George E. "Tink" Tinker is an American Indian scholar of the Osage Nation who taught for more than three decades at the Iliff School of Theology, a United Methodist Church theological school, where he focused his scholarship on the decolonization of American Indian Peoples. The Tinker family name is deeply embedded among the Osage.
Tinker is the Clifford Baldridge Emeritus Professor of American Indian Cultures and Religious Traditions at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, where he taught from 1985 until 2017. [1] Tinker is a citizen of the wazhazhe udsethe / Osage Nation. For 25 years he served pro bono as the director and spiritual leader of Four Winds American Indian Council. He is also on the leadership council of the American Indian Movement of Colorado and continues to serve on the elders council of the Four Winds American Indian Council. He has also presented in forums across the continent and around the world.
In his best known work, American Indian Liberation, Tinker argues that, "The intellectual and religious realms have been crucial to colonial political and economic domination of indigenous peoples." [2] He believes that Native American Christians need to separate themselves from the colonial thinking of European settlers but draw from Native American spirituality and its emphases on space, nature, and community. He developed this further in the co-authored book Native American Theology. [3]
Tinker's recent work has also examined the historical and institutional controversy and surrounding an atrocity where a book of Christian history that was bound in the skin of an Indigenous Man and gifted to Iliff School of Theology. Although the human skin was removed and given to American Indian Movement representatives in the 1970s, a non-disclosure agreement silenced the institutional role played by the school where the book was displayed for eighty years. With the support of Thomas Wolfe, the current president of the Iliff School, Tinker has worked to build awareness about the book and the lingering ways that institutions benefit from their participation in colonialism. [4]
ARTICLES:
1. “Weaponized christianity: missiology, jesus, the gospel, and Indigenous Genocide,” Handbook on Intercultural Theology and Missiology, edited by John Flett and Dorottya Nagy (T & T Clark, in press).
2. “How the Eurochristian Invasion of Turtle Island Created the Environmental Crises: Focus on an Early ‘Immigration’,” in Displacement Climes: Shifting Climates, Shifting People, edited by Miguel de la Torre (in press).
3. “The Corons and American Indian Genocide: Weaponizing Infectious Disease as the Continuation of a eurochristian Religious Project,” 2020 Hindsight: The Racial Realization and Religious Significance of the COVID-19 Pandemic, edited by Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas. (in press)
4. “Much Ado about Nothing,” in Faith and Resistance after Trump, edited by Miguel de la Torre (Orbis, 2021), pp. 184–192.
5. “Relationship—Not Ownership: Indigenous Lands and Colonial Occupation,” Tribal Studies (2021).
6. “Occupation in north America: States, Rule of Law, Language, and Indians,” in Resisting Occupation: A Global Struggle for Liberation, ed. by Mitri Raheb and Miguel A. de la Torre (Lexington Books, Fortress Academic, 2022), 175-193.
7. “jesus, the gospel, and Genocide,” in The Colonial Compromise: The Threat of the gospel to the Indigenous Worldview, edited by Miguel de la Torre (Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, December 2020). A volume of essays in honor of Tinker’s career.
8. “Discovery, St. Junípero, Lewis and Clark,” The New Polis (3 November 2020): https://thenewpolis.com/2020/11/03/discovery-st-junipero-lewis-and-clark-tink-tinker-wazhazhe-osage-nation/. This is a slightly revised version of an essay I published in the mennonite journal Intotemak in 2016. Note below. Online publication also makes it more widely available.
9. “Religious Studies: The Final Colonization of American Indians,” Religious Theory, e-supplement to Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory (June 1, 2020): http://jcrt.org/religioustheory/2020/06/01/religious-studies-the-final-colonization-of-american-indians-part-1-tink-tinker-wazhazhe-udsethe/. And: Part 2 (June 9, 2020): http://jcrt.org/religioustheory/2020/06/09/religious-studies-the-final-colonization-of-american-indians-part-1-tink-tinker-wazhazhe-udsethe-2/.
10. “What Are We Going to Do with White People? The New Polis (December 17, 2019): https://thenewpolis.com/2019/12/17/what-are-we-going-to-do-with-white-people-tink-tinker-wazhazhe-osage-nation/.
11. “Osage Kettle Carriers: Marmitons, Scullery Boys, Deviants and Gender Choices,” The New Polis (July 24, 2019): http://thenewpolis.com/2019/07/24/osage-kettle-carriers-marmitons-scullery-boys-deviants-and-gender-choices-tink-tinker-wazhazhe-osage-nation/.
12. “’Damn it, he’s an Injun!’ Christian Murder, Colonial Wealth, and Tanned Human Skin,” The New Polis, January 21, 2019: http://thenewpolis.com/2019/01/21/damn-it-hes-an-injun-christian-murder-colonial-wealth-and-tanned-human-skin-tink-tinker-wazhazhe-udsethe/.
13. “The Earth, Property, Pipelines and Resistance: Waylaying Treaties,” Faith and Resistance in the Age of Trump, edited by Miguel de la Torre. Orbis, 2017. 174-182.
