. The High-Caste Hindu Woman. New York:
Fleming H. Revell Company.
https://archive.org/details/highcastehinduwo00ramauoft (9 de septiembre de
2019).
Stichweh, Rudolf. 2008. The Eigenstructures of World Society and the Regional
Cultures of the World. Frontiers of Globalization Research. Theoretical and
Methodological Approaches, Ino Rossi (Ed.), 133-149. New York: Springer.
Torres N., Javier. 2004. Luhmann: la política como sistema. México: Fondo de
Cultura Económica/ Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales de la UNAM/ UIA.
150
4. Misiología anglosajona que observa: relaciones entre
ciencia y religión en la sociedad moderna, 1859-1920
Resumen:
Este artículo ofrece una narración histórica donde la sociología y la historia
comparten responsabilidades por igual. Se trata de un artículo en sociología
histórica. El hilo conductor de la narración lo constituye la actividad de la
misiología anglosajona de finales del siglo xix e inicios del xx. La tesis que se
propone sustentar es que la misiología protestante actuó de manera acoplada con
el colonialismo anglosajón. Entre los años 1859-1920 las comunicaciones
misiológicas anglosajonas tuvieron como principal marco de referencia las mutuas
observaciones entre el programa de la ciencia de la religión (Max Muller) y el
programa del fundamentalismo evangélico tal cual quedó perfilado en los
primeros decenios de existencia de la Convención de Keswick. La lectura
mundializada de la expansión misiológica protestante es necesaria para entender
las relaciones entre ciencia y religión, así como para delinear análisis
neocolonialistas en la sociedad moderna contemporánea.
Todo afán por entender y responder a los desafíos que las sociedades
latinoamericanas le plantean hoy al cristianismo, tendrá que pasar
por la revisión del mensaje cristiano y de la cosmovisión
de quienes lo trajeron a estas tierras.
Introducción
No se corre ningún riesgo con afirmar que la historia del cristianismo es una
historia que se intercala con los esfuerzos de los grandes imperios del pasado por
controlar recursos naturales y lograr influencia económica y espiritual sobre
poblaciones pertenecientes a distintas civilizaciones. Así sucedió con el imperio
romano a partir de Constantino el Grande, con el imperio carolingio, con el
imperio español y con el que suele considerarse el más grande poder colonial
moderno: el imperio británico.
151
En esa medida, la historiografía del cristianismo es inseparable de los esfuerzos
evangelizadores y de los planteamientos misiológicos encaminados a la
conversión religiosa de los pueblos con que los cristianos se han topado en su
expansión. Sólo así puede entenderse, por ejemplo, la presunción de que la
verdadera primera guerra mundial tuvo como antecedente la derrota de la armada
española por los ingleses en 1588.
Esta otra primera guerra mundial fue librada a finales del siglo xvi e inicios del
xvii por dos países cristianos europeos en lucha por el control de recursos
naturales y rutas comerciales:
Este también fue el inicio del fin de la expansión misionera de los jesuitas
portugueses en el Japón y que fue llevado recientemente a la pantalla por Martin
Scorsese (2016). La expulsión de los católicos del Japón en 1640 dio inicio al
periodo que se conoce como del silencio (cristiano), nombre que dio título a la
cinta del conocido cineasta y que se extendería hasta el año 1800 (Moffett 2006,
92-93).
152
mundial (más sobre esto en el próximo apartado). Esto fue advertido hace cuando
menos veinte años atrás:
153
La observación de segundo orden y una epistemología constructivista
Es probable que den Hollander (2010; 2012; 2014) sea quien está más cerca de lo
que se intenta hacer aquí. Una idea central de den Hollander (2014) es que la
154
individualidad de los procesos históricos enfatizada por el historicismo es
retomada y resuelta por Luhmann con la idea de que los sistemas sociales
autopoiéticos constituyen individualidades semánticas, distintas de otros sistemas
por cumplir una función diferente y no jerarquizados por tener carácter acéntrico.
Ya la filosofía de la historia había llegado a dilucidar que la historia y la ciencia
no se distinguen por el objeto de estudio, sino por la manera de presentar sus
resultados: a través de generalizaciones en el caso de la ciencia, con narraciones
singulares que apunten a totalidades de sentido en el caso de la historia.
155
es, sin embargo, que sólo la comunicación es para ellos empíricamente
observable. Lo que ocurre en la mente de miles de millones de personas
está más allá de su observación. Por lo tanto, sería absurdo decir que el
“hombre” [el ser humano] es el objeto de estudio sociológico o histórico.
No podemos sostener seriamente que nuestro conocimiento de la sociedad
en el pasado o presente depende de nuestro conocimiento de los seres
humanos individuales (den Hollander 2010, 215-216).
La lógica apunta a que existe un “yo” antes de que uno pueda empezar a
describirlo, pero en realidad los “yoes” individuales y sociales a menudo
son el resultado mismo de la autodescripción, que es por donde se le vea
una “extraña vuelta de tuerca”. Los historiadores son muy conscientes de
esto después del giro lingüístico y cultural de finales del siglo xx. El
concepto de una identidad que se constituye en la narración es un
conocimiento aceptado hoy día. Por ejemplo, al escribir una historia
nacional contribuimos de hecho a la “comunidad imaginada” que
constituye una nación (den Hollander 2010, 218).
Por lo demás, los sistemas sociales autopoiéticos son sistemas que solamente
pueden entenderse en términos de su propia historia, se trata de máquinas no
triviales:
156
Una teoría de la evolución sociocultural sólo puede pensarse precisamente en
estos términos:
Debido a que Luhmann separa los sistemas sociales de los seres humanos
individuales de la manera explicada anteriormente, es capaz de desarrollar
una teoría de la evolución social en el verdadero sentido de la palabra.
Mientras el concepto de sociedad dependa de los seres humanos
individuales, es imposible dar significado real a tal teoría. La evolución de
la especie humana no nos dice mucho acerca de lo que sucedió en los
últimos 10 mil años. Mientras que nuestros genes apenas cambiaron en ese
período, la sociedad sufrió las metamorfosis más sorprendentes. Esto
requiere de una teoría que explique la dinámica interna de la sociedad.
Gran parte de la teoría de Luhmann se dedica a hacer precisamente esto
(den Hollander 2010, 218-219).
Finalmente, den Hollander advierte que fue entre 1750 y 1850 cuando se decidió
que los historiadores deberían trabajar primordialmente con fuentes escritas.
Antes del siglo xviii sólo podía hacerse historia de lo que el historiador mismo
había presenciado, así lo habían hecho Heródoto en la Grecia antigua o Isidoro de
Sevilla a inicios del siglo vii. Hasta hace muy poco el historiador se convierte en
observador de las observaciones de otros o, lo que es lo mismo, en un observador
de segundo orden. En su parecer, la relación entre el método histórico y la
observación de segundo orden es la siguiente:
157
deduce que no puede hacerse una distinción clara entre la forma en que la
gente pensaba en el pasado y cómo pensamos hoy en día. Si hay un
problema con la objetividad de la escritura de la historia, así es como
debemos concebirlo. Es, de hecho, un problema de observación de
segundo orden (den Hollander 2010, 221).
Sin intentar ponernos en los zapatos del historiador, el esfuerzo que intenta
hacerse aquí resulta de utilizar historiografías existentes para darles el tratamiento
que la teoría de sistemas sociales prescribe. ¿Puede alcanzarse de este modo una
narración histórica plausible, aceptable? La respuesta es positiva y, en los hechos,
ya existen antecedentes de un trabajo en este tenor. Para ello puede recurrirse a las
recientes investigaciones de Ornelas (2016a; 2016b).
159
Latina se identificó como parte del llamado de Dios, el cual se verificaba por las
necesidades y anhelos de cambio de los habitantes del Sur” (Piedra 2000, 74).
Así sucedió en 1873, cuando Alfred Lee, obispo episcopal de Delaware, identificó
los “anhelos de cambio de los habitantes del sur” con el período de radicalización
de los liberales mexicanos contra la iglesia católica:
Pocos años atrás los liberales mexicanos habían logrado derrotar al partido
conservador, a la iglesia católica y a Maximiliano de Augsburgo… con la ayuda
de la fracción victoriosa de la guerra civil/ guerra de secesión en los Estados
Unidos (Ornelas 2016b, 48-54).
Sin duda, la nueva manera de ver el Norte a sus vecinos del Sur fue para
los protestantes como el fin de una era y el inicio de otra: el paso de la era
160
del “continente abandonado” a la del “continente de oportunidad”. Esta
última expresión, representó claramente el nuevo trato que, según los
misioneros y algunos estrategas protestantes, los Estados Unidos darían a
la América Latina, tanto a nivel político y comercial como religioso
(Piedra 2000, 81).
162
tenía que escoger entre “conciliar o ser fiel”. Las deficiencias de la Iglesia
Católica eran mayores que cualquiera de las virtudes que se le señalan.
Personas como Fox reconocían como positiva y correcta la posición
asumida por la Iglesia Católica al final del siglo xix contra la visión
moderna de la Biblia. Sin embargo, eso no era suficiente para eximirla de
culpa: “Los romanistas son nuestros aliados en la defensa absoluta de la
verdad y autoridad de la Biblia en su totalidad. Tienen una posición sana
sobre la Trinidad, la deidad de Cristo, el trabajo del Espíritu Santo, y
acerca de lo sobrenatural. Nosotros debemos darle la bienvenida a su
ayuda en resistir el naturalismo en todas sus formas. Pero en otros puntos
debemos distanciarnos de ellos y ser claros en decir lo que entendemos
acerca de sus errores”. Esta posición de Fox en cuanto al debate en los
Estados Unidos con respecto a la Biblia fue otra de sus críticas a los
líderes del CCLA y al Congreso de Panamá. Se erró al no asumir una
posición firme contra la perspectiva moderna de la Biblia, y con ello se
desaprovechó la oportunidad de combatir lo que Fox llamó los dos “males
gemelos” de América Latina: el romanismo y el racionalismo. Esto trajo
como consecuencia que la fuerza protestante llegara a ser, según Fox, “un
ejército sin una bandera o clarín” (Piedra 2000, 204-205).
Como puede observarse, la crítica de Fox proviene del flanco derecho del
protestantismo y muestra de manera prístina un antimodernismo y
fundamentalismo evangelico que va por sus fueros pues asoma el literalismo
bíblico y la interpretación ahistórica de las escrituras:
No queremos ser injustos. No es del todo claro lo que esto significa; pero
los que están familiarizados mínimamente con las controversias modernas
acerca de la Biblia, saben lo que significan frases como “esta manera sana,
histórica y espiritual de la Biblia”, y “este argumento razonable moderno
y constructivo”. Ellos incorporan la piedra angular de la visión moderna
de la Biblia, en el sentido de que la Biblia es sólo en parte verdad y que la
“crítica” debe determinar qué parte de ella es la que debemos creer y qué
parte no debemos creer. Uno de los más prominentes miembros del
Congreso [de Panamá] declaró en una discusión pública con transparente
honestidad que debemos aceptar la visión moderna de la Biblia y la
doctrina de la evolución (Piedra 2000, 206).
Si bien es cierto que en la época se escribieron libros que tuvieron una posición
vacilante en este respecto, por ejemplo el de Jordan (1905), creemos que nada está
más alejado de la verdad, al menos si se revisa la contribución del más importante
orientalista sobre el tema (Muller 1889), argumentación que será desarrollada al
detalle en el próximo apartado.
Finalmente, aparte del viraje en la visión que sostenían las sociedades misioneras
anglosajonas y que perfila el desplazamiento de la sensibilidad misiológica
inglesa en favor de la abierta intervención colonialista norteamericana en la
región, es importante advertir que será en estos años cuando las sociedades
misioneras ensayan una estrategia de trabajo donde predominará la “doble cara” o,
llanamente, la hipocresía como forma de trato con las sociedades
latinoamericanas.
Esta estrategia fue primeramente concebida por Samuel Guy Inman, de la CAM
(Central American Mission). Inman, precursor y misionero norteamericano en
México desde 1906, estaba en desacuerdo con que se considerara a América
Latina como una región sin oportunidades de comercio; a lo largo y ancho de su
territorio había valiosos recursos naturales que explotar:
Esta idea, según Inman, era contradicha por la riqueza del nitrato de
Chile, del trigo de Argentina, del petróleo de México, del café del Brasil,
del azúcar de Cuba, del estaño de Bolivia y de la producción bananera de
Costa Rica. “Ahora… los hombres de negocios están convenciéndose de lo
equivocada que es esa opinión” (Piedra 2000, 91).
164
Inman desarrolló vínculos estrechos con el gobierno de los Estados Unidos, en
particular con el Departamento de Estado norteamericano. Su política de doble
cara incluyó:
165
en México se presentó como organización científico-lingüística y humanitaria
(Stoll 1985, 99ss; Aldridge 2012, 3ss).
Uno de estos orientalistas fue el filólogo y fundador del estudio comparado de las
religiones, Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900). Nació en Alemania aunque hizo su
carrera en la Universidad de Oxford y editó una obra monumental que bien puede
considerarse como una de las más importantes contribuciones a los estudios de las
religiones orientales no cristianas: Los libros sagrados de Oriente (1879-1910).
La obra se compone de una colección de 50 volúmenes con traducciones al inglés
166
de los principales libros de las religiones orientales, entre ellas, la védica, el
budismo, el jainismo, el zoroastrismo, el islamismo, el confucianismo y el
taoísmo.
…qué tanto las conclusiones generales a las que había llegado en trabajos
anteriores eran aplicables al hombre… [Si bien] La estructura homológica,
el desarrollo embriológico y los órganos rudimentarios de las especies a
los que debe ponerse atención, trátese del hombre o de cualquier otro
animal, quedan por ser analizados… todas estas clases de hechos dan
cabida, en mi opinión, a una amplia y conclusiva evidencia en favor del
principio de la evolución gradual (Darwin 1871, 2).
En ese tiempo la idea de que Dios había puesto un alma en todos los seres
humanos era ampliamente aceptada e incluso algunos de los colaboradores más
cercanos de Darwin tuvieron dificultades en rechazarla (Larson 2007, 7ss). Por
otra parte, la idea de que las afirmaciones contenidas en los libros sagrados de
algunas religiones son incuestionables fue criticada por Muller. Él sostenía, por
ejemplo, que la inexistencia de libros sagrados era perfectamente plausible, mas
no así la de las religiones mismas:
168
Friedrich Max Muller (India Post 1974)
Los libros sagrados de las religiones son importantes porque resguardan la forma
más antigua de la lengua del país correspondiente: “Es curioso que dondequiera
que tengamos libros sagrados, representen el idioma más antiguo del país. Es así
en la India, al igual que en Persia, China, Palestina y Arabia ” (Muller 1889, 295-
296). Según puede desprenderse de lo sucedido en la India, el desarrollo del
lenguaje conlleva el desarrollo de las religiones: “…sin un conocimiento del
desarrollo histórico del lenguaje muchos puntos en la historia de las religiones de
la India permanecerían incomprensibles” (Muller 1889, 302).
Las religiones, sin excepción, no son sino el resultado del desarrollo histórico:
¿Qué entiende Muller por religión natural? Este punto es fundamental, pues de
esta comprensión se sigue la crítica que hace de la sacralización de las religiones
en la forma de textos sagrados:
Para Muller la religión es el otro lado de las formas finitas que percibimos con
nuestros sentidos, esto es, lo infinito:
171
Es así que me vi obligado a publicar mi último libro, la Ciencia del
pensamiento, en el que recogí todos los hechos que la Ciencia del
lenguaje había sacado a la luz en apoyo a la teoría sostenida por los más
eminentes filósofos de Platón a Hegel, esto es, que el logos es lo mismo,
ya sea que lo traduzcas por lenguaje o por pensamiento, y que como no
hay lenguaje sin razón, tampoco hay razón sin lenguaje... Si es posible
hacerlo, quiero mostrarles cómo el camino que conduce de la ciencia del
lenguaje a la ciencia de la mitología y a la ciencia del pensamiento, es el
único camino seguro para acercarse a la ciencia de la religión. Esta
ciencia de la religión se convertirá así en la prueba, y espero la
confirmación, de teorías anteriores sobre el lenguaje, la mitología y el
pensamiento; y que el trabajo que comencé en Leipzig en 1843, si la vida
me lo permite, será llevado a su consumación final en las cátedras que me
han pedido dictar en la Universidad de Glasgow (Muller 1889, 25).
Muller, siguiendo en esto de cerca a Ludwig Noiré (1829-1889), considera que del
lenguaje conceptual que expresa estados subjetivos se pasa naturalmente al
lenguaje natural que expresa estados objetivos y, finalmente, a lo que conocemos
como mitología. En los primeros tiempos,
Como sucede con los problemas religiosos así también sucede con los
problemas del lenguaje. ¿Quién podría explicar el idioma, si sólo
conociera el lenguaje de hoy? Si no conociéramos ninguno de los
antecedentes del inglés, tal como ahora existe en sus 250 mil palabras,
muchas de ellas con significados diferentes, muchas de ellas con el mismo
significado, incluso los más sabios de nosotros no podrían decir más que
lo que dijo Platón en el Cratilo, es decir, que el lenguaje no podía haber
sido inventado por el hombre. Y ahora que sabemos por qué simple
proceso el lenguaje fue, si no inventado, en todo caso producido y
elaborado por el hombre, ¿disminuye el lenguaje porque no fue inventado
por los dioses, o disminuye al hombre porque el lenguaje no le fue
presentado ya hecho por los dioses? Creo que no, y lo mismo pienso
respecto de la religión. Si vemos con qué sentimientos naturales y
sencillos empezó la religión y luego seguimos su curso hasta alcanzar ese
estado perfecto, o en todo caso ese estado completo en que la encontramos
en épocas posteriores, difícilmente pensamos que degradamos la religión
aceptándola como el producto más precioso de la mente humana, como
tampoco consideramos al hombre despojado de su dignidad porque el día
de su nacimiento los dioses no descendieron del cielo para presentarle una
religión preparada o reducida a credos y creencias establecidas, sino que
lo dejó crecer y aprender a ponerse de pie sobre sus propias piernas y
pelear su propia batalla en la lucha por la verdad (Muller 1889, 237-238).
173
ahora se llama su evolución. Lo que solía ser estudiado bajo el nombre de
la historia de las leyes y de las religiones, ahora se nos presenta como la
evolución del derecho y la religión... Puedo entender a un hombre que no
crea en la gravitación, pero un ser racional negando la evolución en su
verdadero sentido cesa ipso facto de ser un ser racional (Muller 1889,
258-260).
Para cerrar esta sección volvemos al tema con el que dio inicio: la importancia del
colonialismo británico y de las misiones protestantes anglosajonas para sus
estudios. En palabras del connotado orientalista:
Muller expresa su gratitud a las solicitudes de ayuda que, con tal propósito, ha
dirigido a la antigua East India Company, al gobierno británico y a las sociedades
misioneras. Su monumental obra (Sacred Books of the East) hubiese sido
imposible sin su apoyo:
175
recuentos a la Oficina Colonial en Londres. La invitación fue bien
respondida y esperaba que estos informes, después de un cuidadoso
examen, pudieran ser publicados de vez en cuando como “Expedientes
Etnológicos de las Colonias Inglesas”... (Muller 1889, 505).
Esta fue la primera de tales reuniones que, con el paso de los años, serían
conocidas por promover un avivamiento cristiano para la promoción de la santidad
en la vida cotidiana. La convocatoria fue motivada por la asistencia del reverendo
Harford-Battersby a una conferencia cristiana semejante celebrada en Oxford un
año antes (Oxford Conference de 1874):
176
antecedentes de la Convención de Keswick fueron el perfeccionismo wesleyano y
el movimiento de santidad. Este último surgió de la mezcla del perfeccionismo
wesleyano con los avivamientos santificantes norteamericanos de la primera mitad
del siglo xix. El movimiento de santidad, a su vez, tuvo una influencia sobre el
movimiento inicial de Keswick a través del movimiento por una Vida Cristiana
Superior (Higher Christian Life), de corte transdenominacional, y de los
perfeccionismos metodista y el liderado por el Oberlin College (Naselli 2008, 18-
22). En Bundy (2012) puede encontrarse una recensión histórica a 100 años de la
Convención de Keswick junto con la copiosa bibliografía que generó.
177
esto sin ningún sacrificio de principios o de falta de lealtad a la rama de la
iglesia cristiana a la que pertenecen (Harford 1907, 16-17).
¿Y cómo se supone que esta transformación radical opera en la vida de los fieles?
En todo esto hay un planteamiento misiológico definido dirigido a cristianos y
“paganos” por igual:
179
para misiones serían utilizados: a) apelar a quienes ya son cristianos con el fin de
apoyar su entera consagración al servicio y b) realizar trabajo entre los paganos
bajo la tutela de las sociedades misioneras ya existentes.
Es así que bajo sus auspicios, misioneros fueron enviados, además de a países de
Europa, los Estados Unidos y Canadá, a Ceilán (hoy Sri Lanka), la India, China,
Japón, Australia, Nueva Zelanda, Sudáfrica, Sudán, Nigeria, Egipto, Palestina
(Siria otomana hasta la Primera Guerra Mundial, Palestina británica hasta 1948,
hoy Palestina parcialmente ocupada e Israel), Jamaica y Sudamérica. Por ejemplo
en relación con América Latina, la conexión de la Convención de Keswick con el
avivamiento pentecostal chileno (1909) por intermedio de la Misión Mukti de
Pandita Ramabai en Kedgaon, India ha sido puesta en evidencia por Ornelas
(2016b, 31-45).
180
tajante es referida como la crisis que sigue a la conversión (Naselli 2008). El
planteamiento supone también que esta santificación no es experimentada por
todos los fieles, sino sólo por quienes han recibido el bautismo del Espíritu, que
de esta manera comienzan una progresiva santificación en sus vidas.
