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Hansen Lectureship
The Everlasting People: G. K. Chesterton and the First Nations
"How might the life and work of Christian writer G. K. Chesterton shed light on our understanding of North American Indigenous art and history? In these discerning reflections, art historian Matthew Milliner appeals to Chesterton's life and work in order to understand and appreciate both Indigenous art and the complex, often tragic history of First Nations peoples"--
167 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 14, 2021
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May 29, 2022
Summary: A series of reflections upon the writings and life of G. K. Chesterton and how they fostered an appreciation of the art and history of the First Nations peoples of the Midwest.
What an unusual idea! Matthew Milliner, a history professor at Wheaton College, connects the writings and life of G.K. Chesterton to the indigenous arts, beliefs, and tragic history of the First Nations people of the American Midwest. So how did he make this connection?
It came as he read Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man, noting Chesterton’s positive approach to pagan culture: “In so far as all this sort of paganism was innocent and in touch with nature, there is no reason why it should not be patronized by patron saints as much as by pagan gods.” In this work, part of the Hansen Lectureship Series, Milliner draws upon sources as diverse as Anishinabe sweat lodge experiences, the cosmology of Mississippian tribes, cave art, and archival and contemporary expressions of Christianity among First Nations people. What Chesterton did in recognizing the anticipation of Christian faith in European pagan experience, Milliner seeks to extend to the First Nations peoples of Midwest America, extending from the Ohio Country, the Great Lakes and as far west as Oklahoma.
While acknowledging the basis for criticism of Christian missions among indigenous peoples, he equally challenges the refashioning of First Nations religion into New Age religion. He contends that the relationship and integration of Christianity and Native religions extends back five centuries. Sadly, often times, the tragic history of the Midwest, as Milliner notes, involved Christians killing Christians, as happened at the peaceful settlement of Gnadenhutten, in my home state of Ohio on March 8, 1782 when Christian Lenni Lenape were slain after spending the night in prayer.
Having considered the tragic history, including the Trail of Death of Potawatami tribal members in the wake of the 1794 Treaty of Greenville (resulting in the removal of Native Peoples from their lands in my state), Milliner turns to a Chesterton poem on a Marian poem, The Queen of Seven Swords, focusing on the sufferings of Mary in the Passion of Jesus, recognized throughout the Midwest in numerous Catholic churches and cathedrals bearing the name of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Milliner believes these speak to the sufferings experienced in the settlement of those places, for those willing to consider the connection.
Milliner concludes with his experience of researching his own family history and how his forebears were implicated in the history of Native People in the American Midwest. This, for him is not an exercise in White shame but rather a reckoning of the cost of being a guest, as it were, on Turtle Island (the Native name for North America), on the lands of the First Nations. Furthermore, his engagement with Chesterton brings him an appreciation of the ways of God among the First Nations and their understanding of their place, which we have tragically ignored, reprising themes I’ve encountered in writers as diverse as Robin Wall Kimmerer (in Braiding Sweetgrass) and both Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson.
At times, I wondered if Milliner’s efforts to draw connections (for example between Underwater Panthers and colonizers, and between the Thunderbird and the cross) were stretching things. However, Milliner also challenges me as one who lives in the Ohio Country of the American Midwest to think about the meaning of our place. From the arrowheads we found as kids to the names of our rivers, it should have been evident that we have taken the place of peoples with a very different way of life, a culture, a spirituality. He challenges me to learn more about their presence in the places I’ve called “home,” a journey of that I have a sense will illumine, humble, and make me re-think many aspects of our local history.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
What an unusual idea! Matthew Milliner, a history professor at Wheaton College, connects the writings and life of G.K. Chesterton to the indigenous arts, beliefs, and tragic history of the First Nations people of the American Midwest. So how did he make this connection?
