4:30 PM Pre-Lecture Reception. We invite you to attend a pre-lecture reception in the Winn Center prior to the annual Caldwell Lecture.

Violence & Grace: Sacraments, Power, and Human Dignity in Colonial Latin America

Rev. Dr. Samuel (Sammy) Arroyo will be at Louisville Seminary to deliver the lecture in person with an option for remote participants to join virtually. Registration is required whether attending in-person or online.

Through this presentation, we will examine the ways in which the Sacraments were employed as instruments of violence in colonial Latin America, particularly during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The administration of the sacraments to enslaved people generated significant controversies among the Crown, the Church, and the conquistadors, as the humanity and dignity of the enslaved, as well as their spiritual and intellectual capacity to receive the sacraments, were questioned by some and defended by others.

As this study demonstrates, religious leaders frequently used the sacraments of the Church to instill fear among enslaved people to keep them subjugated to their masters. At the same time, we will explore how certain religious figures, including Alonso de Sandoval, Fray Francisco de la Jaca, and Fray Epifanio Moirans, employed the sacraments as instruments of peace and spiritual healing, and liberation for the enslaved. In some instances, particularly in the cases of Jaca and Moirans, the sacraments were used to compel slaveholders to cease their abuses and mistreatment; in others, they served as a means of advocating for the freedom of enslaved people.

We will use this study to reflect on the responsibility of religious institutions to employ their practices, rites, and resources in the struggle for the dignity and social justice of marginalized communities.

View printable pdf.

This year’s Presler Lecture is offered in reflection of the 2026 Mosaic Symposium theme, “Woven Together: Where our humanity meets the world today."

About Rev. Dr. Samuel (Sammy) Arroyo

Rev Dr. Samuel Arroyo (Sammy) received his Master of Divinities from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2009 and his PhD in Theology from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico in 2020. He is currently serving as the Assistant Director of Global Services and Director of the Latinx Programs at Princeton Theological Seminary. Sammy is an ordained Elder for the United Methodist Church, where he also serves as part of The United Methodist Church of Greater New Jersey Board of Church and Society and is part of the Immigration Task Force of the conference. In the Spring of 2018, he served as co-chair of the Faith Communities Outreach Committee of the Poor People's Campaign in NJ, and later as the Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign in New Jersey. Sammy has done advocacy work with Salvation and Social Justice, an organization that seeks to impact public policy in the state of New Jersey through a faith perspective. Through this organization, Samuel has been working on advancing racial justice to Black and Brown students in New Jersey public schools. His academic research has focused on the evangelism of Native and African slaves in Latin America during the 16th and 17th centuries. He highlighted the injustices that slaves were subjected to with the excuse to "save their souls." Sammy also analyzes the first two anti-slavery treatises written in America by Friar Francisco Jose de Jaca and Friar Epifanio de Moirans. Sammy believes his faith moves him to advocate for those who are oppressed in our society. He has been actively speaking at rallies and conferences in the state of New Jersey, advocating for immigrant rights and opposing family separations, not just at the border but for the ones also happening all over the nation. One of Sammy's goals is to help faith leaders in formulating a social moral argument for the poor and oppressed in their communities.

The Henry H. and Marion A. Presler Lectureship was established to honor the couple’s missionary service and to inspire the Louisville Seminary community and its wider community about issues of global mission and the role of American denominations in their historical and present witness to mission. The topics of the lectures vary, but the overall theme is Jesus Christ’s commission to the church in Matthew 28:19–20, to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” Dr. Henry Presler studied for two years at Louisville Seminary and then transferred to Boston University School of Theology. In his later years he remembered his formative time at Louisville Seminary and left a bequest for this lectureship. View prior lectures here.

*This event may be photographed and/or recorded. By registering and participating, you understand that your image may be included in the recorded video or still photography, and you consent to this and its use in any and all media throughout Louisville Seminary and its partners.

Violence & Grace: Sacraments, Power, and Human Dignity in Colonial Latin America

2026-27 Presler Hybrid Lecture presented by Rev. Dr. Samuel Arroyo