How did a Belgian Oblate missionary who came to Canada to convert the aboriginals come to be buried as a Cree chief? In Dissonant Worlds Earle Waugh traces the remarkable career of Roger Vandersteene: his life as an Oblate missionary among the Cree, his intensive study of the Cree language and folkways, his status as a Cree medicine man, and the evolution of his views on the relationship between aboriginal traditions and the Roman Catholicism of the missionaries who worked among them. Above all, Dissonant Worlds traces Vandersteene’s quest to build a new religious reality: a strong, spiritually powerful Cree church, a magnificent Cree formulation of Christian life.
In the wilderness of northern Canada Vandersteene found an aboriginal spirituality that inspired his own poetic and artistic nature and encouraged him to pursue a religious vision that united Cree tradition and Catholicism, one that constituted a dramatic revision of contemporary Catholic ritual. Through his paintings, poetry and liturgical modifications, Vandersteene attempted to recreate Cree reality and provide images grounded in Cree spirituality.
Dissonant Worlds, in telling the story of Vandersteene’s struggle to integrate European Catholicism and aboriginal spirituality, raises the larger issue: Is there a place for missionary work in the modern church? It will be of interest to students of Native studies, the religious history of the Oblates, Canadian studies and Catholicism in the mid-twentieth century.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 266/.271231
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 21
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn-ab
- ISBN
- 9780889205628 0889202591
- LCCN
- E99.C88
- LCCN Item number
- V369 1996eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOTU
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xii, 344 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)rjv00101456 (OCoLC)180704518 (CaOOCEL)402293
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- Contents 8
- Preface and Acknowledgments 10
- Roger (Rogier) Vandersteene, 1918-1976 14
- Map 15
- Photographs 194
- Introduction 16
- One: Flemish Matrix: Blood, Art and Piety 22
- Two: "Steentje's" Beginnings: Between Family and Flanders 35
- Three: Grouard before Vandersteene: Cree, Catholic, Canadian 53
- Four: "My Little Sisters, My Little Brothers'': From Encounter to Wabasca 101
- Five: Intransigent Reality: Manitou's Land, Manitou's Children 141
- Six: The Great Mystery: Visible and Touchable in Art 187
- Seven: Sojourn Charts: Poetry in Serenity and Flux 228
- Eight: Wrestling the Spirits: Powagan, Beethoven, Cancer 252
- Nine: Beyond the Dissonance: Legacy of a Quest 294
- Ten: Theoretical Epilogue: Vandersteene and the Understanding of Religion 323
- Appendix 1 Chronology of Roger (Rogier) Vandersteene's Life 340
- Appendix 2 Evaluations of Vandersteene Collected during Research 342
- Appendix 3 Ode to Vandersteene 353
- Appendix 4 Names of Informants 355
- Bibliography 357
- Index 368
- A 368
- B 368
- C 368
- D 369
- E 370
- F 370
- G 370
- H 370
- I 371
- J 371
- K 371
- L 371
- M 371
- N 372
- O 372
- P 372
- Q 373
- R 373
- S 373
- T 374
- V 374
- W 374
- X 375
- Y 375
