Resonance of Bartolome de las Casas' Thoughts in Leonardo Boff's Theology

This article examines Leonardo Boff's social-Trinitarian theology, developed within Latin American Liberation Theology, which reinterprets the Trinity through the lens of communion and perichoresis rather than classical Western notions of divine substance. Boff presents the Trinity as a critique of authoritarian, patriarchal, capitalist, and clericalist power structures, and as a summons to egalitarian human community reflecting divine communion among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The article then traces resonances of this theology in the sixteenth-century writings and missionary praxis of Bartolome de las Casas, who defended the personhood, equality, and salvation of the Indians of the New World. The author argues that de las Casas anticipated key liberationist themes—starting theology from the experience of the oppressed, pursuing justice and reconciliation, and affirming universal salvation offered in freedom—that later find fuller articulation in Boff's Trinity and Society.