The Cherokees and Christianity, 1794-1870: Essays on Acculturation and Cultural Persistence - Hardcover

McLoughlin, William G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0820316393 ISBN 13: 9780820316390

Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr, 1994

Synopsis

In The Cherokees and Christianity, William G. McLoughlin examines how the process of religious acculturation worked within the Cherokee Nation during the nineteenth century. More concerned with Cherokee "Christianization" than Cherokee "civilization," these eleven essays cover the various stages of cultural confrontation with Christian imperialism.
Missionaries from six different denominations were welcomed into the Nation between 1794 and 1861. The first section of the book explores the reactions of the Cherokee (and to some extent other southeastern tribes) to the inevitable clash between the missionaries and their own religious leaders. It also addresses Cherokee reactions to the many and varied Christian responses to slavery. It is a measure of how acculturated the Cherokees had become by 1850 that they also took sides on the issue of slavery and later fought against each other in the Civil War.
In part two, McLoughlin examines the crucial problem of racism that divided the southern part of North America into red, white, and black long before 1776 and he considers the ways in which the Cherokees either adapted Christianity to their own needs or rejected it as inimical to their identity. As in white society, it proved impossible for the Cherokees to separate religion from politics between 1830 and 1860. A short epilogue that contains the Fast Day Proclamation of 1870 by Chief Lewis Downing, the fullblood chief of the Cherokees, is also included.

About this title

About the Author

At the time of his death in 1992, William G. McLoughlin was Willard Prescott and Annie McClelland Smith Professor Emeritus of History and Religion, Professor Emeritus of History, and Chancellor's Fellow at Brown University.

Review

This excellent collection of essays . . . [is] a major contribution to the study of Native American history and religious studies.

(Kirkus Reviews)

This collection provides a balanced, holistic perspective on the impact of religion on human behavior. It supplies all background material needed to understand the topics discussed, and although well documented, it is also well written and does not overwhelm the reader with historical detail. Highly recommended to historians, anthropologists, and interested general readers.

(Choice)

McLoughlin has created an outstanding example of methodological and theoretical analysis of one of the most turbulent periods of Cherokee history. McLoughlin's ability to work with primary sources coupled with his extensive knowledge of the early-nineteenth-century Cherokee struggle for survival . . . reveals many crucial issues relevant to the study of other southeastern tribes.

(Journal of Southern History)

For the reader unacquainted with McLoughlin's larger works, the book is an ideal place to begin. And it will once again remind scholars of the important place that McLoughlin established for himself in his two decades of concentrated study of the Cherokees.

(Catholic Historical Review)

For those who believe that human affairs are easy to comprehend or that history conforms to ideological dictates, The Cherokees and Christianity will make their heads swim. . . . McLoughlin describes both missions and tribes as all-too-human institutions, as being exceptionally complex and multifaceted, and as subject to culture, individual psychology, religious faith, chance, and above all, political power.

(Church History)

An extraordinarily nuanced and sensitive assessment of the process of acculturation among the Cherokees . . . Throughout this collection of essays, McLoughlin illustrates the unique results of a lifetime's work in both antebellum Protestantism and Cherokee history.

(Journal of Appalachian Studies)

About this edition

• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0820316393
• ISBN 13: 9780820316390
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368
• Editor: Conser Walter H. Jr.