Editing Viracocha (section)

==Conversion to Christianity==

Spanish scholars and chroniclers provide many insights regarding the identity of Viracocha.

# [[Bartolomé de las Casas]] states that viracocha means "creator of all things"<ref name="Itier">Itier, César. ''Viracocha o El Océano: Naturaleza y Funciones De Una Divinidad Inca''. Lima: IFEA; IEP, 2012. Print.</ref>
# [[Juan de Betanzos]] confirms the above in saying that "We may say that Viracocha is God"<ref name="Betanzos">Betanzos, Juan de, María del Carmen Martín Rubio, and Digitalia (Firm). ''[http://www.classicly.com/library <nowiki>Suma y narración De Los Incas [Electronic Resource]</nowiki>] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503220044/http://www.classicly.com/library |date=3 May 2016 }}''.Web.</ref>  
# Polo, [[Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa|Sarmiento de Gamboa]], [[Blas Valera]] and Acosta all reference Viracocha as a creator<ref name="Itier" />
# [[Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala|Guamán Poma]], an indigenous chronicler, considers the term "viracocha" to be equivalent to "creator"<ref name="Poma">Guamán Poma de Ayala, Felipe, and Franklin Pease G. Y. ''Nueva crónica y Buen Gobierno;''. Lima,: Casa de la Cultura del Perú, 1969. Web.</ref>

Spanish interpreters generally attributed the identity of supreme creator to Viracocha during the initial years of colonization.<ref name="Itier" />

The decision to use the term "God" in place of "Viracocha" is seen as the first step in the evangelization of the Incas.<ref name="Itier" /> The reasoning behind this strategy includes the fact that it was likely difficult to explain the Christian idea of "God" to the Incas, who failed to understand the concept. In addition, replacing reference to Viracocha with "God" facilitated the substitution of the local concept of divinity with Christian theology.<ref name="Itier" />