It came as he read Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man, noting Chesterton’s positive approach to pagan culture: “In so far as all this sort of paganism was innocent and in touch with nature, there is no reason why it should not be patronized by patron saints as much as by pagan gods.” In this work, part of the Hansen Lectureship Series, Milliner draws upon sources as diverse as Anishinabe sweat lodge experiences, the cosmology of Mississippian tribes, cave art, and archival and contemporary expressions of Christianity among First Nations people. What Chesterton did in recognizing the anticipation of Christian faith in European pagan experience, Milliner seeks to extend to the First Nations peoples of Midwest America, extending from the Ohio Country, the Great Lakes and as far west as Oklahoma.
While acknowledging the basis for criticism of Christian missions among indigenous peoples, he equally challenges the refashioning of First Nations religion into New Age religion. He contends that the relationship and integration of Christianity and Native religions extends back five centuries. Sadly, often times, the tragic history of the Midwest, as Milliner notes, involved Christians killing Christians, as happened at the peaceful settlement of Gnadenhutten, in my home state of Ohio on March 8, 1782 when Christian Lenni Lenape were slain after spending the night in prayer.
Having considered the tragic history, including the Trail of Death of Potawatami tribal members in the wake of the 1794 Treaty of Greenville (resulting in the removal of Native Peoples from their lands in my state), Milliner turns to a Chesterton poem on a Marian poem, The Queen of Seven Swords, focusing on the sufferings of Mary in the Passion of Jesus, recognized throughout the Midwest in numerous Catholic churches and cathedrals bearing the name of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Milliner believes these speak to the sufferings experienced in the settlement of those places, for those willing to consider the connection.
Milliner concludes with his experience of researching his own family history and how his forebears were implicated in the history of Native People in the American Midwest. This, for him is not an exercise in White shame but rather a reckoning of the cost of being a guest, as it were, on Turtle Island (the Native name for North America), on the lands of the First Nations. Furthermore, his engagement with Chesterton brings him an appreciation of the ways of God among the First Nations and their understanding of their place, which we have tragically ignored, reprising themes I’ve encountered in writers as diverse as Robin Wall Kimmerer (in Braiding Sweetgrass) and both Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson.
At times, I wondered if Milliner’s efforts to draw connections (for example between Underwater Panthers and colonizers, and between the Thunderbird and the cross) were stretching things. However, Milliner also challenges me as one who lives in the Ohio Country of the American Midwest to think about the meaning of our place. From the arrowheads we found as kids to the names of our rivers, it should have been evident that we have taken the place of peoples with a very different way of life, a culture, a spirituality. He challenges me to learn more about their presence in the places I’ve called “home,” a journey of that I have a sense will illumine, humble, and make me re-think many aspects of our local history.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
October 3, 2022
A riveting work of scholarship considering the ideas of Chesterton, mythology, and Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. Considering his recent Mother of the Lamb, I am primed for Milliner to next consider the Virgin Mary in North America with an eye for Indigenous portrayals--Louise Erdrich's Future Home of the Living God comes to mind. What does it mean to be connected to the land we live on, especially when that land is stolen?
I am completely underread when it comes to Chesterton, but I imagine this is a fresh wind in Chesterton studies. All in all, a good example of where listening in humility can take a scholar, to better places than proudly posturing from one vantage point. I've page-flagged a ton of Milliner's resources and look forward to digging deeper into the Indigenous encounter with Christianity.
I am completely underread when it comes to Chesterton, but I imagine this is a fresh wind in Chesterton studies. All in all, a good example of where listening in humility can take a scholar, to better places than proudly posturing from one vantage point. I've page-flagged a ton of Milliner's resources and look forward to digging deeper into the Indigenous encounter with Christianity.
December 13, 2022
Honey and pepperoni pizza, coffee and butter, Lyle Lovett and Julia Roberts - there are some unexpected combinations that go astonishingly well together and Matthew J. Milliner has added another unusual but intriguing pairing by bringing G.K. Chesterton into conversation with First Nations culture. Chesterton, a devout Roman Catholic, can often be accused of insensitivity if not outright prejudice in some extreme cases when it comes to other religions and non-Western cultures, but he was also a "radical populist" as Margaret Canovan's 1971 book shows, criticized imperialism, and he championed the "common man." His Catholicism also arguably made him more complimentary of non-Christian cultures as Catholicism, more than Protestantism, tends to find vague Christian seeds buried in pre-Christian cultures. Milliner especially draws upon the more mature Chesterton as seen in his later works such as 'The Everlasting Man' and 'The Queen of Seven Swords.'
