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“The missionaries were unable to grasp the nuanced Indigenous relationship with the divine since it was so unlike the structured, institutional nature of Christianity. Native spirituality, embedded in everyday life, didn’t represent an authentic religion to the Jesuits. The missionaries and other Christians dismissed the tribes’ spiritual ways as meritless or, worse, as products of the devil.” — Mary Annette Pember
The missionaries were unable to grasp the nuanced Indigenous relationship with the divine since it was so unlike the structured, institutional nature of Christianity. Native spirituality, embedded in everyday life, didn’t represent an authentic religion to the Jesuits. The missionaries and other Christians dismissed the tribes’ spiritual ways as meritless or, worse, as products of the devil.