’The Pathway into the Kingdom of Heaven’: The Indigenization of Russian Orthodox Tradition in Alaska

Noble, Tim (2015) ’The Pathway into the Kingdom of Heaven’: The Indigenization of Russian Orthodox Tradition in Alaska. Mission Studies, 32:1. pp. 32-46.

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Abstract

The Russian Orthodox mission to Alaska can be understood in terms of liberative mission. The article shows how the missionaries succeeded in allowing Christianity to become indigenized in native Alaskan cultures, rather than attempting to make the indigenous peoples Russian. It did this through an attention to the narratives, religious and otherwise, of the Alaskan peoples and by allowing these narratives to address and be addressed by the Christian narrative. Current anthropological research points to the depth of the roots of this indigenization, and how it helped in the identity formation of the native peoples especially after the sale of Alaska to the United States when their identity was under severe external threat. The Russian Orthodox mission to Alaska provides a good historical case study of how the gospel can be indigenized in a way that empowers people and suggests a tradition available to Orthodox churches today as they seek to become more mission-minded.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: B Mission theology/theory > Contextualization/Inculturation
D World Christianity and Central Eastern Europe > North America
G Christian traditions/Denominations > Eastern Orthodox
Depositing User: Users 3 not found.
Date Deposited: 19 Jul 2018 15:22
Last Modified: 19 Jul 2018 15:22
URI: https://ceeamsprints.osims.org/id/eprint/950

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