181
Townsend en Tetelcingo, Morelos (WCT Archives 1936)
Para muestra baste un botón. En 1982, un cuadro resumen del número de lenguas
y personal del ILV involucrado, presentado como apéndice de su libro (Stoll 1985,
463), contabilizaba 925 lenguas nativas en estudio de parte de 4 mil 512
misioneros evangélicos (de los cuales 3 mil 197 eran estadunidenses, un 71%). No
queda más que pasmarse ante la envergadura de un proyecto que se propone llevar
la buena nueva a todas las lenguas del planeta. ¿Pudiera decirse lo mismo de la
ceguera de la empresa evangélica fundamentalista que permitió siquiera
plantearlo?
182
El fundamentalismo evangélico terminaría por definirse como antimodernista y
eclesiásticamente separatista. También enfatizaría la ortodoxia doctrinal, la
infalibilidad y literalismo de los evangelios a la vez que respaldará el
creacionismo. En otra definición, el fundamentalismo evangélico se caracterizaría
por la importancia que pone en la conversión para la salvación, en el activismo
que lleve a la conversión de otros, a quienes usualmente se considera que viven en
el error, y en la creencia en la infalibilidad y literalismo bíblicos y en la
importancia de la cruz y la crucifixión de Cristo para reconciliarnos con Dios.
183
Conferencia de Oxford de 1874. La principal tesis que ha motivado la
construcción de esta narración histórica queda entonces al menos parcialmente
confirmada: ¿cómo es que la religión natural y el fundamentalismo evangélico no
habrían de observarse?
184
vez desechada esta consideración en el Congreso de Panamá, el programa
fundamentalista del evangelicalismo cristiano fue tomando fuerza en América
Latina y el mundo entero.
Como por otra parte tampoco puede darse por sentada la homogeneidad de
propósitos entre los orientalistas (científicos) británicos y la Oficina Colonial del
gobierno británico, o para el caso, entre los misioneros estadounidenses del SIL-
WBT en latinoamérica y en el mundo entero y el Departamento de Estado, la
Agencia Central de Inteligencia o cualesquiera otras agencias del gobierno de los
Estados Unidos. En el nivel de las personas hay cabida para toda la casuística
histórica imaginable: misioneros con deseo de ayudar desinteresadamente a las
comunidades que asisten, misioneros convencidos de que la conversión es la
mejor ayuda que puede darse a poblaciones dejadas de la mano de Dios,
misioneros con una doble cara (misioneros que sirven en paralelo a una agencia
gubernamental norteamericana) y, por qué no, misioneros exaltados que se
integran activamente a las comunidades nativas tzotziles o quechuas donde
trabajan.
Si hubiese que apuntar a una instancia institucional que acoplara el trabajo de las
sociedades misioneras, las políticas coloniales anglosajonas y objetivos de corte
científico para el período 1859-1920 habría que señalar, siguiendo las
observaciones de Muller, a la Oficina Colonial Británica. Lo que parece claro es
que el fundamentalismo evangélico sirvió más a los propósitos de la expansión
colonial que lo que hubiera podido hacer la ciencia de la religión con la defensa
de posiciones ecumenistas (no exclusivistas) que niegan la supremacía religiosa.
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4. Observing Anglo-Saxon Missiology: On the Relations
between Science and Religion in Modern Society, 1859-1920
Abstract:
This article offers a historical narrative where sociology and history share equal
responsibilities. It is an article in historical sociology. The narrative thread is the
activity of the Anglo-Saxon missiology of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. The proposed thesis is that Protestant missiology performed coupled
with Anglo-Saxon colonialism. Between the years 1859-1920 Anglo-Saxon
missiological communications had as their main frame of reference the mutual
observations between the program of the science of religion (Max Muller) and the
program of evangelical fundamentalism as it took shape in the first decades of
existence of the Keswick Convention. The worldwide reading of the Protestant
missionary expansion is necessary to understand the relations between science and
religion, as well as to outline neocolonialist analyses in contemporary modern
society.
Introduction
187
conversion of the peoples encountered by Christians in their expansion. This is the
only way to understand, for example, the presumption that the real First World
War was preceded by the defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English in 1588.
This other First World War was fought in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries by two European Christian countries fighting to control natural
resources and trade routes:
The squeeze began as early as the rout of the Spanish Armada by England
in 1588. That overwhelming defeat speeded little Holland to eventual
victory in its eighty-year war of independence against mighty Spain; this,
in turn, allow the Dutch to turn their attention from Spain to Portugal in
the Far East. Boxer calls the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries’ global
struggle between Holland and Portugal, two small nations with imperial
ambitions, the real First World War, more deserving of that name than the
twentieth-century World War I in 1914. It was literally “waged in four
continents and on seven seas”, “a struggle for the spice trade of Asia, the
slavery trade of West Africa, and for the sugar trade of Brazil. The final
result was, on balance, a victory for the Dutch in Asia, a draw in West
Africa, and a victory for Portugal in Brazil” (Moffett 2006, 87).
This was also the beginning of the end of the missionary expansion of the
Portuguese Jesuits in Japan which was recently brought to the screen by Martin
Scorsese (2016). The expulsion of Catholics from Japan in 1640 began the period
known as (Christian) silence, name which gave title to the film of the well-known
filmmaker and that would extend until 1800 (Moffett 2006, 92-93).
In what follows it is taken for granted that the dissolution of the colonial powers
in their classic version –the British the last of them– did not end with the forms of
imperial power imposed between nation states, but became the parameter without
which it would be impossible to explain the current drift of world society (more
on this in the next section). This was noticed at least twenty years ago:
This article offers a historical narrative where sociology and history share
responsibilities equally. The narrative thread is the activity of the Anglo-Saxon
missiology of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The proposed
thesis is that Protestant missiology performed coupled with Anglo-Saxon
colonialism.
189
Even in the case of physical phenomena, it is impossible to justify “blind”
developments (selections), to somehow name stochastic processes, that is, entirely
random processes. And less so, as it has happened since the nineteenth century, in
the case of a single world society and of autopoietic social systems with specific
codes and programs (Luhmann 1989; 1996; 2012; 2013) whose primary
characteristic is to constitute non-trivial machines, that is, historically dependent,
indeterminable and unpredictable communicative devices (The Cybernetics
Society 2010). Podgórsky explains it through the natural drift concept:
What is natural drift and how does it characterize evolution? Since the
dynamics of the environment may be erratic, the result in terms of
evolution is a natural drift, determined primarily by the inner coherence
and autonomy of the living organism… Evolution does not pursue any
particular aim –it simply drifts. The path it chooses is not, however,
completely random, but is one of many that are in harmony with the inner
structure of the autopoietic unit. These coupled interactions, accumulated
over time, give a particular historical perspective to the autopoietic
system. It becomes a historical product, the result of a long series of
coupled interactions. Evolution is not progress, it is simply drift
(Podgórsky 2010, 84-85).
Probably den Hollander (2010; 2012; 2014) is the one who is closer to what we
are trying to do here. A central idea of den Hollander (2014) is that the
individuality of historical processes emphasized by historicism is taken up and
solved by Luhmann with the idea that autopoietic social systems constitute
semantic individualities, different from other systems for performing a different
function, and non-hierarchical for having an acentric character. Philosophy of
history had already come to elucidate that history and science are not
distinguished by its object of study, but by the way of presenting its results:
through generalizations in the case of science, in the case of history with singular
narratives which point to totalities of meaning.
History would attempt to construct units of meaning that social systems theory
outline with the hyperdistinction system/ environment. History is distinguished by
constructing units of meaning already disconnected from chronology and from
strict causality. Every social system must be able at all times to distinguish
190
between itself and the environment. Self-observation and self-description are a
distinctive component of the theory which can not be accused of flat solipsism.
Den Hollander considers that just as the neo-Darwinist theory of evolution is the
framework in which biologists discuss their research, historians would do well
discussing their narratives within the framework of social systems theory. To the
same extent, it assigns a place to sociologists and historians. Sociologists would
provide the general framework of theory while historians would continue to be
“storytellers” with the use of the historical method, which is equated with second-
order observation.
If we can accept the idea that social systems do not consist of human
individuals but of human communications, the problem is solved…
Although individual and social systems are closely related, they cannot
take each other’s role. As a matter of fact communication systems cannot
think and psychic systems cannot communicate, in the sense of acting in
the outside world. The operational closure of both kinds of systems
explains at the same time why they need each other… A big difference for
the sociologist and the historian is, however, that only communication is
empirically observable. What goes on in the mind of billions of people is
hidden from their view. It would therefore be preposterous to say that
“man” [a human being] is the sociological or historical object of study.
We cannot seriously maintain that our knowledge of society in past or
present depends on our knowledge of individual human beings (den
Hollander 2010, 215-216).
Logic would have it that there already is a “self” before one can start to
describe it, but in reality individual and social “selves” often are the very
result of self-description, which is by all means a “strange loop”.
Historians are well aware of this after the linguistic and cultural turn of
the late twentieth century. The concept of a narrative identity is common
knowledge by now. By writing a national history we contribute for
instance to the “imagined community” that a nation is (den Hollander
2010, 218).
191
Moreover, autopoietic social systems are systems which can only be understood in
terms of their own history, they are non-trivial machines:
Finally, den Hollander warns that it was between 1750 and 1850 when someone
decided that historians should work primarily with written sources. Before the
eighteenth century history could only be made with what the historian himself had
witnessed, as did Herodotus in ancient Greece or Isidore of Seville at the
beginning of the seventh century. Until very recently, then, the historian becomes
an observer of the observations of others or, what is the same, a second-order
observer. In his view, the relation between the historical method and second-order
observation is as follows:
192
The distinction between first and second order observation resembles to a
certain extent the usual distinction between subjectivity and objectivity,
but is more revealing about historical method than the latter. By the
exclusive use of written sources the historicists hoped to be better able to
reconstruct the past. By comparing different accounts of a certain event
personal idiosyncrasies might be eliminated and so objective truth about
what had really happened could be established. So far so good. But what if
the available historical evidence happen to share the same prejudices or
the same cultural bias? In that case the elimination of subjectivity on a
personal basis will not do. The historian can then only try to reconstruct
the ideational reality of his historical informants with the help of vague
notions like Zeitgeist, culture, ideology, world view, mentality, episteme,
and paradigm. This he can only do by contrasting them with his own
Zeitgeist, culture, and etcetera. But how to get hold of our own Zeitgeist?
That seems to require a Münchhausen trick. It follows that no clear
distinction can be made between how people thought in the past and how
we think today. If there is such a problem as that of the objectivity of
historical writing, this is how we should conceive of it. It is, in fact, a
problem of second order observation (den Hollander 2010, 221).
Without trying to put ourselves in the shoes of the historian, the effort which is
made here comes from using existing historiographies to give them the treatment
which the social systems theory prescribes. Can a plausible, acceptable historical
narrative be achieved in this way? The answer is positive and, in fact, there
already exists antecedent work in this vein. For this, compare the recent research
by Ornelas (2018a; 2018b).
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Anglo-Saxon Missionary Societies: From Edinburgh to Panama
In this section we will recount the missionary congresses of Edinburgh (1910) and
Panama (1916) which marked a turning point between a Protestant ecumenist
missiology, closer to a “naturalist” view of religions, to another supremacist and
resolutely coupled with US colonialism.
Ramirez (2014) shows that early Pentecostalism in Latin America did not begin
before the second half of the 1900s, and flourished in the decade of 1910-20. In
any case, in his opinion the Latin American Protestant denominational differences
should not be given much stress. In his words:
…[it] was not based on any questioning to the US imperialist aims. It was
believed that the incorporation of a country of low morality and culture
would bring more problems than advantages to the North. John Butler, one
of the great pioneers of Methodism in Mexico, was among the
missionaries who understood the annexation of Mexico as a moral and
religious danger for his country. “To do that would be to take the wrong
option” and to gain what Butler called “the curse of three million illiterate
Catholic voters. Such a curse, Butler continues, would create a balance of
power full with danger for our republic, not to mention a possible
restoration of many of the evils of the acquired territory” (Piedra 2000,
73).
194
Many US missionaries believed that Protestantism should try to do in Latin
America what Catholicism had clearly failed to do: “to civilize” the peoples of
America. For example, this was the opinion of Robert Speer, of the Board of
Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United States. “The timeliness
that Protestants saw in Latin America was identified as part of the call of God,
which was verified by the needs and desires of change of the inhabitants of the
South” (Piedra 2000, 74).
This was the case in 1873, when Alfred Lee, Episcopal bishop of Delaware,
identified the “longings for change of the inhabitants of the South” with the period
of radicalization of Mexican liberals against the Catholic Church:
A few years back, Mexican liberals had succeeded in defeating the Conservative
Party, the Catholic Church, and Maximilian of Augsburg... with the help of the
victorious fraction of the Civil War/ Secession War in the United States (Ornelas
2018b, 65-73).
Together with the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution, the triumph of the United
States in its war against Spain in 1898 –which brought them control over Cuba
and the Philippines–, the construction of the Panama Canal in 1915, and the First
195
World War, were all factors that contributed to closing the old political and
commercial relations of Europe with Latin America:
Undoubtedly, the new way of seeing the North its southern neighbors was
to Protestants the end of an era and the beginning of another one: the
passage from the era of the “abandoned continent” to that of the
“continent of opportunity”. This last expression clearly represented the
new treatment that, according to missionaries and some Protestant
strategists, the United States would give to Latin America politically,
commercially, and religiously (Piedra 2000, 81).
It is in this context that the 1910 World Missionary Conference takes place in
Edinburgh. In the preparatory work for the conference, two clearly delineated
positions were posed, represented by its two main organizers, John R. Mott of the
United States, and J. H. Oldham of the United Kingdom. The difficulties arose
with the insistence of US Protestants to include Latin America within territories
susceptible of being the object of Protestant missionary work, while the English,
especially the Anglican Church, assumed that Protestant evangelization should
leave untouched the territories that had already been evangelized by other
Christian churches (Catholic, Eastern Christian or Orthodox). Finally, it was the
English position which prevailed during its celebration (Piedra 2000, 113-161).
However, this policy was challenged with the outbreak of First World War and
made Christian ecumenical unity lose its central place in missiology:
The opening speech of the Congress of Panama was given by Robert Speer. The
Congress also highlighted the participation of bishop William Oldham, secretary
of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the US,
and of John R. Mott, secretary general of the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian
Association) International Committee and chair of the Edinburgh Conference
Follow-up Committee. It could be said that with the decision to establish this new
evangelization policy in Latin America, the US evangelical denominations
brought to Panama a supremacist and Christ-centrist message charismatic in type.
As it can be seen, Fox’s criticism comes from the right flank of Protestantism and
shows in a clear way an anti-modernism and evangelical fundamentalism in regard
to biblical literalism and to an ahistorical interpretation of Scripture:
We do not want to be unfair. It is not at all clear what this means; but
those who are minimally acquainted with modern controversies about the
Bible know what phrases such as “this sound, historical and spiritual way
of the Bible”, and “this reasonable and constructive argument” mean.
They incorporate the cornerstone of the modern view of the Bible, in the
sense that the Bible is only partly true and that “criticism” must determine
what part of it is to be believed and what part we should not believe. One
of the most prominent members of the [Panama] Congress declared in a
public discussion with transparent honesty that we must accept the modern
view of the Bible and the doctrine of evolution (Piedra 2000, 206).
It also confirms the straight supremacist vision of Christianity held by the leaders
of the CCLA, for example:
198
encounter of Christianity with other religions through the missionary
enterprise had shown, according to him, the defective nature of non-
Christian religions (Piedra 2002, 217-218).
Although it is true that books were written at the time which had a hesitant
position in this respect, for example that of Jordan (1905), nothing is further away
from the truth, at least if we refer to the contribution of the most important
Orientalist to this subject (Muller 1889), an argument which will be developed in
detail in the next section.
Finally, apart from the change in the vision of the Anglo-Saxon missionary
societies which shapes up the override of English missiological sensitivities in
favor of an open US colonialist intervention in the region, it is important to note
that it will be in these years when US missionary societies practiced a “two-faced”
strategy or, put simply, decided for hypocrisy as a form of treatment with Latin
American societies.
This strategy was first conceived by Samuel Guy Inman, of the Central American
Mission (CAM). Inman, a US precursor and missionary in Mexico since 1906,
disagreed to consider Latin America as a region with no trade opportunities.
Along its territory there were valuable natural resources to exploit:
Inman developed close ties with the United States government, in particular with
the US State Department. His two-faced policy included:
...that which appeared in his books published both in Spanish and English,
and in which his conservatism acquires most of the times a garment of
neutrality, where there is room for questioning his nation. In these works
we can see his interest in gaining the respect and trust of the critical
intellectual sectors of Latin America. [But there is also the other face, in
which] he appears in many of the documents donated by the Library of
Congress in Washington, especially the letters that form its fluid
communication with the State Department. In it, Inman reveals himself
199
totally fulfilling the function of “informant” of the interests of the United
States in Latin America. While in his public lectures Inman gave the
impression of being a critic of the United States, privately according to
this documentation, he worked with US politicians whose interest was the
defense of their geopolitical and commercial interests and the protection
of the assets of powerful classes in Latin America (Piedra 2002, 73).
Unsurprisingly, the founder of one of the most important US faith missions of the
twentieth century used a similar two-faced strategy. His name was William
Cameron Townsend and that of his mission Summer Institute of Linguistics -
Wycliffe Bible Translators (SIL-WBT).
Prior to his arrival to Mexico in the 1930s, Townsend had worked in Guatemala
between 1917 and 1932, where he had arrived as a missionary for the Biblical
House of Los Angeles and shortly after joined the CAM. In Guatemala he
translated the New Testament into Cakchiquel, a variant of the Mayan language.
The SIL-WBT worked in Mexico with the consent of the governments of Mexican
revolutionary nationalism for 45 years until 1979, when the government withdrew
its support to this missionary organization, although it did not prohibit its
activities in the country.
200
Ministry of Education would support SIL’s linguists for decades). In
addition, Cardenas found in Townsend a faithful publicist of his
nationalist policies in the US, particularly the major government
expropriation of oil industry in 1938 (Ornelas 2018b, 75 fn. 38).
How is the program of the science of religion or natural religion constituted and
what characterizes it? Science of religion was the finest result of science directed
to the comparative study of religions produced by the Victorian era in relation to
the jewel of British colonialism: the British Raj in India. Thus came a group of
scholars, the British Orientalists, who devoted their lives to understanding the
historical and cultural parameters of the majestic civilization which they met.
One of these Orientalists was Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900), a philologist and
founder of the comparative study of religions. He was born in Germany though he
made his career in the University of Oxford and coordinated the edition of a
monumental work which can be considered one of the most important
contributions to the study of Eastern non-Christian religions: Sacred Books of the
East (1879-1910). This work is composed of a collection of 50 volumes with
translations into English of the major books of Eastern religions, including the
Vedic, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Islamism, Confucianism and Taoism.
The clear antecedent for the development of natural religion is the publication of
On the Origin of the Species (1859) by Charles Darwin. This book maintained that
animal species changed with time and that they definitively had not been created
independently, contrary to what most naturalists maintained:
In this book, Darwin avoided conclusions related to the human species. It was not
until the publication of The Descent of Man (1871) when he dealt with this subject
explicitly, with the intention of examining
At that time the idea that God had placed a soul in all human beings was widely
accepted, and even some of Darwin’s closest collaborators had difficulty in
rejecting it (Larson 2007, 7ff). On the other hand, the idea that the claims
contained in the sacred books of some religions are unquestionable was criticized
by Max Muller. He maintained, for example, that the absence of sacred books was
perfectly plausible, but not that of religions themselves:
202
It is quite easy to imagine that writing, to say nothing of printing, might
never have been invented at all, while it is difficult to imagine, nay, as I
am convinced, impossible to imagine that religion should never have been
called into existence. We know that even now there are large numbers of
human beings to whom writing and reading are utterly unknown, and yet
they possess not only an elaborate religion, but often a priesthood,
prayers, and sacrifices (Muller 1889, 550).
The sacred books of religions are important because they shelter the oldest form
of the language of the corresponding country: “It is curious that wherever we have
sacred books, they represent to us the oldest language of the country. It is so in
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India, it is the same in Persia, in China, in Palestine, and very nearly so in Arabia”
(Muller 1889, 295-296). According to what India showed, language development
leads to the development of religions: “…without a knowledge of the historical
development of the language many points in the history of the religions of India
would remain unintelligible” (Muller 1889, 302).
The more we study the history of the religions of the world, the clearer it
becomes that there is really no religion which could be called an
individual religion, in the sense of a religion created, as it were, de novo,
or rather ab ovo, by one single person. This may seem strange, and yet it
is really most natural. Religion, like language, is everywhere an historical
growth, and to invent a completely new religion would be as hopeless a
task as to invent a completely new language (Muller 1889, 553).
What does Muller mean by natural religion? This point is fundamental because to
this understanding follows his criticism on the sacredness of religions in the form
of sacred texts:
For Muller religion is the other side of the finite forms we perceive with our
senses, that is, the infinite:
204
soon as our attention is called to their character, we speak of them and
conceive them as either finite or infinite. Not every object, however, of
our sensuous perception can be thus called and conceived. A stone is not
infinite, nor a shell, nor an apple, nor a dog, and hence they have no
theogonic capacity. But a river or a mountain, and still more the sky and
the dawn, possess theogonic capacity, because they have in themselves
from the beginning something going beyond the limits of sensuous
perception, something which, for want of a better word, I must continue to
call infinite (Muller 1889, 148).
