ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines some aspects of the evangelization of New Spain in the sixteenth century and the natives' responses to it. In his pioneering work The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico, Robert Ricard described the various methods used by the missionary friars to evangelize the Indians. The author aims to make two observations. The first is that syncretism is as old as Christianity itself. The union of Greek philosophy and Christian belief that was fostered by the medieval scholastics represented the same process on a more intellectual level. Second observation is that this has often occurred in spite of the disapproval of the institutional Church. There can be no doubt that the evangelization of New Spain involved a process of syncretism or accommodation. It should be kept in mind that the evangelization method of the early friars was largely improvisational.
