Tradition and Modernity in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Iberia and the Iberian American Colonies

Beatriz Helena Domingues

Departing from discussion on the different insertion of Iberian countries and England into the “Western Modernity” in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this paper intends to show that by thinking in terms of “modernities” we will be better able to understand a number of societies—such as Latin America—often accused of not being modern enough. We are terming this situation a “medieval modernity” because of its option to modernize medieval Thomism instead of embracing modern philosophy and science. This Iberian way of being modern can be found also in the writings of colonial Iberian America, although assuming a different shape. The writings of Antonio Viera, a Portuguese/ Brazilian Jesuit, are here used to illustrate this accommodation of tradition to modernity in seventeenth-century Portugal and Brazil. [WP# 98029]