Philosophizing from distance: Experience, Modernity, and Critiques of European Theology from Antônio Vieira

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the criticisms made by Antônio Vieira against European theologians on themes from the Americas. At a certain point in his latest work, the Clavis Prophetarum, the Portuguese Jesuit developed profound inquiries into theology and the theologians who wrote from Europe about matters from the Americas. On the one hand, his criticisms could be seen as mere rhetorical devices of the skilled orator Antônio Vieira. On the other hand, they could be interpreted as a pre-emptive critique of Eurocentric positioning. Unlike these interpretations, the purpose of this article is to make Vieira's critique of European theology understandable based on his biographical-intellectual trajectory and the theological language of his time. We will approach his criticism in three aspects: the temporal, the spatial, and the theological. With this, we aim to comprehensively understand what it meant to criticize European theologians in the 17th century from Vieira’s perspective.