Abstract

YUNES VINCKE, Estefanía. The Doctrina christiana en lengua mexicana of Fray Pedro de Gante: a Pedagogical Tool for the New World. Estud. hist. novohisp [online]. 2018, n.59, pp.111-137.  Epub Nov 06, 2020. ISSN 2448-6922.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iih.24486922e.2018.59.63118.

The present article examines one of the first Christian pedagogic texts written in Nahuatl: the Doctrina Christiana (1547, 1553) by Friar Pedro de Gante. Throughout these pages I will examine the Doctrina as a pedagogic tool aimed to a Nahua pipiltin audience who required a more complex Christian instruction. The content and the quality of the work seem to indicate that Gante intended to use his Doctrina as a tool to establish the foundation of a Nahua clergy. In this way the Doctrina can be interpreted not only as a display of the ingenuity and agency of Gant to solve complex pedagogical problems, but it also reveals the notions the friar held in relation to the intellectual abilities of his students. In this way, the Doctrina can be seen as a political declaration of the friar in a period in which the notion of an indigenous clergy was being hotly debated.

Keywords : evangelization; Christian pedagogic texts; Nahuatl; cultural contact; Nahua clergy; missionaries.

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