The book consists of three lectures that are accompanied by responses. Milliner, an art historian (who gave one of the best Summer EPLs of all time), uses art as a gateway into understanding First Nations' beliefs, practices, mythology, and culture. He discusses Indian mounds, sacred pipes, the significance of the Thunderbird, and cave art, among others. He soberly expounds on the injustice that Christians and white people committed against the First Nations of the USA and Canada (particularly the Trail of Tears) and calls upon Christians and white people to seek out ways to undo harm. Milliner is the consummate "ally," sensitively respecting First Nations traditions, listening and waiting to be invited to participate by First Nations before offering his own insights. Yet he does, provocatively, demonstrate how in his rendering First Nations cultures anticipated Christianity and, upon contact with Europeans, how they utilized and incorporated Christian imagery and beliefs. Indeed, many First Nations became Christian and Milliner's gracious posture and meticulously-researched book is a gentle pushback on liberals and extreme anti-colonialists who blandly see nothing but harm in the meeting between the First Nations and (Christian) Second Peoples.
The book consists of three lectures that are accompanied by responses. Milliner, an art historian (who gave one of the best Summer EPLs of all time), uses art as a gateway into understanding First Nations' beliefs, practices, mythology, and culture. He discusses Indian mounds, sacred pipes, the significance of the Thunderbird, and cave art, among others. He soberly expounds on the injustice that Christians and white people committed against the First Nations of the USA and Canada (particularly the Trail of Tears) and calls upon Christians and white people to seek out ways to undo harm. Milliner is the consummate "ally," sensitively respecting First Nations traditions, listening and waiting to be invited to participate by First Nations before offering his own insights. Yet he does, provocatively, demonstrate how in his rendering First Nations cultures anticipated Christianity and, upon contact with Europeans, how they utilized and incorporated Christian imagery and beliefs. Indeed, many First Nations became Christian and Milliner's gracious posture and meticulously-researched book is a gentle pushback on liberals and extreme anti-colonialists who blandly see nothing but harm in the meeting between the First Nations and (Christian) Second Peoples.
January 28, 2022
I have gone with my congregation every year to Southwest Oklahoma, where we serve among Kiowa Christians, and Apache, Caddo, and others. So, I was looking forward with anticipation as "The Everlasting People: G.K. Chesterton and the First Nations" came in the mail. This 184-page softback was penned by Matthew J. Milliner, associate professor of art history at Wheaton College. The author intends for this volume to continue "the age-old conversation between Christianity and Indigenous North American life" (13), and he seeks to do this primarily by drawing G.K. Chesterton into the conversation. It mostly does.
The author takes readers through some of the indigenous art of earlier peoples in North America, primarily rock art and other forms, depicting the stories of the Hodag/Mishipeshu and Thunderbirds. He then takes us around the Winfield Mounds and Chicago. And strangely he ends on an icon of Our Virgin of Perpetual Help ("The Virgin of the Passion"). On almost every page the author draws in G.K. Chesterton as an aid for thinking through a given subject and interactive ways to perceive things from healthier angles. At the end of each chapter he has a guest respondent reflect on his topic: David Iglesias, David J.P. Hooker, and Amy Peeler.
At times it felt like I was trying to grasp the author's aim and point. But mostly I was able to track along with him. I appreciated his attempts at leaving behind the mythical and mistaken notion of the noble savage, but felt like what he gave out with one hand he ended up taking back with the other. For example, toward the beginning of the book the author rightly notes that hating "my own Whiteness, (...), remains a dead end" (23). But then in the conclusion that's where he ends up, or so it appeared to me.
