In Native and Christian: Indigenous Voices on Religious Identity in the United States and Canada, 83. New York and London: Routledge, 1996.

William Baldridge (Cherokee) is professor of pastoral ministries and cross-cultural theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Kansas.  As an ordained American Baptist minister and the first American Indian to be certified as a clinical pastoral education (CPE) supervisor, he served as chaplain and CPE supervisor at several midwestern hospitals before pursuing an academic career.  Baldridge wrote this essay for New Visions for the Americas (Fortress, 1993), an anthology on the relationship between religion and social change.  Like Steven Charleston, he believes that native Christians have an important role to play in the future of the Christian church.  He analyzes the legacy of "colonial Christianity" as it affects both native and non-native participants in the missionization process, and he identifies the need to reaffirm the native spiritual heritage as the first step in the struggle for religious self-determination.  Baldridge calls for a spirituality of sacrifice and personal transformation in the search for liberating conceptions of religious faith and practice.

© 2008 by James Treat