Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day 2025 Notes


1:44 PM Tuesday.

Here are my notes from 12-13 October 2025.

Thread 1 Link:


Thread 1 Questions:

  • How is Christopher Columbus generally viewed on campus these days?
  • Have any Italian American scholars addressed how to be critical of the dark side of Columbus and globalization while also recognizing the accomplishments and the positives, including for the Italian diaspora?
  • Was the transatlantic voyage of Columbus a stunning technical achievement considered in isolation?
  • Was Columbus a man of his time and culture or was any of his behavior considered criminal by theologians of the time?
  • Did he go on a trial of some kind? What was the ruling of the Court or Crown and what happened to him?
  • Did Columbus dispute the charges against him? On what grounds?
  • Did Bobadilla become Governor?
  • What do modern legal analysts make of the case? Is it possible the charges against Columbus were indeed exaggerated for a political reason?
  • Did Columbus have any political leadership experience prior to his appointment as Governor? Why did the Crown put a navigator in charge?
  • Does Columbus Day on October 12 primarily celebrate his amazing maritime accomplishment or his tragic failures as an administrator? Do most Italians and Italian Americans tend to separate the two?
  • It sounds like changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day could mean facing a lot of repressed trauma. Have any scholars talked about how to help America effectively have that national conversation, on the one hand, without exposing a vulnerability to authoritarian geopolitical rivals on the other hand?
  • Is this a conversation that Republicans need to take the lead on, too? Does it need to be bipartisan to work, i.e., to promote real healing and unity? Do both sides of the aisle really need to hear what each other is feeling and thinking, or is it about one side winning a debate?

Thread 2 Link:


Thread 2 Questions:

  • The relationship between globalization and Christianity seems complex but is it fair to say that they are deeply interrelated?
  • In what sense is Christianity an indigenous Jewish faith, and in what sense is it a cosmopolitan Gentile faith? Is cosmopolitan the proper contrast to indigenous?
  • When was circumnavigation of the globe first documented in world history, and how was this moment iconized in Christian art and political theology?
  • Is it credible to argue that a Jewish Messiah gave birth to Christian Empire which in turn gave birth to the UN Charter and the Common Era, with all of its current strengths and problems?
  • These are important criticisms, but I can see how a nuanced version of the original thesis could sensitively take all of these criticisms on board and respond to them with good theology and in good political practice. Is there any evidence this would be something like the diplomatic aspiration of the Vatican today?
  • Is it fair to say that in American Christian Zionism we may see an indigenous Jewish and indigenous northern European rejoinder to this southern European cosmopolitanism?
  • If we formed a continuum with indigenous Jewish Zionism at one end, and Vatican cosmopolitanism at the other end, could we fairly position Israel with indigenous Jewish Zionism, and next to it the US, and next to it the UK, and next to it France, and next to France the Vatican? Do the characters of these nations fall roughly along these lines?
  • I'd like to try and tie this thread back to the celebration of Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day today. Can we fairly say that 1492 was an important year in the history of both Catholic cosmopolitanism and indigenous Jewish Zionism?

Here are two additional relevant videos:



End 2:13 PM.

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