Book Release by Nicholas Griffiths – Sacred Dialogues: Christianity and Native Religions in the Colonial Americas 1492-1700 – revised
Second Revised and Fully Updated Edition 2017 of:
Sacred Dialogues: Christianity and Native Religions in the Colonial Americas 1492-1700
by Nicholas Griffiths
A Spanish conquistador who posed as a sorcerer and cured native Americans as he trekked across an unknown wilderness; a French Jesuit who conjured rain clouds in order to impress his indigenous flock with the potency of Christian magic; a Puritan minister who healed a native chief in order to win him for God; a Mexican noble who was burned at the stake for resisting the gentle Franciscan friars; an Andean chief who was haunted by nightmares in which his native gods did battle with the Christian Father; a Huron magician who vied with French missionaries over spirits of the night in a shaking tent ceremony. These are a few of the individuals whose struggles are brought to life in the pages of this book. Their experiences, among others, reveal what happened when Christianity came into contact with Native American religions in three distinct regions of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century colonial America: Spanish, French and British.
This accessible survey, aimed at the specialist, undergraduate student and general reader alike, is the first up-to-date account of the relationship between Christianity and indigenous religions in this period that ranges across both continents of the Americas. This fully updated second edition (2017) will appeal to readers interested in the history of religions, shamanism, magic and witchcraft, the history of native peoples, the history of missions, the history of the interaction of Europeans and Native Americans, and the history of early colonial Spanish, French and British America.
The second edition of this book is a substantially different work in comparison to the first edition. First, it incorporates a larger bibliography, in particular material from publications up to 2016. Second, it is completely reorganized in order to integrate material referring to all three geographical zones – Spanish America, French America and British America – across the entire book rather than treating each zone in a separate self-contained section, as was the case in the first edition.
Nicholas Griffiths was Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Hispanic Studies/Modern Languages, University of Birmingham, UK, between 1992 and 2016. He has published books and articles on the history of Spain and Spanish America.