Muller (and his natural religion) begins with the sensorial characteristics
attributable to different objects. He begins by distinguishing between tangible
objects (a stone, a shell, a log), semitangible objects (trees, mountains, rivers) and
intangible objects (the stars, the sun, the moon), as they suggest, besides the
presence of the finite, the infinity of things (Muller 1889, 150ff). In this line of
argument, Muller says that while tangible objects do not entail religious
development –at the most they entail fetishism as when stones and bones are
worshiped– semi-tangible objects promote the cult of the demigods, and intangible
objects trigger the cult of the great gods of antiquity (Muller 1889, 154).
In the human being were also perceived infinite qualities (the spirit, the mind) that
allowed to suppose the continuity of the personal existence beyond death. The
infinite and immortal element in our parents, grandparents and ancestors also gave
way to religious ideas (Muller 1889, 155ff).
Apart from the things of nature (physical religion) and human beings themselves
(anthropological religion), infinity can also be found in the conscious being, that
is, in the subjective sense of self (psychological religion). In this way Muller
arrives at the three great subdivisions of natural religion, which through an
evolutionary process end in religion as we know it:
205
His authoritative definition of religion: “If now we gather up the threads of our
argument, and endeavour to give our own definition of religion, it would be this:
‘Religion consists in the perception of the infinite under such manifestations as
are able to influence the moral character of man’” (Muller 1889, 188).
In Muller’s view, the materials for the study of natural religion are four: language,
myth, religious customs and laws, and finally sacred books (Muller 1889, 280-
281). Language and thought are intertwined and connected with the science of
religion, making evident his humanistic perspective of religion:
…man knew as yet one kind of being only, namely his own, one kind of
language only, namely that which expressed his own subjective acts and
his own subjective states, and those of his fellow-workers. What then
could he predicate of outward objects except some kind of activity like his
own, and what language could he apply to them except that which he had
formed to express his own acts and his own states? When he saw the
lightning tearing a hole in his field, what could he say but that the digger
had dug a hole? When he saw the wind grinding branches together till they
caught fire, what could he say but that the grinder, whom he might
possibly call Prometheus, in Sanskrit pramantha, had ground out fire, just
206
as man himself ground out sparks by rubbing two fire-sticks till they
spurted out flames? What we now call lightning was in that stage of
thought, tearing, digging, bursting, sparkling there and then. What we now
call storm or wind, was with the earliest speakers and thinkers smashing,
grinding, hurling, blowing there and then (Muller 1889, 389-390).
According to this, from language and thought we arrive naturally to mithology and
religion:
Muller equates evolution with history, and considers its neglect as a serious fault
of sound judgment:
207
Evolution is really the same as history, if we take it in its objective
sense… History, however, if it is worthy of its name, is more than a mere
acquaintance with facts and dates. It is the study of a continuous process
in the events of the world, the discovery of cause and effect, and, in the
end, of a law that holds the world together. Apply this historical study to
nature, and try to discover in it an uninterrupted succession of cause and
effect, a continuity which holds the whole of nature together; and what is
this but what is now called evolution? Evolution, if only properly
understood, has always seemed to me a very old friend; it is history, or
what used to be called pragmatic history, under a new name. What used to
be called the history of language, is now called its evolution. What used to
be studied under the name of the history of law and religion, is now
presented to us as the evolution of law and religion… I can understand a
man not believing in gravitation, but a rational being denying evolution in
its true sense ceases ipso facto to be a rational being (Muller 1889, 258-
260).
The importance of history for the comparative study of religions lies precisely in
the fact that it constitutes the best preparation for a theory of religion, that is, it is
the best device for the study and treatment of religious problems (Muller 1889,
274) . From this perspective, it should not be surprising that Muller rejected any
religious supremacist approach, from whence it came:
Natural religion may exist and does exist without revealed religion.
Revealed religion without natural religion is an utter impossibility. While
some of our missionaries are delighted when they meet with some of the
fundamental doctrines of their own religion, expressed almost in the same
words by so-called pagans or black men, others seem to imagine it robbery
that any truth at all should be found in non-Christian religions (Muller
1889, 571).
To close this section it would be appropriate to return to the topic with which we
started. The importance of British colonialism and the Anglo-Saxon Protestant
missions for his studies, in words of the renowned Orientalist:
208
Living in England, I naturally tried to avail myself of the splendid
opportunities which this country offers for linguistic and ethnological
studios. India, to me the most interesting of all countries in the world, is
now divided from England by a three weeks journey only, and through a
number of eminent Englishmen who spend their lives in India, and a
number of promising young men whom India sends to be educated in
England, there is now so close an intercourse between the East and the
West, that at Oxford, for instance, it is almost as easy to study the
language, manners, and customs of the Veddahs as of the Gaels. Besides
India, there are the Colonies, and there is, or, at all events, there ought to
be, no difficulty in obtaining through the Colonial Office any information
that could be of use for the study of civilised or uncivilised tribes from
Canada to New Guinea. Lastly, there is the wonderful net which
Missionary enterprise has spread from England over the whole world, and
which might so usefully be employed, not only for its own most excellent
purpose, but likewise for gathering valuable information for the proper
study of mankind (Muller 1889, 503-504).
Muller expresses his gratitude to the requests for help which, to that end, he has
directed to the old East India Company, to the British government, and to
missionary societies. His monumental work (Sacred Books of the East) would
have been impossible without their support:
I feel bound to express my sincere gratitude for the kindness and the
intelligent interest with which the Directors of the old East-India
Company, and the authorities at the India Office, the Colonial Office, and
the Missionary Societies have listened to my constant and sometimes, no
doubt, somewhat impatient appeals. In India much has been done, not only
for the study of its ancient classical literature and the exploration of its
antiquities, but likewise for studying the numerous living dialects,
collecting legends, registering customs, studying religions and
superstitions. The publication of the Rig-veda, the oldest book of the
Aryan race, in six quarto volumes, and the series of translations of the
Sacred Books of the East, entrusted to my editorship, bear sufficient
witness that my appeals for help have not always been in vain (Muller
1889, 504-505).
Muller even gives news of the creation in 1879 of the Geological Office of the
United States and also of an Office of Ethnology in the Smithsonian Institution,
under the direction of J. W. Powell (Muller 1889, 506ff). More specifically, he
recognizes the importance of the Colonial Office of the British government for his
studies:
209
If I have been less successful in stimulating ethnological research in the
Colonies, it has not been altogether my fault. At one time I thought indeed
that the first step at least had been made. During Lord Granville’s tenure
of office an official invitation was sent to all the Colonies, requesting all
who took an interest in the history of native races, to collect their
languages, to note down their religious practices, their customs and laws,
to describe their antiquities, their idols, their weapons and tools, and to
send accounts to the Colonial Office in London. The invitation was well
responded to, and my hope was that these papers, after careful
examination, might have been published from time to time as
“Ethnological Records of the English Colonies”… (Muller 1889, 505).
Once the historical constitution of the science of religion program has been
revised, it remains to ask: how is the program of evangelical fundamentalism born
and what characterizes it? A certain point of reference of the birth and
development of evangelical fundamentalism and of the theological approaches that
would characterize it is the Keswick Convention. Sixteen years after the
publication of the Origin of Species, an Anglican pastor, Thomas D. Harford-
Battersby, and a Quaker, Robert Wilson, convened a Christian meeting to be held
in Keswick, Cumberland county in the northwest of England, for several days
starting on June 29, 1875.
This was the first of such meetings which, over the years, would be known for
fostering a Christian revival for the promotion of holiness in everyday life. The
call was motivated by Reverend Harford-Battersby’s attendance to a similar
Christian conference held in Oxford a year earlier (Oxford Conference, 1874):
210
The Christian revivals that preceded Keswick were all rigoristic in kind, that is,
they sought to deepen and extend the Christian sanctifying experience to all walks
of life. It could be said that the main antecedents of the Keswick Convention were
Wesleyan perfectionism and the holiness movement. The latter emerged from the
mixture of Wesleyan perfectionism with the US sanctifying revivals of the first
half of the nineteenth century. The holiness movement, in turn, had an influence
on Keswick’s initial movement through the movement for a Higher Christian Life,
and by the perfectionisms led by Methodists and the Oberlin College (Naselli
2008, 18-22). A centenary review of the Keswick Convention can be found in
Bundy (2012) along with the abundant bibliography it generated.
A major feature of the Keswick Convention was the engagement from the
beginning of Anglican clergymen belonging to the Church of England, as
exemplified by the leadership of its principal founder, Rev. Harford-Battersby:
While it is true that Anglican clergymen were active promoters of the Keswick
Convention, this does not mean that the movement claimed denominational
authorship. On the contrary, the Convention emerged as a clearly multi-
denominational movement which sought to put aside the differences among the
various Protestant denominations:
211
any sacrifice of principle, or any want of loyalty to that branch of the
Christian Church to which they may belong (Harford 1907, 16-17).
The message which the Keswick Convention wished to propagate through its
work, the “only reason for its existence”, is very well expressed in the original
motto given to it, “Convention for the Promotion of Practical Holiness”:
Its message is perhaps best expressed in the terms of its original title, in
which it is described as a “Convention for the Promotion of Practical
Holiness”. This is the one reason for its existence. The Keswick
Convention has set up no new school of theology, it has instituted no new
sect, it has not even formed a society, but exists for the sole purpose of
helping men to be holy. It is the result rather than the process which
produces that result which it is the aim of the Convention to produce. It
desires to prove to the world that holiness of life is possible in the office
as well as in the pulpit, in the castle as well as the cottage, in the lands
where heathen darkness can almost be felt as in the quiet Christian
atmosphere of this land of liberty (Harford 1907, 4-5).
And how is this radical transformation supposed to work in the lives of the
faithful? In all of this there is a definite missionary approach addressed to
Christians and the “heathen” alike:
During its first years of existence, the Keswick Convention shaped, contrary to
what official historians claimed, what might be termed a distinctive charismatic
theology (Brooke 1907, 75ff): a) first, sanctification by faith in Christ; b) then,
the consecration by the Holy Spirit; and c) finally, the spread of the gospel to
every corner of the planet (empowerment for mission). Or as put by Merino (2012,
576ff) in a recent attempt to systematize what could be considered as Pentecostal
theology: Christ saves, sanctifies, heals and will return (to which now one must
add the neo-Pentecostal emphasis: Christ also causes the economic betterment of
his faithful).
But let’s tell the story from the beginning. As Reverend Battersby Harford (1907,
145ff) relates, it was not until 1888 that the Keswick Convention labeled funds for
the explicit purpose of devoting them to foreign missions. By 1902 the two
objectives under which the funds for missions would be used were established: a)
to appeal to those who are already Christians in order to support their entire
213
consecration to the service and b) to perform work among the pagans under the
tutelage of existing missionary societies.
Thus, under the auspices of the Keswick Convention, missionaries were sent,
besides to countries of Europe, the US and Canada, to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka),
India, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sudan, Nigeria, Egypt,
Palestine (Ottoman Syria until World War I, British Palestine until 1948, now
partially occupied Palestine and Israel), Jamaica and South America. For example
in relation to Latin America, the connection of the Keswick Convention with the
1909 Chilean Pentecostal revival through Pandita Ramabai’s Mukti Mission in
Kedgaon, India has been evidenced by Ornelas (2018b, 39-62).
214
This early spirituality will be characteristic of the Keswick Convention until 1920,
when the prospect of sanctification assumed at first changes to get closer to the
Reformed perspective. This theological transformation was led by William
Graham Scroggie (1877-1958) (Naselli 2008, 17 fn. 5). The post-1920s influence
of Keswick’s spirituality can be found in the creation of biblical institutes which
were responsible for spreading its distinctive charismatic theology, such as the
Moody Bible Institute of Chicago through its first three leaders: Dwight Lyman
Moody (1837-1899), Reuben Archer Torrey (1856-1928) and James Martin Gray
(1851-1935), but mostly through the Dallas Theological Seminary (Naselli 2008,
22-28).
It is important to note that this expanding charismatic spirituality had the active
support of Anglo-Saxon missionaries, such as Albert Benjamin Simpson, founder
of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, James Hudson Taylor of the China
Inland Mission, Andrew Murray, Protestant pastor and missionary in South Africa,
Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, founder of the Central American Mission, and William
Cameron Townsend and his Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), all of whom
would lay down the foundations for the spread of a conservative and
fundamentalist evangelicalism throughout the world.
215
Townsend in Tetelcingo, Morelos (WCT Archives 1936)
Let’s take the example of the SIL-WBT. In 1982, when Stoll published the
original English version of his book, a summary table of the number of languages
and SIL-WBT staff involved in missionary work, presented as an appendix of the
book (Stoll 1985, 463), counted 925 languages studied by 4, 512 evangelical
missionaries (of whom 3, 197 or 71% were US nationals). All that remains is
amazement at the scale of a project that aims to bring the good news in all the
world’s languages. Could the same be said of the blindness of the fundamentalist
evangelical enterprise which made it possible?
216
Evangelical fundamentalism would define itself as anti-modernist and
ecclesiastically separatist. It would also emphasize doctrinal orthodoxy, biblical
inerrancy and literalism, while endorsing creationism. In another definition,
evangelical fundamentalism is characterized by the importance placed on
conversion for salvation, on activism leading to the conversion of others, whom
are usually considered as living in error, and in believing in biblical inerrancy and
literalism as well as in the importance of the cross and the crucifixion of Christ to
reconcile us with God.
How does the theory try to settle down once and for all the objections of
historicism to the propositions put forward by a sociological theory of
communication? Primordially by postulating the thesis that the functionally
differentiated modern society is a historical singularity which definitively takes
shape by the end of the nineteenth century. The singularity referred to is nothing
but contemporary world society which constitutes universalistic systems of
communication, that is, systems which operate on a planetary scale.
The relations between science and religion in modern society are necessarily
mediated by the historical conformation of programs within each of these systems.
The programs of the science of religion and of evangelical fundamentalism are not
formed in isolation but in conditions of mutual observation. This is how
opposition or synergistic relations between them are established.
217
It could be said that modernity has caused a great discomfort in Christianity, seen
it from the side of Catholic integralism or from that of Protestant evangelical
fundamentalism. This is why it should not be surprising that the hegemonic
programs of Christianity all agree on one same claim: their pristine anti-
modernism. In this sense, the programs of traditional Protestantism, of the liberal-
rational type, such as Lutherans, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and
Anglicans nowadays are blurred and lose the importance they had in the past.
This process is not a random one, indeed. It is the product of the Christian
planetary drift, of the evolution of the program of evangelical fundamentalism
which reacts in this way to the program of the science of religion, whose distant
antecedent is the enlightened thought of the second half of the eighteenth century
(Lamarck). To have established the emergence of the program of evangelical
fundamentalism in the Keswick Convention had no other purpose, as well as to
trace its aftermath in the work of the Anglo-Saxon missionary societies and in the
emergence of ad hoc US Bible institutes. As it can be seen, there is sufficient
evidence to assert that the program of evangelical fundamentalism spread
worldwide through nineteenth and twentieth centuries Anglo-Saxon colonialism.
Nor can the homogeneity of purpose between the British Orientalists (scientists)
and the Colonial Office of the British government be taken for granted or, for that
matter, between the US missionaries of the SIL in Latin America and around the
218
world, and the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, or any other US
government agencies. At the level of individual persons there is room for all the
imaginable historical casuistry: missionaries with the desire to help selflessly,
missionaries convinced that conversion is the best help that can be given to
populations left from the hand of God, two-faced missionaries (missionaries
serving in parallel any US government agency) and, why not, exalted missionaries
who actively integrated into the native Tzotzil or Quechua communities where
they worked.
Finally it should be noted the obsolescence in which missionary work of any sign
under supremacist views has fallen. Rather, it would be necessary to proceed,
under the criterion of cultural sustainability, with an idea of maximum
universality and minimal confrontation so that whomever is in need of religious
communication remains in liberty of using it without the risk of violence to
others.
219
Referencias/ References
Battersby Harford, John. 1907. The Keswick Mission Council. The Keswick
Convention. Its Message, Its Method and Its Men, Charles F. Harford (ed.), 145-
155. London: Marshall Brothers.
Brooke, Hubert. 1907. The Message. Its Method of Presentation. The Keswick
Convention. Its Message, Its Method and Its Men, Charles F. Harford (ed.), 75-86.
London: Marshall Brothers.
Darwin, Charles. 1871. Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. Vol. 1 .
London: John Murray.
Den Hollander, Jaap. 2014. The Meaning of Evolution and the Evolution of
Meaning. Journal of the Philosophy of History (8): 243-264.
220
India Post. 1974. Friedrich Max Müller 1974 stamp of India. Wikimedia
Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Friedrich_Max_M
%C3%BCller_1974_stamp_of_India.jpg (1 de octubre de 2019).
Jordan, Louis H. 1905. Comparative Religion. Its Genesis and Growth. Edinburgh:
T. & T. Clark.
Luhmann, Niklas. 1998. Sistemas sociales. Lineamientos para una teoría general.
Barcelona: Anthropos/ UIA/ CEJA.
Muller, Max. 1889. Natural Religion. The Gifford Lectures Delivered before the
University of Glasgow in 1888. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
https://archive.org/details/naturalreligiong00ml (1 de octubre de 2019).
Ornelas, Marco. 2018b. Modern Religious Differentiation: The Latin Mass (1517-
1570). Mexico: Independently Published.
221
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1790664047 (1 de octubre de 2019).
William Cameron Townsend (WCT) Archives. 1936. Townsend seated on the bull
that Cárdenas gave to the people of Tetelcingo.
https://scholars.sil.org/david_h_tuggy/en/publications/tetel/cardenas (1 de
octubre de 2019).
222
223
5. La Historia verdadera: monólogo historiográfico y
metaficción polifónica
Resumen:
Este ensayo intenta contextualizar histórica y literariamente la elaboración de la
Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España y propone leerla
doblemente: a) desde varios modelos literarios arropados con la revitalización
renacentista de la retórica clásica; y b) desde el tránsito del Antiguo Régimen a la
actual sociedad moderna contemporánea (1-6). La inalcanzabilidad del pasado se
debe no sólo al insuficiente e inexistente equilibrio de fuentes históricas sino
sobre todo a la mutabilidad y policontextura del mundo contemporáneo. Aquí se
propone salvar el monólogo historiográfico con la metaficción que da paso a la
polifonía. Es así que se justifican plenamente y adquieren vigencia proyectos
estético-literarios como el propuesto por Carlos Fuentes en Terra Nostra (7-11).
El ensayo es una invitación a (re)leer estas dos grandes obras de la literatura
hispanoamericana en conmemoración del quinto centenario de la caída de México-
Tenochtitlan.
224
Guatemala se tiene certeza de originalidad pues se cree que en su redacción
intervinieron al menos tres manos diferentes.
225
Bernal Díaz del Castillo (Anónimo s/f)
La lucha de los europeos por América dio incio oficial en 1492 con el
“descubrimiento” de un enorme continente de parte de un navegante genovés al
servicio de los reyes de Castilla. Aparte del imperio romano, hasta esas fechas
eurasia había conocido otros dos imperios que podían competir en extensión e
importancia con el que habría de ser el español: el imperio mongol que inició su
expansión bajo Gengis Kan entre 1206 y 1227 y el imperio otomano (1300-1683).
Por la importancia del islam en la península ibérica también debe resaltarse el
importante antecedente del califato Omeya de Córdoba (756-1031). Los
musulmanes, al igual que sucedió con los judíos, fueron obligados a convertirse al
cristianismo y no acabarían de ser expulsados de la península sino hasta entrado el
siglo xvii.
226
Aparte del “descubrimiento”, la Europa de finales del xv y del xvi vio aparecer
otros dos fenómenos que establecerían nuevas condiciones de operación de las
sociedades nobiliarias europeas de entonces y que darían paso a la sociedad
mundial moderna: la imprenta de Gutenberg y las reformas protestantes que
azotaron a toda Europa y que llevarían a la irremediable fragmentación de la
cristiandad (Eisenstein 1994, 149).
227
república cristiana provistas por los evangelios y los Padres de la Iglesia
(McGinness 1995, Capítulos 1-2).
Por intermedio de las órdenes mendicantes, las formas del habla se popularizaron
y fueron utilizadas para atacar a las más importantes herejías del medievo tardío:
las de cátaros y valdenses. Los españoles se destacaron por la producción de
manuales de retórica casi con la misma fuerza con que la orden jesuita y su
fundador, Ignacio de Loyola (1491-1556), modelaron la contrarreforma y el
sínodo de Trento (1545-1563). Entre las retóricas españolas del xvi destacan De
sacris concionibus recte formandis de Alfonso Zorrilla (1543), De methodo
concionandi de Alfonso García Matamoros (1570), Ecclesiasticae rhetoricae, sive
De ratione concionandi libri sex de Fray Luis de Granada (1575) y Modus
concionandi de Fray Diego de Estella (1576).
Pero regresemos a la Historia verdadera. Los años en los que se escribe el grueso
de la Historia verdadera van de 1552 a 1575. Son los años en que comienza a
redactarse el memorial de guerra y que terminan con el envío de una copia del
manuscrito Guatemala a Madrid, ya con la forma de una historia. La retórica
228
eclesiástica más importante previa a estos años es el Ecclesiastes de Erasmo de
Rotterdam. La retórica de Erasmo estaba influenciada fuertemente por la de
Agustín de Hipona (De doctrina christiana) y ésta, a su vez, por la forma dada a
la homilía por el primer teólogo cristiano sistemático: Orígenes de Alejandría
(Edwards 2004, Capítulos 1-12).
