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.Indian religions feature a greater variety of rituals for communicating withthe spirits than does Christianity.Christian ceremonies (Christmas, Easter,Lent) are likely to be universal, celebrated much the same way everywhere,whereas Indian rituals are apt to be influenced by tribes locations andSources of Belief 31lifestyles.As a consequence, bands in the Northwest that hold potlatches donot perform the rain dances of the Southwest, and ones in the northeast wood-lands cannot be expected to celebrate the buffalo dance of the Great Plains.The gourd dance of Oklahoma s Comanche and Kiowa would not be foundamong Canada s Algonquin.In summary, the differences between Indian and Christian methods oftransmitting beliefs from spirits to people seem greater in number than thesimilarities.·· 3 ··SpiritsThe word spirits, as intended throughout this book, refers to invisible beingsthat are described in religious lore.Spirits role in the universe is that of hover-ing about and influencing events, including what happens to each of theworld s inhabitants.Spirits do not always remain invisible.On occasion, someadopt a perceptible form, such as that of a human (Christianity s Jesus), an ani-mal (the coyote among the Karok Indians [California]), or an inanimate object(the sun, a sacred tree, lightning, clouds).Spirits differ from each other in the amount of power they wield and in theaspects of life they affect.For Algonquin peoples [Northeast, Great Lakes,Subarctic Canada], Manitou is the supreme power controlling the entire uni-verse, just as God is the ultimate, all-encompassing power for Christians.Morelimited in influence are spirits whose domain is a particular location or facet oflife.Christian tradition recognizes St.Christopher s spirit as the guardian oftravelers and St.Andrew s spirit as the protector of fishermen.The Cheyenne[Great Plains] Indians have identified a spirit named Cold Maker as the causeof winter and Thunderbird as both the source of rain and the nemesis of thebogey-like Horned Hairy Water Spirits (Mails 2002, 12; Hoebel 1960, 86).Spirits also are credited with personality traits.The biblical book of Deuter-onomy portrays the Judeo-Christian God as merciful, compassionate, angry,vengeful, and jealous (13:17; 32:15, 35).For the Sioux [Great Plains] Indians,the bear spirit represents wisdom, the wolf craftiness in war, the eagle andhawk courage, and the spider intelligence.To the Blackfeet [Great Plains],the butterfly spirit is a bringer of dreams (Mails 2002, 13 14).The following discussion focuses first on Christian spirits, then turns to thegods and apparitions of American Indian religions.Spirits 33CHRISTIAN SPIRITSThe collection of Christian spirits can be depicted as a three-tier hierarchythat involves different levels of power and responsibility.God, also known as The Lord, is male and occupies the top tier.He is said tobe all-powerful (omnipotent), all-knowing (omniscient), and existing every-where at once (omnipresent).The biblical Old Testament s pre-ChristianJudaic doctrine describes God as a single being.But in the New Testament sgospels according to Jesus, God takes the form of a trinity a tripartite entityconsisting of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.God created the universe and all of its contents.Since that early time, he hascontinued to monitor events and influence them.The second level of the hierarchy is populated by angels, all created by God.Angels are invisible, occupy no space, and are indeterminate in number.Onextremely rare occasions an angel may assume a temporary human form inorder to deliver messages to selected persons on earth.Three important arch-angels are Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael.Most angels are beneficent, servingas God s aides, messengers, and heralds of God s glory.But one especiallypowerful archangel is a devious, malevolent enemy of God, of righteousness,and of humankind.He is identified in biblical texts by various names Satan,the Devil, Lucifer, Belial, Beelzebul, the Serpent, the Evil One, and Princeof Demons.Satan was one of God s creations who when overcome with prideand ambition disobeyed the Lord and was no longer worthy of God s blessingand support.Ever since Satan s fall from grace, his mission has been to lurehumans into evil deeds.Satan s own angels help him pursue that goal.The third tier is inhabited by the spirits of Christian saints.Those spirits arethe souls of humans who, when alive on earth, led such blessed, miraculouslives that, upon their death, they deserved special recognition, power, andassignments in their afterlife.Whereas all Christian denominations recognizeas saintly such early luminaries as Jesus s disciples and Paul of Tarsus, onlythe Roman Catholic Church has assumed the task of systematically conferringpostmortem sainthood on individuals during more recent centuries.The pro-cess of verifying that a deceased human deserves to be a saint is called canoni-zation, a procedure introduced in the tenth century CE.Prior to that time,saints were chosen by public acclaim.The process begins after the death of a Catholic whom people regard asholy.Often, the process starts many years after death in order give per-spective on the candidate.The local bishop investigates the candidate slife and writings for heroic virtue (or martyrdom) and orthodoxy of doc-trine.Then a panel of theologians at the Vatican evaluates the candidate.After approval by the panel and cardinals of the Congregation for theCauses of Saints, the pope proclaims the candidate   venerable. The next step, beatification, requires evidence of one miracle (exceptin the case of martyrs [who died for the Christian cause]).Since miraclesare considered proof that the person is in heaven and can intercede for34 The Religions' Componentsus, the miracle must take place after the candidate s death and as a resultof a specific petition to the candidate [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]