What I most appreciated about the work was the portrayal of the genuineness of Indigenous Christianity, as Milliner calls it. It hurt to recall with the author how White Christians would wrong their fellow Native American Christians, to expand possession of land, violate treaties, etc. And yet the Indigenous believers' resilience in remaining close to Jesus as they were pressured from Whites to give up resources and places at the point of a gun barrel, but also as they were pressured by their own tribal peoples to give up their Christian faith at the point of a knife, was amazing. I have personally experienced this genuineness when surrounded by Apache, Kiowa, Wichita, and Comanche Christians while they prayed for me and my ministry team in English and native languages simultaneously. I have rarely been as deeply touched as I was on that day.
"The Everlasting People" is a noble attempt at drawing G.K. Chesterton into the age-old conversation between Christianity and First Nations peoples. And it mostly gets there. It might be a useful book for ministries that work among Native Americans. It could be meaningful for others thinking through some "outside-the-box" applications to Chesterton. I give it a mild recommendation.
My thanks to IVP Academic for sending the book used in this review. I requested it, and they happily mailed it, asking nothing in return but my honest analysis. Therefore, I have freely given my evaluation without restraint of hesitancy.
The author takes readers through some of the indigenous art of earlier peoples in North America, primarily rock art and other forms, depicting the stories of the Hodag/Mishipeshu and Thunderbirds. He then takes us around the Winfield Mounds and Chicago. And strangely he ends on an icon of Our Virgin of Perpetual Help ("The Virgin of the Passion"). On almost every page the author draws in G.K. Chesterton as an aid for thinking through a given subject and interactive ways to perceive things from healthier angles. At the end of each chapter he has a guest respondent reflect on his topic: David Iglesias, David J.P. Hooker, and Amy Peeler.
At times it felt like I was trying to grasp the author's aim and point. But mostly I was able to track along with him. I appreciated his attempts at leaving behind the mythical and mistaken notion of the noble savage, but felt like what he gave out with one hand he ended up taking back with the other. For example, toward the beginning of the book the author rightly notes that hating "my own Whiteness, (...), remains a dead end" (23). But then in the conclusion that's where he ends up, or so it appeared to me.
What I most appreciated about the work was the portrayal of the genuineness of Indigenous Christianity, as Milliner calls it. It hurt to recall with the author how White Christians would wrong their fellow Native American Christians, to expand possession of land, violate treaties, etc. And yet the Indigenous believers' resilience in remaining close to Jesus as they were pressured from Whites to give up resources and places at the point of a gun barrel, but also as they were pressured by their own tribal peoples to give up their Christian faith at the point of a knife, was amazing. I have personally experienced this genuineness when surrounded by Apache, Kiowa, Wichita, and Comanche Christians while they prayed for me and my ministry team in English and native languages simultaneously. I have rarely been as deeply touched as I was on that day.
"The Everlasting People" is a noble attempt at drawing G.K. Chesterton into the age-old conversation between Christianity and First Nations peoples. And it mostly gets there. It might be a useful book for ministries that work among Native Americans. It could be meaningful for others thinking through some "outside-the-box" applications to Chesterton. I give it a mild recommendation.
My thanks to IVP Academic for sending the book used in this review. I requested it, and they happily mailed it, asking nothing in return but my honest analysis. Therefore, I have freely given my evaluation without restraint of hesitancy.
December 15, 2021
I'm going to write a review of this too, and soon. Everyone needs to read it. I realize I'm biased as a Native American, Evangelical-ish, lover of Chesterton; but this book is incredible. This is the sort of scholarship we need from Christians. Rather than pedants monotonously re-hashing the same seven questions and texts, what is required by the times is vibrant scholarship in the spirit of the tradition we love and inhabit, brought to life in new, liberating, and beautiful ways. Professor Milliner here performs that task par excellence. I commend it to everyone.
October 15, 2021
It's always interesting to see a study on Chesterton or the Inklings that goes beyond the standard topics into more interesting territory. This one didn't disappoint with its compelling ideas and its mix of memoir and literary/historical analysis.
