God Is Red: A Native View of Religion [Paperback]

Vine Deloria Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1994

Deloria, a prominent Native American educator, lawyer, and philosopher, has updated his classic work on native religion. In God is Red Deloria argues convincingly that Christianity has failed today's society, and describes basic tenets that underlie Native religions. His other works include Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties and Custer Died for Your Sins.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Deloria, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, offers a revised edition of his 1972 study of Native American religion.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Deloria's thinking on the subject of religion has lost none of its rage or relevance...since God is Red was first published. This book is broader than its subtitle suggests. It is a trenchant and often witty critique on non-Native religion through Native eyes." — Awkekon Journal

"Deloria's handling of the contrast between Christianity and the naturalistic religion of the American Indians is rich in perceptiveness." — Choice

"Vine Deloria, Jr. could be one of the most important living Native American writers, and insofar as there can be any hope of human survival in the face of civilization's insane onslaught, one of the most important writers ever to exist." -- The Bloomsbury Review

"The flagship book on Native American spirituality remains Vine Deloria's God is Red. He does an outstanding job of translating complex spiritual issues into very simple truths." — Wilma P. Mankiller, Former Principal Chief, Cherokee Nation

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: North Amer Pr; 2 edition (March 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555911765
• ISBN-13: 978-1555911768
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #633,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars God Bless America, January 9, 2002

By 

Cathleen M. Walker "geminiwalker" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: God Is Red: A Native View of Religion (Paperback)

I have read a lot of books, and very few have moved me, inspired me and blown me away like this one. Vine Deloria is one very wise man. If you come to this book with preconceived ideas and stereotyped conceptions about Native Americans (as most of us do) you will no longer have them once you have opened your mind and your heart to what this man has to say. While it is true that he may not be an *expert* on Christianity or the Judeo-Christian ethic (whatever that means), he certainly speaks truth to the perception of Christianity as it made its way into Indian country, and the hypocrisy and irony in the face of what he knows to be true. His awareness of Native spirituality is what is important here. It is important in reading this book to take that in, and balance it against what many of us consider to be "true faith."

"The test of the extent to which a religion has a claim to historical validity, therefore, should at least partially involve its identification of the specific location and lands where the religious event that created the community took place," Deloria states in attempting to ground the concept of spirituality, "...we are left with a religion devoid of any significance in either time or space." This ability to articulate what rings so true for me (and others) is what makes this man the shaman that I believe him to be.

Deloria is well read, and this book is far more than I expected it to be. As for those who cling to the superiority of Christianity, I suggest they did not read the book in its entirety. This phrase will haunt me until the day I die: "The Spanish, in slaughtering the Indians, would have a priest standing by with Holy Water available as they disemboweled pregnant Indian women."

God Bless America.

103 of 130 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An important, thought-provoking, but flawed book., June 26, 1999

By 

Regeth - See all my reviews

This review is from: God Is Red: A Native View of Religion (Hardcover)

God is Red, by Vine Deloria, Jr., is an important, thought-provoking book that should be required reading in religous studies courses. However, there are several shortcomings that should be pointed out:

1. He tends to lump Jews and Christians together in discussing the problems of the so-called "fall" story in Genesis, and the concept of "original sin." Judaism does not have a doctrine of original sin. The morning prayers in the Jewish prayer book include the following: "My God, the soul you have given me, she is pure."

2. Many Christians also do not subscribe to the doctrine of "original sin/original guilt," especially as propounded by Augustin of Hippo. Nor is the notion of personal salvation from an inherited state of sin the only Christian theological position. Salvation and redemption are more complex concepts about which there is a broad range of theological definition. Mr. Deloria's opinion that the validiity of the Christian religion depends critically on treating the "fall" as a historical event is a narrow view. It may be the most prominent stream of Western theology--and certainly the one that has in confronted native peoples with claims of superiority and demands of conversion, for which it justly deserves condemnation--but it is by no means the universal Christian theology or spirituality.

3. Mr. Deloria has set up one theological position as a counterpoint to his argument. He should read more broadly in theology--e.g., the Eastern Orthodox churches, whose theology is substantially different from that of most Potestants and Roman Catholics.

4. There are many "dispersed" peoples in the world, who long ago lost any connection to a specific sacred place. That does not necessarily mean that they are spiritually adrift. I have a varied ancestry covering different countries, cultures and religions. I have no spiritual connection to one sacred place. If I can't know the place under my feet as sacred, and realize the holiness of the earth, trees, grasses, rocks, waters, birds, animals, etc. around me, then I would have little connection to creation indeed. And I agree with Mr. Deloria that a religion whose "connection" is solely with history and the time-dimension is one bereft of real spiritual rootedness.

Despite the criticisms mentioned above, this book presents a powerful challenge to some deep flaws in inherited Christian doctrine, and any religion that attempts to base itself on abstract, "universal" concepts divorced from the reality of creation. The "Native view of religion" is perhaps the most viable antidote, and Mr. Deloria presents the rich truths embodied in American Indian tribal religions with clarity and forcefulness.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent..., July 22, 2002

By 

Yuri Kuzyk (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God Is Red: A Native View of Religion (Paperback)

Well, after years of the Western tradition doing 'comparative' studies of other cultures it finally gets analyzed in the same manner by someone from a different culture. Deloria is a well-known member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe who is also an author, scholar, philosopher and lawyer. Utilizing precisely the same methods practiced by the Christian-based, scientific-minded culture perpetuated in our present Universities he deftly slices open Christianity from his point of view.

Deloria's main thesis is to remind us that "we are a part of nature, not a transcendent species with no responsibility to the natural world." He makes this point in numerous ways, often in a very witty manner. I have no doubt this makes those entrenched in our Western condition very uncomfortable but it is healthy medicine for the insanity of the times. I also have no doubt his views make those with 'authentic Indian names', no doubt given at a three-day retreat, very uncomfortable.

Welcome to reality. The reality of forced sterilization, funded by the churches and government, and the the reality of children who were "rescued" to residential schools and force-fed Western culture. This book aptly exposes the hypocrisy and malaise affecting Christianity at this time.

It is only somewhat scholarly in style - compared to many such books, particularly Said's classic, this is an easy read. Enjoy even if it makes you squirm.