Mapping the Doctrine of Discovery

The Mapping the Doctrine of Discovery podcast, hosted by Philip P. Arnold and Sandy Bigtree (Mohawk Nation), critically examines the historical and ongoing impacts of the Doctrine of Christian Discovery. Rooted in 15th-century papal edicts, this doctrine provided theological and legal justification for European colonialism, the seizure of Indigenous lands, and the subjugation of non-Christian peoples. The podcast explores how these principles became codified in U.S. law, from Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823) to Sherrill v. Oneida (2005), and continue to underpin contemporary legal, religious, and corporate frameworks. Featuring discussions with scholars, legal experts, and Indigenous leaders, the series sheds light on how this doctrine fuels environmental destruction, economic exploitation, and cultural genocide while also highlighting Indigenous resistance and calls for justice, land restoration, and the repudiation of these colonial structures. https://podcast.doctrineofdiscovery.org/

Guest

Richard J. Callahan, Jr.

Dr. Richard J. Callahan, Jr., is interested in the intersections of religion, cultures of work, natural resource extraction, and comparative studies of religions and globalization. He received his PhD in Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his MA in Folklore and Folklife Studies at Western Kentucky University. Dr. Callahan is the author of Work and Faith in the Kentucky Coal Fields: Subject to Dust, and editor of New Territories, New Perspectives: The Religious Impact of the Louisiana Purchase and The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Religion and Popular Culture. His latest research explores a religious history of the nineteenth-century American whaling industry and its global networks of exchange in the spaces of the ocean.

https://www.gonzaga.edu/college-of-arts-sciences/faculty-listing/detail/callahan

Guest appearance on:

Defending Mother Earth from The Doctrine of Christian Discovery #NoKings