Orígenes (184-254) es quien dio forma a la homilía cristiana, esto es, a los textos
y exposiciones orales explicativos de los pasajes de la Biblia. Para ello, Orígenes
utilizó como técnicas retóricas la alegoría y la analogía histórica. La alegoría es
una técnica retórica que permite considerar pasajes del Antiguo Testamento como
predicciones de la redención en Cristo. Por otra parte, la analogía histórica
sencillamente traza paralelismos entre los hechos narrados en la Biblia y la
situación actual de las comunidades receptoras de la enseñanza cristiana.
229
6
Para narrar historias era necesario utilizar el género forense, el específico de las
cortes de justicia puesto que este género se abocaba a la reconstrucción de hechos
pasados. 151 Sólo poco a poco la oratoria y el habla cotidiana fueron dando paso a
la curiosidad y la novedad. En el mundo antiguo y según Agustín de Hipona, la
curiosidad era “un deseo insano por conocer los misterios de la naturaleza”
(Cevolini 2019). La novedad no tenía entonces un lugar predominante en
sociedad. Incluso podría decirse que las novedades resultaban incómodas. La
valoración positiva de la novedad y la innovación marca la frontera del Ancien
Régime con el mundo moderno (Morales 2019).
Así, en los primeros impresos y hasta bien entrado el siglo xvii se instaló la lucha
entre el conocimiento retórico y la tendencia moderna a tratar la curiosidad y la
novedad como fundamentos del conocimiento científico, no fundado ya en
modelos literarios y retóricos conocidos (Luhmann 2007, Evolución de las ideas,
424-440). La Historia verdadera se instala en este espacio entre épocas y sigue un
patrón discursivo que tiene su fundamento en el memorial, la épica caballeresca y
el relato de viajes presentados con una retórica moralizante y ejemplar (arte de
alabanza y vituperio). 152 Además de relato interesado de lo acontecido en el Nuevo
Mundo al momento de la conquista, presenta modelos cristianos a emular.
Reproduce un conocimiento retórico imperante en la sociedad española de
entonces.
Decíamos arriba que de acuerdo con el uso aceptado en el siglo xvi, sólo podía
escribir historias quien había presenciado o participado en los acontecimientos
narrados y esta era la forma en que siempre se había hecho. ¿Cuándo fue entonces
que se reemplazó la condición de testigo con el uso de fuentes escritas? Esto
sucedió en algún momento entre 1750 y 1850 (den Hollander 2010).
230
Algunos atribuyen este cambio a la cada vez mayor importancia dada a la historia
política (a la historia del nacimiento de los Estados modernos y de las guerras
entre Estados) y a su elaboración a partir de fuentes escritas. El ejemplo
emblemático de este tipo de historiador fue Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886)
(Burke 1993, 4-11). La historia basada en fuentes “primarias”, la que se hace en
los archivos históricos, nace íntimamente ligada a la historia del surgimiento de
los Estados modernos. Desde entonces también, y con sobrada razón, la justificada
preocupación por la utilización política de la historia (Rozat 1992).
Como todo cambio, el cambio del testigo presencial al archivo histórico trajo
consigo ventajas y desventajas. Entre las ventajas están el dar apariencia de
objetividad (“a las fuentes me remito”); entre las desventajas, agudizar el
problema de los anacronismos (dar un sentido presente a los sucesos historiados y
no el sentido propio de la época en que acontecen). Hoy día es difícil encontrar
historiadores que acepten una historia con mayúsculas, esto es, que consideren la
historia como algo terminado, definitivo y sin posibilidades de reformulación. Las
continuas transformaciones políticas (jurídicas, económicas, científicas, artísticas,
semánticas) de la sociedad moderna constituyen la más firme garantía de
reescritura de la historia.
231
decimonónico. Los historiadores clásicos (Tucídides, Tácito) y renacentistas
(Pontano, Guicciardini) siempre dieron por hecho que las historias pudiesen
tomar, y de hecho tomasen, formas retóricas (Burke 2013).
Ante esta circunstancia la propuesta es llenar las lagunas históricas menos con la
victimización de los indios que con una metaficción historiográfica 153 que parta de
los avances en la crítica histórica y filológica y se funde en la imaginación
creativa para dar paso a una polifonía alterna. Éste fue el proyecto estético y
literario de Carlos Fuentes cristalizado en su señera Terra Nostra (Juan Navarro
2002; Čulo 2015).
Frente al Viejo Mundo dominado por un Señor tirano que habita junto con la Dama
Loca en un enorme y lúgubre palacio, que a la vez es cripta de su estirpe, se
levanta la esperanza de un Mundo Nuevo donde las cosas sean distintas y el
disenso encuentre expresión. 154
232
Las Meninas o La familia de Felipe IV (Velázquez 1656)
10
Los dos mundos son reales pero contingentes (fueron así pero pudieron haber sido
de otra manera). El Mundo Nuevo no está exento de sobresaltos y de una versión
alternativa del despotismo del Señor. El Viejo Mundo y el Mundo Nuevo son
reflejos de realidades paralelas en lo religioso separados por un mar que se cruza,
si la reina fortuna es generosa, en cinco semanas. Los parámetros de este Mundo
Nuevo serán distintos e incomprensibles a los del Viejo Mundo pero no por ello
menos cruentos 155 (Frazer 1995, LIX, Occisión del Dios en México, 661-667).
11
233
Otro Mundo utópico al que es posible infundirle realidad. Las versiones
alternativas de la realidad y el pasado hispanoamericanos —no por ello menos
creíbles— harían bien en considerar la revaloración de semánticas cristianas
alternativas, en especial la circulada por los valdenses, de larguísima data (Mitre
2000), y la resignificación de la guerra de las comunidades de Castilla (1520-
1522) quienes recelaban de Carlos V y su corte flamenca. 157
Florilegio
(I)
234
Pedro, e yo, como pecador, no fuese dino de lo ver. Lo que yo entonces vi y
conocí fue a Francisco de Morla en un caballo castaño, que venía juntamente
con Cortés, que me paresce que agora que lo estoy escribiendo se me
representa por estos ojos pecadores toda la guerra segund y de la manera que
allí pasamos. E ya que yo, como indino, no fuera mereceder de ver a cualquiera
de aquellos gloriosos apóstoles, allí en nuestra compañía había sobre
cuatrocientos soldados, y Cortés y otros muchos caballeros.
(II)
(III)
He traído esto aquí a la memoria para que se vean nuestros muchos y buenos y
notables servicios que hicimos al rey nuestro señor y a toda la cristiandad, y se
pongan en una balanza y medida cada cosa en su cantidad, y hallarán que somos
dinos y merescedores de ser puestos y remunerados como los caballeros por mí
atrás dichos. Y aunque entre los valerosos soldados que en estas hojas pasadas
he puesto por memoria, hobo otros muchos esforzados e valerosos
compañeros, y todos me tenían a mí en reputación de buen soldado.
(IV)
235
Dijeron los indios mexicanos que poco tiempo había, antes que viniésemos a
Nueva España, que vieron una señal en el cielo que era como entre verde y
colorado y redonda como rueda de carreta, y que junto a la señal venía otra raya
y camino de hacia donde sale el sol, y se venía a juntar con la raya colorada; y
Montezuma, gran cacique de México, mandó llamar a sus papas y adivinos para
que mirasen aquella cosa y señal, nunca entre ellos vista ni oída que tal hubiese.
Y según pareció, los papa lo comunicaron con el ídolo Huichilobos; y la
respuesta que dio fue que tendrían muchas guerras y pestilencias y que habría
sacrificación de sangre humana. Y como vinimos aquel tiempo con Cortés y
dende a diez meses vino Narváez y trajo un negro lleno de viruelas, el cual las
pegó a todos los indios que había en un pueblo que se decía Cempoal, y desde
aquel pueblo cundió en toda Nueva España y hubo grande pestilencia.
(V)
Otro día de mañana, que fueron a quince días del mes de marzo de mil e
quinientos y diez y nueve años, vinieron muchos caciques y principales de aquel
pueblo de Tabasco y de otros comarcanos, haciendo mucho acato a todos
nosotros; y trujeron un presente de oro, que fueron cuatro diademas y unas
lagartijas y dos como perrillos y orejeras y cinco ánades y dos figuras de caras
de indios, y dos suelas de oro como de sus cotaras, y otras cosillas de poco
valor, que ya no me acuerdo qué tanto valía. Y trujeron mantas de las que ellos
hacían, que son muy bastas, porque ya habrán oído decir los que tienen noticia
de aquella provincia que no las hay en aquella tierra sino de poca valía. Y no
fue nada todo este presente en comparación de veinte mujeres, y entre ellas una
muy excelente mujer que se dijo doña Marina, que ansí se llamó después de
vuelta cristiana.
Tributo después de la batalla de Centla (Díaz del Castillo 1632, XXXVI, 111)
(VI)
Otro día vinieron los mismos caciques viejos y trujeron cinco indias, hermosas
doncellas y mozas, y, para ser indias, eran de buen parescer y bien ataviadas, y
traían para cada india otra india moza para su servicio, y todas eran hijas de
caciques. Y dijo Xicotenga a Cortés: “Malinche, ésta es mi hija, e no ha sido
casada, que es doncella, y tomadla para vos”. La cual le dio por la mano, y las
demás, que las diese a los capitanes. Y Cortés se lo agradesció y, con buen
semblante que mostró, dijo que él las rescibía y tomaba por suyas, y que agora
al presente que las tuviesen en poder sus padres. Y preguntaron los mesmos
caciques que por qué causa no las tomábamos agora, y Cortés respondió porque
quiere hacer primero lo que manda Dios Nuestro Señor, que es en el que
creemos y adoramos, y a lo que le envió el rey, nuestro señor, que es que quiten
sus ídolos y que no sacrifiquen ni maten más hombres ni hagan otras
236
torpedades malas que suelen hacer, y crean en lo que nosotros creemos, que es
un solo Dios verdadero.
(VII)
Señor Montezuma, maravillado de vos estoy, que, siendo tan valeroso príncipe
y haberse dado por nuestro amigo, mandar a vuestros capitanes que teníades en
la costa cerca de Tuzapán que tomasen armas contra mis españoles, y tener
atrevimiento de robar los pueblos que están en guarda y mamparo de nuestro
rey y señor, y demandalles indios e indias para sacrificar, y matar un español,
hermano mío, y un caballo… Que, teniéndole por tan su amigo, mandé a mis
capitanes que, en todo lo que posible fuese, os sirviesen y favoresciesen, y
vuestra merced, por el contrario, no lo ha hecho; e ansimismo en lo de Chulula
tuvieron vuestros capitanes con gran copia de guerreros ordenado por vuestro
mandado que nos matasen. Helo disimulado lo de entonces por lo mucho que
os quiero, y ansimismo agora vuestros vasallos y capitanes se han
desvergonzado y tienen pláticas secretas que nos queréis mandar matar. Por
estas causas no querría encomenzar guerra ni destruir aquesta cibdad. Conviene
que, para todo se escusar, que luego, callando y sin hacer ningún alboroto, se
vaya con nosotros a nuestro aposento, que allí seréis servido y mirado muy
bien, como en vuestra propia casa. Y que si alboroto o voces daba, que luego
sería muerto de aquestos mis capitanes, que no los traigo para otro efeto.
(VIII)
Y desque se vio delante dél, le hizo mucho acato, y Cortés con alegría le abrazó
y le mostró mucho amor a él y a sus capitanes; y entonces el Guatémuz dijo a
Cortés: “Señor Malinche, ya he hecho lo que soy obligado en defensa de mi
cibdad y vasallos, y no puedo más; y pues vengo por fuerza y preso ante tu
persona y poder, toma ese puñal que tienes en la cinta y mátame luego con él”.
Y esto cuando se lo decía, lloraba muchas lágrimas y sollozos, y también
lloraban otros grandes señores que consigo traía.
(IX)
237
Ni divinidad ni milagro: soy un agitador político palestino; convenzo a mis
acompañantes y familiares de que la apariencia de un martirio es indispensable
para nuestra causa; echarnos suertes para decidir quién ha de delatarme a las
autoridades y quién ha de suplantarme si, como lo espero, soy condenado a
morir. Las suertes favorecen a Judas y a Simón de Cirene. Nuestro grupo es
reducido por razones de seguridad, movilidad y pureza de convicciones; pero
también porque lo integramos hombres muy similares físicamente. De esta
manera, podemos disfrazarnos unos de otros, aparecer simultáneamente en
diversos lugares con el nombre genérico de Mesías y asombrar al populacho
ignorante con falsos milagros ejecutados organizadamente no por uno, sino por
varios compañeros, pero siempre atribuibles a mí, que soy el símbolo de la
rebelión y su autor intelectual. Sólo en esto me distingo de mis compañeros; mi
madre me obligó a quemar tardías velas sobre los escritos sagrados; yo articulé
la espontánea rebeldía de mis iletrados compañeros y le di cauce, organización
e ideas. Lamento que Judas y el Cirenaico hayan sido los elegidos por el azar.
Hubiese preferido perder a Pedro, el más inseguro y débil entre todos, o a Juan
de Patmos, demasiado fantasioso para ser políticamente efectivo. Pero los
sentimientos no deben intervenir en estas decisiones que superan nuestros
gustos y disgustos personales. Así, todos seguimos por el camino de la cruz a
un sosias dispuesto a dar la vida por mí y por mi causa; allá vamos todos
fingiendo llanto y desesperación; fingiendo hasta cierto punto, es verdad, pues
Simón el de Cirene es un hombre bueno y un luchador leal, aunque dispensable;
llanto y desesperación a fin de engañar a las autoridades, cimentar la leyenda
subversiva y luego retirarnos todos los actores del drama a la oscuridad de la
cual emergimos por poco tiempo a fin de representar el auto de la insurrección
individual de los esclavos contra la ética colectiva de Roma y contra la pesada
tradición de Israel. Esa tarde en que el clima tan oportunamente colaboró con
nosotros, esa tarde iniciada en el calor, el sol y el polvo y terminada en la
tormenta, la noche prematura y la inmóvil violencia de las piedras, era necesaria
para que la rebelión volase con las alas de la leyenda sacrificial. Sólo del
sacrificio nacen mundos nuevos. Pero siempre han sido hombres los
sacrificados. A mí se me ocurrió: sacrifíquese a un Dios. Del sacrificio humano
nacieron los antiguos dioses y su historia divina. Del sacrificio divino nacería la
historia humana. Fue una inversión muy efectiva; valió la pena. Mi destino y el
de mis seguidores no importan. Nadie volvió a saber de nosotros. Pero nadie
dejó de saber lo ocurrido esa tarde en el Gólgota. Nuestra creación se llama la
historia.
(X)
Dijo entonces que debía creer en otra tierra allende el océano. Y que si el sol se
hunde en el poniente cada noche, no es devorado por la tierra ni renace
milagrosamente, al amanecer, en levante, sino que ha girado alrededor de la
tierra, que debe ser redonda como el sol y como la luna, pues no veían sus ojos
viejos cuerpos planos en el cielo, sino esferas, y no sería nuestra tierra una
monstruosa excepción… No creó Dios este mundo para que sólo lo habitaran
238
los hombres que tú y yo hemos conocido. Tiene que haber otra tierra mejor,
una tierra libre y feliz, imagen verdadera de Dios, pues tengo por reflejo
infernal la que hemos dejado atrás.
(XI)
(XII)
239
La invención de Camillo (Fuentes 1975, El teatro de la memoria, 566, 567-568)
(XIII)
Porque nuestro fin no es alzar la obediencia al rey nuestro señor, sino suprimir a sus
consortes la tiranía, pues nos tienen ellos por sus esclavos, que no el rey por sus súbditos ,
soy de los vuestros, sotamontero yo, Guzmán, sobrestantes, arquitectos y
aparejadores vosotros, ¿y quién quedará a salvo de la locura y el capricho del
Señor?, pues ved lo sucedido hace apenas unos días a uno de los vuestros, que
salió de aquí con la lengua y las manos cortadas por orden del Señor, para no
poder hablar ni escribir uno de los turbios misterios de cuanto ocurre allá
adentro; ayer fue éste, hoy será otro, mañana ustedes o yo; ved el valor de
nuestros compañeros de estamento, los burgueses de Ávila, Toledo y Burgos,
dispuestos a tomar las armas para que estos reinos se gobiernen por leyes y no
por caprichos; las puertas están abiertas, de ello doy fe; es el momento de
actuar, Jerónimo, Martín, Nuño, se acumulan las injusticias, se acumulan los
rencores, sí, el Señor, hace veinte años, tomó a la fuerza a mi joven novia, el
día de nuestras bodas, la mancilló, la enloqueció, nunca fue mía, derecho
llámase eso, derecho de la pernada, aquí llegué, hasta esta obra, aquí medí mi
tiempo, mi tiempo ha llegado, Martín, Nuño, derecho, justicia, para
escarmiento fue mandado matar mi hermano de hambre, sed y frío, abandonado
desnudo en invierno y en un collado de Navarra, rodeado de tropas, a los siete
días allí murió mi hermano, por órdenes de un señor inferior a este que nos
gobierna, que si tanto hizo el chico, ¿qué no hará el grande?... ¿ley para quienes
todo mancillan, piedad para quienes ninguna piedad ofrecen?, Simón, reúnanse
todos, no cambien de ropa, vestidos de frailes y de monjas, reúnanse,
mendigos, peregrinos, eremitas, prostitutas, adeptos de Pedro Valdo, contra los
excesos de Roma, la sierpe coronada, el falso papa, el poder de la Inquisición,
ahora, en marcha, perfectísimos cátaros, aquí habita el dios del mal,
incendiemos su morada, ésta es la casa del diablo, adamitas, creyentes en la
inocencia del cuerpo de nuestro primer padre y de todos sus hijos, al palacio,
todos, las puertas están abiertas, seguidme a mí, Simón, que he visto la
enfermedad y el dolor y la pobreza de los hombres, seguidme, desenfundad los
viejos cuchillos, levantad las estacas, encended las teas…
240
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241
5. The True History: Historiographic Monologue and
Polyphonic Metafiction
Abstract:
This essay tries to contextualize historically and literarily the making of the True
History of the Conquest of New Spain and proposes to read it in a twofold manner:
a) from several literary models clothed with the Renaissance revitalization of
classical rhetoric; and b) from the transition from the Ancien Régime to the current
contemporary modern society (1-6). The unattainability of the past is due not only
to the insufficient and non-existent balance of historical sources but above all to
the mutability and multifaceted character of the contemporary world. The proposal
saves a historiographic monologue with a metafiction which gives way to
polyphony. Thus, aesthetic-literary projects such as the one proposed by Carlos
Fuentes in Terra Nostra are fully justified and become valid (7-11). The essay is
an invitation to (re)read these two great works of Hispanic-American literature to
commemorate the fifth centenary of the fall of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.
Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s True History of the Conquest of New Spain is “true”
because it is written polemicizing with the chronicle of Francisco López de
Gómara, 158 who in life did not set foot in America nor witnessed the facts of the
conquest. In strict sense and in accordance with the accepted use in the sixteenth
century, only those who had participated or witnessed the events recounted could
write a history. López de Gómara, Cortés’ chaplain, writes his Historia general de
las Indias (1552) commissioned by Hernán Cortés; his main motive was to extol
the role played by Cortés in the conquest.
There are three versions of the True History: the original manuscript of Bernal
Díaz del Castillo (Guatemala manuscript), which was copied and sent to Spain
around 1575; the first printed book made in Madrid by Alonso Remón in 1632;
and a posthumous handwritten copy made by Francisco Díaz del Castillo, son of
the chronicler (Alegría manuscript). Even in the case of the Guatemala manuscript
242
there is no certainty of originality since it is believed that at least three different
hands intervened in its writing.
The literary models that served as a parameter to the True History —and to a large
extent to all chroniclers 159 of Indies— are the war memorial, in the case of
captains and soldiers, to show in this way the services rendered to the Crown, 160
but also the epic poem and the stories of travels, all of them varnished with the
Renaissance revitalization of classical rhetoric (Green 1983; Mendiola 1992;
Añón 2013). It is important to keep in mind the literary models which helped to
write the True History in order to make explicit the thesis of this essay: among the
many reasons why Díaz del Castillo writes his chronicle, that of telling what
happened is just one of them. Or more precisely: the fidelity of the narration goes
as far as the literary models and rhetorical forms which serve as its basis.
The True History follows a clear argumentative logic. Spaniards travel in search
of riches and for the aggrandizement of the dominions of the king and the greater
glory of the Christian God. The conquest is preceded by omens, portents and
natural disasters. 161 Spaniards arrive at unknown lands with idolatrous indians who
perform human sacrifices. They intrigue and are those against whom soldiers
fight. The epiphany unfolds in memorable battles which represent a divine ordeal.
Indians are submitted despite being more numerous and are forced in the right
faith. The pacification comes with the tributes of those defeated in provisions,
precious stones and women. 162 The argument is this one and the brave enterprise is
only threatened not because of the opposition raised by indians but because of the
disagreements between Cortés and Diego Velázquez, Cuba’s governor.
243
Bernal Díaz del Castillo (Anonymous n/d)
The struggle of Europeans for America started in 1492 with the “discovery” of a
huge continent by a Genoese navigator at the service of the kings of Castile.
Besides the Roman Empire, until that time Eurasia had known two other empires
that could compete in size and importance with what would be the Spanish
domains: the Mongol empire which began its expansion under Genghis Khan
between 1206 and 1227, and the Ottoman Empire (1300-1683). Because of the
importance of Islam in the Iberian Peninsula, the important antecedent of the
Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba (756-1031) must also be highlighted. Muslims, as
happened with Jews, were forced into Christianity and would not be expelled from
the Peninsula until the seventeenth century.
Apart from the “discovery”, two other phenomena appeared in Europe in the late
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that would establish new conditions of operation
244
to all European nobility societies. They would also give way to the modern world
society: Gutenberg’s printing press and the Protestant Reformations which
scourged all of Europe and would lead to the irreparable fragmentation of
Christianity (Eisenstein 1994, 149).
