God Is Red: A Native View of Religion

Deloria argues that a defining theological difference between Christianity and Indigenous tribal religions appears in how each understands creation. Christianity frames creation as a single event that begins a linear sequence of time that eventually ends with the destruction of the world. Tribal religions, by contrast, treat creation less as a past moment and more as a living ecosystem rooted in particular places, where the pressing question is the interrelationship of all beings within a continuing, sustaining whole. Both traditions acknowledge a creator, but—for Deloria—Christianity is preoccupied with beginnings and endings, while many tribal traditions are not.

Deloria emphasizes how Genesis has encouraged Christian tendencies to imagine God in human form. Tribal religions generally refuse to represent a deity anthropomorphically. This non-anthropomorphic understanding shapes tribal views of creation. Christianity ties creation to the “fall” (71), making history a drama of corruption and redemption. Deloria notes that Christian theology often extends the consequences of the fall beyond humanity to the whole of nature, producing the idea of a “fallen world” (73). He cites theologians to show how even modern efforts to restate the doctrine still preserve the link between human evil and corrupted nature.