Can Christianity face its history of colonialism honestly?
By Will Bourne · Question 90
The direct answer
It must. Christian people and institutions have participated in and helped justify colonial harm. Naming that does not require claiming that every Christian acted identically. It does require more than saying the perpetrators were not real Christians and closing the subject.
Fuller explanation
We should identify the particular place, institution, policy, teaching, and people affected. Colonial histories are not one interchangeable story. A responsible account needs records and the voices of affected communities, not only the institution’s preferred summary.
One concrete acknowledgment appears in the Vatican’s March 2023 statement on the doctrine of discovery. It recognizes evil acts by Christians against Indigenous peoples and inadequacies in particular papal documents regarding their equal dignity and rights. It repudiates concepts within the doctrine of discovery that deny Indigenous human rights. That is an institutional statement to examine, not a complete history or proof that repair is finished.
Christians may point to others who resisted domination. Their work matters, but it does not cancel the responsibility of people and institutions that enabled it. A record of both resistance and complicity is more honest than a story in which Christianity is always either rescuer or sole cause.
Theological examination matters too. Were ideas about conversion, authority, land, or cultural superiority used to support domination? If so, explaining what has changed requires addressing those ideas and their consequences, not merely condemning cruelty in general.
A credible response listens to what affected people identify as necessary repair, evaluates specific obligations, and does not make renewed trust the price of being heard. A ministry should avoid promising remedies it has neither authority nor resources to provide.
The objection we still need to face
If the religion helped authorize the harm why separate it from the institutions?
The relationship must be investigated rather than separated by definition. A teaching may have been misapplied, may itself need correction, or may reveal a deeper dispute about authority. A Christian account needs to establish which explanation fits the case. Invoking Jesus without examining the enabling teaching is incomplete.
Scripture and its use
Mark 10:42–45; James 2:1–9; Matthew 7:3–5. Historical source: Vatican joint statement on the doctrine of discovery, March 30 2023, https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/03/30/230330b.html .
Read these passages in their surrounding chapters alongside the explanation.