Native Americans, Christianity, and the Reshaping of the American Religious Landscape. Edited by Joel W. Martin and Mark A. Nicholas. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. xiii + 344 pp. $75.00 cloth; $27.95 paper.

摘要

A new phase of Native American studies is coming into its own, enriching andnexpanding our perspective on native relationships with Christianity past andnpresent. The old pervasive stereotype held, in general terms, that New Worldnconverts made a deliberate decision to abandon their indigenous culture andnadopt fresh beliefs and behavioral norms derived from Euro-Americannstandards. For at least the past decade, studies have emerged to point out thatnnative converts did not endure an either/or transition but rather created newncultural amalgams that preserved a strong residuum of traditional identitiesnand blended with them many aspects of Christianity in creatively syncretisticnways. This outstanding collection of twelve essays constitutes models of thennew perspective. Each essay has intrinsic merit, based on more discerningnuse of evidence. But the whole assemblage is greater than the sum of itsnparts, and readers have the two editors to thank for their deliberate and inspired arrangement of topics and time periods, adding the force of cumulativenvoices to the importance of revised thinking in this field.