It is not that the modifications introduced by the printing press in the middle of
the fifteenth century radically and suddenly transformed the functioning of
European societies. But at least they gradually allowed the spatial dislocation of
communication, which otherwise had to depend entirely on face-to-face
exchanges. It is this spatial distancing, through the printed book, that eventually
led to the fracture of European societies with rhetorical primacy where sociality
was defined by means of face-to-face contacts and not throughout the mediated
dialogue between writers and readers.
245
revitalization of classical rhetoric. This rhetorical transformation gave way to the
elaboration of ecclesiastical rhetorics manuals. The most outstanding characters of
this rhetorical change were Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560, De officiis
concionatoris of 1529), close collaborator of Luther, and Erasmus of Rotterdam
(1466-1536, Ecclesiastes: sive de ratione concionandi of 1535). In the Protestant
sphere, the didactic genre would play a central role, a true contribution of
Lutheranism to ecclesiastical rhetoric, while in the Catholic sphere the
deliberative and demonstrative genres from classical rhetoric would become
relevant.
Through the mendicant orders, the forms of speech became popular and were used
to attack the most important heresies of the late Middle Ages: those of Cathars
and Waldensians. Spaniards stood out for the production of rhetorics manuals
almost with the same force with which the Jesuit order and its founder, Ignacio de
Loyola (1491-1556), modeled counter-reformation and the synod of Trent (1545-
1563). Among the Spanish rhetorics manuals of the sixteenth century are De
sacris concionibus recte formandis by Alfonso Zorrilla (1543), De methodo
concionandi by Alfonso García Matamoros (1570), Ecclesiasticae rhetoricae, sive
De ratione concionandi libri sex by Fray Luis de Granada (1575) and Modus
concionandi by Fray Diego de Estella (1576).
But let’s go back to the True History. The years in which the bulk of the True
History is written go from 1552 to 1575. These are the years in which the war
memorial begins to be written and which end with the sending of a copy of the
manuscript Guatemala to Madrid, already in the form of a history. The most
important ecclesiastical rhetoric prior to these years is Erasmus’ Ecclesiastes.
Erasmus’ rhetoric was strongly influenced by Augustine’s De doctrina christiana
and this, in turn, by the form given to the homily by the first systematic Christian
theologian: Origen of Alexandria (Edwards 2004, Chapters 1-12).
246
Origen (184-254) is the one who gave shape to the Christian homily, that is, to the
texts and oral expositions of the passages of the Bible. For this, Origen used
allegory and historical analogy as rhetorical techniques. Allegory is a rhetorical
technique that allows us to consider passages from the Old Testament as
predictions of Christ’s redemption. On the other side, historical analogy simply
draws parallels between the events narrated in the Bible and the current situation
of the communities receiving Christian education.
The most clearly discernible rhetorical techniques in the True History are
precisely allegory and historical analogy which makes possible to embody the
facts of the conquest with a Christian understanding. Christian rhetorical tradition
could in this way adhere a Christian shade to the narrated facts. 163 Among the
specific instruments of this rhetorical semantics are the medieval homiletic
collections (for example, that of Paul the deacon from the Carolingian age), the
florilegia (collections of citations of authorities: Fathers of the Church and
classical writers), and treatises on virtues and vices which decomposed different
sins on occasions or instances which led to them. These preaching aids were
available to Franciscans and Dominicans from the thirteenth century, who used
them to compose thematic sermons and thus expand Christian teaching.
In order to write histories it was necessary to use the forensic genre, the specific
one of the courts of justice since this genre was devoted to the reconstruction of
past events. 164 Only little by little oratory and daily speech gave way to curiosity
and novelty. In the ancient world and according to Augustine of Hippo, curiosity
was “an insane desire to know the mysteries of nature” (Cevolini 2019). By then,
novelty did not have a predominant place in society. One could even say that news
were uncomfortable. The positive assessment of novelty and innovation marks the
frontier of the Ancien Régime with the modern world (Morales 2019).
247
Thus, in the early printed books and well into the seventeenth century the struggle
between rhetorical knowledge and the modern tendency to treat curiosity and
novelty as foundations of scientific knowledge, not based on known literary and
rhetorical models, settled down (Luhmann 2012, Chapter 3, The Evolution of
Ideas, 324-335). The True History is located in this space between eras and
follows a discursive pattern which has its foundations in the memorial, the
chivalry epic and the stories of travels presented with a moralizing and exemplary
rhetoric (art of praise and blame). 165 In addition to presenting interested accounts
of what happened in the New World during the conquest, it provides Christian
models to emulate. It reproduces the prevailing rhetorical knowledge in Spanish
society at the time.
We said above that according to the accepted use in the sixteenth century, only
those who had witnessed or participated in the narrated events could write
histories and this was the way it had always been done. When was it then that the
condition of being a witness was replaced with the use of written sources? This
happened sometime between 1750 and 1850 (den Hollander 2010).
Some attribute this change to the increasing importance given to political history
(to the history of the birth of modern States and of wars between States) and to its
elaboration from written sources. The emblematic example of this type of
historian was Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) (Burke 1993, 4-11). A history
based on “primary” sources, the one that is made in the historical archives, is born
intimately linked to the history of the emergence of modern States. Since then
also, and with good reason, the justified concern for the political use of history
(Rozat 1992).
Like any change, the change from the eyewitness to the historical archive brought
advantages and disadvantages with it. Among the advantages are the appearance
of objectivity (“I refer strictly to the sources”); between the disadvantages, to
248
sharpen the problem of anachronisms (to give a present meaning to historical
events and not the proper meaning of the epoch in which they occur). Nowadays it
is difficult to find historians who accept a history with capital letters, that is, that
consider history as something finished, definitive and without possibilities of
reformulation. The continuous political transformations (legal, economic,
scientific, artistic, semantic) of modern society constitute the strongest guarantee
to rewriting history.
Today, among historians, to talk about a “poetics of history”, that is, to assert that
histories, in addition to narrating events, permeate their stories with different
poetic nuances (tropes, narrative strategies with which they build plots), is
something in which there is not total agreement. However, the modern exponent
of this thesis, Hayden White, proposed it in writing more that four decades ago,
and exemplified it with four nineteenth-century historians: Michelet, von Ranke,
Tocqueville and Burckhardt (White 1975).
It is important to note that, in a similar way to what happened with history made
by eyewitnesses, the refusal to consider a rhetoric of history is a relatively new
phenomenon which begins with nineteenth-century positivism. Classical
(Thucydides, Tacitus) and Renaissance (Pontano, Guicciardini) historians always
took for granted that histories could take and actually took rhetorical forms
(Burke 2013).
Opposite to the Old World, dominated by a tyrant Lord who lives together with
the Mad Lady in a huge and gloomy palace, which is also the crypt of his
ancestry, the hope of a New World rises where things might be different and the
expression of dissent possible. 167
10
250
Both worlds are real but contingent (they were like that but they could have been
otherwise). The New World is not free from shocks and an alternative version of
the Lord’s despotism. The Old World and the New World are reflections of
parallel religious realities separated by a sea which could be navigated, if the
fortune queen is generous, in five weeks. The parameters of this New World will
be different and incomprehensible to those of the Old World but no less bloody 168
(Frazer 1922, LIX, Killing the God in Mexico, 516-520).
11
Florilegium
(I)
251
I have already said how we were marching along when we met all the forces of
the enemy which were moving in search of us, and all the men wore great
feather crests and they carried drums and trumpets, and their faces were
coloured black and white, and they were armed with large bows and arrows,
lances and shields and swords shaped like our two-handed swords, and many
slings and stones and fire-hardened javelins, and all wore quilted cotton
armour. As they approached us their squadrons were so numerous that they
covered the whole plain, and they rushed on us like mad dogs completely
surrounding us, and they let fly such a cloud of arrows, javelins and stones that
on the first assault they wounded over seventy of us, and fighting hand to hand
they did us great demage with their lances, and one soldier fell dead at once
from an arrow wound in the ear, and they kept on shooting and wounding us.
With our muskets and crossbows and with good sword play we did not fail as
stout fighters, and when they came to feel the edge of our swords little by little
they fell back… This was the first battle that we fought under Cortés in New
Spain… It is in this occasion that Francisco López de Gómara says that
Francisco de Morla set out on a dapple grey horse before Cortés and the other
horsemen arrived, and that the sainted apostles Señor Santiago and Señor San
Pedro appeared. I say that all our doings and our victories are at the hands of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and that in this battle there were so many indians to
every one of us that they could have blinded us with the dust they raised but
for the pity of God who always helped us. It may be that as Gómara says the
Glorious Apostles Señor Santiago and Señor San Pedro came to our aid and
that I, being a sinner was not worthy to behold them. What I saw was
Francisco de Morla, on a chestnut horse, who came up at the same time as
Cortés, and it seems to me that now as I write I can see again with these sinful
eyes all that battle in the very way that it took place, and although I am a poor
sinner and not worthy to see either of those glorious apostles, there were there
in our company over four hundred soldiers and Cortés himself and many other
gentlemen…
(II)
Feverish and ill, he wrote through the night; reduced to a tiny space in the
depths of the prow of the reserve brigantine, he heard the groaning of the
ship’s skeleton, with utmost difficulty he held the inkwell upon one knee and
the paper upon the other; the motion of the little stub of candle swinging back
and forth before his eyes made him seasick, but he persisted in his wakeful
task… In this nocturnal hour, writing, he mutter to himself Friar Mostén’s
counsel: “As you wished it, so shall it be”; for, instead of limiting himself to
dedicating his fictions, with their customary laudatory epistles and prologues,
to the very exalted Señores who were his patrons, he concocted a great number
of things in his imagination, and from invention passed to the documentation
of the events he witnessed and of the world he inhabited, reaching a moment
252
when he could no longer differentiate between what he imagined and what he
saw, and thus he added imagination to truth and truth to imagination, believing
that everything in this world, after passing from his eyes to his mind, and from
there to pen and paper, was fable; in the end he convinced his Señores, who
desired only chimeras from his pen, that chimeras were truth, but at the same
time, truth was never anything but truth. See, thus, the mystery of all written
and painted things, for the more they are the product of the imagination, the
more truthful you may hold them to be.
(III)
I have brought this to mind so that we may see our many good and remarkable
services that we have done to the king our lord and to all Christendom, and put
on a scale and measure everything in its quantity, and they will find that we are
worthy and deserving of be put and paid as well as the gentlemen mentioned
above by me. And among the valiant soldiers I have brought to mind in these
past pages, there were many other earnest and valiant companions, and all had
me as a good soldier.
(IV)
The Mexican indians said that shortly before we came from New Spain they
saw a sign in the sky that was as green and red and round as a wagon wheel,
and that next to the sign came another line on the way to where the sun rises,
and came to join the red stripe. And Montezuma, great cacique of Mexico, sent
for his popes and fortune-tellers to look at that thing and sign, never seen
before or heard among them. And as it seemed, the popes communicated with
the idol Huichilobos and the answer he gave was that they would have many
wars and pestilences and that there would be sacrifices of human blood. At that
time we came with Cortés and after ten months Narváez came and brought a
negro with smallpox; the disease spread to all the indians that were in a town
called Cempoal, and from there it spread to all of New Spain, and there was
great pestilence.
Self-fulfilling Prophecy (Díaz del Castillo 1632, CCXII bis, 991) 172
(V)
Early the next morning, the 15th March, 1519, many caciques and chiefs of
Tabasco and the neighbouring towns arrived and paid great respect to us all,
171 My translation.
172 My translation.
253
and they brought a present of gold, consisting of four diadems and some gold
lizards, and two [ornaments] like little dogs, and earrings, and five ducks, and
two masks with indian faces, and two gold soles for sandals, and some other
things of little value. I do not remember how much the things were worth; and
they brought cloth, such as they make and wear, which was quilted stuff. My
readers will have heard from those who know that province that there is
nothing of much value in it. This present, however, was worth nothing in
comparison with the twenty women that were given to us, among them one
very excellent woman called Doña Marina, for so she was named when she
became a Christian.
Tribute after the Battle of Centla (Díaz del Castillo 1908, XXXVI, 126)
(VI)
The next day the same old caciques came and brought with them five beautiful
indian maidens, and for indians they were very good looking and well adorned,
and each of the indian maidens brought another indian girl as her servant, and
all were the daughters of caciques, and Xicotenga said to Cortés, “Malinche,
this is my daughter who has never been married and is a maiden, take her for
your own”, and he gave her to him by the hand, “and let the others be given to
the captains”. Cortés expressed his thanks, and with every appearance of
gratification said that he accepted them and took them as our own, but that for
the present they should remain in the care of their parents. The chiefs asked
him why he would not take them now, and Cortés replied that he wished first
to do the will of God our Lord, whom we believed in and worshipped, and that
for which our Lord the king had sent us, which was to induce them to do away
with their idols, and no longer to kill and sacrifice human beings, and the other
infamies they were wont to practice, and to lead them to believe in that which
we believed, that is in one true God…
Tribute of Tlaxcaltecas (and Uplifting Sermon) (Díaz del Castillo 1908, LXXVII,
279-280)
(VII)
Señor Montezuma, I am amazed that, being such a brave prince and having
shown up for our friend, you sent your captains you had on the coast near
Tuzapán to take arms against my Spaniards, and dare to steal the towns that are
in custody and under the protection of our king and lord, and you have
demanded indians for sacrifice, and have killed a Spaniard, my brother, and a
horse... Taking you as a friend, I ordered my captains to, as far as possible,
serve and favor you, and you, on the contrary, have not reciprocated; in
Chulula you ordered your captains to kill us. You have disguised it even though
I love you, and even now your captains are shameless and have secret talks in
order to kill us. For these reasons I do not want to start war or destroy the city.
It is convenient that you excuse yourself in everything and remain silent and
254
without a fuss come with us to our room, that there you will be served and
looked properly, as in your own home. And if you make a fuss or give voices,
you will be killed by these my captains, that I do not bring them for another
purpose.
Moctezuma’s Capture (and Blame) (Díaz del Castillo 1632, XCV, 307-308) 173
(VIII)
The moment he came in front of him, he showed submission, and Cortés with
joy embraced him and showed much love to him and his captains; and then
Guatémuz said to Cortés: “Señor Malinche, I have already done what I am
obliged to defend my city and vassals, I can not do it anymore; and then I come
by force imprisoned before your person and power, take that dagger that you
have on the belt and kill me with it”. And as he told him he cried many tears
and sobs, as did other great Señores who accompanied him.
Cuauhtémoc’s (Merciful) Capture (Díaz del Castillo 1632, CLVI, 620) 174
(IX)
173 My translation.
174 My translation.
255
actors in the drama withdraw into the darkness from which we will emerge for
a short time to perform the sacramental play of the individual insurrection of
the slaves against the collective ethic of Rome and the weighty tradition of
Israel. That afternoon on which the weather so opportunely collaborated with
us, that afternoon begun in heat and sun and dust and ended in storm, that
earlier darkness and the motionless violence of the stones, were necessary so
that our rebellion might fly on the wings of a legend of sacrifice. Only from
sacrifice are new worlds born. But men have always been sacrificed. So it
occurred to me: sacrifice a God. The ancient Gods and their divine history
were born from human sacrifice. From divine sacrifice human history would be
born. It was a very effective inversion, well worth the effort. My fate and that
of my followers are not important. No one ever again knew anything of us. But
there was no one who did not know what happened that afternoon on
Golgotha. Our creation is called history.
The Pelestinian Political Agitator (Fuentes 2003, The First Testament, 203-204)
(X)
He told me then how one must believe in that other land beyond the ocean.
How when the sun sinks in the west every night, it is not devoured by the earth
or miraculously reborn in the east at dawn, but has circled around the earth,
which must be round like the sun and the moon, for his old eyes had never
seen flat bodies in the heavens, only spheres, and our earth would not be the
monstrous exception… God did not create this world to be inhabited only by
the men that you and I have known. There must be another, better land, and
free and happy land made in God’s true image, for I believe the one we have
left behind is but an abominable reflection.
(XI)
Every year on this day, we select one youth. For one year we nurture and care
for him, and all who look upon him have great reverence for him and pay him
great obeisanse. For an entire year he wanders through the land playing his
flute, with his flowers and his smoking reed, free by night and day to wander
throughout the land, accompanied only by eight servants who assuage his thirst
and hunger. This youth will be married to a maiden who will sufeit him with
pleasure through the year, for she will be the youngest and most beautiful and
most wellborn in this land. And at the end of the year, having lived like a
prince in the land, the young man will return on this day to this very temple,
and as he lies upon the stone, bound hand and foot, the stone knife will pierce
his breast, and from the open wound we will tear out his heart and offer it to
the sun. This is, among us, the most honorable, the most desirable destiny our
land may offer, for the chosen youth will have greater pleasure than any man,
first in life and then in death. And the people will know that those who have
256
riches and pleasure in life must come to the end of their lives in poverty and in
pain.
(XII)
Look; see upon the combined canvases of my theater the passage of the most
absolute of memories: the memory of what could have been but was not; see it
in its greatest and least important detail, in gestures not fulfilled, in words not
spoken, in choices sacrificed, in decisions postponed; see Cicero’s patient
silence as he hears of Catiline’s foolish plot, see how Calpurnia convinces
Caesar not to attend the Senate on the Ides of March, see the defeat of the
Greek army in Salamis, see the birth of the baby girl in a stable in Bethlehem in
Palestine during the reign of Augustus… History repeats itself only because we
are unaware of the alternate possibility for each historic event: what that event
could have been but was not. Knowing, we can ensure that history does not
repeat itself; that the alternate possibility is the one that occurs for the first
time. The universe would achieve true equilibrium. This will be the culmination
of my investigations: to combine the elements of my theater in such a manner
that two different epochs fully coincide; for example, that what happened or
did not happened in your Spanish fatherland in 1492, in 1521, or 1598, coincide
exactly with what happens there in 1938, or 1975, or 1999. Then, and I am
convinced of it, the space of that co-incidence will germinate, will
accommodate the unfulfilled past that once lived and died there: this doubled
time will demand that precise space in which to complete itself.
The Invention of Camillo (Fuentes 2003, The Theater of Memory, 559-560, 561)
(XIII)
For our goal is not to supplant obedience to the king, our Señor, but to abolish the tyranny
of his consorts, for they hold us as their slaves, not the king them as his subjects , I am one
of you, I, Guzmán, chief huntsman, and you, overseers, architects and foremen,
and which of you will be saved from the madness and caprice of El Señor?, you
have seen what happened only a few days ago to one of yours, he who left here
with his tongue and hands amputated by orders of El Señor so as to be unable
to speak or write of one of the dark mysteries that occur inside there; yesterday
it was he, today it will be someone else, tomorrow you or I; regard the courage
of our estate companions, the burghers of Ávila, Toledo, and Burgos, prepared
to take up arms so that these kingdoms be governed by laws and not by caprice;
the gates are open, I swear to that; it is the moment to act, Jerónimo, Martín,
Nuño, injustice is added to injustice, resentment is mounting, yes, twenty years
ago El Señor forced my young bride on the day of our wedding, he besmirched
her, because of him she went mad, she was never mine, that is called his right,
his right to rape virgins, I came here to this work, I bided my time, and my
time has come, Martín, Nuño, right, justice, as a warning my brother was
257
ordered to be killed by hunger, thirst, and cold, left naked and surrounded by
troops in the wintertime on a hilltop in Navarre, after seven days my brother
died there by the order of a Lord inferior to this one who governs us, and if the
lesser did so much, what will the greater not do?... law for those who stain all
things?, pity for those who offer none?, Simón, all of you, join us, do not
change your clothing, but dress as monks and nuns join us, beggars, pilgrims,
eremites, prostitutes, followers of Peter Waldo, against the excesses of Rome,
the crowned serpent, the false pope, the power of the Inquisition, now, march,
oh, perfect Cathari, herein dwells the god of evil, let us burn his dwelling place,
this is the house of the Devil, Adamites, believers in the innocence of the body
of our first father and of all his sons, to the palace, everyone, the gates are
open, follow me, Simón, for I have seen the illness and sorrow and poverty of
man, follow me, unsheathe your ancient knives, raise high your cudgels, light
your torches…
258
Referencias/ References
Burke, Peter. 2013. Metahistory: Before and After. Rethinking History: The
Journal of Theory and Practice 17 (4): 1-11.
DOI: 10.1080/13642529.2013.825081
Burke, Peter. 1993. History and Social Theory. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Díaz del Castillo, Bernal. 1908. The True History of the Conquest of New Spain.
Edited and Published in Mexico by Genaro García. Translated into English by
Alfred Percival Maudslay. London: Bedford Press. 396 pp.
https://archive.org/details/tesisnoqueprese00garcgoog (11 de mayo de 2019).
259
Frazer, James G. 1922. The Golden Bough. A Study of Magic and Religion. USA:
Temple of Earth Publishing. 625 pp.
https://www.templeofearth.com/books/goldenbough.pdf (11 de mayo de 2019).
260
Rozat, Guy. 1992. América: espejo de Occidente (Reflexiones sobre un
desencuentro). debate feminista 5: 7-25.
261
6. Entre el cielo y la tierra: el laicismo estatal en México
Resumen
Este ensayo da por sentado que la relación Estado-iglesia(s) es una de las posibles
relaciones que establece la política con la sociedad. En lo que sigue enfocaremos
la relación entre política y religión como relación Estado-iglesia(s), esto es,
enfatizando su dimensión institucional (1-2). También intentaremos dilucidar las
semánticas que han orientado esta relación dentro del cristianismo oriental (3-4) y
occidental (5-6) y terminaremos caracterizando el caso mexicano (7-11). El
ensayo intenta hacer un análisis de algunos aspectos de las relaciones entre
política y religión en la sociedad mundial.
