Shelly Peters
Professor
Westblade
26 November
2013
Final Paper
ÒBarbarous and Barren vs. Moral and
DivineÓ:
Edwards, Education, and ESL
Shaking
off the dust from his feet, Jonathan Edwards left the stiff-necked congregation
in Northampton to evangelize the Indians in Stockbridge who had not yet had the
opportunity to hear the Gospel. Edwards blended the missionary methods of the
French and English by wishing to live among the people and teach them in
English. To Edwards, teaching English to the Indians was his primary goal
because he saw that English was one of the primary vehicles to understand the divine
and sublime nature of God. Edwards believed that the Indian tongue was too
barbarous to be able to fully understand the wonders and glory of God. David Brainerd, who while living among the
Indians, shared the same poor view of the Indians, their culture, and their
language. Both Brainerd and Edwards could not identify
the religion of the Indians through their hazy British worldview lenses. If Brainerd
and Edwards would have understood and utilized the IndianÕs all-encompassing view of the divine in nature to speak to the Indians, then
the Indians would no longer be Òbarbarous and barrenÓ as Edwards believed but
able to understand the Òmoral and divineÓ nature of God in their own tongue.
As Edwards turned from Northampton and
surveyed the barbarous lands, he recognized the failure of the English and French
in reaching the Indians because they wanted to increase their personal gain by
showing their British superiority over the Indians in different ways. The
French excelled by living among the Indians to be a part of their culture but
did not want to teach the Indians how to read the Bible because they wanted to
still be able to fool them with trading. Marsden highlights the self-interest
of the French as Edwards commented saying,Ò They pretended to teach the Indians
religion, but they wont teach Ôem to read. They wont
let Ôem read the Word of GodÉFor as long as they keep
you in ignorance, Ôtis more easy to cheat you in trading with youÓ (Marsden 385,
386). The French realized that if they taught the Indians to read the Bible,
then not only would they be able to read and think for themselves, but they would
be equipped to discern between what is morally right and wrong, and would identify
the robbery of French. The French dishonored the name of Christ as they
greedily took advantage of the Indians for their own gain.
While
the French lived among the people and manipulated them by withholding
education, The English educated the Indians but lived isolated from the
Indians. Therefore, the English dominated over the Indians by instituting that
they must learn English and adopt the British way of life. Edwards saw the
pathetic and hypocritical manipulation of the French and the English over the
Indians. Edwards believed he was called to these people to live, speak the
Gospel consistently before them, and bring the hope of Christ to the Indians.
He hoped to bridge the gap and complete the success of the French and the
English and live among the people and to teach them how to read and understand
GodÕs truths.
A
few years earlier in 1743 David Brainerd, having been kicked out of Yale, set
out to reach the Indians by striving to live with and among the people and
learn their language for the sake of the Gospel. Brainerd gave up all worldly
pleasures to survive in the woods among the Indians, but however, he likewise holds
a similarly horrible view of the Indians as Edwards does.
ÒThey
are in general unspeakably indolent and slothful. They have been bred up in idleness, and know little about
cultivating land, or indeed of engaging vigorously in any other businessÉThey have
little or no ambition resolution. Not one in a thousand of them has the spirit
of a man. And it is next to impossible to make them sensible to the duty and importance
of being active, diligent, and industrious in the management of their worldly business;
and to excite in them a spirit of promptitude of that natureÓ (Brainerd 460).[1]
While Edwards failed to recognize the IndianÕs capacity
to worship the Lord in their own tongue, Brainerd failed to recognize the
dignity of the Indian as a human being. BrainerdÕs descriptions begin by
bashing the IndianÕs work ethic. He continues to say that in one in a thousand
might have the spirit of a man. Such a statement shows BrainerdÕs heart without
charity for the Indians. This attitude makes the historian wonder why he would
even want to reach these Indians who do not have the spirit of the man? It
seems improbable that Brainerd would want to really risk his life and health
for these ÒslothfulÓ beings. While Brainerd gave of his life, his attitude
along with Edwards shockingly reveals a cultural and national superiority that
seems to undermine their work.
Brainerd
often felt alone in his missionary travels and records his deep loneliness in
his missionary work. Edwards longed for the ability to speak about the divine to
Natives, while Brainerd longed for another companion who could encourage and
strengthen him in his exhausting work. John Piper on a sermon on Brainerd
shares from EdwardÕs book on Brainerd in The
Life of David Brainerd saying, ÒMost of the talk I hear is either Highland
Scotch or Indian. I have no fellow Christian to whom I might unbosom myself and lay open my spiritual sorrows, and with
whom I might take sweet counsel in conversation about heavenly things, and join
in social prayerÓ (Edwards 207). Brainerd
left Yale in pursuit of seeking GodÕs work among the Indians. Edwards had Sarah
as his companion and pillar of strength, while Brainerd did not have a Sarah,
nor a companion to speak the same language and gain his much needed spiritual
encouragement. Brainerd found it difficult to penetrate the culture and the
language.
