The Orbis

Photo by Allison Oubre/Orbis Dr. Churchill questions religious study of indigenous women. [Click to enlarge]

This year's 29th annual Antoinette Brown Lecture "Between A Rock and A Hard Place: Native American Women and the Question of a Non-Christian Theology" took place Thursday, March 13, in Benton Chapel. Mary C. Churchill, assistant professor of women's studies and religious studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, was the distinguished speaker, discussing contemporary meaning in Native American women's rituals.

She questioned whether the academic study of Native American women and religion does justice to the powerful experience of their rituals. At the heart of her lecture were the problems associated with taking either a theological or a religious perspective when studying indigenous women and their rituals.

Churchill's interest in Native American women stems from her own Cherokee heritage, and her fieldwork creates an interdisciplinary scholarship between women's studies and Native American studies.

Churchill used the testimony of Native American women to illustrate the challenge of studying indigenous peoples, especially their spiritual beliefs. Some women stated that "the sacred is not a discipline" and that "everything has a spirit. People from the university don't believe these things."

Churchill stressed the separateness of religion and theology throughout her lecture and explained theology as "critical thinking about religion." She made a careful distinction that theology, a Christian concept, emphasizes belief over ritual practice, a key element of Native American spirituality. Academia must reconcile theology for Christians and non-Christians to accurately communicate the uniqueness and value of Native American religion.

Churchill also posed the larger question of whether indigenous theology belongs in the academy at all. The feelings of indigenous people on this subject are unclear because, as she said, "(I)t is rare to hear them talk about it instead of doing it."

For them, the "dances and songs sustain them," making intrusive scholarship unnecessary.

Religious study challenges the marginalized researcher's cognitive models, according to Churchill. She said that the study of other cultures is basically an "unearned privilege of the educated" if proper analysis does not accompany it. She believes that methods of academic religious study should be comparative and acknowledge the ways in which Western culture has permeated Native American traditions. Churchill also demonstrated how one's perspective can cause one to misinterpret beliefs and practices greatly.

For the term "religion" to be applied to Native American traditions, it cannot be synonymous with Christianity and its sacred beliefs. A rift in religion exists today between the scholars who invented and perpetuate the "sacred" notion of religion and those who actually practice it.

Churchill pointed out that western Christianity has excluded American Indian religious traditions because of this division. However, she said that indigenous religious practices could be included if the research focuses on learning more about humans as a whole.

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