The gospel of Jesus has not always been good news for Native Americans. But despite the far-reaching effects of colonialism, some Natives have forged culturally authentic ways to follow Jesus. In his final work, Richard Twiss surveys the complicated history of Christian missions among Indigenous peoples and voices a hopeful vision of contextual Native Christian faith.
Since Columbus landed in the West Indies in 1492, Native American tribes have endured more than five centuries of abuse hypocrisy, indifference and bloodshed at the hands of the ''Christian'' white man. Despite this painful history, a number of Native Americans have found ''the Jesus Way'' and are proving to be a powerful voice for the Lord around the world. A full - blooded Lakota/Sioux whose bitterness toward whites was washed away by the blood of Christ, Richard Twiss shows that Native American Christians have much to offer the Church and can become a major force for reaching the lost. Full of wisdom, humor and passion, this book examines how the white Church can begin to break down the walls of anger, distrust and bitterness and move toward reconciliation and revival in our land.
This book tells the gripping story of New England's Natives' efforts to reshape their worlds between the 1670s and 1820 as they defended their land rights, welcomed educational opportunities for their children, joined local white churches during the First Great Awakening (1740s), and over time refashioned Christianity for their own purposes.
This collaborative work represents a pathbreaking exercise in Native American theology. While observing traditional categories of Christian systematic theology (Creation, Deity, Christology, etc.), each of these is reimagined consistent with Native experience, values, and worldview. At the same time the authors introduce new categories from Native thought-worlds, such as the Trickster (eraser of boundaries, symbol of ambiguity), and Land. Finally, the authors address issues facing Native Americans today, including racism, poverty, stereotyping, cultural appropriation, and religious freedom--From publisher's description.
Materialism. Greed. Loneliness. A manic pace. Abuse of the natural world. Inequality. Injustice. War. The endemic problems facing America today are staggering. We need change and restoration. But where to begin? In Shalom and the Community of Creation Randy Woodley offers an answer: learn more about the Native American 'Harmony Way,' a concept that closely parallels biblical shalom. Doing so can bring reconciliation between Euro-Westerners and indigenous peoples, a new connectedness with the Creator and creation, an end to imperial warfare, the ability to live in the moment, justice, restoration -- and a more biblically authentic spirituality. Rooted in redemptive correction, this book calls for true partnership through the co-creation of new theological systems that foster wholeness and peace.
Native and Christian is an anthology of essays by indigenous writers in the United States and Canada on the problem of native Christian identity. This anthology documents the emergence of a significant new collective voice on the North American religious landscape. It brings together in one volume articles originally published in a variety of sources (many of them obscure or out-of-print) including religious magazines, scholarly journals, and native periodicals, along with one previously unpublished manuscript.
In books such as Mystics and Messiahs, Hidden Gospels, and The Next Christendom, Philip Jenkins has established himself as a leading commentator on religion and society. Now, in Dream Catchers, Jenkins offers a brilliant account of the changing mainstream attitudes towards Native American spirituality, once seen as degraded spectacle, now hailed as New Age salvation. Jenkins charts this remarkable change by highlighting the complex history of white American attitudes towards Native religions, considering everything from the 19th-century American obsession with "Hebrew Indians" and Lost Tribes, to the early 20th-century cult of the Maya as bearers of the wisdom of ancient Atlantis. He looks at the popularity of the Carlos Castaneda books, the writings of Lynn Andrews and Frank Waters, and explores New Age paraphernalia including dream-catchers, crystals, medicine bags, and Native-themed Tarot cards. He also examines the controversial New Age appropriation of Native sacred places and notes that many "white indians" see mainstream society as religiously empty. An engrossing account of our changing attitudes towards Native spirituality, Dream Catchers offers a fascinating introduction to one of the more interesting aspects of contemporary American religion.
You cannot discover lands already inhabited. In this prophetic blend of history, theology, and cultural commentary, Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah reveal the damaging effects of the "Doctrine of Discovery," which institutionalized American triumphalism and white supremacy. This book calls our nation and churches to a truth-telling that will expose past injustices and open the door to conciliation and true community.
This fascinating probe into U.S. mission history spotlights four cases: Junipero Serra, the Franciscan whose mission to California natives has made him a candidate for sainthood; John Eliot, the renowned Puritan missionary to Massachusetts Indians; Pierre-Jean De Smet, the Jesuit missioner to the Indians of the Midwest; and Henry Benjamin Whipple, who engineered the U.S. government's theft of the Black Hills from the Sioux.
Mixed Blessings transforms our understanding of the relationship between Indigenous people and Christianity in what is now Canada. While acknowledging the harm of colonialism, including the trauma inflicted by church-run residential schools, this book challenges the portrayal of Indigenous people as passive victims of malevolent missionaries who experienced a uniformly dark history. Instead, it illuminates the diverse and multifaceted ways that Indigenous communities and individuals across Canada have interacted, and continue to interact, meaningfully with Christianity from the early 1600s to the present. Ranging widely across time and place, these insightful case studies explore how and why some Indigenous people – including Louis Riel and Edward Ahenakew – historically aligned themselves with Christianity while others did not. It also plumbs the processes and politics involved in combining spiritual traditions and reflects on the role of Christianity in Indigenous communities today.