If
Brainerd and Edwards understood the language, they would have been able to
understand the culture of the Indians. The religion of the Indians saw
everything around them as a part of the divine. They worshipped a great and
powerful god and many little gods, feared the evil god, and had a view of the
afterlife. Linford D. Fisher in his book, The Indian Great Awakening: Religion and the Shaping of Native
Cultures in Early America
, describes
the spirituality and culture of the Indians saying,
ÒAt the most basic level, Native Americans did not separate out
something called Òreligion,Ó
nor did they have ideas about the world that might resemble a creed of systematized belief system, or
any other religious convention like written scriptures that contemporaries
might have identified with European religions. Native religious traditions were virtually synonymous
with their cultures. Ideas about the earth, humans, animals, nature,
and the gods, as well as the relationship between these various components,
were intertwined with
the daily rhythms of life and lived out in ways that seemed nonreligious to many EuropeansÓ (16).
Although
Edwards believed that the Indian culture was devoid of the realm of the
deities,
He did understand that images, narratives, and symbols
shape a culture. Even though he still preached in English with European phrases
and metaphors, he tried to speak plainly and conscientiously to his audience
saying, ÒFor one thing, he did not just preach simpler versions of his sermons
to the English which were almost all old Northampton sermons. Rather,
consistent with his advice regarding Indian education, he picked themes that
involved narratives and plain vivid metaphorsÓ (Marsden 393). Edwards preached
his sermons using simple words and word pictures, even though they were still
in English. ÒHis sentences were concise and full of meaning; and his delivery,
grave and naturalÓ(Hawley 51).[3] Edwards knew that the Indians
in his congregation were not philosophers and understood the world around them
by the natural forces of animals, nature, and human relationships. Therefore,
he switched the illustrations of his sermons, but still Edwards still saw the
Indian world through the lens of his study and pulpit.
Edwards
believed the IndiansÕ ÒsimpleÓ minds could not grasp the divine, but in
reality, Edwards was using foreign terms of religion that made them unable to
understand him. The Indians worshipped a creator. They, however, did not understand
this creator as the covenantal Yahweh or know of Jesus his Son. If a pagan god would
refer to a ÒChristianÓ god, then the story of redemption comes to life through
the resurrection of language. When something is redeemed, it once was dead and becomes
alive. If an Indian learned that the creator god, Cautantowwit, actually wanted to be in a relationship with
him and loved him that he sacrificed himself for him, this message would
transform an Indian because of the existing connotations associated with the
creator god and the implications of this love. If a missionary told a man to
believe in a random, foreign name without any cultural implications behind it,
of course he would appear to be Òbarbarous and barrenÓ as Edwards stated. In
the story of the five missionaries who were slaughtered in Equator, the
missionaries learned the Waodani language and told
the Gosepl to the people in terms they would
understand. They told the people, ÒWaegongi (God) has a son who came to earth. He
was speared, but did not spear back, so that one day, those who speared him
could live well.Ó In that spear-or-be-speared culture, the message of Òliving
wellÓ by laying aside the spear was radically opposite to the tribeÕs entire
worldview. To refuse to retaliate and make oneself vulnerable to oneÕs enemies meant
weakness. After the slaughter, when one of the warriors begins to listen to the
message and becomes so sick of the killing that he joins the missionary women
in building a Òhouse for Waegongi,Ó others also begin
to embrace this new teaching. Finally, Mincayani, the
tribeÕs most steadfast warrior who was among those who killed the missionaries,
comes to believe and proclaims, ÒWaegongi doesnÕt
want anyone to kill!Ó The transformation begins in the tribes. When the tribe
learned and embraced the message of sacrifice, love, and forgiveness of Maegongi, they learn that Òliving wellÓ is not retaliation
but sacrificial love.[4]
Edwards
could have preached the message of love and sacrifice of Cautantowwit to the Indians, but
Edwards like many of the British missionaries in the 18th century,
lead a missionary crusade of imperialistic ÒEnglish teaching as a path to
salvationÓ. Today, many Western Americans including myself have wanted to sign
up and join in this mission of evangelizing the world with English. On one
website, mission Finder, they promoted their TESL (Teaching English as a Second
Language)[5] program
