His native viewpoint is the unique strength of Deloria's writing. He can explain how the world appears to those who were here on this continent countless centuries before Europeans arrived. The world does not appear as an arena for struggle between humanity and nature, as the Christian creation story suggests. Death is not something evil that must be conquered, as the Christian resurrection may imply. Religion for the native people has never been "other worldly" but intimately tied to the natural phenomena of this world. In these areas and others, Deloria discusses the differences of perception and feeling among Christian and native people with regard to this continent and its religious meaning.

[God Is Red] is not all serious theology. He writes with amusement about some extraordinary manifestations of contemporary Christianity…. There is both hope and despair in Deloria's book. He is hopeful about the survival of Indian...