“Seeds of the Word”

Abstract

This chapter begins by tracing the trajectory of the expression “seeds of the word” through the final documents of the General Conferences of the Latin American Bishops (CELAM) from Aparecida (2007), to Santo Domingo (1992), to Puebla (1979), and Medellín (1968). It was at Medellín that the expression was first used by the Latin American bishops, who increasingly came to recognize the value and importance of indigenous cultures rather than disparaging them. The chapter continues with a consideration of how “seeds of the word” is used in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, from which the Latin American bishops drew their inspiration. After exploring how Justin Martyr first deployed this expression in the second century, this chapter considers the Postsynodal Exhortation Querida Amazonia of Pope Francis.