October 20, 2022
“We citizens of the United States rarely consider our colonial heritage—and when we do, we romanticize it. That romanticizing conceals complex and entangled motivations, and unquestioned and sometimes faulty assumptions.”
Those words from M. Shawn Copeland, Ph.D., Professor Emerita of Systematic Theology, the Department of Theology and the Program in African and African Diaspora Studies at Boston College, were the cornerstone of her lecture, “Competing and Challenging Visions of Freedom and Social Life,” held on October 13 in St. Thomas More Church on St. John’s University’s Queens, NY, campus.
Dr. Copeland has been selected as this year’s holder of the St. John’s University Vincentian Chair of Social Justice; the theme for her lecture series is “Visions of Freedom: A Political Theology for Our Time.” She will present three more lectures on similar topics throughout the 2022–23 academic year.
“What motivates these lectures is an effort to put forward a sober and humble assessment of our past, the present which our past has made, and the future which we are making in this present,” Dr. Copeland told her audience.
She added that her lecture was designed to uncover historic conflicts, oppressions, and suffering that weigh down “noble and inspiring visions of freedom.” In it, she sketched the encounters of the Indigenous peoples and settler colonists and the planter class and the enslaved peoples.
“Critical reflection on these encounters uncovers those competing, changing, and clashing visions of freedom and social living that have contributed substantively to the making of a nation,” Dr. Copeland remarked.
“This invention drastically and dramatically altered the lands, cultures, and the lives of millions of human beings, as well as that of our species.”
Invasion, settler colonialism, exploitation, violence, dehumanization, genocide, enslavement, and white supremacy are the consequences of this commercialism, Dr. Copeland stressed. The empires of Europe claimed dominion over the New World as the “fruits of discovery,” she noted, adding that European powers relied on several Papal edicts to justify the colonization of Indigenous peoples termed as pagans. Ostensibly their mandate was to convert the Indigenous peoples.
“Colonization is never just economic exploitation,” Dr. Copeland explained. “It is the destruction or erasure of culture, language, history, identity, and humanity.”
Prior to the lecture, a group of students had dinner with Dr. Copeland in the D’Angelo Center for a more in-depth discussion of the topics in her lecture.
Biomedical Sciences major Madison King, who gave the student welcome for Dr. Copeland’s lecture, was impressed by the breadth of her knowledge on so many social justice issues. “She delved so deeply into the history behind each topic, which allowed me a much deeper understanding.”
“One of the main takeaways I took from our discussion with Dr. Copeland was how I think about myself,” said Breanna Smith, a graduate student in the Master of Science in Entrepreneurship and Innovation program. “Change has to start from within. If you want to help others, you have to help yourself first. When I have a better understanding of my personal goals, I can better help others.”
Joella Paccione, a Business major, said, “Dr. Copeland is so eloquent and inspiring. As a young person, it’s obvious I have so much yet to learn in life. You don’t realize what you don’t know, and speaking with her made me understand the importance of listening to people like her.”
“Politics and theology are forces that influence the climate of our country and the conversation at a University—particularly a Catholic one,” noted Rev. Patrick J. Griffin, C.M. ’13HON, Executive Director, Vincentian Center for Church and Society.
He added, “Dr. Copeland will speak about ‘political theology’ during her time as the Vincentian Chair. Her analysis ranges across the history of our country from its founding to ‘critical race theory.’ Her promise promotes the building of one lecture upon another as she begins to explore the clash of freedom between Indigenous peoples and settler colonists, and planters and enslaved people. In the end, she hopes to provide us with a vision of what it means to be church.”