In Native and Christian: Indigenous Voices on Religious Identity in the United States and Canada, 184. New York and London: Routledge, 1996.

Adrian Jacobs (Cayuga) is academic dean of the National Native Bible College in Deseronto, Ontario.  He was raised in the traditional longhouse religion of the Iroquois on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, where his father is still a faithkeeper; in 1976 he converted to Christianity through the influence of his older brother and Anglican mother, who had experienced dramatic life changes in their newfound Pentecostal faith.  Jacobs attended Rhema Bible Training Center in Oklahoma and in 1980 founded the Word of Faith Center on the Six Nations Reserve, where he pastored for thirteen years.  This essay grew out of Jacobs' lifelong study of native religious traditions and his experiences at a native leadership conference held at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.  Jacobs addresses the perennial question of the relationship between faith and culture by describing four typical Christian attitudes toward native traditional beliefs and practices.  His personal preference for the response he terms "sanctification" reflects his emphasis on the prophetic role that religion can play as critique of community life, and his desire to identify a unified, comprehensive solution to the problem of religious diversity.

© 2008 by James Treat