"Spirit and Resistance"

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--ryan


Osage Author Examines the Impact of Religion on Native American Culture



What role does Christianity play?

10/15/2004
http://www.nativetimes.com

In the newly released Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and
American Indian Liberation theologian George Tinker writes from a
Native American perspective, probing American Indian culture, its
vast religious and cultural legacy, and its ambiguous relationship to
the tradition—historic Christianity—that colonized and converted it.

After five hundred years of conquest and social destruction, he says,
any useful reflection must come to terms with the political state of
Indian affairs and the political hopes and visions for recovering the
health and well-being of Indian communities. Does Christian theology
have a positive role to play?

Tinker's work offers an overview of contemporary Native American
culture and its perilous state. Critical of recent liberal and New
Age co-opting of Native spiritual practices, Tinker also offers a
critical corrective to liberation theology. He shows how Native
insights into the Sacred Other and sacred space helpfully reconfigure
traditional ideas of God, Jesus' notion of the reign of God, and our
relation to the earth. From this basis he offers novel proposals
about cultural survival and identity, sustainability, and the
endangered health of Native Americans.

"George Tinker is the long-awaited intellectual voice of the
indigenous peoples of this Turtle Island. He speaks with the gift of
immense wisdom and respect for the people's spirit and of the humble
and interdependent place they occupy on the sacred earth circle,"
said Henrietta Mann, Professor Emeritus of Native American Studies,
Montana State University—Bozeman

"Tinker is a mature intellectual force to reckon with, and his new
book reflects it. Solidly researched, closely but eloquently argued,
and extraordinarily effective, Spirit and Resistance is must reading
for anyone concerned with the relationship between indigenous and
Christian traditions in the Americas," said Ward Churchill, author of
A Little Matter of Genocide and Struggle for the Land.

"Tinker's powerful and well-reasoned thoughts are expressed in a much
kinder way than some of us are likely to do. While Tinker's work is
well known to scholars, it is less known to most younger readers and
hence will arrive on the scene as brand-new thoughts. Just what is
needed in a society that seems to be more a flock of sheep than a
human enterprise," said Vine Deloria Jr., author of God Is Red and
Custer Died for Your Sins

George E. ''Tink'' Tinker is Professor of American Indian Cultures
and Religious Traditions at Iliff School of Theology, Denver,
Colorado. He is an enrolled member of the Osage Nation. Among his
many publications are Missionary Conquest (Fortress Press, 1993) and
Native American Theology (co-authored, 2001).

To order Spirit and Resistance call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648
or visit the web site at www.fortresspress.com. To request review
copies or exam copies please visit the website at
www.fortresspress.com or call 1-800-426-0115 ext. 234.