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Title: Gods of War, Gods of Peace: How the Meeting of Native and Colonial Religions Shaped Early America by Russell Bourne ISBN: 0-15-100501-X Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 04 April, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Gods of War, Gods of Peace!
Comment: A former editor of American Heritage argues that the religions and religious leaders of indigenous Americans affected in profound ways the Europeans-Protestant and Catholic-who sought in our early centuries to convert and/or massacre American Indians. History has let its glance linger overlong on the mostly destructive influences of missionaries and pioneers on the religious beliefs and practices of Native Americans, ignoring influences that coursed the other way, asserts Bourne (Floating West, 1992, etc.). As he points out, hundreds of immigrants abandoned their traditions and went native, though the totals are hardly overwhelming. In a persuasive voice evidencing prodigious knowledge of early American history, the author begins at Plymouth and tells the stories of Squanto and Samoset, Myles Standish, Roger Williams, who despite his biases sought to understand Indian ways. In his sequence on the Pequot War, Bourne reveals one of his great interests to be frontier warfare. In fact, for a study of religion, the coverage of martial matters is so extensive that relevance becomes an issue, although it must be admitted that the account of the two-hour Battle of Tippecanoe, among others, is a corker. In general, the narrative is spun with a pleasingly light touch. Of great interest are the author's portraits of prominent individuals in both camps: John Eliot, who for two years studied the Algonquian language before going to preach among them; Samuel Kirkland; Joseph Brant, the Mohawk who refused to shake the hand of George III; Peter Gansevoort, grandfather of Herman Melville (not mentioned); Tecumseh; Cornstalk; Sequoyah. Bourne describes the Indian encounters with Puritans, Roman Catholics, Shakers, Mormons, and assorted frontier Bible-pounders during the Great Awakenings. He closes, appropriately and poignantly, with the Trail of Tears. Though sometimes obscured by war whoops and thick flights of arrows, a fascinating examination of what happens to religions when worlds collide. (maps, 8 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Fine Overview of an Interesting Subject
Comment: Russell Bourne's book is an excellent read, and a fine introduction to the complex subject he addresses. I especially appreciate the new perspective it gave me on the New England I've lived in much of my life. Place names that have been merely interesting are now much more meaningful.
Bourne's notion - that the conflict between the European and Native peoples beginning in the 1600's is essentially a religious conflict of spiritual orientation - is an interesting perspective on very inteteresting times. It is a worthy discussion, indeed.
One thing I found somewhat disturbing was the superficial knowledge he displays with regard to the Puritans. It seemed to me that he might well have read a good deal about them but not read their works, or at least not read them in depth. His take on Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd in particular seemed pointedly dismissive, and that simply does not do them justice.
It would have been been well to illustrate more fully that European spirituality was not all of a kind and that Native spirituality (also not all of a kind) was often in tune with several streams of theology that made the trip across the Atlantic. He correctly points out that there were not mass conversions, one way or another, but it would have been great to illustrate how the evolution of streams of spirituality on each side influenced both cultures.
One other point that bothered me was how he tended to lump together things a little study would have shown do not belong together. Charles Finney cannot be considered in the same camp as the Puritans - Finney's theology was heretical on too many points - and the Mormon faith bears no resemblance to the Puritan orthodoxy of New England, nor, in fact, any flavor of Christian orthodoxy. Finney's theology represents a stream of thought that is distinctive for the centrality of subjective experience, and gave birth to a kind of revivalism that the Puritans would have found completely abhorrant. The Mormon faith elevates another book to the place of the Bible, and that would also have been abhorrant to the Puritans of an earlier generation. The point here is that Bourne tends to treat these streams of spirituality as equally "Christian" which they plainly cannot be. The fact that they are not actually STRENGTHENS Bourne's thesis, and I wish they had been treated with a little more depth.
Still, this is a very fine work. I found it thought provoking and educational. The section on Hiawatha was particularly enlightening. I actually went back and re-read that section a number of times to be sure I understood it. The book also spurred me to want to understand the origins of my own New England culture with some depth. I recommend the book highly.
Rating: 4
Summary: Valuable Introduction To Complex Subject
Comment: Russell Bourne's book is an excellent read, and a fine introduction to the complex subject he addresses. I especially appreciate the new perspective it gave me on the New England I've lived in much of my life. Place names that have been merely interesting are now much more meaningful.
Bourne's notion - that the conflict between the European and Native peoples beginning in the 1600's is essentially a religious conflict of spiritual orientation - is an interesting perspective on very inteteresting times. It is a worthy discussion, indeed.
One thing I found somewhat disturbing was the superficial knowledge he displays with regard to the Puritans. It seemed to me that he might well have read a good deal about them but not read their works, or at least not read them in depth. His take on Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd in particular seemed pointedly dismissive, and that simply does not do them justice.
It would have been been well to illustrate more fully that European spirituality was not all of a kind and that Native spirituality (also not all of a kind) was often in tune with several streams of theology that made the trip across the Atlantic. He correctly points out that there were not mass conversions, one way or another, but it would have been great to illustrate how the evolution of streams of spirituality on each side influenced both cultures.
One other point that bothered me was how he tended to lump together things a little study would have shown do not belong together. Charles Finney cannot be considered in the same camp as the Puritans - Finney's theology was heretical on too many points - and the Mormon faith bears no resemblance to the Puritan orthodoxy of New England, nor, in fact, any flavor of Christian orthodoxy. Finney's theology represents a stream of thought that is distinctive for the centrality of subjective experience, and gave birth to a kind of revivalism that the Puritans would have found completely abhorrant. The Mormon faith elevates another book to the place of the Bible, and that would also have been abhorrant to the Puritans of an earlier generation. The point here is that Bourne tends to treat these streams of spirituality as equally "Christian" which they plainly cannot be. The fact that they are not actually STRENGTHENS Bourne's thesis, and I wish they had been treated with a little more depth.
Still, this is a very fine work. I found it thought provoking and educational. The section on Hiawatha was particularly enlightening. I actually went back and re-read that section a number of times to be sure I understood it. The book also spurred me to want to understand the origins of my own New England culture with some depth. I recommend the book highly.
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Title: Milestones in Computer Science and Information Technology by Edwin D. Reilly ISBN: 1573565210 Publisher: Greenwood Press Pub. Date: 30 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $69.95 |
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Title: Gettysburg by Stephen W. Sears ISBN: 0395867614 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Pub. Date: 24 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Decisive Encounters: The Chinese Civil War, 1946-1950 by Odd Arne Westad ISBN: 080474484X Publisher: Stanford University Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Golden Ratio : The Story of PHI, the World's Most Astonishing Number by MARIO LIVIO ISBN: 0767908163 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Washington's Crossing (Pivotal Moments in American History) by David Hackett Fischer ISBN: 0195170342 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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