262
También supondrá una diferenciación interna de los distintos ámbitos societales
(poderes del Estado y partidos políticos para la política; iglesias, rituales y
dogmáticas para la religión) como condición de la complejidad societal moderna.
Al referir la separación Estado-iglesia se da por sentado un avance preadaptativo
(a la evolución), es decir, el logro de una condición histórica particular (una
mínima separación entre política y religión alcanzada por Roma bajo la
República) que queda en espera de ser reforzada mediante sucesos históricos
subsecuentes.
263
Es curioso que Kalkandjieva considere que los antecedentes del cesaropapismo se
encuentran en las reformas protestantes del siglo xvi con el surgimiento de
iglesias nacionales en Europa occidental y no en Constantino “El Grande” (272-
337), a pesar de aceptar que tan temprano como en los siglos ix y x (casos de
Bulgaria y Rusia) aparecen Estados que, a semejanza de Bizancio, subordinan el
poder eclesiástico al civil. Kalkandjieva se inclina en cambio por favorecer el
concepto de “sinfonía”, aunque no puede dejar de reconocer que tiene aplicación
histórica limitada. En toda esta línea argumental, la dogmática bizantina funge
como rasero a la vez que como punto ciego. La diversidad dogmática y ritual del
cristianismo ortodoxo, donde caben por igual Turquía, Rusia y Grecia, que Egipto,
Siria y Armenia, brilla por su ausencia.
Una nueva idea de una civilización cristiana ortodoxa que reclama derechos
fundamentales comunitarios contra el liberalismo individualista, quiere hacer
creer que las posibilidades de reconciliación del cristianismo occidental con los
musulmanes tendrán que pasar por el cristianismo ortodoxo oriental y, en especial,
por el patriarcado moscovita y el Estado ruso.
265
afirmar la supremacía del patriarca romano sobre los poderes civiles, también
conocida como Controversia de las Investiduras (Ornelas 2019).
266
6
Lo que más preocupó al catolicismo vaticano en el siglo xix en relación con los
Estados latinoamericanos no fue tanto los ataques del liberalsmo anticlerical, sino
el regalismo que dejaba a los Estados nacientes en control de las iglesias
nacionales (patronatos católicos nacionales). Estos patronatos fueron herencia de
los patronatos reales español y portugués durante la colonia. Los patronatos
nacionales dejaban en control del Estado el monopolio del nombramiento de
obispos dentro de sus territorios (Andes 2016, 7ss).
267
La ola independentista en América Latina llevó a la firma de concordatos con
Bolivia (1851), Guatemala y Costa Rica (1852), Haití (1860), Honduras y
Nicaragua (1861), El Salvador, Venezuela y Ecuador (1862) y Colombia (1887).
Los acuerdos establecieron el catolicismo romano como la religión oficial en estos
países, proveían asistencia financiera a la jerarquía eclesiástica católica y
establecían la educación católica en las escuelas públicas. Como regla, la firma de
concordatos conllevaba como condición el establecimiento de patronatos católicos
nacionales. En México fue Santa Anna el responsable de abandonar el patronato
nacional para cederlo al Vaticano.
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El laicismo estatal mexicano tiene como antecedentes distantes los planteamientos
más radicales de los reformadores religiosos del siglo xvi, en particular de
anabaptistas, quienes proclamaron abiertamente los principios de libertad de
conciencia, separación Estado-iglesia y la irrestricta libertad religiosa (Bender
1944), aunque también las propuestas del pensamiento Ilustrado del siglo xviii y,
en el siglo xx, el cesaropapismo comunista en Europa oriental.
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para el triunfo del liberalismo radical en México la alianza entre los liberales y la
fracción unionista en la guerra de secesión (o guerra civil) de los Estados Unidos.
El triunfo del liberalismo radical en México mandó una clara señal a las potencias
europeas en el sentido de que ni México ni los Estados Unidos permitirían una
intervención militar abierta.
10
Es así que llegó a México William Cameron Townsend, quien fundaría en 1936 el
Instituto Lingüístico de Verano – Traductores Wyclif de la Biblia (ILV-TWB),
una de las más importantes misiones de fe estadounidenses del siglo xx. El ILV
alcanzaría dimensiones planetarias con extensiones a latinoamérica (Colombia y
270
Perú) y el mundo entero (Filipinas, Camboya, Vietnam y Papúa Nueva Guinea).
En esta forma se esperaba contrarrestar la insistente influencia del catolicismo
militante en el país. El catolicismo militante encontró expresión en la guerra
cristera (1926-1929 junto con su “segunda” fase en 1935-1940), que azotó buena
parte del territorio mexicano (Meyer 2013).
11
Cuando el presidente Cárdenas dio entrada al ILV a México, no podía saber que
con esta misión llegarían también las semillas del fundamentalismo evangélico
con sus lastres característicos de exclusivismo cristiano, literalismo bíblico,
creacionismo y conservadurismo social. El laicismo estatal como modelo de
relación Estado-iglesia(s) en México se alimenta no sólo del legado de los
liberales radicales y de los gobiernos del nacionalismo revolucionario sino
también del modelo de subordinación cesaropapista de las iglesias cristianas
ortodoxas al Estado bolchevique salido de la revolución rusa.
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6. Between Heaven and Earth: State-Laicism in Mexico
Abstract
This essay assumes that State-Church(es) relation is one of the possible relations
established by politics with society. In what follows we will focus on the relation
between politics and religion as State-Church(es) relation, that is, emphasizing its
institutional dimension (1-2). We will also try to elucidate the semantics which
have guided this relation within Eastern (3-4) and Western (5-6) Christianity and
will end up characterizing the Mexican case (7-11). The essay intends to analyze
some aspects of the relations between politics and religion in world society.
In what follows much will be said and reference will be made to the birth of
modern states. Modern states should be understood as the Constitutional states
born from the seventeenth century and also the Welfare states from the twentieth
century. The modern state can also be understood as a self-description of politics
from politics (as a self-reference), that is, as a semantics by which the exercise of
legitimate power in society is simplified. This self-simplification necessarily gave
way to regional idiosyncrasies, to the territory-population-national language
compound.
272
It will also mean an internal differentiation of various societal spheres (state
powers and political parties for politics; Churches, rituals and dogmatics for
religion) as a condition of modern societal complexity. When referring to state-
Church separation, a pre-adaptive advance (to evolution) is taken for granted, that
is, the achievement of a particular historical condition (a minimal separation
between politics and religion achieved by Rome under the Republic) which is
waiting to be reinforced by subsequent historical events.
Is it really true that there are fortuitous historical events which “reinforce”
historical-evolutionary developments? Harold Berman provides material from the
legal sciences that allows a positive answer to this question. The laws which were
first taught in the oldest European universities were not current laws but those
contained in an old manuscript, the Codex Iustinianus, found in an Italian library
sometime by the end of the eleventh century.
This legal compilation, due to Emperor Justinian I, dated from the first half of the
sixth century (534 CE), and the discovery was received as the one of a lost book
of the Old Testament. The fact is that the legislation contained in the code began
to circulate widely as if it were the law in force in the kingdom, when it was not
even being applied in the royal courts (Berman 1983, 121ff).
273
337), even though she accepts that as early as in the nineth and tenth centuries
(cases of Bulgaria and Russia) appear states which, similar to Byzantium,
subordinate ecclesiastical to civil power. Kalkandjieva is instead inclined to favor
the concept of “symphony”, although she recognizes that the concept has limited
historical application. Throughout this plot line, Byzantine dogmatics functions as
a standard as well as a blind spot. The dogmatic and ritual diversity of Orthodox
Christianity, where Turkey, Russia and Greece are equalized with Egypt, Syria
and Armenia, is fully absent.
With communism victorious in the Soviet Union and given the dominant
caesaropapist model in state-Church relations, it was not difficult for Eastern
European states to transform their Churches into an appendix of the state
apparatus. Notable cases, apart from the Soviet Union, were Bulgaria, Romania
and Yugoslavia under Tito. The religious enemies then became minority groups
which were left out of communist Soviet control, especially Vatican Catholicism.
However, since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Eastern caesaropapism has
274
resulted in a state-Church separation which places increasing emphasis on
religious freedom understood as a fundamental right.
Similar to what happened with Constantinople, forced to become the “new Rome”
due to the “barbarian” conquests in Western Europe (and to the fall of Rome in
the fifth century), it also happened with the Russian Orthodox Church. When
Byzantium fell into the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1453, Moscow and its
patriarchate were the only ones left out of Muslim jurisdiction (for almost 400
years “the only Orthodox Church in a state ruled by a monarch of the Orthodox
faith”). This historical circumstance gave way to the theory according to which
the leadership of Orthodox Churches should be exercised by Russia, which for this
reason would become the “third Rome” (Curanović 2007, 315 n. 14).
This attempt to turn caesaropapism upside down was materialized with the help of
three elements of the ecclesiastical organization: the Roman Curia (“no secular
administration could come anywhere near it”), the figure of the papal legate and
275
the creation of powerful itinerant religious orders (Franciscans and Dominicans)
(Mitterauer 2010, 150-151). The strengthening of European national states would
not have been possible without this conflict (Mitterauer 2010; Berman 1983;
Strayer 1970).
276
The deepest state secularization was carried out precisely by the French
Revolution, a secularization which implied the denial of Vatican Catholicism and
the subordination of its clergy to the state powers. This movement towards a
greater secularization was based on enlightened rationalism applied to social life
as a whole (Boudinhon 1908). During the eighteenth century, the tendency
towards an “indivisible sovereignty” practiced by absolutist states (France, Spain,
Portugal) led to the emergence of multiform manifestations of state supremacy
over various Churches, such as gallicanism, febronianism, caesaropapism,
regalism, erastianism and jurisdictionalism. By the way, most of Latin American
states signed concordats with the Vatican. The outstanding exception was Mexico
who did not re-establish diplomatic relations with the Holy See until 1992.
The Independence wave in Latin America led to the signing of concordats with
Bolivia (1851), Guatemala and Costa Rica (1852), Haiti (1860), Honduras and
Nicaragua (1861), El Salvador, Venezuela and Ecuador (1862) and Colombia
(1887). These agreements established Roman Catholicism as the official religion
in these countries, provided financial assistance to the Catholic ecclesiastical
hierarchy and established Catholic education in public schools. As a rule, the
signing of concordats entailed the condition of establishing national Catholic
patronages. In Mexico, Santa Anna was responsible for leaving the national
patronage aside, and favored the Vatican instead.
277
There was also a Latin American liberal wave which led to the provisional
revocation of many of these concordats. It would be liberalism itself, by refusing
to constitutionally sponsor any religion, who left the Vatican in freedom to
promote an ultramontane politics throughout the world under the papacy of Pius
IX (1846-1878).
State-Church separation has involved two dimensions: on the one hand, mutual
autonomy and respect for the performance of each institutional sphere, taken in
some cases to the extent of excluding all possible cooperation (a strict, Jacobin
and anti-religious model). On the other hand, the recognition and the increasing
importance attributed to religious freedom and its elevation as a fundamental
right.
State-laicism in Mexico has as its distant background the most radical approaches
of the religious reformers of the sixteenth century, particularly of Anabaptists,
who openly proclaimed the principles of freedom of conscience, state-Church
separation and unrestricted religious freedom (Bender 1944), although also the
proposals of eighteenth century Enlightened thought and, in the twentieth century,
communist caesaropapism in Eastern Europe.
Tons of paper have been written about state-laicism in Mexico and canonical texts
circulate in academic surroundings (Blancarte 2013). The Reformation and
Intervention Wars (1858-1867) were the antecedents for the consolidation of the
278
state in Mexico because until their outcome became evident, the political
consideration that Mexico could be governed by an European monarch was finally
discarded.
Beside the defeats of Maximilian of Augsburg, the Catholic Church and the
Conservative Party, the so-called Reformation Laws were enacted: state-Church
separation (after the US and French constitutional models), freedom of worship,
secularization of cemeteries and of the civil registry, and prohibition of public
manifestations of the Roman Catholic cult. These laws led to an open conflict
between the victorious liberals and pope Pius IX.
The period immediately following these years (1873-1875) witnessed the liberal
radicalization in the expulsion of religious orders from Mexico, the promotion of
a Catholic schism from the state, and the invitation made to traditional Protestant
denominations (Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists) to consider
missionary work south the Rio Bravo (Bastian 1990). This sought to counteract
the power and boldness of Vatican Catholicism.
10
The Reformation and Intervention Wars established the most important antecedent
in state-Church relations, which would then be resumed by the triumphant fraction
of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), and especially in the period of formation
of the Mexican revolutionary nationalist state (1934-1940). In these years the
279
Mexican government established an alliance with US evangelical fundamentalism
(Hartch 2006).
This is how William Cameron Townsend arrived to Mexico, who would give birth
in 1936 to the Summer Institute of Linguistics – Wycliffe Bible Translators (SIL-
WBT), one of the most important US faith missions of the twentieth century. The
SIL would reach a planetary dimension with its extensions to Latin America
(Colombia and Peru) and worldwide (the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and
Papua New Guinea). In this way it was hoped that the insistent influence of
militant Catholicism in the country would diminish. Militant Catholicism found
expression in the Cristero War (1926-1929 along with its “second” phase in 1935-
1940), which ravaged much of the Mexican territory (Meyer 2013).
11
When President Cardenas allowed the SIL into Mexico, he could not know that
with this mission the seeds of evangelical fundamentalism would also arrive with
its characteristic sequels of Christian exclusivism, biblical literalism, creationism,
280
and social conservatism. State-laicism as a model of the state-Church(es) relation
in Mexico feeds not only on the legacy of radical liberals and the governments of
revolutionary nationalism but also on the caesaropapist subordination model of
Orthodox Christian churches to the Bolshevik state which came out of the Russian
revolution.
This can be seen in the influence exerted by the Mexican Communist Party in
shaping the modern corporatist state in Mexico (1929-1979). Maurice Duverger
(2012, 282-306), in his well-known text on political parties, placed communist
countries, Italian and German fascisms and the Turkish and Portuguese cases as
instances of a single-party electoral system and, to that extent, equated them with
Mexico. In a same manner it is remarkable the resemblance between the artistic
movement of socialist realism and the Mexican nationalist Muralism. After all, the
“Mexican fall of the wall” did not happen until 1997.
281
Referencias/ References
Andes, Stephen J. C. 2016. Vatican Foreign Relations with Latin America since
Independence. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. 32 pp.
DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.40
https://www.academia.edu/27075770/
Vatican_Foreign_Relations_with_Latin_America_since_Independence (6 de
Agosto de 2019).
Bender, Harold S. 1944. The Anabaptist Vision. Church History 13 (1): 3-24.
Berman, Harold. 1983. Law and Revolution. The Formation of the Legal Western
Tradition. Cambridge/ London: Harvard University Press.
Curanović, Alicja. 2007. The Attitude of the Moscow Patriarchate towards Other
Orthodox Churches. Religion, State and Society 35 (4): 301-318.
https://www.academia.edu/12890702/
The_attitude_of_the_Moscow_Patriarchate_towards_other_Orthodox_churches
(21 de agosto de 2019).
282
Kalkandjieva, Daniela. 2011. A Comparative Analysis on Church-State Relations
in Eastern Orthodoxy: Concepts, Models, and Principles. Journal of Church and
State 53 (4): 587–614. doi:10.1093/jcs/csr012.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
268386296_A_Comparative_Analysis_on_Church-
State_Relations_in_Eastern_Orthodoxy_Concepts_Models_and_Principles (31 de
julio de 2019).
Luhmann, Niklas. 1990. The “State” of the Political System. Essays on Self-
Reference, 165-174. New York: Columbia University Press.
https://b-ok.org/book/1175131/eb1e15 (2 de agosto de 2019).
Mitterauer, Michael. 2010. Why Europe? The Medieval Origins of Its Special
Path. Chicago/ London: University of Chicago Press.
Strayer, Joseph R. 1970. On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State. New
Jersey: Princeton University Press.
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7. Cuauhtémoc y Chief Joseph: semánticas cristianas de
misión y el indigenismo protestantizado en México
Resumen
Este ensayo trata de las semánticas cristianas de misión utilizadas entre los siglos
xvi y xix para justificar lo injustificable y de las retóricas que han sido esgrimidas
para conseguirlo. Se enfoca en tres semánticas de misión: las católicas con que se
intentó enfrentar civilizaciones robustas en Asia (la “accommodatio” jesuita en
China e India) y también la utilizada para evangelizar a los indios de América
(“partir de cero”, usada por órdenes mendicantes en la Nueva España) (1-3), así
como las ensayadas por protestantes (“civilizar” y después “evangelizar y
convertir a toda costa”), que desplazaron a las católicas entre los siglos xvii y xix.
Es así que el siglo xix en la sociedad mundial es considerado con razón el gran
siglo de las misiones anglosajonas (4-5). El ensayo termina examinando las
consecuencias para México en el siglo xx y presenta dos ejemplos, mexica
(Cuauhtémoc) y nimíipuu (Chief Joseph), de narrativas de la derrota (6-7). Desde
el punto de vista de una sociología histórica, este ensayo trata propiamente de la
constitución histórica de semánticas cristianas relacionadas con las misiones y de
su deriva.
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contemporáneos: la petición de principio, “sobre cuya base se utiliza como
argumento probatorio la tesis que había que demostrar” (Eco 2006, 48) (los negros
son una raza inferior porque adquieren habilidades como hacen los animales de
circo); alguna circunstancia que sirve de pretexto para cometer una injusticia, una
“causa bélica” que la justifique; y afirmar que existe una conspiración, como
cuando se utilizaron los Protocolos de los Sabios de Sión para justificar campañas
antisemitas.
Desde el punto de vista de una sociología histórica (Subrt 2012), este ensayo trata
propiamente de la constitución histórica de semánticas cristianas relacionadas con
las misiones y de su deriva (Podgórsky 2010) o, como Dockendorff prefiere
ponerlo, de la constitución de un “acervo de valores propios” que se corresponden
con las misiones cristianas. En el planteamiento de Dockendorff y a diferencia de
los conceptos de habitus, imaginarios sociales o subculturas, “los acervos de
valores propios sirven de modelo a un observador de segundo orden para
comprender el particular fenómeno de formas de sentido que se repiten en los
sistemas que se comunican en la sociedad” (Dockendorff 2019, 20).
Al catálogo retórico que presenta Eco para legitimar el uso de la fuerza ahora se
puede sumar la narrativa cristiana según la cual al indio debe restársele su cultura
y dejarlo en camino a convertirse en occidental (en forma extrema puede
expresarse con la sentencia: “el mejor indio es el indio muerto”). Este matar al
indio y dejar vivo al ser humano representa la versión invertida de la
“accommodatio”, la estrategia misionera católica practicada por los jesuitas en
China y la India a partir del siglo xvi (Moffett 2006, Capítulos 1 y 5).
285
liderados por Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606), quien fungía entonces como
cabeza de las misiones jesuitas en el lejano Oriente.
Habría que preguntarse por qué entre los jesuitas portugueses abundaban los
apellidos italianos. La respuesta pasa por la influencia jesuita en la curia romana,
por las circunstancias políticas locales donde se promovió la adaptación
(Chakravarti 2014), y por la rivalidad entre España y Portugal (y la de
franciscanos y dominicos con jesuitas) por el control de territorios extramarítimos
–un capítulo más de las ambiciones coloniales europeas.
286
Matteo Ricci, S. J. (1552-1610) (Anónimo s/f)
287
A diferencia de las misiones protestantes, cuyo principal interés era la conversión
individual, las misiones católicas de la Nueva España se propusieron fundar y
consolidar una iglesia sacramental. Si la gracia divina era la principal causa de
conversión, y la iglesia la administradora de los sacramentos portadores de gracia
(cuando menos del bautismo y del matrimonio), “es lógico que la tarea principal
del misionero consista en poner a la disposición de los infieles los medios
normales de conversión” (Ricard 2014, 18). Esta primera evangelización del
continente corrió paralela a las reformas protestantes en Europa y a la celebración
del sínodo de Trento con que los católicos las enfrentaron (Ornelas 2016). En
opinión de Ricard, el intento de consolidar una iglesia india se quedó a medio
camino, esto es, en una iglesia criolla (peninsular) y colonial. La razón de esto es
que en Nueva España nunca tuvo lugar la consolidación de un sacerdocio o
episcopado indios. El resultado fue paradójico: los frailes amaban a los indios
pero los dejaron en permanente minoría de edad, “los indios no tenían derecho al
título de gente de razón, reservado a los blancos y los mestizos” (Ricard 2014,
377).
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¿Existió entre protestantes una estrategia misionera paralela a la de los jesuitas?
La respuesta es afirmativa e incorporó los siguientes puntos: a) priorizar la
traducción de la Biblia a las lenguas vernáculas; b) enfatizar la reforma de
prácticas sociales no compatibles con el cristianismo, tales como el sati (la
inmolación forzosa de las viudas en la pira funeraria de sus maridos); c) abrir
colegios misionales donde se dio cabida a la educación de mujeres; y d) a partir de
1813, por decisión del parlamento inglés, dar libre entrada y permitir la actividad
en las colonias de las iglesias protestantes que así lo decidieran, de manera que la
evangelización quedó en manos de sociedades misioneras diversas (primero
anglicanas, bautistas y luteranas, luego multi-denominacionales) enfocadas a la
conversión de las clases educadas, como habían hecho antes los jesuitas (Moffett
2006, Capítulos 11, 12 y 13).
¿Cuál fue la semántica que con tanta enjundia se quiso propagar? Se trató de una
semántica alimentada por una ensalada de perfeccionismo wesleyano y
movimientos de santidad estadounidenses, una semántica cristiana con claros
rasgos fundamentalistas (Ornelas 2019). Por fe se entendía la centralidad y
exclusividad de Cristo como único medio de salvación, donde ocupaban un lugar
primordial la gracia divina, el pecado y la salvación por la fe, así como el
imperativo de lograr conversos.
