bramblewild
Member
- Dec 13, 2024
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The Wars of the Lord by Matthew Tuininga.
For the past year, or maybe two, I've been reading history, and a lot of what I've read could even be considered church history. It's often been grim reading. It's not the stuff that often finds its way into school textbooks.
The book The Wars of the Lord isa history book focused on colonial New England in the 1600s, covering the time roughly between the arrival of the Pilgrims to King Philips War, so 1620 to almost 1680.
The idea for this thread is the write a bit about each chapter as I'm reading through the book. I've actually read a few of the first chapters, so I'm actually retracing those chapters to write about them.
The Introduction begins with the Pilgrim's arrival in 1620 and their First Encounter with the Indians. Men from the Mayflower came to land on a smaller boat to explore, and found a few signs of people, but for a few days saw no people. They found stores of corn and some burial sites, and ended up taking food and valuables from them, which may well have upset the native people, so that the event called the First Encounter was actually a small conflict:
The Nausets were defending their home from pillaging Englishmen. But the English saw it differently. To Bradford the attack was proof that the Nausets were the enemies of God’s people.
The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America's First People (p. 2).
The author then given a brief view of the look at the ways the theology of those early English settlers, the Pilgrims and later the Puritans (who while similar were also different) affected the ways they acted, why they came to this new world. their goals, and how it affected the ways they treated the native peoples they encountered.
They believed that bringing Christ’s kingdom to the Natives would liberate them from darkness. But their understanding of Christianity also spurred them to dominate the Natives.
The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America's First People (p. 3).
The phrase "war of the Lord" was used to refer to efforts to evangelize the native, but it was also used to refer to military battles.
The spiritual and military “wars of the Lord” were therefore inseparable. In both, Puritans identified victory with the cause of Christ’s kingdom, and in both, they sought a conquest of America’s first people.
The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America's First People (p. 4)
My impression from this Introduction is that the author is trying to be fair, that he is trying to understand both sides as best he can. He points out that the Puritans tried to treat the Algonquians with fairness and justice.
The problem was that some of their ideals, including the way they understood Christian theology, fostered prejudice, arrogance, greed, violence, and domination.
The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America's First People (p. 5)
I'll close this brief look at the Introduction with a quote from another book, Chesterton's The Everlasting Man, which I think is relevant to what happened and to how I see the history I've read, and how I think I'll see the events related in this book
Now it is very right to rebuke our own race or religion for falling short of our own standards and ideals. But it is absurd to pretend that they fell lower than the other races and religions that professed the very opposite standards and ideals. There is a very real sense in which the Christian is worse than the heathen, the Spaniard worse than the Red Indian, or even the Roman potentially worse than the Carthaginian. But there is only one sense in which he is worse; and that is not in being positively worse. The Christian is only worse because it is his business to be better.
The Everlasting Man (pp. 92-93)
For the past year, or maybe two, I've been reading history, and a lot of what I've read could even be considered church history. It's often been grim reading. It's not the stuff that often finds its way into school textbooks.
The book The Wars of the Lord isa history book focused on colonial New England in the 1600s, covering the time roughly between the arrival of the Pilgrims to King Philips War, so 1620 to almost 1680.
The idea for this thread is the write a bit about each chapter as I'm reading through the book. I've actually read a few of the first chapters, so I'm actually retracing those chapters to write about them.
The Introduction begins with the Pilgrim's arrival in 1620 and their First Encounter with the Indians. Men from the Mayflower came to land on a smaller boat to explore, and found a few signs of people, but for a few days saw no people. They found stores of corn and some burial sites, and ended up taking food and valuables from them, which may well have upset the native people, so that the event called the First Encounter was actually a small conflict:
The Nausets were defending their home from pillaging Englishmen. But the English saw it differently. To Bradford the attack was proof that the Nausets were the enemies of God’s people.
The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America's First People (p. 2).
The author then given a brief view of the look at the ways the theology of those early English settlers, the Pilgrims and later the Puritans (who while similar were also different) affected the ways they acted, why they came to this new world. their goals, and how it affected the ways they treated the native peoples they encountered.
They believed that bringing Christ’s kingdom to the Natives would liberate them from darkness. But their understanding of Christianity also spurred them to dominate the Natives.
The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America's First People (p. 3).
The phrase "war of the Lord" was used to refer to efforts to evangelize the native, but it was also used to refer to military battles.
The spiritual and military “wars of the Lord” were therefore inseparable. In both, Puritans identified victory with the cause of Christ’s kingdom, and in both, they sought a conquest of America’s first people.
The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America's First People (p. 4)
My impression from this Introduction is that the author is trying to be fair, that he is trying to understand both sides as best he can. He points out that the Puritans tried to treat the Algonquians with fairness and justice.
The problem was that some of their ideals, including the way they understood Christian theology, fostered prejudice, arrogance, greed, violence, and domination.
The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America's First People (p. 5)
I'll close this brief look at the Introduction with a quote from another book, Chesterton's The Everlasting Man, which I think is relevant to what happened and to how I see the history I've read, and how I think I'll see the events related in this book
Now it is very right to rebuke our own race or religion for falling short of our own standards and ideals. But it is absurd to pretend that they fell lower than the other races and religions that professed the very opposite standards and ideals. There is a very real sense in which the Christian is worse than the heathen, the Spaniard worse than the Red Indian, or even the Roman potentially worse than the Carthaginian. But there is only one sense in which he is worse; and that is not in being positively worse. The Christian is only worse because it is his business to be better.
The Everlasting Man (pp. 92-93)