The Pipe and Christ: A Christian-Sioux Dialogue

by William Stolzman, Ron Zeilinger (Illustrator)

The Pipe and A Christian-Sioux William The Pipe and A Christian-Sioux Tipi 4th 4th Edition, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Tipi Press, 1992. Octavo. Paperback. Book is very good with light toning on pages. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.Seller 328334 Philosophy & Psychology We Buy Books! Collections - Libraries - Estates - Individual Titles. Message us if you have books to sell!

Genres: Religion, History, Indigenous, Nonfiction, Native American

256 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1991

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is based on 6 years of dialogue between Catholic priests and Lakota medicine men. I really like the Jesuit approach to interreligious studies. It seems they always try to understand the other religion first, and then find common ground. This approach is summed up nicely by the author:

“The Christian’s commission, like Paul’s commission to evangelize, is not to be immediately implemented but always after a time of prayerful silence and inspiration. One must receive before one can give. Like Jesus who asked questions of the teachers in the temple, like the apostles whose hope for the Davidic kingdom was a part of their search until Christ’s departure, like Paul whose zeal was grounded on the instruction of Gamaliel, Christians are, in God’s providential plan, to first silently learn from and be blessed by those scared revelations that preceded the coming of the Gospel, so as to adequately appreciate it and subsequently promulgate it in a Christ-like inculturational manner.”

The author even goes so far as to say that he believes God revealed himself to the Lakota people in the form of the buffalo calf woman who gave the sacred pipe to the people, as the Lakota believe in their religion. I think most Christians would say that God only revealed himself to the people of Israel and through Jesus, and that Christians have a duty to spread this revelation around the world. The author argues that since God is the God of all people, he has revealed himself to each group around the world in a unique way.

He also writes: “As Vatican II and Chief Setting Bull have said: We are to draw that which is good from whatever source presents it, and reject the bad wherever it appears – even among our own.”

However, the author totally lost me when he started talking about reincarnation. See if you can follow these mental gymnastics:

“The word ‘believe’ is very different from the word ‘know,’ especially in the Greek tradition. This difference permits the following distinction. While it is wrong for a Christian to believe in reincarnation as a possibility for oneself or any believing Christian, one can intellectually know of non-karmic reincarnation as a possibility for a non-believer.”

“There are various possible explanations for the [reincarnation] phenomena other than reincarnation. For example, certain children at that age may be highly resonant to or easily possessed by the wandering, lost ghost of a dead person.”

Anyone who can explain the above to me wins 5 points.

I also learned something I did not know about the Bible: “The resurrection narratives indicate that the physical appearance of the body of Christ changed radically and unrecognizably in his ‘reincarnation,’ yet despite the change of appearance and behavior, his disciples knew it was Jesus.” How they knew this is not clear. I guess I’ve always assumed that Jesus looked like himself when he rose from the tomb and walked the earth. Why wouldn’t he?

[Jami · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book filled in gaps of knowledge and looked to rectify the two spiritual belief systems in a way that was respectful and gave voice (as much as was possible) to the Lakota. This is an invaluable resource that I am surprised took me many, many years to find.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This an interesting book because it documents a long series of meetings which tried to find similarities between catholic and lakota souix beliefs. It was interesting in the beginning but about 2/3 of the way through it just got too detailed for me to stick with it.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really fascinating side by side look at Christianity and the Lakota Native traditions. The writing itself is not fantastic, but the content, the conversations and depth of information on the Lakota traditions and Catholicism is really well done. Fully respectful of both and showing how the traditions are not at crossed purposes at all - but quite similar and relatable.
I would have loved to have a dictionary of Lakota terms, pronunciations and definitions at the end, as well as an index. Either way, this book will stay in my collection as a great reference.

[gina michienzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book.