November 19, 2022
Summary: Using the life and work of GK Chesterton to grapple with North American Indigenous art, history, and Christianity.
Every review of The Everlasting People is required to say how unique of a project this is. Unfortunately, I am not equipped to evaluate the project because I am not deeply familiar with either Native American history and art or GK Chesterton. I have some familiarity with both, but not enough to know if Milliner is distorting the record, only enough to be able to follow along with the argument of the book. This is one of the weaknesses of truly original conceptions. That isn't to say I think this is distorting, only that I do not have the background to evaluate it.
I like books based on lecture series. They are often short, usually based on 3 or 4 lectures, sometimes with a response. But they are often thoughtful about unique topics and designed for a general readership.
If I had to summarize what The Everlasting People, a book that is hard to categorize, is about, I would say it is attempting to give people, generally categorized as white, tools to grapple with their personal and communal cultural history so that there can be a way to move forward in more than just guilt. White guilt, when it is limited to just guilt, does no one any good. The way forward needs to be centered on some process of restoration of relationships (personally and communally). This isn't "forgive and forget"; this is "remember, process, and work to restore."
Dr. Matthew Milliner is using his tools as an art historian to tell not just the story of the way that we have forgotten (intentionally) our history in the US around Native American subjugation using art, cultural icons, geography, and local history but also using the theological and cultural thinking of GK Chesterton.
There are two themes that I want to highlight that I think are helpful here. One, while Milliner is clear that the tools of Christianity were used to enslave and subjugate Native Americans, many Native Americans became Christian. They subverted those Christians who were misusing Christianity to persecute. There are multiple examples of this, but as an art historian, Milliner notes how frequently Christian imagery is used in Native American art and how Native American Christians bring native art and practices into their liturgy of Christianity, some of which spread beyond Native American Christian expression. While I am progressive politically and socially, MIlliner is rightly critiquing progressives who want to flatten the story to only tell of the ways Christianity oppresses without allowing the oppressed to tell their own faith stories as stories of empowerment. There is a fine line there because this can also be a tokenism story of only telling the empowerment story and resisting the ways Christianity was oppressive. Both parts of that story need to be told.
Second, Milliner is focused on local history and how we must grapple with our history differently from region to region. In the south, it is known that there is a history of slavery and segregation. But other regions can hide their own regional history by pointing to other regions. Milliner has a long section on Chicago and Native American history as a way to tell that midwestern story of oppression toward Native Americans, with examples of monuments to the oppression that function in ways not unlike the civil war monuments that tend to be more present in the south. As a current southerner who was a midwesterner (primarily in Chicago) until my mid-30s, this was a very helpful section of the book.
The Everlasting People is an example of a book that tries to grapple with what it means to escape from whiteness (in the sense of a belief in the cultural superiority of a white racial hierarchy). I am not sure I would agree with all aspects, partly because I am not sure I have the background to understand some of the nuances, but the importance is an example of Milliner trying to grapple with his area.
Every review of The Everlasting People is required to say how unique of a project this is. Unfortunately, I am not equipped to evaluate the project because I am not deeply familiar with either Native American history and art or GK Chesterton. I have some familiarity with both, but not enough to know if Milliner is distorting the record, only enough to be able to follow along with the argument of the book. This is one of the weaknesses of truly original conceptions. That isn't to say I think this is distorting, only that I do not have the background to evaluate it.
I like books based on lecture series. They are often short, usually based on 3 or 4 lectures, sometimes with a response. But they are often thoughtful about unique topics and designed for a general readership.
If I had to summarize what The Everlasting People, a book that is hard to categorize, is about, I would say it is attempting to give people, generally categorized as white, tools to grapple with their personal and communal cultural history so that there can be a way to move forward in more than just guilt. White guilt, when it is limited to just guilt, does no one any good. The way forward needs to be centered on some process of restoration of relationships (personally and communally). This isn't "forgive and forget"; this is "remember, process, and work to restore."
