By Washington Matthews
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As Deloria observes, a primary difference “between Indian tribal religions and Christianity would appear to be in the manner in which deity is popularly conceived. The overwhelming majority of American Indian religions refuse . . ”150 The biblical witness depicts Yahweh as having inherently human characteristics, even if in the case of the deity these are portrayed as being somehow more than human: thus God is spoken of as not only possessing human emotions such as anger, pleasure, and love but is pictured as the personification of love itself.
As McPherson and Rabb ask concerning metaphysics, “Is it really necessary to change the role of philosophy so drastically in order to show that the aboriginal peoples . . have their own distinctive philosophy? We think not. . ”154 So it is with theology. The topic of theology is how humanity relates to ultimate reality. Natives define their identity in terms of community and relate to ultimate reality through that community. Thus a profoundly anthropological theology that takes the imperatives of Native community as its utmost goals is nonetheless theology in the strictest sense.
IN OTHER’S WORDS 15 Locklear, a Tuscarora, whom the Lumbees claim as one of their own, to state, “There ain’t no such thing as a Lumbee. ”56 The issue of language has been an important one in Native communities. The issue begins with the appellation Indian, an outside view predicate designed, according to Louis Owens, to impose a distinct alterity on indigenes. ’ Native cultures—their voices systematically silenced—had no part in the ongoing discourse that evolved over several centuries to define the utterance .