MDMD book review re Jesuits in North America

[Doug Millison]

http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=91491011381793
Carole Blackburn. Harvest of Souls: The Jesuit Missions and Colonialism in
North America, 1632-1650. McGill-Queen Native and Northern Series. Montreal
and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000. xvi + 173 pp.
Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. $60.00 (cloth), ISBN
0-7735-2047-3.

Reviewed by James J. Harrington, Higher Education Program, Boston College

"[...] Many of the points that are raised in Harvest of Souls fit the model
of colonialist theory, applying the European context to those working in
New France. Yet there is an individual quality to these actions that resist
generalization. The colonial government sought to control the missionaries
and traders as well as the Native people. The clergy trying to adapt
Christianity to Native belief and custom were further restricted by the
regulation of the Church and by its internal politics. Just as Ms.
Blackburn emphasizes, the interpretation of the evidence needs to be
tempered by the reality of "the time given." I would contend that a
culturally dominant colonial power was far less rigid in the Jesuit model.
Their more gradual approach, using Native language and custom, was more
likely to lead to an accommodation and an understanding between the two
cultures. A Native Christianity was certainly possible proven by the
existence of Huron converts and Jesuit successes in other parts of the
world.

On the other hand, the evidence shows that the merged missionary and
state-building activities in New France linked the Jesuit efforts with the
greater French goals. The Jesuits, if exceptional in many ways, were
convinced Europeans as well as inspired missionaries. The book balances the
issues of history and theory extremely well. The Jesuits fit into
Colonialist theory as proposed by Carole Blackburn, and the use of
anthropological method also expanded an understanding of the evidence
contained in the Jesuit Relations. [...] "