The spreading of Christian views and beliefs were very popular amongst the French and Spanish societies. Both the French and Spanish missionaries took it upon themselves to travel to the “New World” to spread the message of Christ. Many of the missionaries were not prepared to deal with the very different lifestyles and religious views that the natives had. The missionaries had to use many tactics to relay the message of Christ to the native people of the Americas. Many missionaries would struggle at converting the natives while on their religious quest to mission. Both the French and the Spanish would feel as though it is their duty to try and convert these pagan believers to Catholicism. This would ultimately lead to conflict amongst the different cultures. This paper will discuss the many different tactics used by both the French and Spanish missionaries in trying to convert and spread Catholicism. It will also discuss how they also viewed the lifestyle and culture of the natives. Lastly I will discuss how the natives responded to the missionaries and what they thought of these foreign invaders. Many tactics of the Spanish were in an attempt to convert the Indians to Catholicism. There were peaceful and violent actions taken in regards to trying to convert the Indians. Many missionaries were sent with charters to the new land to try and bring the natives the Christian faith. Many missionaries didn’t know the language or rituals of the natives, so that made it hard for the monks to preach the divine word of God. They would find interpreters to not only speak to the Indians but also to help the monks understand the Indians beliefs and culture better. Another tactic that was used was that the missionaries would try to appear to ... ... middle of paper ... ...of the natives responded to forceful and violate tactics but only because they feared for their lives. Overall the natives felt that these foreigners were being invasive and didn’t like that they had to convert and get rid of their gods and traditions. The Spanish and French push for conversion among the Native Americas was a major mark in early American history. The missionaries came to convert the pagan Indians and bring to them the laws of Jesus Christ. Some of the missionaries had success and others had the very opposite, which lead to war. Some natives were eventually accepting of the French and Spanish and some were not. Just like some views that the Spanish and French had about the Indians differed depending on the circumstances. Overall this paper discussed a few of those differing views and how the missionaries’ tactics were used to convert the Indians.
In George E. Tinker’s book, American Indian Liberation: A Theology of Sovereignty, the atrocities endured by many of the first peoples, Native American tribes, come into full view. Tinker argues that the colonization of these groups had and continues to have lasting effects on their culture and thus their theology. There is a delicate balance to their culture and their spiritual selves within their tightly knit communities prior to contact from the first European explorers. In fact, their culture and spiritual aspects are so intertwined that it is conceptually impossible to separate the two, as so many Euro-American analysts attempted. Tinker points to the differences between the European and the Native American cultures and mind sets as ultimately
The English took their land and disrupted their traditional systems of trade and agriculture. As a result, the power of native religious leaders was corrupted. The Indians we...
In this way the religion practiced by the Native Americans was taken as contradictions to Christianity. The natives were informed that Christianity was designed to be an eternal rule of significance and a means from which they could use to return to God from their religions that had deviated (Eliot par. 3). Through sermons given by Whitfield, the minds of the natives were engaged in religion and making religion the subject of most of their discussions. They embraced all the opportunities to hear what was been taught on Christianity. The Christian revivals were attended by the young and old alike (Edwards par.
... convert them by any means necessary. The idea that conversion made for a bettering of the people also aided in taking to harsh treatment. As for the actions taken against the natives, violence, murder, and rape were among the many. Such acts are fairly barbaric, not expected of a civilized society. Also, these actions are contradictory to Christian doctrine making them even more controversial.
Giles, Thomas S. "How did Native Americans Respond to Christianity?" Christian History, 1992, Volume 11, Issue 3, p20.
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Towards the development of the United States of America there has always been a question of the placement of the Native Americans in society. Throughout time, the Natives have been treated differently like an individual nation granted free by the U.S. as equal U.S. citizens, yet not treated as equal. In 1783 when the U.S. gained their independence from Great Britain not only did they gain land from the Appalachian Mountains but conflict over the Indian policy and what their choice was to do with them and their land was in effect. All the way from the first presidents of the U.S. to later in the late 19th century the treatment of the Natives has always been changing. The Native Americans have always been treated like different beings, or savages, and have always been tricked to signing false treaties accompanying the loss of their homes and even death happened amongst tribes. In the period of the late 19th century, The U.S. government was becoming more and more unbeatable making the Natives move by force and sign false treaties. This did not account for the seizing of land the government imposed at any given time (Boxer 2009).
