Overview

Mixed Blessings transforms our understanding of the relationship between Indigenous people and Christianity in what is now Canada. While acknowledging the harm of colonialism, including the trauma inflicted by church-run residential schools, this book challenges the portrayal of Indigenous people as passive victims of malevolent missionaries who experienced a uniformly dark history. Instead, it illuminates the diverse and multifaceted ways that Indigenous communities and individuals across Canada have interacted, and continue to interact, meaningfully with Christianity from the early 1600s to the present. Ranging widely across time and place, these insightful case studies explore how and why some Indigenous people – including Louis Riel and Edward Ahenakew – historically aligned themselves with Christianity while others did not. It also plumbs the processes and politics involved in combining spiritual traditions and reflects on the role of Christianity in Indigenous communities today.

Full Product Details

Author:   Tolly Bradford ,  Chelsea Horton
Publisher:   University of British Columbia Press
Imprint:   University of British Columbia Press
Weight:   0.360kg
ISBN:  

9780774829403

ISBN 10:   0774829400
Pages:   236
Publication Date:   15 January 2017
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Mixed Blessings of Encounter / Tolly Bradford and Chelsea Horton Part 1: Communities in Encounter 1 Reading Rituals: Performance and Religious Encounter in Early Colonial Northeastern North America / Timothy Pearson 2 Managing Alliance, Negotiating Christianity: Haudenosaunee Uses of Anglicanism in Northeastern North America, 1760s-1830s / Elizabeth Elbourne 3 A Subversive Sincerity: The I:yem Memorial, Catholicism, and Political Opportunity in S'olh Téméxw / Amanda Fehr Part 2: Individuals in Encounter 4 “The Joy My Heart Has Experienced”: Eliza Field Jones and the Transatlantic Missionary World, 1830s-40s / Cecilia Morgan 5 Between García Moreno and Chan Santa Cruz: Riel and the Métis Rebellions / Jean-François Bélisle and Nicole St-Onge 6 Rethinking Edward Ahenakew’s Intellectual Legacy: Expressions of nêhiyawi-mâmitonêyihcikan (Cree Consciousness or Thinking) / Tasha Beeds Part 3: Contemporary Encounters 7 Aporia, Atrocity, and Religion in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada / Siphiwe Dube 8 Decolonizing Religious Encounter? Teaching “Indigenous Traditions, Women, and Colonialism” / Denise Nadeau 9 Autoethnography That Breaks Your Heart: Or What Does an Interdisciplinarian Do When What She Was Hoping for Simply Isn’t There? / Carmen Lansdowne Conclusion: Reflections on Encounter / Tolly Bradford and Chelsea Horton Index

Reviews

This book offers something truly unique that Canadian historiography very much needs at the moment: a nuanced approach to Indigenous history which returns agency to First Nations sources and actors ... I would very much like to see a second volume. -- Stephanie Pettigrew, Department of History, University of New Brunswick * American Review of Canadian Studies * Bradford and Horton present an interdisciplinary study that spans multiple centuries, allowing space for both historical and theological considerations of First Nations interactions with Christianity... Divided into three sections that focus on community, individual, and contemporary sites of encounter respectively (6), Mixed Blessings progresses from detached to increasingly personal analyses and also moves forward in chronology from investigations of the 18th century all the way through the present day. -- Rachel R. Luckenbill, Southeastern University * Transmotion * Mixed Blessing is a highly readable update on what is happening in the field of missionary interactions. It exposes the silences - the factual voids in our understanding of the complex Indigenous encounters with Christianity in Canada - and for that reason, I recommend the book to those interested in achieving reconciliation. -- Dorothy Kennedy * BC Studies * Indigenous studies needs more strong volumes like this one to further conversations about evolving societies and goals. Too many new works rely on old questions: did Indigenous peoples truly become Christians? Was Christianity better or worse for Indigenous societies? Volumes like this one remind us that by letting the subjects guide our questions instead of imposing our questions on our subject, better answers emerge. -- Carol L. Higham, Department of History, University of North Carolina - Charlotte * Canadian Journal of Native Studies *

Author Information

Tolly Bradford is an assistant professor of history at Concordia University of Edmonton, where he teaches Canadian and world history. Chelsea Horton is a research consultant working with Indigenous communities in Canada. She completed her PhD in history at the University of British Columbia. Contributors: Tasha Beeds, Jean-François Bélisle, Siphiwe Dube, Elizabeth Elbourne, Amanda Fehr, Carmen Lansdowne, Cecilia Morgan, Denise Nadeau, Timothy Pearson, and Nicole St-Onge

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions