God Is Red: A Native View of Religion

By Vine Deloria Jr.

Book Overview

A 50th anniversary revised edition of the beloved classic, God is Red. First published in 1973, Vine Deloria, Jr.'s God Is Red remains the seminal work on Native American religious views, asking the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555911765
• ISBN13: 9781555911768
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: North Amer Pr
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

My God is Red!

It is a wonderful book on Native American religion, different from the Jehovah God. Missionaries tried hard to convert and christianize them for salvation and eternal life. It is not their God in Cross defeat the Natives, but their fire arms against bow and arrows. God and the East is Red!

It's Like Gold

This is one of my all time favorite books. Vine Deloria Jr. tells it like it is. As a former Christian Minister who returned to his roots to tend to his people's needs he knows exactly what the differences between the two general concepts are all about. Deloria never fails to amaze with his ability to turn the tables on the colonial intelectuals, deconstructing, analyzing and referencing them with the same cold, 'scientific' approach as they have done to his people for centuries. The only difference is that Deloria does it from a Native perspective. It is no wonder that his white critics are upset by this process. It's also amazing that they never seem to comprehend the same feelings that are held by Natives whom continually confront such cynicism as they are analyzed with equally technical and impersonal jargon. Deloria analyzes Native religions, western religions, history, prophecy, the whole concept of space and time from western and Indian perspectives. There is no other book on the market ANYWHERE that I have ever found that puts Native philosophy into English this way. If you are not Indian forget everything you think you know about Indians, open this book with an open mind and a thick skin and you will emerge transformed and with a new understanding of society and religion all together.

Excellent...

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.