This is an imaginative and constructive book in the art of comparative theology. The author, Allen G. Jorgenson, has immersed himself in indigenous worlds and been deeply transformed. Among the most poignant contributions are the author's narratives about his own experiences. For Christian readers new to this interface, the book may be disorienting. But this belongs to the character of Jorgenson's project: to disorient us from western theological assumptions toward creative enrichment from the gifts of indigenous being.
Indigenous traditions offer new perceptions of land, space, place and living in harmony with all of creation: ‘Space becomes place when it is identified with a narrative of the people’ (p. 5). Jorgenson describes how it is at the borders, or margins, of existence that we discover kairotic places, which contrasts with our conventional western notion of kairos as an exclusively temporal category.
The stories, ceremonies and rituals of indigenous people not only disorient, but can reorient Christian community to the wonders of place in harmony with the land and all creatures:
Harmony is the Indigenous answer to the question of greed, and harmony is ever understood in relationship not only to other people and the Creator but also to this place some called Turtle Island, a land marked aboriginally by boundaries rather than borders. (p. 13)
The author introduces readers to many voices to provide orientation to the distinctiveness of the indigenous way. For example, ‘original sanctity’ contrasts to the myth of ‘original sin’ and circles contrast to the notion of linear progress.
To exemplify his interreligious method, Jorgenson draws from Luther's robust doctrine of creation and Schleiermacher's writings on harmonic place. Following the lead of Scandinavian creation theologians (especially Gustaf Wingren and Regin Prenter), Jorgenson would reorient Luther's thought toward a fulsome appropriation of the first article. Creation is our home and the work of Christ attends, following Irenaeus, toward recapitulation and the mending of the universe. From Prenter, Jorgenson draws upon Luther's understanding of the Holy Spirit as ‘the force of creation’ (p. 29). Creation transpires through a divine kenosis that makes space for earth and created things: ‘Just as God makes space for us, we are called to make space for others’ (p. 30). This is coupled with a strong focus on the materiality of sacraments for Luther as means of grace for the life of the world.
Jorgenson draws from a wide selection of Schleiermacher's works to build appreciation for other religions with special attention to the value of place: ‘God cannot be directly perceived, nor deduced, but encountered in the world’ (p. 41). Schleiermacher values the senses for apprehending space and time that accords with being and doing among First Peoples. Attending to local places demonstrates the relationality of all that exists. Human being occurs in specific places, which are constitutive for identity. These findings lead to the author's conclusion that place is non-competitive; land cannot be owned as asserted by the ‘doctrine of discovery’. ‘God alone as owner of anything, and God marks out the character of divine ownership by exhibiting generosity’ (p. 46). The role of imagination and intuition in Schleiermacher parallels with indigenous apprehension of the harmonic space.
The final two chapters set forth Jorgenson's constructive interreligious project to address ‘The Poetic Potency of Place’ (chapter 4) and ‘Place at the Margins, Hope, and Living Interfaithfully’ (chapter 5). Here he returns to Luther, referencing the treatise on Christian freedom and his theology of the cross. Freedom makes space for others even as ‘death makes space and takes place for life’ (p. 57). In indigenous thought, this resonates with the decisions made by animals to offer themselves to humans as food. For Christians, this is what it means to see the world through Christ, for the sake of others. It is at the edges or borders of life that we receive life in the midst of death. Kairotic places, such as the cross, are the origin of new life.
Jorgenson relates in the concluding chapter discoveries from indigenous peoples about the revelatory power of places for generating hope. ‘Hope is many things: confidence, belief, trust, the opposite of resignation, acceptance’ (p. 79). Hope involves surrender to God as its ultimate source. Through this book the author demonstrates his own deep imagination for what it would mean for us to live ‘interfaithfully’. This way begins with receiving hospitality from the religious other and being changed by them. The world of the twenty-first century is ripe with such possibilities. We can be grateful to Jorgenson as a faithful guide.
