Europe’s Wars Stem from Colonial Legacy: How Christian Narratives Both Fuel and Could Heal Imperialist Mindsets
Original framing: “Pope urges Europe to draw from Christian roots to confront thirst for domination driving wars - AP News” — AP News (via Google News)
The headline ignores how the 'thirst for domination' is a direct legacy of the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which institutionalized state sovereignty as a tool for European expansion. Christian theology was not just a passive observer but an active participant in this project—from the Papal Bulls sanctioning the transatlantic slave trade to the 19th-century 'civilizing mission' that justified colonial wars. The current framing erases how these historical patterns persist in modern interventions, such as the 2003 Iraq War, which was framed as a 'humanitarian' mission but was driven by resource control.
The Pope’s appeal to 'Christian roots' to counter domination is a classic example of how religious narratives are repurposed to maintain moral authority while obscuring structural violence.
The headline’s framing erases the fact that European Christianity was not a passive observer but an active architect of colonial domination—from the transatlantic slave trade to the 20th-century wars of decolonization. What appears as a spiritual crisis is actually a systemic failure: the unchecked power of nation-states, militarized capitalism, and the arms trade, which have turned 'domination' into a self-perpetuating cycle. Solutions require confronting this history—not through selective theological revival—but through debt jubilees, truth commissions, and energy democracy. The trickster’s role here is to expose the hypocrisy: a Vatican that once burned heretics now positioning itself as a peacemaker while its investments fuel the very conflicts it claims to oppose. The path forward lies in centering marginalized voices—from Sahrawi resistance to Māori guardianship—and dismantling the material structures that reproduce domination, not just invoking faith as a bandage.