Did the actions of the Spanish Inquisition go against the teaching of Christianity…Why or why not?

Answer 1

But of course they violated the basic principles of Christianity, but that is my personal opinion.

As a tutor, I have to explain you the idea of what was the definition of a good Christian back in the 16th century Spain regardless of my personal opinion. Generally , all Spanish people feared the Inquisition and put a blind eye to the abuses because it become a out of control. It started with good intentions, it was about to empower the CONTRAREFORMA movement. Luther exposed a lot of dirt on the Catholic pope, and Catholics were revising their ways from the inside out to return to the good ways. They wanted to weed out the bad guys and to save the good name of Catholicism.

In those times, there was a need "to clean" the faith. In other words, people pretended to be Christians to be allowed to live in a powerful and wealthy Catholic Kingdom but they practiced Judaism, Islam, and some were Protestants ( Evangelicals read the bible literally and made their own Christian beliefs--that means no pope authorizing interpretation, Oh, my goodness, commoners leading their own way!). In our eyes, there is no problem with tolerance and diversity but the Catholic church ( which was closed knitted with the state) instituted a religious police to trap any spies that pretended to be Catholic in public, but under closed doors they were something else. Not being a "pure" Catholic was seen as a serious threat to a society who wanted to be "pure", all "Castilian", and "homogenous". Even if you converted to catholicism, you were seen as a traitor because of your non christian background. Spain wanted to go back to the great old Castilian values and all these foreigners coming to Spain for economic opportunity were "polluting" their culture. Soon, this religious police starting abusing people and they were accusing wealthy foreigners just to confiscate their wealth. Does that look Christian to you? Love your neighbor as I have loved you.

Later, The Spanish Inquisition forgot about their original pursue and it become a corrupt institution that terrorized even the most catholic Castilian believer. Yes, they abused, kill, raped, tormented, and committed all kinds of atrocities that made the Gestapo look like boy scouts.

Answer 2

La inquisición española fue una violación a las enseñanzas de Cristo.

Cristo predicó el Reino de Dios, e invitó a ser sus seguidores, pero no obligó a nadie a ser su discípulo.

Las enseñanzas de Cristo están escritas en la Biblia.En su 'Sermón del monte' da la verdadera clave para ser felices. Allí también enseña como resolver los asuntos con otras personas. Y da la 'regla aurea o regla de oro' que dice: "Todas las cosas que quieres que otros te hagan, tienes que hacérselas primero"...

La persona que aprende y obedece lo que la Biblia enseña, ese es un cristiano verdadero. Y pertenece al cristianismo.

Porque no es lo mismo cristianismo que cristiandad.

El mismo Jesús dijo: " No todo el que me dice, Señor, Señor, entrará en el Reino de los cielos, sino el que hace la voluntad de mi Padre que está en los cielos"

Answer 3

I would say that this questions depends on how you interpret the teachings of Christianity. During the time of the Spanish Inquisition the church officials took a very literal interpretation of the Bible. Therefore, any idea contrary to a literal interpretation such as Galileo's heliocentric solar system was punishable by death. However, since then the Catholic Church has begun to rework how they interpret the Bible as well as arguing that there is more than one path to God besides just Catholicism. Therefore, I would argue that while horrid it was not against the beliefs at the time, but given the shifts in the Church's belief system it would very much go against their current teachings.