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Religious Book Store > Religious books beginning with G
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God Is Red: A Native View of Religion, 30th Anniversary Edition |
Author: Vine Deloria Jr.
Published: 2003-09-09 |
List price: $21.95
Our price: $14.93
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As of: January 07th, 2009 08:52:47 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Changes the worldview
This book has been an eye-opener for this Pagan, former Catholic, to read. As a historian I've known about the Christian horrors he relates, but not about the way native tribes envision their spirituality. I thought, since they were pagan, they had individual beliefs that they never argued or fought over, but instead, each tribe, as a communistic unit, shares one belief, and he compares them, perhaps appropriately to Jews who live their beliefs.
What he does not do is explain for me how they were able to be converted, just that some of them were, and did not go into how effectively this tore his people apart. Or did he? The book is not set up in any really logical order, which tends to allow him to rehash the same material.
I also see room for argument in here that if he sees tribes able to allow whites into their community for being pro-communistic way of life, why is it so hard for them to find that there are whites who willingly see things their way today? I would appreciate seeing another tribal writer come out and say, in more current terms where tribal leaders seem themselves headed today and how other willing members of the community can help - all in favor of restoring the common balance of nature.
That is the underlying theme of the book, after all, although he spends more time against Christianity than pro Communal spirituality.
 Interesting, but flawed, critique of Christianity by a once-Christian American Indian
Deloria has two main objectives in this books. First, he wants his fellow Native Americans to see their tribal religious traditions as valid and as relevant to their lives. He wants them to see that they need not be Christian, and that those who attended mission schools can (and should) assert their own traditions. Not being a Native myself, I can't really evaluate this part of his agenda but to an outsider it seems successful enough.
His second objective is directed at white Americans. Writing in 1973, he wants to make Christian Americans see Christianity as culture-bound, as one of many plausible and equally valid religions, so that these Americans will take a less hostile view of Native religion. In those terms, Deloria and his allies won - - Native religions, or at least New Age spiritualism that borrows from Native religions, are trendy among whites. In some of his other writings, Deloria has some interesting things to say about this trendiness, but that is not really his purpose here.
The book is really much more about Christianity than about Native religions. Deloria displays a weak sense of concrete American Indian religious beliefs, and he gives no attention to variation among the hundreds of tribes of North America. Deloria prefers to generalize about Native religious beliefs instead of going into depth about a few.
The ironic result is that the reader learns more about Christianity than about tribal religions. However, that probably reflects Deloria's own knowledge - - he was raised a Christian. His grandfather was an Episcopal priest, his father an archdeacon and missionary. Deloria himself earned a degree in (Christian) theology before getting his law degree. Interestingly, he never mentions any of this in the book, preferring to present himself as the representative of native religious traditions.
However, as the son of a missionary among the Nakota (Lakota/Dakota/Sioux), Deloria was certainly able to navigate multiple traditions. This book is at its strongest when he steps back from the polemic and moves back and forth between Christian and Native beliefs. In much of the book, he argues that Christianity is a religion grounded in time while Native religions are grounded in space. In Deloria's view, Christianity is dominated by a historical narrative of creation, Abraham's covenant, the new covenant of Jesus, alongside a personal narrative of sin and redemption. In contrast, Native religions emphasize the relationship between a tribe and a particular set of places, a relationship that is mostly timeless. This spatial grounding, Deloria believes, accounts for the respect of Natives for nature and the alienation of Christians from nature.
Overall, this book is, as its subtitle says, "a native view of religion"- - or, as I would rephrase it, "a view of religion by a native." It's certainly not, as the title might imply, "a view of native religion." It's certainly an interesting book, and just as certainly a flawed one. His digressions into pseudo-science such as Velikovsky are bizarre in themselves, and irrelevant to the central issues of the book in any case. Among the flaws he makes enough good points to make the book repay a reading.
The modern native American religious conflict
I hoped to get an overview of Native Indian religion in this book but the treatment was too selective to suggest any kind of coherent Native American spiritual system - maybe this is how it is. This book is overall, a description of the negative impact of the Judaeo Christian teachings on US land and people in the context of native Americans. It is quite contemporary in style and presupposes that the reader in an American with some background knowledge of the conflicts presented - but the book has no real handle or framework - be it historical, or environmental other than a broad criticism of evangelical Christianity - that much and the ramifications therefrom are clear - a bit more depth to do with the environment or Indian religions would certainly have been useful giving the book some shape. Having read it some time ago I feel there is a missed opportunity somewhere - though it highlights native American concerns and is a useful corrective to a recent upsurge in Evangelical Christianity.
 It's Like Gold
This is one of my all time favorite books. Vine Deloria Jr. tells it like it is. As a former Christian Minister who returned to his roots to tend to his people's needs he knows exactly what the differences between the two general concepts are all about.
Deloria never fails to amaze with his ability to turn the tables on the colonial intelectuals, deconstructing, analyzing and referencing them with the same cold, 'scientific' approach as they have done to his people for centuries. The only difference is that Deloria does it from a Native perspective. It is no wonder that his white critics are upset by this process. It's also amazing that they never seem to comprehend the same feelings that are held by Natives whom continually confront such cynicism as they are analyzed with equally technical and impersonal jargon.
Deloria analyzes Native religions, western religions, history, prophecy, the whole concept of space and time from western and Indian perspectives. There is no other book on the market ANYWHERE that I have ever found that puts Native philosophy into English this way. If you are not Indian forget everything you think you know about Indians, open this book with an open mind and a thick skin and you will emerge transformed and with a new understanding of society and religion all together.
 neither about Christianity or native religion
This book does a great disservice to its subject for it does not understand Christianity, which it is critiquing, and it also does not understand all the diversities of native religions. If one is going to write a native American critique of Christianity they should start with at least knowing what they are critiquing and the history of that religion and its great diversity, for CHristianity is diverse. Instead this book pretends that all Christians and Jews beleive the same thing and from that starting point this is a completely useless read. Christianity has hundreds of sects and four major divisions. Is any of that highlighted here? No. THis book pretends that the native religions have a special understanding of Christianity, but how can one accept that argument if the book itself does not bother to illuminate the reader that not all Christians think alike. And why does the book subscribe beleifs to Judaism that do not exist in Judaism at all, such as sin? The author apparently never bothered to use the same tolerance of Judaism that this book demands should be given to natives. That is hypocrisy and racism in itself.
Seth J. Frantzman
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