The Cherokees and Christianity, 17941870: Essays on Acculturation and Cultural Persistence [Paperback]

William G. McLoughlin (Author)
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. He was the author of several books on Cherokee history, including After the Trail of Tears: The Cherokee's Struggle for Sovereignty, 1839-1880.

Walter H. Conser Jr. (Editor)
WALTER H. CONSER JR. is a professor of religious studies, professor of history, and chair of the department of philosophy and religion at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. He has written and edited several books, including God and the Natural World: Religion and Science in Antebellum America.

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.

The first section of the book explores the reactions of the Cherokee to the inevitable clash between Christian missionaries and their own religious leaders, as well as their many and varied responses to slavery. In part two, McLoughlin explores the crucial problem of racism that divided the southern part of North America into red, white and black long before 1776 and considers the ways in which the Cherokees either adapted Christianity to their own needs or rejected it as inimical to their identity.

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

This collection provides a balanced, holistic perlsL