Gods of War, Gods of Peace: How the Meeting of Native and Colonial Religions Shaped Early America

In Gods of War, Gods of Peace Russell Bourne skillfully and convincingly recasts the complex interaction between American Indians and colonists by seeing this cultural contact as an "intrinsically religious encounter" rather than a clash of civilizations. Indeed, he describes the American War of Independence as a "disconnected" battle between "Indian nationalism and American evangelical imperialism" and points out that Washington's largest assault was not against the British but the corn-rich Iroquois, in 1779. He sees the two peoples' spirituality--at least originally--as being mutually "influential" rather than, as often portrayed, "invasive." Though there were no mass conversions on either side, many Native Americans became Christians, while "several hundreds" of whites embraced, to some degree, native ways of seeing, as well as living in, the world. Bourne, who is primarily concerned with the 17th and 18th centuries here, highlights curiously obscure characters and events, including Deganawidah, a pre-Columbian Huron "messiah" who inspired Hiawatha, and two bloody religious conflicts, the Pequod War and King Philip's War. Bourne is a patient and thoughtful writer whose premise unfolds with calm measure. --H. O'Billovich