14. “The Doctrine of christian Discovery: Lutherans and the Language of Empire,” Journal of Lutheran Ethics, 17:2 (March, 2017): http://www.elca.org/JLE/Articles/1203?_ga=2.135755441.1678807210.1512268747-1739868796.1512268747.
15. “The Irrelevance of Euro-christian Dichotomies for Indigenous Peoples: Beyond Non-violence to a Vision of Cosmic Balance.” Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions. Irfan A. Omar and Joshua Burns, editors. Wiley-Blackwell, 2015. 206-229.
16. “Redskin, Tanned Hide: A Book of Christian History Bound in the Flayed Skin of an American Indian: The Colonial Romance, christian Denial and the Cleansing of a christian School of Theology,” Journal of Race and Ethnicity in Religion, Volume 5, Issue 9, 2014: http://www.raceandreligion.com/JRER/Volume_5_(2014)_files/Tinker%205%209.pdf.
17. “American Indians and Ecotheology: Alterity and Worldview.” In Eco-Lutheranism: Lutheran Perspectives on Ecology (ELCA Association of Teaching Theologians, Proceedings, 2012). Edited by Karla Bohmbach and Shauna Hannon. Lutheran University Press, 2013. pp. 69–84.
18. “American Indian Liberation: Paddling a Canoe Upstream.” In The Reemergence of Liberation Theologies: Models for the Twenty-first Century, edited by Thia Cooper. Palgrave, Macmillan, 2013. pp. 57–67.
19. “‘To the Victor Belong the Spoils’: An Afterword on Colonialist History.” In Buried in Shades of Night: Contested Voices, Indian Captivity, and the Legacy of King Philip’s War, by Billy J. Stratton. Univ. of Arizona Press, 2013. Pp.
20. “Why I Don’t Believe in a Creator.” In Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry: Conversations on Creation, Land Justice, and Life Together, edited by Steve Heinrichs. Herald Press, 2013. pp. 167–179. Now online at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/iliff-edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/18155740/Tinker-Why-I-Do-Not-Believe-in-a-Creator-Conversations-on-Creation-Land-Justice-and-Life-Together.pdf.
21. "John Locke: On Property." In Beyond the Pale: Reading Christian Ethics from the Margins, edited by Stacey Floyd-Thomas and Miguel de la Torre. WJK, 2011. pp. 49–60.
22. "Decolonizing the Language of Lutheran Theology: Confessions, Mission, Indians and the Globalization of Hybridity." Dialog: A Journal of Theology, 50:2 (Summer, 2011): 195-207. Academic/library access: Dialog: Vol 50, No 2 (wiley.com).
23. "American Indians, Conquest, the Christian Story, and Invasive Nation-building." In Wading Through Many Voices: Toward A Theology of Public Conversation. Edited by Harold Recinos. Rowman and Littlefield, 2011. pp. 255–277.
24. “Towards an American Indian Indigenous Theology,” Ecumenical Review, 62.4 (December 2010): 340-351.
25. "An American Indian Cultural Universe: We Are All Related," in Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson, eds., Moral Ground. Trinity University Press, 2010.
26. "Jamestown as Romance and Tragedy: Abjection, Violence, Missiology, and American Indians.” Journal of Race and Ethnicity in Religion (March 2010): a peer-reviewed on-line journal at: http://www.raceandreligion.com/JRER/Articles_files/Jamestown%20as%20Romance%20and%20Tragedy.pdf%5B%5D.
27. “American Indian Theology: The American Indian Self and Theological Resistance to the Imperial Other.” In Liberation Theologies in the United States: An Introduction, edited by Anthony Pinn and Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas. NYU Press, 2010. pp. 168–180.
28. “American Indians and Liberation: Harmony and Balance,” in The Hope of Liberation in World Religions. Edited by Miguel de la Torre. Baylor University Press, 2008. pp. 257–273.
29. “Thief, Slave-Trader, Murderer: Christopher Columbus and Caribbean Population Decline,” co-authored with Mark Freeland. Wíčazo Ša Review (Spring 2008). pp. 25–50.
Liberation theology is a theological approach emphasizing the "liberation of the oppressed". It engages in socio-economic analyses, with social concern for the poor and political liberation for oppressed peoples and addresses other forms of perceived inequality.
Missiology is the academic study of the Christian mission history and methodology. It began to be developed as an academic discipline in the 19th century.
Dalit theology is a branch of Christian theology that emerged among the Dalit caste in the Indian subcontinent in the 1980s. It shares a number of themes with Latin American liberation theology, which arose two decades earlier, including a self-identity as a people undergoing Exodus. Dalit theology sees hope in the "Nazareth Manifesto" of Luke 4, where Jesus speaks of preaching "good news to the poor ... freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind" and of releasing "the oppressed."
