Deloria Vine

Native American Author who writes about religion

Notes

" Since writing the book, I have been gradually led to believe that the old stories must be taken literally if at all possible, that deep secrets and a deeper awareness of the complexity of our universe was experienced by our ancestors , and that something of their belief, and experiences can be ours once again."

"As I have gained knowledge and seen others share their visions with me, I conclude that our ancestors lived in a strange condition in which they were in touch with the spirits constantly, and I see that as a goal for our present activities."

Connection = survival + power " It is this unbroken connection that we have with the spirit world that will allow us to survive as a people.""

"That Christian peoples, or even quasi­ Christian peoples, could commit such outrages is a measure of their spiritual desperation and unconscious yearning for a feeling of authenticity and emo­tional stability."

"The validity of most religious traditions is believed to be their ability to explain the cosmos, not their potential to provide a wide range of spiritual experiences."

"The persistent emergence of religious movements and the zeal with which they are pur­ sued would seem to suggest that cultural context, time, and place are the major elements of revelation and the content is illusory. If not illusory, it is subject to so many cultural qualifications that it is not suitable for trans­ mission to other societies without doing severe damage to both the message of revelation and the society which receives it."

For indigenous, "revelation was seen as a continuous process of adjustment to the natural surroundings and not as a specific message valid for all times and places."

"Christianity has been singularly involved in proclaiming the "good news" that involves the articulation of an impossibly complex scenario involving original sin, a cosmic redeemer, the catastrophic end of the planet, and transportation of the "saved" to a new heaven where presumably people will behave much better than they did on the old earth ."

Note: "Western religion seems to have resolved this problem of interpretation by secularizing itself. Instead of working toward the Kingdom of God on Earth, history becomes the story of a particular race fulfilling its manifest destiny. "

"The imminent and expected destruction of the life cycle of world-ecology can be prevented by a radi­ cal shift in outlook from our present naive conception of this world as a testing ground of abstract morality to a more mature view of the universe as a comprehensive matrix of life forms . Making this shift in viewpoint is essentially religious, not economic or political."