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic order that is still doing good work today around the world. During the age of encounters—especially during the colonization of the Americas—the Society of Jesus, also known as Jesuits, played an important role in documenting Native Americans, converting them and helping them adapt to their newly changing environment. The practice of first establishing respect, then influence, and eventually working for religious conversion proved effective at converting Native Americans in North America. Their extensive ethnographic documentation as well as everyday letters to one another have proved useful to scholars trying to understand early Native American and French encounters in North America.
Throughout human history, religion has played a fundamental role in societal development, regardless of the culture. Christianity, in particular, has profoundly shaped the last two thousand years of history and continues to do so today. This holds true in the case of European development and exploration of the New World. As exploration in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries flourished, many countries set out to declare land on behalf of their country, and in an effort to bring honor to their God. When English settlers first developed colonies in New England, one of their goals was to share the word of God with the Native Americans they encountered. This drastically conflicted with the views of the Native Indians, and completely altered the development of North America. European religious views in early North American exploration set the tone for America’s development into a commodification driven society that exploited the environment as a means of economic potential.
The Europeans used their power of law and order to subdue and control the indigenous. They wanted to instill their beliefs, culture, and values onto the natives and used agents of directed culture change to influence the people. Missionaries played a major role in transforming the native communities. Missionaries believed they were helping the inhabitants by “converting and civilizing” the indigenous. They also used their power to exploit any resources they could find to benefit the church and their home land. However, while they worked with authority to take over land and culture, they often had conflict with the brutal treatment that authorities inflicted on the native people. Missionaries had many views on converting. Some thought “that indigenous people were subhuman and should be controlled… others assumed that indigenous people were … capable of intelligent thought and reasoning” (Bonvillain 2013). Missionaries claimed they were enlightening the people and used economic and political arguments to convert them. If the natives were to convert they awarded them with favorable trading and provided guns for their use. Missionaries also encouraged Christia...
In earlier years of conquest the colonial church was still intact by the time the country was now New Spain. The church organization had by then created two distinct branches- secular and regular clergy. This would then spread around the word of Christianity to save souls. By assimilating this spread to the population of “Indians” they would then get acculturated into thinking their way of living was evil and to abandon their beliefs and to always “praise the lord”. Through t...
The Spanish and the Native Americans were from opposite sides of the globe, they were different culturally, spiritually and linguistically, therefore communicating must have been difficult. In the unlikely chance that the Natives accepted Christianity, they never accepted it wholeheartedly but merged it with their own religions. For example, the image of the procuress (devil) in Sahagun’s Florentine Codex, although the natives were depicting some sort of devil in their painting, it was not the European idea of a devil. This proves that when the natives accepted the Christian ideas, they were adapting them to their own beliefs. The friars would not have tolerated their imperfect form of
The first Catholic priests came to South America with the conquistadors and through social and political force superimposed 16th century Catholicism upon conquered peoples and in subsequent generations upon slaves arriving in the New World. Catholicism has, likewise, frequently absorbed, rather than confronted, popular folk religious beliefs. The resulting religion is often overtly Catholic but covertly pagan. Behind the Catholic facade, the foundations and building structure reflect varying folk religious traditions. (2)
In the book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe we are given insight into what life was like before and during the European, imperialist land grab of africa. In this essay I will discuss how the christian missionaries tried to convert the native African population to christianity and what made some of the villagers join the christian missionaries in converting their fellow clansmen. We will also examine how Europeans used a combination of fear and cooperation to successfully convert the native population to christianity.
Tension and disputes are sometimes resolved by force but more often by negotiation or treaties. On the other hand, the Natives were described as strong and very innocent creatures awaiting the first opportunity to be christianized. The Indians were called the “Noble Savages” by the settlers because they were cooperative people, but sometimes, after having a few conflicts with them, they seem to behave like animals. We should apprehend that the encounter with the settlers really amazed the natives, they were only used to interacting with people from their own race and surroundings and all of this was like a new discovery for them as well as for the white immigrants. The relations between the English and the Virginian Indians were somewhat strong in a few ways.