Why should the reader bring so much theology into their analysis of the novel? Because other characters demonstrate that very thing by invoking God in the details of their daily lives. That doesn't mean that anyone is wrong or right, and those points of view can both be understood in helpful ways or harmful ways, so the novel encourages the reader to resist the temptation to indulge in contempt prior to investigation. The beauty and balance of life and of the social fabric of Native life is offered as an argument that those Catholics missed an opportunity not to teach "savages" about God, but to understand that without the strictures of European progress and society, those "savages" are literally demonstrating the order of the universe, unfettered by the ideas of Greco-Roman tradition.
In other words, why did they treat new religious ideas as if they were inferior to the Europeans' own? Couldn't it have been different, hypothetically? One might imagine an exchange of ideas between two peoples who do not automatically suppose "They're wrong and we're right." There is an assumption made by the Catholic missionaries in this book that the religion they received from their religious tradition is essentially different in intent and execution than the religions that already existed in Native American life. Written by people who wish to remain anonymousĬonsider the problem of human religion. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.
These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.
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