Dr. Matthew Milliner is using his tools as an art historian to tell not just the story of the way that we have forgotten (intentionally) our history in the US around Native American subjugation using art, cultural icons, geography, and local history but also using the theological and cultural thinking of GK Chesterton.
There are two themes that I want to highlight that I think are helpful here. One, while Milliner is clear that the tools of Christianity were used to enslave and subjugate Native Americans, many Native Americans became Christian. They subverted those Christians who were misusing Christianity to persecute. There are multiple examples of this, but as an art historian, Milliner notes how frequently Christian imagery is used in Native American art and how Native American Christians bring native art and practices into their liturgy of Christianity, some of which spread beyond Native American Christian expression. While I am progressive politically and socially, MIlliner is rightly critiquing progressives who want to flatten the story to only tell of the ways Christianity oppresses without allowing the oppressed to tell their own faith stories as stories of empowerment. There is a fine line there because this can also be a tokenism story of only telling the empowerment story and resisting the ways Christianity was oppressive. Both parts of that story need to be told.
Second, Milliner is focused on local history and how we must grapple with our history differently from region to region. In the south, it is known that there is a history of slavery and segregation. But other regions can hide their own regional history by pointing to other regions. Milliner has a long section on Chicago and Native American history as a way to tell that midwestern story of oppression toward Native Americans, with examples of monuments to the oppression that function in ways not unlike the civil war monuments that tend to be more present in the south. As a current southerner who was a midwesterner (primarily in Chicago) until my mid-30s, this was a very helpful section of the book.
The Everlasting People is an example of a book that tries to grapple with what it means to escape from whiteness (in the sense of a belief in the cultural superiority of a white racial hierarchy). I am not sure I would agree with all aspects, partly because I am not sure I have the background to understand some of the nuances, but the importance is an example of Milliner trying to grapple with his area.
January 21, 2022
What an interesting book. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. I love Chesterton, and have read Everlasting Man at least two times. I was not familiar with Matthew Milliner, and I'm not sure how I came across this title, but I put it on my Christmas list and here we are.
I really appreciated the history, the art, the responses from other contributors, and the spirit of the book. I get what Milliner was trying to do, and I am very sympathetic to it. I was moved by many of the stories of what the First Nations people went through and the inexcusable betrayals they repeatedly suffered at the hands of so-called Christians. I was amazed to find that so many of them had embraced Jesus through the missionary activities of various groups. I would really love to learn more about how that happened and what exactly that looked like, and how those groups fared over time. The book touched on such things but not in depth.
I struggled at times to understand if the author saw any danger in syncretism. As a student of missiology, I was surprised to find zero discussion of this, nor of the concept of the different levels of contextualization. For readers like me, who are presumably culturally and theologically more conservative than the author, it would help the persuasiveness and plausibility of the book's argument to make clear that at least some pagan practices were outside the bounds of what could reasonably be redeemed and repurposed to Christian ends.
Along similar lines, the adoption of phrases made popular by Marxist critical theories, such as "whiteness," signals a certain political and cultural vision that instantly alienates a good portion of the population. Perhaps this is typical of Wheaton these days, I don't know. I think the appeal of the book would be stronger without such loaded language.
I really appreciated the history, the art, the responses from other contributors, and the spirit of the book. I get what Milliner was trying to do, and I am very sympathetic to it. I was moved by many of the stories of what the First Nations people went through and the inexcusable betrayals they repeatedly suffered at the hands of so-called Christians. I was amazed to find that so many of them had embraced Jesus through the missionary activities of various groups. I would really love to learn more about how that happened and what exactly that looked like, and how those groups fared over time. The book touched on such things but not in depth.
I struggled at times to understand if the author saw any danger in syncretism. As a student of missiology, I was surprised to find zero discussion of this, nor of the concept of the different levels of contextualization. For readers like me, who are presumably culturally and theologically more conservative than the author, it would help the persuasiveness and plausibility of the book's argument to make clear that at least some pagan practices were outside the bounds of what could reasonably be redeemed and repurposed to Christian ends.