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Christian theology:
A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism or other activities, such as educational or hospital work, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and are called missionaries, and historically may have been based in mission stations. When groups are sent, they are often called mission teams and they undertake mission trips. There are a few different kinds of mission trips: short-term, long-term, relational and those that simply help people in need. Some people choose to dedicate their whole lives to mission.
Womanist theology is a methodological approach to theology which centers the experience and perspectives of Black women, particularly African-American women. The first generation of womanist theologians and ethicists began writing in the mid to late 1980s, and the field has since expanded significantly. The term has its roots in Alice Walker's writings on womanism. "Womanist theology" was first used in an article in 1987 by Delores S. Williams. Within Christian theological discourse, Womanist theology emerged as a corrective to early feminist theology written by white feminists that did not address the impact of race on women's lives, or take into account the realities faced by Black women within the United States. Similarly, womanist theologians highlighted the ways in which Black theology, written predominantly by male theologians, failed to consider the perspectives and insights of Black women. Scholars who espouse womanist theology are not monolithic nor do they adopt each aspect of Walker's definition. Rather, these scholars often find kinship in their anti-sexist, antiracist and anti-classist commitments to feminist and liberation theologies.
Iliff School of Theology is a graduate Methodist theological school in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1892, the school's campus is adjacent to the University of Denver. Fewer than 200 students attend the school.
Missio Dei is a Latin Christian theological term that can be translated as the "mission of God", or the "sending of God".
Ecotheology is a form of constructive theology that focuses on the interrelationships of religion and nature, particularly in the light of environmental concerns. Ecotheology generally starts from the premise that a relationship exists between human religious/spiritual worldviews and the degradation or restoration and preservation of nature. It explores the interaction between ecological values, such as sustainability, and the human domination of nature. The movement has produced numerous religious-environmental projects around the world.
Anthony B. Pinn is an American professor working at the intersections of African-American religion, constructive theology, and humanist thought. Pinn is the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University. He is founder and executive director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning in Houston, Texas, and Director of Research for the Institute for Humanist Studies in Washington, D.C.
Edwin David Aponte is a Puerto Rican-American cultural historian, religious studies scholar, and contributor to the development of Christianity among Hispanic and Latino/a Americans. His research focuses on the interplay between religion and culture, especially Hispanic/Latino(a) religions, African-American religions, North American religious history, and congregational studies. He is one of a small number of U.S. Hispanic historians of Christianity.
Miguel A. De La Torre is a professor of Social Ethics and Latino Studies at Iliff School of Theology, author, and an ordained Southern Baptist minister.
The Catholic Church in Latin America began with the Spanish colonization of the Americas and continues up to the present day.
In Christian missiology, an insider movement is a group or network of people from a non-Christian religion who consider themselves followers of Jesus while remaining relationally, culturally and socially a part of the religious community of their birth. Though members of insider movements do not typically join Christian churches in their area or region, they may see themselves as part of the wider Body of Christ. It has been observed that as members of these groups follow Jesus and the Bible, they personally reject, reinterpret, or modify the non-biblical beliefs found in their religious communities. This process makes them different in some ways from their co-religionists, yet when groups can faithfully follow Jesus without formally disassociating themselves from their religious communities, insider movements can occur. Such movements have been observed among a number of religious groups, most notably among Jews, Muslims and Hindus.
P. Solomon Raj(21 February 1921 - 28 December 2019) was a pastor of Protestant Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church Society headquartered in Guntur with major contribution to theological research and arts. Old Testament scholar Victor Premasagar wrote about Raj as a pastor, professor of communications, creative artist, sculptor, poet and a theological writer.
World Christianity or global Christianity has been defined both as a term that attempts to convey the global nature of the Christian religion and an academic field of study that encompasses analysis of the histories, practices, and discourses of Christianity as a world religion and its various forms as they are found on the six continents. However, the term often focuses on "non-Western Christianity" which "comprises instances of Christian faith in 'the global South', in Asia, Africa, and Latin America." It also includes Indigenous or diasporic forms of Christianity in the Caribbean, South America, Western Europe, and North America.
Nirmal Minz was an Indian Christian theologian. He was Bishop Emeritus of the Protestant North Western Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church Society who served as bishop from 1980 through 1996.
Indochristian art, is a type of Latin American art that combines European colonial influences with Indigenous artistic styles and traditions.
Postcolonial theology is the application of postcolonial criticism to Christian theology. As in postcolonial discourse, the term postcolonial is often used without a hyphen, denoting an intellectual reaction against the colonial.
Latin American liberation theology is a synthesis of Christian theology and Marxian socio-economic analyses, that emphasizes "social concern for the poor and political liberation for oppressed peoples". Beginning in the 1960s after the Second Vatican Council, liberation theology became the political praxis of Latin American theologians such as Gustavo Gutiérrez, Leonardo Boff, and Jesuits Juan Luis Segundo and Jon Sobrino, who popularized the phrase "preferential option for the poor". It arose principally as a moral reaction to the poverty and social injustice in the region, which Cepal deemed the most unequal in the world.