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Grupo de indios nez percé (Anónimo 1879-82).
Como bien dice Moffett, “el colonialismo fue sin duda el contexto en que
florecieron las misiones cristianas en Asia entre 1500 y 1900” (Moffett 2006, 633-
634). Y esto nos devuelve al planteamiento inicial. Los Estados Unidos en casa
estaban perdiendo la batalla misiológica por “civilizar” a las naciones indias. La
estrategia de matar al indio y dejar vivo al ser humano fue un fracaso y sólo trajo
como resultado el genocidio. En el colmo de la prevaricación y la insolencia, dada
la imposibilidad de blanquear los espíritus, se optó por la evangelización y la
conversión a toda costa.
Esta nueva opción tuvo sus efectos en México. Sucedió que el Estado nacionalista
revolucionario mexicano (1935-1979) compró completa esta nueva estrategia y
pactó con el fundamentalismo evangélico norteamericano (Hartch 2006, Capítulo
4). La solución del “problema indio” de México pasaría ahora por una estrategia
de alfabetización evangelizante. A los indios se les enseñaría a leer en su lengua
utilizando como apoyo biblias en su propio idioma. Se esperaba que después
tomaran interés por leer y escribir en español. Al menos así lo pensaron los
lingüistas –“agentes coloniales”, como los llama Errington (2008, 4) sin más,
especializados en adaptar los alfabetos europeos a las hablas extrañas de pueblos
colonizados.
290
La consecuente opción por la educación bilingüe que conllevaba esta estrategia de
alfabetización evangelizante fue meramente declarativa. No obstante, forzó el
nacimiento del indigenismo y de algunas de las instituciones en que se apoyaría:
el Instituto de Investigaciones Lingüísticas (IIL) de la Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México (UNAM), las Academias de lenguas indígenas (náhuatl,
otomí, maya), el Instituto Indigenista Interamericano (III) y de lingüistas
norteamericanos que eran a la vez misioneros evangélicos fundamentalistas del
Instituto Lingúístico de Verano (ILV).
Y desque se vio delante dél, le hizo mucho acato, y Cortés con alegría le
abrazó y le mostró mucho amor a él y a sus capitanes; y entonces el
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Guatémuz dijo a Cortés: “Señor Malinche, ya he hecho lo que soy obligado
en defensa de mi cibdad y vasallos, y no puedo más; y pues vengo por fuerza
y preso ante tu persona y poder, toma ese puñal que tienes en la cinta y
mátame luego con él”. Y esto cuando se lo decía, lloraba muchas lágrimas y
sollozos, y también lloraban otros grandes señores que consigo traía (Díaz
del Castillo 1632, CLVI, 620).
En el caso del Chief Joseph, como sucedió con buena parte de las naciones indias
en los Estados Unidos, la derrota final se da bajo la persecución y asedio del
ejército norteamericano, en Montana, con el invierno en puerta y a poco más de 60
kilómetros de la frontera con Canadá, hacia donde se dirigían en la huida. Las
palabras del Chief Joseph son más que elocuentes:
Estoy cansado de pelear. Nuestros jefes son asesinados. Looking Glass está
muerto. Toohoolhoolzote está muerto. Los viejos están todos muertos. Son
los jóvenes los que dicen “Sí” o “No”. El que dirigió a los jóvenes está
muerto. Hace frío y no tenemos mantas. Los niños pequeños se mueren de
frío. Mi gente, algunos de ellos, han escapado a las colinas y no tienen
mantas ni comida. Nadie sabe dónde están –tal vez muriendo de frío. Quiero
tener tiempo para buscar a mis hijos y ver cuántos de ellos puedo encontrar.
Tal vez los encuentre entre los muertos. ¡Escúchenme, mis jefes! Estoy
cansado. Mi corazón está enfermo y triste. Como que el sol brilla en este
momento, les digo que nunca más volveré a luchar (Josephy 1964, 19).
Cabe preguntarse hasta qué punto la retórica cristiana recubre estos relatos, en
especial frente al énfasis puesto en la definitividad de la derrota. Pero ahora bien
se sabe que ninguna historia es definitiva. ¿Puede ser hoy de otra manera? Este
ensayo apunta a esta posibilidad.
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(Página en blanco/ Blank page)
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7. Cuauhtémoc and Chief Joseph: Mission Christian
Semantics and Protestantized Indigenismo in Mexico
Abstract
This essay deals with mission Christian semantics used between the sixteenth and
nineteenth centuries to justify the unjustifiable, and the rhetorics that have been
used to achieve it. It focuses on three semantics of mission: the Catholic used to
confront robust civilizations in Asia (the Jesuit “accommodatio” in China and
India), and also the one used to evangelize the Indians of America (“start from
scratch”, used by mendicant orders in New Spain) (1-3), as well as those put in
practice by Protestants (“to civilize” and later “evangelize and convert at all
costs”) which displaced the Catholic ones between the seventeenth and nineteenth
centuries. Thus, nineteenth century in world society is rightly considered the great
century of Anglo-Saxon missions (4-5). The essay ends by examining the
consequences for twentieth century Mexico and presents two examples of
narratives of defeat, Mexica (Cuauhtémoc) and Nimíipuu (Chief Joseph) (6-7).
From the point of view of a historical sociology, this essay is about the historical
constitution of a Christian semantics related to missions and its drift.
Eco refers to three ways of prevaricating (making unfair decisions knowing that
they are unjust) observable in the development of contemporary events: begging
the question, “on whose basis the thesis to be demonstrated is used as a supporting
argument” (Eco 2006, 48) (blacks are an inferior race because they acquire skills
294
like circus animals do); some circumstance which serves the purpose of
committing an injustice, an event used to justify war; and to affirm that there is a
conspiracy, such as when the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were used to justify
anti-Semitic campaigns.
From the point of view of a historical sociology (Subrt 2012), this essay is about
the historical constitution of Christian semantics related to missions and its drift
(Podgórsky 2010) or, as Dockendorff prefers to put it, to the constitution of a
“collection of eigenvalues” which correspond to Christian missions. In
Dockendorff’s approach and unlike the concepts of habitus, social imaginaries or
subcultures, “a collection of eigenvalues serves as a model for a second-order
observer to understand the particular phenomenon of forms of meaning which
iterate in systems that communicate in society” (Dockendorff 2019, 20).
To Eco’s rhetorical catalog to legitimize the use of force, one can now add the
Christian narrative according to which the Indian must be taken away of his
culture and being left on the way of becoming a westerner (in the extreme one can
express it with the sentence: “the best Indian is the dead Indian”). This killing the
Indian to save the man [human being] represents the inverted version of the
“accommodatio”, the Catholic missionary strategy practiced by the Jesuits in
China and India from the sixteenth century (Moffett 2006, Chapters 1 and 5).
The “accommodatio” consisted in adapting the Christian message to the social and
cultural context of civilizations with which Catholics came into contact, a kind of
295
camouflaged indoctrination. This adaptation led to internal conflicts in
Catholicism to the extent that Nobili himself had to face the Inquisition. As
examples of the practices of adaptation which raised controversy are the
participation in funeral ceremonies or in ceremonies where ancestors were revered
(case of China), or also to dress with the badges that made the missionaries appear
as belonging to the Brahmin caste of priests and, therefore, condescending with
caste separation (case of India) (Agnolin 2018).
It would be necessary to ask why among the Portuguese Jesuits Italian surnames
abounded. The answer goes through the Jesuit influence in the Roman curia, the
local political circumstances where adaptation was promoted (Chakravarti 2014),
and the rivalry between Spain and Portugal (and that of Franciscans and
Dominicans with Jesuits) for the control of extramaritime territories –another
chapter of European colonial ambitions.
296
3
297
4
Attempts were also born on the Protestant side –Holland, Germany, Denmark,
England– to capture territories where Spaniards and Portuguese had taken
advantage. The event that triggered these endeavors was the defeat of the Spanish
Armada by the English in 1588. In principle these attempts were limited to
commercial interests under an enclave economy scheme, as happened in southern
India with the Dutch East Indies Company. Shortly thereafter, the British East
India Company would arrive which received royal patronage from Queen
Elizabeth I in 1600. However, soon chaplains and missionaries began to arrive.
The prominent figures who led Protestant mission initiatives were Heinrich
Plutschau (1677-1752), Bartholomaeus Ziegenbald (1683-1719), William Carey
(1761-1834) and Alexander Duff (1806-1882) in India, and Robert Morrison
(1782-1834) and Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) in China.
Was there a missionary strategy parallel to that of the Jesuits? The answer is
affirmative and incorporated the following points: a) to prioritize the translation
of the Bible into vernacular languages; b) to emphasize the reform of social
practices not compatible with Christianity, such as sati (the forced immolation of
widows in the funeral pyre of their husbands); c) to open missionary schools
where education for women was accommodated; and d) as of 1813, by decision of
the English parliament, the free entry and activity in the colonies of the Protestant
churches which so decided, so that evangelization was left to diverse missionary
societies (first Anglican, Baptist and Lutheran, later multi-denominational)
focused in the conversion of the educated classes, as Jesuits had done before
(Moffett 2006, Chapters 11, 12 and 13).
298
missiological method consisted of three stages: proclaim the Word, persuade (add
converts) and organize a native church based on translations of the Bible into the
various vernacular languages.
What was the semantics which so impetuously was intended to spread? It was a
semantics fueled by a salad of Wesleyan perfectionism and US holiness
movements, a Christian semantics with clear fundamentalist traits (Ornelas 2019).
By faith was understood the centrality and exclusivity of Christ as the only means
of salvation, whereas divine grace, sin and salvation by faith, as well as the
imperative of providing converts, occupied a primary role.
299
This new option had its effects in Mexico. It happened that the revolutionary
nationalist Mexican State (1935-1979) bought the new strategy in full and agreed
with US evangelical fundamentalism (Hartch 2006, Chapter 4). The solution of the
“Indian problem” in Mexico would now go through an evangelizing literacy
strategy. Indians would be taught to read in their tongues with the support given
by bibles in their own language. They were expected to take future interest in
reading and writing in Spanish. At least that is what linguists thought –“colonial
agents”, as Errington (2008, 4) calls them without further ado, specialized in
adapting European alphabets to the strange talk of colonized peoples.
The consequent option for bilingual education that this evangelizing literacy
strategy entailed was merely declarative. However, it forced the birth of
indigenismo and some institutions on which it would rely: Instituto de
Investigaciones Lingüísticas (IIL) of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
(UNAM), Academies of indigenous languages (Náhuatl, Otomí, Maya), Instituto
Indigenista Interamericano (III), and US linguists who were also fundamentalist
evangelical missionaries of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL).
The capture and surrender of Cuauhtémoc (1521) and Chief Joseph (1877),
Mexica and Nimíipuu (Nez Perce) chiefs, confronted with the defeat and eventual
extermination of their peoples, show a remarkable similarity in the way of
phrasing misfortune even when the narratives are separated by 350 years.
300
After the death of Moctezuma, stoned by the crowd, and the death of his
successor, Cuitláhuac, due to the smallpox plague that broke out in Tenochtitlan,
the last focus of Mexica opposition was left to Cuauhtémoc. The last resistance
took place in the neighborhood of Tlatelolco, where his capture and surrender
took place:
The moment he came in front of him, he showed submission, and Cortés with
joy embraced him and showed much love to him and his captains; and then
Guatémuz said to Cortés: “Señor Malinche, I have already done what I am
obliged to defend my city and vassals, I can not do it anymore; and then I
come by force imprisoned before your person and power, take that dagger
that you have on the belt and kill me with it”. And as he told him he cried
many tears and sobs, as did other great Señores who accompanied him (Díaz
del Castillo 1632, CLVI, 620).
In Chief Joseph’s case, as was the case with many of the Indian nations in the
United States, the final defeat comes under the persecution and siege of the US
army, in Montana, with winter on the doorstep and just over 60 kilometers from
the border with Canada, where they were going on the run. Chief Joseph’s words
are more than eloquent:
301
Referencias/ References
Chakravarti, Ananya. 2014. The Many Faces of Baltasar da Costa: imitatio and
accommodatio in the Seventeenth Century Madurai Mission. etnográfica 18 (1):
135-158.
302
Hartch, Todd. 2006. Missionaries of the State. The Summer Institute of
Linguistics, State Formation, and Indigenous Mexico, 1935-1985. Tuscaloosa:
University of Alabama Press.
Josephy, Alvin. 1964. Chief Joseph’s People and Their War. Bozeman:
Yellowstone Library and Museum Association. 22 pp.
https://ia803007.us.archive.org/23/items/chiefjosephspeop69jose/
chiefjosephspeop69jose.pdf (25 de diciembre de 2019).
Ornelas, Marco. 2018. Modern Religious Differentiation: The Latin Mass (1517-
1570). Mexico: Independently Published.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1790664047
303
Posfacio: Cristianismo y complejidad moderna
Resumen
Este artículo muestra la manera en que la teoría de sistemas sociales permite
estudiar la complejidad de la sociedad moderna. El texto trata de esclarecer las
relaciones entre sistemas según mi entendimiento de la teoría y su puesta en
práctica en la investigación sobre el programa cristiano del sistema religioso. La
utilización de la teoría es alimentada desde una actitud liberal y revisionista, de
manera que lo expuesto puede considerarse propiamente como la bitácora de
opciones de teoría realizadas con el fin de proporcionar explicaciones a
fenómenos culturales característicos de la modernidad tales como la
fragmentación extrema del protestantismo a partir del siglo xvi o el crecimiento
inusitado del protestantismo carismático en el Sur global (América Latina, África
y Asia) a partir de la segunda mitad del siglo xx.
Introducción
175 Particularmente cfr. Niklas Luhmann (2007) [1997]. La sociedad de la sociedad. México:
Herder/ Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA); Niklas Luhmann (1998) [1984]. Sistemas sociales.
Lineamientos para una teoría general. Barcelona: Anthropos/ UIA/ CEJA; y Niklas Luhmann
(2020) [1986]. Comunicación ecológica. ¿Puede la sociedad moderna responder a los peligros
ecológicos? México: UIA.
176 Cfr. los ensayos en este volumen, además de Marco Ornelas (2016). Evangélicos en la
Ciudad de México (CDMX). Diferenciación religiosa y cambio estructural (2014-2015) .
Saarbrücken: Editorial Académica Española; y Marco Ornelas (2016). La diferenciación
moderna de la religión: la misa latina (1517- 1570) . México: El Colegio de Sonora/ UIA.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315515524_La_diferenciacion_moderna_de_la_religio
n_la_misa_latina_1517-1570 (16 de octubre 2021).
304
puede considerarse propiamente como la bitácora de opciones de teoría realizadas
con el fin de proporcionar explicaciones a fenómenos culturales característicos de
la modernidad tales como la fragmentación extrema del protestantismo a partir del
siglo xvi o el crecimiento inusitado del protestantismo carismático en el Sur
global (América Latina, África y Asia) a partir de la segunda mitad del siglo xx.
El objetivo que persigue este texto es esclarecer las relaciones entre sistemas
según mi entendimiento de la teoría y su puesta en práctica en la investigación
sobre el programa cristiano del sistema religioso. Para ello será indispensable
echar mano de algunos conceptos básicos como el de complejidad, el de códigos y
programas sistémicos y el de resonancia y acoplamientos estructurales.
Complejidad
177 En especial con la capacidad de relación entre elementos del sistema. Cfr. Niklas Luhmann
(2007) [1997]. La sociedad de la sociedad, 102-103: “La ‘forma’ de la complejidad es el límite
de aquellos órdenes [sociales] en donde todavía es posible enlazar en todo instante cualquier
elemento con cualquier otro elemento. Todo orden situado más allá, se apoya en una selección y
produce con eso estados contingentes —que pueden ser de otra manera… La distinción
decisiva a este respecto es la de sistemas [sociales] que disponen de posibilidad de enlace
completo entre sus elementos y sistemas que disponen de posibilidad de enlace sólo selectivo”.
https://b-ok.lat/book/3697676/c92c3d (4 de noviembre 2020).
305
sistemas, por ejemplo, que el rey justifique su mandato con el beneplácito que
alguna deidad le ha otorgado, hacen de la política un ámbito autocontenido donde
el poder y sus mecanismos de obtención deben ser resueltos autónomamente.
178 La sociedad moderna construye sus relaciones de manera selectiva y contingente, esto es:
pudo tomar una forma distinta a la de facto observada. Cfr. Niklas Luhmann (1998) [1984].
Sistemas sociales, 48: “Complejidad… significa coacción a seleccionar. Coacción a seleccionar
significa contingencia, y contingencia significa riesgo. Cualquier estado complejo de cosas se
basa en una selección de las relaciones entre los elementos, los cuales, a la vez, son utilizados
para constituirse y conservarse. La selección sitúa y cualifica los elementos, aunque para éstos
fueran posibles otras relaciones. Designamos este ‘ser posible también de otro modo’ mediante
el término cargado de tradición de la contingencia. La contingencia avisa sobre la posibilidad de
fallo aún en la formación más favorable”.
179 Cfr. Niklas Luhmann (2007) [1997]. La sociedad de la sociedad, 661: “Mientras los
sistemas de interacción sólo pueden tomar en cuenta su entorno activando a los presentes e
interiorizando la diferencia de presente/ ausente, las organizaciones tienen además la posibilidad
de comunicarse con sistemas en su entorno. Constituyen el único tipo de sistema social que
dispone de esta posibilidad; si se quiere adquirirla hay que organizarse”.
180 Lapidariamente dicho desde la teoría de los sistemas organizacionales operativamente
clausurados, cfr. Niklas Luhmann (2010) [2000]. Organización y decisión. México: Herder/ UIA,
223: “Sólo por medio de decisiones se puede producir un futuro pronosticable. La absorción de
incertidumbre es un proceso de toma de decisiones”.
181 El concepto de deriva puede encontrarse en Jacek S. Podgórsky (2010). Humberto
Maturana’s View on the Theory of Evolution. From Autopoiesis to Natural Drift Metaphor.
Ecological Questions (13), 84-85: “¿Qué es la deriva natural y cómo caracteriza a la evolución?
Puesto que la dinámica del entorno puede ser errática, el resultado en términos de evolución es
una deriva natural determinada principalmente por la coherencia interna y la autonomía del
organismo vivo... La evolución no persigue ningún objetivo en particular, simplemente es dejada
a la deriva. El camino que elige no es, sin embargo, completamente al azar, pero es uno de los
muchos que están en armonía con la estructura interna de la unidad autopoiética. Estas
interacciones acopladas, acumuladas en el tiempo, dan una perspectiva histórica particular al
sistema autopoiético. Se convierte en un producto histórico, el resultado de una larga serie de
interacciones acopladas. La evolución no es un progreso, simplemente es una deriva”.
306
sistemas complejos reducen complejidad mediante selectividad y formación
institucional contingente. 182 Los parlamentos son contrucciones institucionales
contingentes que resuelven el problema del uso y distribución del poder en
sociedad sin tener que concitar el beneplácito de las iglesias.
La pregunta relevante desde un punto de vista tanto sociológico como histórico es:
¿qué sucesos detonan la clausura operativa de los distintos sistemas? Luhmann,
como en el caso del sistema religioso de la sociedad, sólo da indicaciones muy
182 Cfr. Niklas Luhmann (1989) [1986]. Ecological Communication. Chicago/ Cambridge: The
University of Chicago Press/ Polity Press, 11-12: “Para cualquier sistema el entorno es siempre
más complejo que el sistema mismo. Ningún sistema puede mantenerse a través de una
correlación punto-por-punto con su entorno: ningún sistema puede convocar la ‘variedad
requerida’ respecto de la complejidad del entorno. Cada sistema debe reducir la complejidad del
entorno, sobre todo percibiendo al entorno mismo como delimitado y preformado
categorialmente. Por otro lado, la diferencia sistema/ entorno es un requisito previo para la
reducción de la complejidad, ya que la reducción puede llevarse a cabo sólo dentro del sistema:
en referencia al sistema mismo y a lo que considera como entorno”.
https://b-ok.lat/book/960815/b44b2e (4 de noviembre 2020).
183 Tesis que de manera general apuntó Luhmann y que Jaap den Hollander ensaya abiertamente
para la Controversia sobre las Investiduras de los siglos xi y xii en el Prólogo a este volumen.
307
generales: la Edad Media tardía para la religión, el Renacimiento italiano para el
sistema del arte, la revolución francesa y la redacción de las primeras
constituciones políticas europeas para los sistemas de la política y el derecho, la
física newtoniana y la fundación de la Real Sociedad de Londres para el sistema
de la ciencia. 184
Si hemos de hacer caso a den Hollander, tendría que hacerse un esfuerzo por
distinguir la (primera) clausura autopoiética de los sistemas de su (segunda)
clausura reflexiva. La distancia histórica entre una y la otra se refiere a la
capacidad de (llana) operación autónoma de una parte y, de la otra, a la capacidad
de auto-representación de los sistemas y de generación de semánticas orientadoras
de las comunicaciones que procesan.
184 Cfr. respectivamente Niklas Luhmann (2009). Sociología de la religión. México: Herder/
UIA, 134-186; 272-282; Niklas Luhmann (2005) [1995]. El arte de la sociedad. México: Herder/
UIA, 223-308; Javier Torres (2004). Luhmann: la política como sistema. México: Fondo de
Cultura Económica (FCE)/ UIA/ FCPS-UNAM, 135-176; 380-402; Niklas Luhmann (2002)
[1993]. El derecho de la sociedad. México: UIA/ ITESO/ IIJ-UNAM, 93-179; 301-358; y Niklas
Luhmann (1996) [1990]. La ciencia de la sociedad. México: UIA/ Anthropos/ ITESO, 195-260;
389-433.