Along similar lines, the adoption of phrases made popular by Marxist critical theories, such as "whiteness," signals a certain political and cultural vision that instantly alienates a good portion of the population. Perhaps this is typical of Wheaton these days, I don't know. I think the appeal of the book would be stronger without such loaded language.
August 9, 2022
I recommend everyone following my reviews to read this book.
November 4, 2025
thoughtful, remarkably sensitive, a view from an art historian; I would have liked more work with Chesterton
Read
June 28, 2025This book is as fascinating as it is challenging. Milliner has done a great job exploring the surprising history of the interaction of Christianity and Native Americans through the lens of Native American art and the work of GK Chesterton. He challenges simplistic narratives which present Christianity as unequivocal oppressor and colonial weapon against the Native Americans by showing how a number of the indigenous people and tribes anticipated Christianity or willingly received it as their own faith, not merely as a result of politics and oppression. At the same time, he does not back away from the horrible acts done by Christians against the Native Americans, atrocities which identifying with Christ did nothing to stem. Christians would do well to heed this history, including the witness of Native American Christian martyrs.
In all of this, Milliner presents a vision of hope which neither ignores the dark spots of our history nor gives into despair.
With all of this, I do wish that Milliner would have made some of his allusions to history a bit more accessible. There are copious footnotes, but coming in as ignorant of this history as I did, I found myself a bit lost at times, even as I would like to know more. Even so, what Milliner shares here is important and a perspective well worth hearing.
In all of this, Milliner presents a vision of hope which neither ignores the dark spots of our history nor gives into despair.
With all of this, I do wish that Milliner would have made some of his allusions to history a bit more accessible. There are copious footnotes, but coming in as ignorant of this history as I did, I found myself a bit lost at times, even as I would like to know more. Even so, what Milliner shares here is important and a perspective well worth hearing.
March 17, 2024
I'm not sure where I got the idea that I wanted to read this book. Possibly the title and cover art? I was curious about what relation Chesterton might have had with Native Americans. Turns out, none! But that didn't stop Milliner from writing a book that tries to connect them.
He includes some important history, much of it focused on the Midwest and Great Lakes region, and much of it things I hadn't heard before. His essays have responses included that often add and clarify the topic.
I learned a few things from this book, but came away puzzled about its purported theme.
He includes some important history, much of it focused on the Midwest and Great Lakes region, and much of it things I hadn't heard before. His essays have responses included that often add and clarify the topic.
I learned a few things from this book, but came away puzzled about its purported theme.
December 18, 2021
Huge kudos to Matthew Milliner for drawing surprising and insightful connections that I would never have thought to look for (even as a huge fan of Chesterton). This book sparkles with fascinating insights and pushes back on some of the conventional wisdom about colonialism, Christianity and indigenous history in really satisfying ways. I only wish it was longer! I feel that some of the ideas could have used more development.
Full written review forthcoming for Englewood Review of Books.
Full written review forthcoming for Englewood Review of Books.
August 28, 2022
I really would like to give this a better review. I will just say that I did enjoy it and found it very thought provoking and personal. Maybe - a little too personal? I've not read very much on this topic and could use more of a survey, or even just more historical context and infodump with more statistics and facts. It would have been helpful to have more background knowledge going into it and I think I would have found it even more meaningful.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 1, 2022
It has been a really long time since I've read any Chesterton, but this was a nice look into connecting some of his writings with Indigenous Americans and the Christian faith. Felt like the author was reaching a bit in parts, but it definitely pushed my brain in some uncommon ways and I appreciated that.
May 14, 2022
I really appreciated this unique perspective but I found myself extremely engaged and then suddenly very lost over and over again in this short read.
Probably an indication of my lack of knowledge of all the many different subjects Milliner describes and/or utilizes.
Probably an indication of my lack of knowledge of all the many different subjects Milliner describes and/or utilizes.
October 7, 2024
Fascinating niche and application
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews