In Venezuela, Christians and even non-Christians are searching for the meaning of the role of the churches in the current context of liberation. This turns attention to history, but there is a great void of information about the impact of the church in the country. The history of the church has not been completely written. Although much material is available on the European background of Venezuelan Christianity, more remains to be done to clarify its history during the colonial and post-colonial periods. Assessment of this history must also take account of the ambiguity that is common to ‘dependent’ cultures.

Christianity in Venezuela, in both its Catholic and Protestant roots, is linked in one way or another to the political, economic and social forces that have been at play. Church history has been shaped by the social and political changes that have occurred since the arrival of the Spaniards in 1513. The church began as a vehicle of colonisation, an agent of cultural change, when it officially participated in the conquest of Venezuela by European imperial forces. The conjunction of church and imperial government in the New World became the way to impose cultural norms and ideologies on the people who were conquered and colonised. Notable participation came from other actors as well, such as the Welser family from Germany, who were bankers to the Habsburg Empire. On the orders of Charles V, the Habsburg King of Spain, they explored the Coro region of Venezuela from 1529 to 1556 in search of the infamous El Dorado. By the time the gold seekers left the area they had eliminated most of the population, and priests recorded that they had treated the people even more harshly than the Spanish conquerors.

By 1800, the population had been ‘settled’, and at least one Franciscan priest, Matias Ruiz Blanco, a translator of Indigenous languages, defied the encomienda system. He condemned the conquering forces for their brutal and violent ways and defended Indigenous populations in Venezuela. This sort of history sheds fresh light on current times as it reveals the deep-seated role of the church in bringing about social change. The church was active in both providing legitimation for and offering challenge to the social order of the time.