The Amerind-Jesuit encounter : a study in cultural adaptation in seventeenth century French North America

Abstract

The object of this research has been to determine the willingness of the seventeenth century French Jesuit missionaries in Canada to adapt themselves and their message to the cultures of the Indian tribes with whom they worked, and in turn to adapt to a Christian usage certain social forms of those cultures. In order to put the study into perspective, Chapter I is largely a narrative historical account of Jesuit work in French North America. In Chapter II, the Jesuits' view of man as he exists in the created order is related to their evaluation of the Indian untouched by Christian religion. In complete accord with classical theology, the Jesuits viewed man outside the grace of Christianity as nevertheless possessing some good within his fallen nature, a good to be found in his exercise of reason by which he could apprehend the natural moral law as well as sometimes achieve a clouded understanding of the existence of the true God. It is this natural good upon which the missionaries sought to build native Christianity. In Chapter III, the willingness of the Jesuits to adapt to native lifestyles is discussed, a willingness fostered by their belief in the presence of good in the most primitive of circumstances. This belief engendered a strong sense of cultural relativism among them. Chapters IV and V deal with the manner in which the missionaries came to terms with native religions. The Jesuits concluded that spiritual forces were present in native religions, and their understanding of Christianity well-equipped them for a confrontation with these forces. Chapter VI deals with the Jesuits' ability to accommodate the Catholic cultus to the cultural needs of the Indian tribes, while Chapter VII illustrates a commensurate willingness and ability on their part to incorporate native customs and forms into the native Christianity the Jesuits sought to build. The Jesuits rejected the role of European culture-bearers, and, as Chapter VIII illustrates, refused to serve as conscious agents of French culture even when they were pressured to do so by the French government itself...