For a long time, the Jesuit missionaries were viewed as “humble servants, saving souls from savagery and damnation, all for the greater glory of God,” However, in recent history, scholars have begun to look into how the mission was “a revolutionary enterprise, designed to bring about a radical transformation of Indian culture.” 1 In the essay We Are Well As We Are by James P. Ronda, Ronda discusses how the Jesuit tried to convert the Huron, and Montagnais people to Christianity. Though some natives chose to convert, many fought the movement. The main point made in this essay, was that, although the two religions held different beliefs and views on life and afterlife, they were both similar in the way that they both recognized there being an afterlife, they both “emphasized the supernatural and its interaction with man”2 and both sides believed in their faith with their whole being.
Despite the similarity though, the two religions disagreed on a lot of subjects. The first that was discussed in this essay, was that of sin and guilt. The Christian faith believes heavily in the fact that we must repent all of our sins, and feel guilty for them, or else we will be sent to hell. On the other hand, the Huron faith believes that as long as we live moral lives, we cannot be punished for sinning. After showing the difference between beliefs of sin, Ronda discussed how the Natives did not understand the idea of Heaven and Hell. The Huron believed in an afterlife that was morally neutral, not punishment vs. reward. Their afterlife was very much like life on earth with marriage, work, battles, and the like, only it was reached by thee road one must take between life afterlife. The Huron people rejected the idea of a heaven with no work or labor, just as much as they rejected the thought of eternal damnation. When the Jesuits tried to convince the Huron people that they were incorrect, a Huron man said “We have no apprehension as you have of a good and bad Mansion after this life, provided for good and bad souls; for we cannot tell whether everything that appears as faulty to Men, is so in the Eyes of God.” 3 Other disagreements were made in regards to the Powwows, baptism, as well as the Huron fear of Christian materials. The natives believed that the materials of Christians held demons that would bring on disease upon them, and the Christians believed that the symbols of native beliefs would make their mission to convert more difficult.
The apprehension and disagreements between the natives and missionaries caused conflict between the two groups, however conversations between the two sides give us insight into how much each side valued their own religion. One such conversation between Le Jeune and Carigonan produced a genuine theological debate. This debate ended with Le Jeune realizing that the natives held to their religious beliefs as much as the Christians did.
Finally, it is discussed in the essay not all natives gave in to Christianity or fought it, some chose to let some of the Christian teachings shape their own beliefs, without letting the Christianity take over. This was called Revitalization Religions, and showed how the two religions had the potential to coexist peacefully.
Essays like this are important in the search for truth in our history. In the past, native Americans were portrayed as savages in history books, but because of essays like these, it shows that Natives were intelligent people who had their own strong beliefs that they were able to defend in intelligent and accurate ways.
1Ronda, James P. “”We Are Well As We Are”: An Indian Critique of Seventeenth-Century Christian Missions.” The William and Mary Quarterly 34, no. 1 (1977): 66.
2Ibid 77
3Ibid 71