The Indian Great Awakening Summary

Linford D. Fisher in the book, The Indian great awakening: Religion and the shaping of native cultures in early America, undertakes to rebuild a controversial past of what has been conventionally known as “the Indian Great Awakening” and which infers to that period in time when the native Indians in the New England converted to Christianity en masse in the 18th century. In his account, he challenges the notion that the native Indians wholeheartedly took to not only welcoming the white colonialists but also embraced their religion, Christianity. Instead, he argues that the socio-political situation that the native Indians found themselves in pushing them to take extreme measures so as to survive, including the strategic decision to embrace Christianity. All through the book he posits that the conversion to Christianity by the natives was more practical and provisional given the underlying circumstances at that given time. In an effort to clarify that the decision was not made out of goodwill, he undertakes to record in detail the various responses made by the native Indians to the religion, such as; the transition from rejection to adoption, and thus helping demonstrate the …show more content…
The native Indians on the surface appeared to welcome the educational opportunities that were offered by the evangelical Christians and which culminated in them converting to Christianity (Fisher, 2012). However, Fisher argues that the unfolding reality was more complicated than the presupposed trajectory it posed at the surface. He asserts that the literacy skills that the Indians gained through the educational opportunity helped them fight for their indigenous rights. This is affirmed by the fact that the native Indians would in less than a century open their native schools and demand deployment of native