encouraging others to join in this movement saying, ÒChristian missions TESOL specialists
are an invaluable part of the body of Christ. Not only giving the gift of new
forms of communication to speakers of other languages,
these priceless teachers offer the gift of friendship . . . and most importantly
the gift of amazing grace.Ó Based on the argument of the TESL that teachers are
essential to the mission of helping people learn English, and that through
teaching English the teacher can offer the Ògift of salvationÓ because the
student learned English. The Bible was not written in English but however
through the west, the spread of English accelerated simultaneously as the
Gospel spread. English, however, is just a vehicle of spreading the Gospel. The
Great commission is not ÒTeach English to all peoples, indoctrinating them in
the way of the Western Church,Ó but ÒGo, make disciples of al nations,
baptizing in the name of the name of the Lord Jesus.Ó Christians are called to
go into or remain in their own cultures to redeem their incomplete
understanding of the world around them. Christians do not have a unified
language here on earth, but because of the tower of Babel, many languages and
cultures exist. The Gospel unifies all nations in Christ not English, and each
culture is different like the body of Christ. The Gospel should be brought to
the nations in the context that the natives themselves would understand. The
message of the Gospel is not for the one preaching, but it is for the audience
to hear their paradigm of the world explained, redeemed, and transformed. The
story of the Gospel transforms societies in their own time in their own way
under ChristÕs headship. This is the message of the Gospel and of the cross.
Edwards,
a man of God, gave his life to searching the Scriptures and desiring to know
God fully. EdwardsÕs greatest hearts desire was to see GodÕs children to come
to a full knowledge of the Lord and to love him. From his study and from the
pulpit, Edwards spread the Gospel. Even though Edwards lived among the Indians
in Stockbridge, he was a better evangelist in his cerebral, scholarly work than
in socializing and understanding the culture of the Indians. For the past 300
years, Modern Christianity today cannot fully appreciate the ways that Edwards
has taught, defined and shaped the way that Christians today understand the
Gospel. Edwards, however, in Stockbridge did not understand the culture for which he came to
give the Gospel. If he would have understood the IndianÕs worship of the
divine, Edwards would have presented the Gospel in a way that would have
transformed the Indians worldview and paradigm shift so that they could fully
understand and live the gospel as it pertained to their culture. In the
scholarship world, Edwards evangelized the English-speaking world from his
study. Edwards was not a model of an evangelist reaching his Indian neighbors
because he failed to go out to understand the peopleÕs culture and share the
gospel story in in their language with their symbols in order to redeem their
understanding of the world and the Òmoral and divineÓ.
Bibliography
Brainerd,
David, Jonathan Edwards, and Sereno Edwards Dwight. Memoirs of the Rev. David Brainerd Missionary
to the Indians on the Borders of New-York, New-Jersey,
and Pennsylvania. New Haven, CT: S. Converse,
1822.
Calloway, Colin G. After King Philip's War: Presence and
Persistence in Indian New England. Hanover, NH: University of New England,
1997. Print.
Edwards, Jonathan. Jonathan Edwards on Evangelism. Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958. Print.
Fisher, Linford D. The Indian
Great Awakening: Religion and the Shaping of Native Cultures in Early America.
New York: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.
Gale, Sylvia. N.p.: ProQuest,
2008. Print.
Gale, Sylvia. Resisting Functional-critical Divides:
Literacy Education at Moor's Indian Charity School and Tuskegee Institute. N.p.: ProQuest, 2008. Print.
Marsden, George M. Jonathan Edwards: A Life. New
Haven: Yale UP, 2003. Print.
Piper, John, and Jonathan Edwards. God's Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of
Jonathan Edwards, with the Complete Text of The End for Which God Created the
World. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1998. Print.
[1] Brainerd, David, Jonathan Edwards, and Sereno Edwards Dwight. Memoirs
of the Rev. David Brainerd Missionary to the Indians on the Borders of New-York, New-Jersey, and Pennsylvania. New Haven, CT:
S. Converse, 1822.
[2] Fisher, Linford D. The Indian Great Awakening: Religion and the Shaping of Native Cultures in Early America
[3] Gideon Hawley, ÒA Letter from Rev. Gideon Hawley of Marshpee, Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, 1st ser, 4 (Boston, 1794)
[4]ÒEnd of the SpearÓ Movie Review at
: http://www.umc.org/site/c.gjJTJbMUIuE/b.1421547/k.8E06/End_of_the_Spear.htm
http://www.missionfinder.org/teaching-english-tesl/