185 Cfr. Niklas Luhmann (2007) [1997]. La sociedad de la sociedad, 404-405: “Casi parece
normal que la emergencia de las adquisiciones evolutivas se ofrezca por medio de desarrollos
previos, mediante ‘preadaptive advances’ [avances preadaptativos], más aún parece que se ha
hecho posible por ellos. Ejemplos los podemos encontrar en las grandes adquisiciones de todos
los medios de comunicación… Los gremios o corporaciones, tan importantes para la adaptación
de la economía de la sociedad doméstica a la política citadina o territorial, surgieron antes como
hermandades religiosas, y sólo más tarde asumieron aquella función de mediación… A la
subrepticia introducción de novedades sirve de variadas formas la interpretación o también el
descubrimiento de las tradiciones. El ejemplo más notable quizás sea el de la Reforma
protestante”.
186 La adquisición evolutiva crucial que cristalizó avances preadaptativos en la comunicación
religiosa fue, como sabemos ahora, la imprenta de Gutemberg. Cfr. mi La diferenciación
moderna de la religión, 137-153. Los avances preadaptativos incluso han permitido refutar la
idea fundamentalista cristiana del diseño inteligente. Cfr. Stuart A. Kauffman (2008).
Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion . New York: Basic Books,
Cap. 10, 129-149. https://b-ok.lat/book/1128181/fefd4f (20 de noviembre 2020).
308
la clausura reflexiva como narración historizada del surgimiento de la
modernidad.
187 Cfr. Niklas Luhmann (1989) [1986]. Ecological Communication, 44: “La diferenciación
nunca se da como la descomposición de un conjunto dado de operaciones, sino como la
separación de subsistemas que operan bajo la dirección de un código dentro de la sociedad”.
188 Niklas Luhmann (1989) [1986]. Ecological Communication, 40.
309
Esta dinámica de restricción y ampliación puede ser ejemplificada con la historia
institucional del cristianismo. La espectacular ampliación del programa religioso
cristiano a partir del siglo iv sólo pudo darse a costa de cismas eclesiásticos
sucesivos que conllevaron a la irremediable fragmentación ritual y dogmática o,
dicho de otra manera, pudo darse gracias a la multiplicación de los programas del
cristianismo (la iglesia nestoriana en el año 431, las iglesias monofisitas no
calcedónicas —sirio-jacobita, armenia, copta y etíope— en el año 451, la iglesia
ortodoxa griega en el año 879 y las iglesias protestantes evangélicas a partir del
siglo xvi). 189 Es así que las diferenciaciones rituales, dogmáticas y eclesiásticas
experimentadas por el cristianismo pudieron haber jugado el papel de avances
preadaptativos de la comunicación religiosa en Medio Oriente, Asia Menor, la
costa mediterránea de África y Europa Occidental.
310
tipos de entornos: el físico-bionatural 192 (“el mundo”) y el entorno societal interno
(comunicativo) en donde los distintos sistemas sociales se constituyen en entorno
de sí mismos. La relación entre sistemas que interesa para esta explicación cae en
el segundo caso.
311
anglosajonas de corte religioso (iglesias protestantes variadas), educativo (las
universidades de Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, Columbia, e institutos y
seminarios bíblicos), gubernamental (la Oficina Colonial Británica, el
Departamento de Estado estadunidense, la CIA y la USAID) y hasta multinacional
(particularmente en latinoamérica el Instituto Indigenista Interamericano). 194
312
La ciencias sociales y humanidades sólo pueden aspirar a hacer recuentos
aproximados de los fenómenos que estudian. La comprensión aproximada que
pretenden, cuando la alcanzan, se logra siempre a toro pasado. De ahí a querer
predecir, modelar formalmente y querer hacer pasar este conocimiento como la
verdad de los evangelios, hay un largo trecho. Este parece ser el caso cuando la
complejidad de la sociedad moderna se estudia desde la teoría de los sistemas
sociales.
313
importantes como la banca central, la competencia económica, las
telecomunicaciones, los hidrocarburos y la energía—, pero que en realidad
sustraen decisiones económicas fundamentales de la ciudadanía para ponerlas en
manos de expertos. 197
197 Cfr. Philip Mirowsky & Dieter Plehwe, et al. Apuntes de sociología económica
(Neoliberalismo, econocracia y economía cooperativa). Marco Ornelas (Traductor y editor) .
México: Publicación independiente, 25-41.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344360316_Apuntes_de_sociologia_economica_Neolib
eralismo_econocracia_y_economia_cooperativa (13 de diciembre 2020).
198 Los órganos constitucionales autónomos en México y latinoamérica nacen por la debilidad
de los poderes tradicionales del Estado, por el déficit en el Estado de derecho y por influencias
neoliberales. Cfr. Jaime Cárdenas (2020). Soberanía popular vs. órganos constitucionales
autónomos. Poderes tradicionales y órganos constitucionales autónomos , Miguel López
(coord.), México: IIJ-UNAM, 3-26. https://tinyurl.com/s8ry4fb (26 de noviembre 2020).
199 Para esta lectura de crisis cíclicas de los mercados económicos cfr. Bas van Bavel (2016).
The Invisible Hand? How Market Economies Have Emerged and Declined since AD 500. Oxford:
314
Me han cuestionado con frecuencia sobre la utilidad que podría tener el estudio
del cristianismo haciendo uso de la teoría de sistemas sociales. Si en estas páginas
he logrado esclarecer un marco conceptual útil para la reconstrucción
sociohistórica de la complejidad moderna —combinación plausible de teoría
sociológica con historia cultural— contestaría sin dudarlo que definitivamente
valió la pena.
315
Postface: Christianity and Modern Complexity
Abstract
This article shows how the theory of social systems allows us to study the
complexity of modern society. The text tries to clarify the relations between
systems according to my understanding of the theory and its implementation in
research on the Christian program of the religious system. The use of the theory is
fed from a liberal and revisionist attitude so that the exposition can properly be
considered as the log of theory options made in order to provide explanations to
cultural phenomena characteristic of modernity such as the extreme fragmentation
of Protestantism from the 16th century or the unusual growth of charismatic
Protestantism in the global South (Latin America, Africa, and Asia) from the
second half of the 20th century.
Introduction
This article shows how the theory of social systems allows us to study the
complexity of modern society. 200 The itinerary of the argumentation has been
considerably simplified although, in contrast, it has been amply illustrated with
the research on Christianity that I have undertaken in the last ten years. 201
It is important to establish that this use of the theory is fed from a liberal and
revisionist attitude so that what is exposed below can properly be considered as
the log of theory options made in order to provide explanations to cultural
phenomena characteristic of modernity such as the extreme fragmentation of
Protestantism from the 16th century onwards or the unusual growth of charismatic
200 Particularly cfr. Niklas Luhmann (2013, 2012) [1997]. Theory of Society, Vols. 1 & 2.
Stanford: Stanford University Press; Niklas Luhmann (1995) [1984]. Social Systems. Stanford:
Stanford University Press; and Niklas Luhmann (1989) [1986]. Ecological Communication.
Chicago/ Cambridge: The University of Chicago Press/ Polity Press.
201 Cfr. essays in this volume; also Marco Ornelas (2018). Evangelicalism in Mexico City:
Religious Differentiation and Structural Change (2014-2015) . Mexico: Independently Published;
and Marco Ornelas (2018). Modern Religious Differentiation: The Latin Mass (1517-1570) .
Mexico: Independently Published.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329374631_Modern_Religious_Differentiation_The_La
tin_Mass_1517-1570 (November 16, 2020).
316
Protestantism in the global South (Latin America, Africa, and Asia) from the
second half of the 20th century.
The objective of this text is to clarify the relations between systems according to
my understanding of the theory and its implementation in research on the
Christian program of the religious system. For this, it will be essential to make
use of some basic concepts such as complexity, systemic codes and programs, and
resonance and structural couplings.
Complexity
202 In special with the ability of elements of the system to relate to each other. Cfr. Niklas
Luhmann (2012) [1997]. Theory of Society, Vol. 1, 79: “The ‘form’ of complexity is the
boundary to orders in which it is still possible to connect every element with every other element
at any time. Everything that goes beyond this is based on selection, thus generating contingent
states (states otherwise possible)... The key distinction is now between systems with complete
interconnection between elements and those with only selective interconnection”.
https://b-ok.lat/book/2643651/94f25c (November 4, 2020).
317
Second, that modern society is a society which operates selectively and, therefore,
contingently. 203 Operationally closed social systems necessarily build a wide
margin of indifference to events that occur in their environment. The stabilization
of contingent social orders is achieved with the creation of institutions 204 which,
while remaining entirely contingent, henceforth establish conditions of
communicative plausibility, 205 something that I have dared to call systemic drift. 206
Finally, the concept of complexity takes the system/ environment distinction for
granted, and also that the environment is always more complex than the system.
Complex systems reduce complexity through selectivity and contingent
institutional conformation. 207 Parliaments are contingent institutional
203 Modern society builds its relations selectively and contingently, that is: it could have taken
a different form from the de facto observed. Cfr: Niklas Luhmann (1995) [1984]. Social Systems,
25: “Complexity… means being forced to select; being forced to select means contingency; and
contingency means risk. Every complex state of affairs is based on a selection of relations
among its elements, which it uses to constitute and maintain itself. The selection positions and
qualifies the elements, although other relations would have been possible. We borrow the
tradition-laden term ‘contingency’ to designate this ‘also being possible otherwise’. It alludes,
too, to the possibility of failing to achieve the best possible formation”.
https://b-ok.lat/book/1166656/09b17e (November 4, 2020).
204 Cfr. Niklas Luhmann (2013) [1997]. Theory of Society, Vol. 2, 145: “Whereas interaction
systems can take account of their environment only by activating present participants and only
by internalizing the difference between present and absent, organizations have the additional
possibility of communicating with systems in their environment . They are the only type of social
system that has this possibility, and whoever wishes to achieve this has to organize”.
https://b-ok.lat/book/2643652/1e0c65 (November 4, 2020).
205 Overwhelmingly said from the theory of operationally closed organizational systems, cfr.
Niklas Luhmann (2018) [2000]. Organization and Decision. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 149: “Only by means of decisions can a forecastable future be produced. Uncertainty
absorption is a decision process”.
206 The concept of drift can be found in Jacek S. Podgórsky (2010). Humberto Maturana’s View
on the Theory of Evolution. From Autopoiesis to Natural Drift Metaphor. Ecological Questions
(13), 84-85: “What is natural drift and how does it characterize evolution? Since the dynamics of
the environment may be erratic, the result in terms of evolution is a natural drift, determined
primarily by the inner coherence and autonomy of the living organism… Evolution does not
pursue any particular aim —it simply drifts. The path it chooses is not, however, completely
random, but is one of many that are in harmony with the inner structure of the autopoietic unit.
These coupled interactions, accumulated over time, give a particular historical perspective to the
autopoietic system. It becomes a historical product, the result of a long series of coupled
interactions. Evolution is not progress, it is simply drift”.
207 Cfr. Niklas Luhmann (1989) [1986]. Ecological Communication, 11-12: “For any system,
the environment is always more complex than the system itself. No system can maintain itself by
means of a point-to-point correlation with its environment, i. e., can summon enough ‘requisite
variety’ to match its environment. So each one has to reduce environmental complexity —
primarily by restricting the environment itself and perceiving it in a categorically preformed
way. On the other hand, the difference of system and environment is a prerrequisite for the
reduction of complexity because reduction can be performed only within the system, both for the
system itself and its environment”. https://b-ok.lat/book/960815/b44b2e (November 4, 2020).
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constructions that solve the problem of the use and distribution of power in
society without having to elicit the approval of churches.
One possible reason for this was the universalist and translocal —protocolonial—
character of organized Christianity from its origins (Christian patriarchates with
their own jurisdiction and distinctive dogmatics), as well as the early constitution
of an ecclesiastical hierarchy (parish priest, presbyter, bishop, metropolitan) and
highly centralized institutional forms of coordination (church synods and
councils). This led to an unparalleled institutional development in Christian
communication which was accentuated with the fall of the Western Roman Empire
from the 5th century.
The relevant question from both a sociological and historical point of view is:
what events trigger the operational closure of the different systems? Luhmann, as
in the case of the religious system of society, only gives very general indications:
the late Middle Ages for religion, the Italian Renaissance for the art system, the
French Revolution and the drafting of the first European political constitutions for
the systems of politics and law, Newtonian physics and the foundation of the
Royal Society of London for the system of science. 209
208 Luhmann pointed out this thesis in a general way, and Jaap den Hollander openly rehearses
it for the 11th and 12th centuries Investiture Controversy in the Foreword to this volume.
209 Cfr. respectively Niklas Luhmann (1984) [1977]. Religious Dogmatics and the Evolution of
Societies. New York/ Toronto: The Edwin Mellen Press, 49-93; Niklas Luhmann (2000) [1995].
Art as a Social System. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 133-184; Javier Torres (2004).
Luhmann: la política como sistema. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE)/ UIA/ FCPS-
UNAM, 135-176; 380-402; Niklas Luhmann (2004) [1993]. Law as a Social System. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 76-141; 230-273; and Niklas Luhmann (1996) [1990]. La ciencia de la
sociedad. México: UIA/ Anthropos/ ITESO, 195-260; 389-433.
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If den Hollander is to be heeded, an effort would have to be made to distinguish
systems (first) autopoietic closure from their (second) reflexive closure. The
historical distance between one and the other refers to the capacity for (flat)
autonomous operation on the one hand and, on the other, to systems self-
representation capacity and the generation of guiding semantics of the
communications they process.
It is also likely that preadaptive advances 210 —differentiating basic elements more
compatible with greater complexity— were piling up between the first closure and
the reflexive closure, awaiting to become critical for significant structural
changes. 211 Therefore, several systemic monographic (socio-historical)
investigations are to be expected at elucidating the reflexive closure as a
historicized narrative of the emergence of modernity.
210 Cfr. Niklas Luhmann (2012). Theory of Society, Vol. 1, 309-310: “It appears to be almost the
norm that the emergence of evolutionary advances is favored, indeed enabled in the first place
by predevelopments, by ‘preadaptive advances’. Major achievements in all communication media
offer examples… The guilds, so important for adapting the household economy to municipal or
to territorial politics, came into being as religious fraternities and only later assumed this
mediating function… The interpretation and also the invention of traditions often serve in the
unrecognized introduction of innovations. Perhaps the most famous example is the Protestant
Reformation”.
211 The crucial evolutionary advance which crystallized preadaptive advances in religious
communication was, as we now know, the Gutenberg printing press. Cfr. my Modern Religious
Differentiation, 171-187. Preadaptive advances have even made it possible to disprove the
fundamentalist Christian idea of intelligent design. Cfr. Stuart A. Kauffman (2008). Reinventing
the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion . New York: Basic Books, Chap. 10,
129-149. https://b-ok.lat/book/1128181/fefd4f (November 20, 2020).
212 Cfr. Niklas Luhmann (1989) [1986]. Ecological Communication, 44: “Differentiation never
occurs as a decomposition of a given set of operations, but as the separation of subsystems
operating under the direction of a code within society”.
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In addition to differentiating, social systems must be able to create
interdependencies; this restriction and expansion of resonance is resolved with the
code/ program distinction:
The difference of code and criteria for correct operations (or of coding and
programming) makes possible the combination of closure and openness in
the same system. In reference to its code, the system operates as a closed
system; every value like ‘true’ or ‘false’ refers to its respective counter-
value alone and never to other, external values. But at the same time, the
programming of the system makes it possible to bring external data to light,
i. e., to fix the conditions under which one or the other value is posited. The
more abstract and technical the coding, the richer the multiplicity of the
(internal) operations with which the system can operate as closed and open at
the same time, i. e., to react to internal and external conditions. One can also
designate this as an increase in resonance capacity. 213
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In its relations with politics, for example, Christian religious semantics from
Constantine the Great will be characterized as Caesaropapism 215 and only after the
launch of the Crusades in the 11th century will the Roman patriarchate aspire to
turn the situation on its head with a universalist theocracy in the institutional
(primacy of the Roman patriarchate in a hierarchical structure of patriarchates:
Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem), and insisting on a
hegemonic Christian semantics: the traditional Roman Orthodox Trinitarian
theology (and Christology) versus its Nestorian, Monophysite, Greek Orthodox
and Lutheran, Calvinist, and other Reformed Protestant variations.
Thus, we come to the last piece of explanation of how social systems are related
to each other. The concept of resonance serves to describe system/ environment
relations, 216 although it should be noted that two types of environments can be
distinguished: the physical-bionatural 217 (“the world”) and the internal societal
(communicative) environment where different social systems become an
environment to themselves. The relations between systems that are of interest for
this explanation falls into the second case.
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The institutional dimension of system/ environment relations is approached
through the concept of structural coupling. 218 For example, the Treasury and
central banking can be seen as a coupling between politics and economics when
determining taxes, levies, and interest rates. Universities are a coupling of science
and the educational system by providing research publications in different areas of
science as well as opportunities for (Bible) teaching with interaction in classrooms
and (biblical) seminars. Even parliaments themselves can be seen as organizations
that couple politics with a variety of issues related to law, science, economics, and
religion.
In the Mexican case, the arrival of Catholicism occurred through the process of
Spanish colonization for three centuries (1521-1821). Traditional Protestantism
(Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians) did not arrive until the last
quarter of the 19th century thanks to the Reformation and (French) Intervention
wars between liberals and conservatives (1857-1867) and began to spread in its
charismatic version during the six-year term of former President Lázaro Cárdenas
(1934-1940) and thanks to the help of institutions such as the Secretariat of Public
Education, the Institute of Linguistic Research of the National Autonomous
218 Cfr. Niklas Luhmann (2013) [1997]. Theory of Society, Vol. 2, 109: “In fact, all functional
systems are interlinked and held in society by structural couplings”.
219 Cfr. chapters 4 and 7 in this volume.
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University of Mexico and the Summer Institute of Linguistics-Wycliffe Bible
Translators (SIL-WBT). 220
These developments did not respond in any way to an anticipated design, but were
contingently constituted in conditions of modern societal complexity and in
response to the mutual observations between the religious program of evangelical
fundamentalism and the scientific program of natural religion (or science of
religion). Modern society complexity is always conformed to the step, deciding in
each case according to the circumstances of the moment (the 20th century two
world wars in between!).
The social sciences and humanities can only hope to make rough accounts of the
phenomena they study. The approximate understanding they seek, when achieved,
is always in the ex-post mode. From there to trying to predict, formally model,
and want to pass this knowledge off as the truth of the gospels, there is a long
way. This seems to be the case when the complexity of modern society is studied
from social systems theory.
It is not for nothing that the problem of institutional design has become
increasingly relevant in the social sciences. 221 Social systems theory provides a
high-caliber conceptual architecture —complexity, systemic code and programs,
and resonance and structural couplings— that may well help envision the
possibilities and scope of planning and intervention in specific social systems.
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Modern society is plagued by systemic agents with well-defined agendas, but if
we consider the image of societal complexity provided by the theory, it would
lead us to question whether someone really manages to see its agenda fully
realized. However, systemic drifts persist and constitute the blessing of
conservatism and the main obstacle of social reformers.
Systems drifts are established with the help of organizations, that is, they are
maintained by force of decisions. Would not it be better to give up deciding or, if
it is essential to do so in certain cases, decide and then periodically submit the
decisions taken to a revocation referendum? Think of the benefits of getting rid in
Mexico of the institutional fauna of “autonomous” constitutional institutions
which contribute little to the objectives for which they were created —in matters
as important as central banking, economic competition, telecommunications,
gasolines, and energy—, but in reality subtract fundamental economic decisions
from the citizenship to put them in the hands of experts. 222
222 Cfr. Joe Earle, Cahal Moran & Zach Ward-Perkins (2017). The econocracy. The perils of
leaving economics to the experts. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 24-61.
https://b-ok.lat/book/2886270/e7e466 (December 25, 2020).
223 Autonomous constitutional institutions in Mexico and Latin America are born by the
weakness of the traditional State powers, by the deficit in the rule of law, and by neoliberal
influences. Cfr. Jaime Cárdenas (2020). Soberanía popular vs. órganos constitucionales
autónomos. Poderes tradicionales y órganos constitucionales autónomos , Miguel López
(coord.), México: IIJ-UNAM, 3-26. https://tinyurl.com/s8ry4fb (November 26, 2020).
325
institutionalism do, here we follow the hypothesis that economic markets are
subject to cyclical crises. Although they can initially generate welfare, those who
have power in markets are concerned with perpetuating it and, if necessary,
creating an institutional framework favorable to their dominant position in them.
We deal here with the birth of economic oligarchies and their entrenchment in
state institutions with the inevitable consequence of concentration of power, social
polarization, and eventual crisis and general welfare decline. 224
I have been frequently asked how useful the study of Christianity could be
utilizing social systems theory. If in these pages I have managed to elucidate a
useful conceptual framework for the socio-historical reconstruction of modern
complexity —a plausible combination of sociological theory with cultural history
— I would answer without hesitation that it was definitely worth it.
224 For this cyclical crises reading of economic markets cfr. Bas van Bavel (2016). The
Invisible Hand? How Market Economies Have Emerged and Declined since AD 500. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1-40. https://b-ok.lat/book/5152470/8f2a0a (November 24, 2020).
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Sobre el autor/ About the Author
Marco Ornelas
Sociologist and translator born in Mexico City. Among his academic areas of
interest are the sociology of religion, the sociological theories of communication,
the comparative study of religions and cultures, and in general the relations
between social theory and history.
Email: marcornelas60@gmail.com
mo/16.10.2021
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