1. Introduction. International relations beyond Westphalia; Part I. The New World Crucible of Infidel Rights: 2. Theocratic world order and religious wars; 3. Spanish Dominicans and the 'affair of the Indies'; 4. The politics of natural law at Valladolid, 1550–1551; Part II. God, Empires, and International Society: 5. From infidels to savages: empires of commerce and natural rights; 6. The scholastic law of nations, native occupation, and human solidarity.
Examines early modern Spanish contributions to international relations by focusing on ambivalence of natural rights in European colonial expansion to the Americas.
David M. Lantigua is Assistant Professor of Moral Theology and Christian Ethics at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. He was previously a faculty member at The Catholic University of America and was a former graduate fellow at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study. He co-authored, with Darrell Fasching and Dell deChant, Comparative Religious Ethics: A Narrative Approach to Global Ethics, 2nd edition (2011). He is also co-editor of Bartolomé de las Casas and the Defense of Amerindian Rights: A Brief History with Documents (2020), part of the Atlantic Crossings series.
'In this beautifully written and exhaustively researched book,
David Lantigua demonstrates the importance of sixteenth-century
Spanish theological debates about the conquest of the New World for
the subsequent development of international order and international
law. Lantigua expertly reconstructs these debates, culminating in
the Valladolid junta where Sepúlveda and Las Casas debated the
justice of subjugating infidels for the purpose of spreading the
Christian faith. In doing so, he uncovers theological arguments
both for and against imperial conquest that would profoundly shape
European thought and practice for centuries to come.' Luke
Glanville, author of Sharing Responsibility: The History and Future
of Protection from Atrocities
'For long, the emergence of modern international relations has been
seen essentially a universal, secular affair. Yet the first Western
community with global aspirations was the Catholic Church and the
earliest, and for some time the most influential, theorists of
international relations and international law were the theologians.
David Lantigua has written a powerfully compelling, wide-ranging
and immensely erudite account of how these men, in particular the
Dominicans of the so-called 'School of Salamanca', in their
struggle to understand, legitimate and control the spread of
Christianity through empire, raised so many of the intellectual
concerns that still determine how we think about our global
inter-connected world.' Anthony Pagden, author of The Burdens of
Empire: 1539 to the Present
'The dark truth about conceptions of human rights is that they have
been used both to include and to exclude those deemed worthy of
membership in the human family. Infidels and Empires in a New World
Order exposes the ways in which theological understandings of the
distinct rights of infidels within Latin Christendom provided a key
- and inadequately recognized - conceptual model for the rights of
native peoples in the New World, sometimes in order to legitimate
their political dispossession, but also, importantly, in order to
defend their religious and political freedom over against imperial
ambitions. In shifting our attention away from the Peace of
Westphalia to theological debates that took place more than a
century earlier at Valladolid, Lantigua's study makes a vital
contribution to a more adequate understanding of the complex
character of early modern international law. Jennifer A. Herdt,
author of Forming Humanity: Redeeming the German Bildung
Tradition
'… Lantigua's excellent book offers a productive and stimulating
new reading of numerous well-known texts. The quality of the
research and analysis is superb, and the resulting interpretation
enlightening. Infidels and Empires will be indispensable for those
interested in the intellectual history of early modern European
debates on non-Christians' political status within a global
community of humankind, and the important role these discussions
played in the evolution of ideas about international order.' Andrew
W. Devereux, Journal of Church and State
'Infidels and Empires is a volume that returns to a classic theme
and develops it with a vision of its own and an original
perspective that includes firm legal knowledge and exhaustive
theological scholarship … a particularly interesting'. Jose Javier
Ruiz Ibanez, Hispanic American Historical Review
'… Lantigua's story of the Spanish protest is a magnificent one,
told with effective detail. It halted the public policy of one
nation and challenged the terms on which all Europe understood
itself … Lantigua has thrown into highest relief the achievement of
a concerted theological movement of moral and intellectual
passion.' Oliver O'Donovan, Studies in Christian Ethics
'… His book has much to offer by way of intellectual historical
analysis, moral theological reflection and political theoretical
engagement. It is impeccably argued for with great conceptual
depths and historical sensitivity. It is a must for any student,
scholar or committed layperson, who is interested in questions
about international legal thought, intellectual history and the
legacy of empire.' Camilla Boisen, Global Intellectual History
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