Demystifying Native American Christianity

Never surrender to U.S. history! U.S. History DeMYSTiFieD gives you the opportunity to learn this subject at your own pace. Master topics such as important dates; prominent presidential acts and decisions; America's role during both world wars; as well as fun and interesting facts. The book helps you truly comprehend this challenging subject a without overwhelming you with complexities or mystifying jargon. U.S. History DeMYSTiFieD features: Chapter-opening objectives that give you insight into what you’re going to learn in each step Questions at the end of every chapter reinforce learning and pinpoint weaknesses “Still Struggling?” icon offers specific recommendations for when you're having difficulty with certain subtopics Includes a final exam for overall self-assessment “Curriculum Tree” shows how the topic covered in the book fits into a larger curriculum

This collaborative work represents a pathbreaking exercise in Native American theology. While observing traditional categories of Christian systematic theology (Creation, Deity, Christology, etc.), each of these is reimagined consistent with Native experience, values, and worldview. At the same time the authors introduce new categories from Native thought-worlds, such as the Trickster (eraser of boundaries, symbol of ambiguity), and Land. Finally, the authors address issues facing Native Americans today, including racism, poverty, stereotyping, cultural appropriation, and religious freedom--From publisher's description.

In this interdisciplinary collection of essays, Joel W. Martin and Mark A. Nicholas gather emerging and leading voices in the study of Native American religion to reconsider the complex and often misunderstood history of Native peoples' engagement with Christianity and with Euro-American missionaries. Surveying mission encounters from contact through the mid-nineteenth century, the volume alters and enriches our understanding of both American Christianity and indigenous religion. The essays here explore a variety of postcontact identities, including indigenous Christians, "mission friendly" non-Christians, and ex-Christians, thereby exploring the shifting world of Native-white cultural and religious exchange. Rather than questioning the authenticity of Native Christian experiences, these scholars reveal how indigenous peoples negotiated change with regard to missions, missionaries, and Christianity. This collection challenges the pervasive stereotype of Native Americans as culturally static and ill-equipped to navigate the roiling currents associated with colonialism and missionization. The contributors are Emma Anderson, Joanna Brooks, Steven W. Hackel, Tracy Neal Leavelle, Daniel Mandell, Joel W. Martin, Michael D. McNally, Mark A. Nicholas, Michelene Pesantubbee, David J. Silverman, Laura M. Stevens, Rachel Wheeler, Douglas L. Winiarski, and Hilary E. Wyss.

Meditation Demystified is intended to help one either begin to meditate or for experienced mediators to discover other ways to enhance their meditation practice. It is also a workbook with exercises to facilitate learning to meditate. Originally designed as a workbook for use in classes, the exercises and sample meditations are included to assist the reader in mastering the various practices.

In a Rationalist Critique of Deconstruction, Morgan A. Brown engages in the most thorough criticism of Deconstruction and Structuralism to date, working from the standpoint of rationalist philosophy. Not only does he outline exactly what Deconstruction is, but he also outlines the methodology at the root of Jacques Derrida's pet philosophy of language. Brown draws amply from the insights of Austrian Economics in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich A. Hayek, and guides the reader through his critique with a self-consistent structure of methodical argumentation. Part epistemology, part linguistics, and part microeconomic theory, the book is a veritable textbook for the Humanities and a handy reference for the libertarian and conservative intellectual. Deconstruction is best examined through the lens of microeconomic rationalism, since Derrida's theory is at base a literary incarnation of Vilfredo Pareto's Indifference Theory.

Native Americans practice some of America's most spiritually profound, historically resilient, and ethically demanding religions. Joel Martin draws his narrative from folk stories, rituals, and even landscapes to trace the development of Native American religion from ancient burial mounds, through interactions with European conquerors and missionaries, and on to the modern-day rebirth of ancient rites and beliefs. The book depicts the major cornerstones of American Indian history and religion--the vast movements for pan-Indian renewal, the formation of the Native American Church in 1919, the passage of the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act of 1990, and key political actions involving sacred sites in the 1980s and '90s. Martin explores the close links between religion and Native American culture and history. Legendary chiefs like Osceola and Tecumseh led their tribes in resistance movements against the European invaders, inspired by prophets like the Shawnee Tenskwatawa and the Mohawk Coocoochee. Catharine Brown, herself a convert, founded a school for Cherokee women and converted dozens of her people to Christianity. Their stories, along with those of dozens of other men and women--from noblewarriors to celebrated authors--are masterfully woven into this vivid, wide-ranging survey of Native American history and religion.

Shamanism can be described as a group of techniques by which its practitioners enter the “spirit world,” purportedly obtaining information that is used to help and to heal members of their social group. Despite a resurgence of interest in shamanism and shamanic states of consciousness, these phenomena are neither well-defined nor sufficiently understood. This multi-disciplinary study draws on the fields of psychology, philosophy and anthropology with the aim of demystifying shamanism. The authors analyse conflicting perspectives regarding shamanism, the epistemology of shamanic states of consciousness, and the nature of the mental imagery encountered during these states.