For This Land: Writings on Religion in America

by Deloria, Jr.,Vine; Treat,James

• ISBN13: 9780415921145
• ISBN10: 0415921147
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-12-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

For This Land,edited and with an introduction by James Treat, brings together over thirty years of the work of Vine Deloria, Jr., regarded as one of the most important living Native American figures. For three decades, Deloria has offered substantive and persistent contributions to understanding the complexity of religion in America. In uis writings he recognizes the spiritual desperation and religious breakdown in the contemporary situation, and provides the groundwork to get people to examine what they actually believe and how they must put those beliefs into practice. The essays in this collection express Deloria's concern for the religious dimensions and implications of human existence. His writings are engaged within a theoretical system of physical, not ideological, space, and ultimately give voice to this intellectual passion by calling into question our controversial religious institutions, commitments, worldviews, freedoms and experiences.For This Landoffers adistinctive approach to comprehending human existence from one of the leading critics of mainstream American thought.

Table of Contents

Introduction. An American Critique of Religion	1	(18)
James Treat
I. WHITE CHURCH, RED POWER	19	(50)
1. Missionaries and the Religious Vacuum (1969)	22	(9)
2. The Theological Dimension of the Indian Protest Movement (1973)	31	(5)
3. Religion and Revolution Among American Indians (1974)	36	(8)
4. Non-Violence in American Society (1974)	44	(7)
5. The Churches and Cultural Change (1974)	51	(7)
6. GCSP: The Demons at Work (1979)	58	(11)
II. LIBERATING THEOLOGY	69	(50)
7. A Violated Covenant (1971)	72	(5)
8. An Open Letter to the Heads of the Christian Churches in America (1972)	77	(7)
9. It Is a Good Day to Die (1972)	84	(8)
10. Escaping from Bankruptcy: The Future of the Theological Task (1976)	92	(8)
11. On Liberation (1977)	100	(8)
12. Vision and Community (1990)	108	(11)
III. WORLDVIEWS IN COLLISION	119	(44)
13. Religion and the Modern American Indian (1974)	122	(8)
14. Native American Spirituality (1977)	130	(5)
15. Civilization and Isolation (1978)	135	(10)
16. Christianity and Indigenous Religion: Friends or Enemies? (1987)	145	(18)
IV. HABITS OF THE STATE	163	(66)
17. Completing the Theological Circle: Civil Religion in America (1976)	166	(9)
18. American Indians and the Moral Community (1988)	175	(12)
19. A Simple Question of Humanity: The Moral Dimensions of the Reburial Issue (1989)	187	(16)
20. Sacred Lands and Religious Freedom (1991)	203	(11)
21. Worshiping the Golden Calf: Freedom of Religion in Scalia's America (1991)	214	(4)
22. Secularism, Civil Religion, and the Religious Freedom of American Indians (1992)	218	(11)
V. OLD WAYS IN A NEW WORLD	229	(44)
23. Introduction to Black Elk Speaks (1979)	232	(3)
24. The Coming of the People (1979)	235	(8)
25. Out of Chaos (1985)	243	(7)
26. Reflection and Revelation: Knowing Land, Places and Ourselves (1991)	250	(11)
27. Is Religion Possible? An Evaluation of Present Efforts to Revive Traditional Tribal Religions (1992)	261	(8)
28. Introduction to Vision Quest (1994)	269	(4)
Afterword. Contemporary Confusion and the Prospective Religious Life (1998)	273	(10)
Vine Deloria Jr.
Appendix 1. The Missionary in a Cultural Trap (1965)	283	(12)
Appendix 2. From the Archives-December 2, 1504 (1965)	295	(2)
Bibliography	297	(10)
Acknowledgments	307	(2)
Index	309