Christianity and Native Americans
The Parallels and Divergences of Native Americans and Christianity The Description of Black Elk's Vision is one of a mystical journey, which has allows Americans a peak into the complex religions of Native American tribes. The relationships between Christianity and Black Elk's Sioux Religion were distinct from the minute the two met at the beginning of the New America. The onslaught of the Indians that occurred at the beginning of America will never be forgotten , but Even now in the 21st Century there is a sense of the irreparable hostility between the Native Americans and Our government. When our Fore Fathers first met the native American, the settlers considered Indian savages and had no concept of their way of life and nor did the Indians of the settlers. Both parties had greatly different religions but there were some similarities. One of the first native American tribes was the Oglala Sioux and after looking at Christianity and the Sioux religion objectively, along with great differences I found a a few parallels that seemed relevant. One major similarity found in both in Christianity and the Sioux their concepts of a whole god without any traces of Polytheism. There also isn't any true sense of idolatry in either re
The Sioux have traditionally past there oral religion generation to generation through myth and poetry and dance. Because the Sioux religion wasn't written down it was subject to change through interpretation and generalizations. Its is also subject to modernization, where as the Holy bible has not been. What I am leading to is that even if the Sioux religion is based on tradition and ritual its is inevitably more functional as a religion because it has been converted through interpretation for a contemporary practice. Maybe the only reason Christianity is most prevalent in America is because the early settlers inseminated the land with force and propagated Christianity in the same way. Referencing the instructor-'the Native American vision quest relates to Christianity in how through faith, willingness and the appreciation of nature(including humans) in its entirety, are all in a sense training, for the path to receiving a vision/command from the almighty'. A problem I see is when and how the bible has been transcribed over time. According to the Christian institute 'the first written parts of the bible which were short pieces of scripture and song which took place around the time of exodus around the date of 1800 BC. But the formal scripture was approximately written between 800-200 BC'. 'The New testament was written by many authors starting from 400 BC to 1500 AD.' looking at the Sioux idea of Creation I see an interconnectedness with Plato. Plato suggested that as humans we can not fathom a place without time and space, where as the beginning of the universe, for the Sioux is similar to the undifferentiated space that Plato described. The Sioux described it as a vague celestial space where a pantheon of supernatural beings reside The Beings them selves are stickily ethereal,. As far as the Sioux story of creation goes ,It seems similar to the writi
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1271
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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