Rating: 
Summary: Humorous, insightful, and flawed
Review: After a visit with his Aunt Lily while a student at Oxford, C.S. Lewis wrote in his diary, "Her conversation is like an old drawer, full both of rubbish and valuable things, but all thrown together in great disorder." This quote often recurred to me while reading Vine Deloria's book "God is Red", for he shares many valuable insights regarding Native American Spirituality and its differences from Christianity while at the same time overgeneralizing, misinterpreting, and omitting a mound of evidence that goes against his stated positions so he can argue against straw men. In other words, "God is Red" is a true polemic.
Deloria is at his best when describing the various characteristics of Native American spirituality such as the strong connection with the land or the relation of mankind to all living things. In this, he gives the reader an insider's view, which is enlightening. He also correctly points out the many flaws in behavior and inconsistencies in logic demonstrated by many Christians throughout history. Sometimes he does this in a very telling fashion, as when describing the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 where the papal bull divided South America between Spain and Portugal. "Plainly the pope was supervising not the divinely ordered division of the world's lands but national hunting licenses for rape and pillage." At other times, his biting comments are humorous, as when he talked about a popular movie called Billy Jack, with a character having martial arts expertise who "demonstrated his commitment to peace by breaking people's limbs in a spectacular fashion."
The flaws in this book are unfortunately not mere pecadillos. For one, Deloria speaks in overly broad generalities, of "Indian tribal religions" (as though it were a single entity when in fact there is quite a bit of religious variation among the more than 300 tribes), or of behavior of a 'Christians' (when referring to the actions of governments and individuals of western Europe or the U.S. over the years).
This tendency to broadly generalize becomes problematic when he assigns blame for the wretched treatment Indians received at the hands of whites in the centuries following the arrival of Colombus. He commonly takes an anecdote and from this states a principle or generalization that is far too broad to be supported by such isolated events, e.g., an Indian killed in the Korean war not being allowed burial in his own home town in Iowa (before burial in Arlington National Cementery), and then from this states, "One can only conclude that the Christian religion and its promise of the afterlifie is not meant for nonwhites."
Deloria at times paints too much of the "White man he bad, red man he good" portrait, selecting the worst incidents of abuse over the years while ignoring a mountain of charitable actions done by both individual and corporate whites over years. Moreover, he frequently talks of the many positive values of Native American society yet omits the more beastly elements of their societies (e.g., kidnapping and torture of prisoners) and constant wars which went on between Native American tribes long before the white man ever set foot in North America.
In addition to oversimplifying complex issues, there are some serious problems with the subjectivism that Deloria promotes with regard to Native American religions. "Salvation and religious participation in communal ceremonies did not depend on the historical validity of the event but on the ceremonies and powers that were given to the people in the event." Again, "It was not what people believed to be true that was important but what they experienced as true." Such relativistic thinking is problematic because it questions the very nature of truth. If something does not need to be historically valid or believable as a doctrine, then one is hard pressed to argue against any position in the world, including the Christianity that Deloria criticizes throughout the book.
Deloria is insightful when talking about an insider's view of the Indian societies or how an outsider sees Christianity. He is at his worst making dogmatic statements insufficiently supported by the facts or arguing against straw men. "God is Red" is an interesting read, but one that ought to be taken with a large grain of salt.
Rating: 
Summary: babbling nonsense
Review: All Mr.Deloria does is make an unaccountable tangents which casts non-native americans as jesus freak stereotypes. It simpley fails to give any credit to anything other than native religion. Mr.Deloria's ancient view of westerners-or any non-nativeamericans- are ignorant, and self centered perspective that is simpley too coarse to be applied as realistic.
Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: Although Vine Deloria does a fantastic job of showing the wide gap between American Indian spirituality and Christianity and the impossibleness of synchronizing the two without overlooking some incredible differences, this book falls short of my expectations of it.
Halfway through the book Deloria attacks the scientific community and the academic world through one strawman argument after another. Deloria seems to have absolutely no understanding of the scientific method and a profound misunderstanding of scientific theories. His arguments are reminiscent of those
of creationists in that since science does not require absolute certainties but only that which is most probable, he thinks that any theory can suffice. His reliance on crackpot pseudoscientists such as Immanuel Velikovsky, who is hardly the infallible, uncredited and victimized genius as Deloria thinks he is who changed facts to fit his hypothesis such
as
claiming that the Romans believed that Venus was born from Jupiter's head when really it was Minerva who did so as "evidence" that the planet Venus was born as a comet from the body of Jupiter and L. Ron Hubbard clone Zecharia Sitchin's "ancient astronauts" as a more credible theory for the origins of highly evolved archaic civilizations than archeologically backed scholarly studies makes me lose alot of respect for Deloria's ability to articulate a reasonable argument. I think Deloria could have done well to learn that something unproven cannot be substituted as proof of explanation for a phenomenon. Instead of a book about religion from a Native American's point of view, its actually mostly a polemic against science as it really is: a fallible, self correcting, tentative process which is continually evolving through newly acquired information in our wonderfully complex and seemingly infinite universe.
He also misrepresents the Nazi movement of World War II as a revival of Germanic paganism, which although it had a small following, was not endorsed by Adolf Hitler and mostly done behind his back. In fact, Hitler was a devout Catholic who claimed to be working for the Christian deity and the Nazi's had "God with us" stamped on their belt buckles.
But other than these few but integral flaws in Deloria's argument the book makes for an interesting read in that it shows the hypocritical nature of Christianity, the damage it has done to American Indian culture and way of life, the fact that it emphasises boring dogmatic doctrines, vague abstractions, and a code of behavior in which most of the participants don't even follow instead of direct religious experience (if indeed that possibility even exists in Christianity outside of the Christians' whimsical sentimentality) and the fact that Christianity has become, instead of a religious experience shared by a community, a religious institution broken into opposing pieces competing for corporate and capitalist interests.
Rating: 
Summary: Provoking to think about Christianity
Review: At least for Europeans, Mr. Deloria found a way to show a new image of Native American culture and religion on the one side and to talk about Christian Ethic on the other. He provoked me to think more about "my" religion, I discussed a lot with my friends after reading it. I do not share all his opinions, for example I don't think that Dee Brown's "Bury my heart at Wounded Knee" had no positive reactions for Natives today. But because I love books that provoke me and books I can learn from according to history, culture and philiosophy I rate "God is Red" with 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliantly crafted introduction to animistic theology.
Review: Dr. Deloria's early years in Lutheran seminary serve him well in this cogent exposition of traditional world views. He makes a good and maturely developed case for the animistic viewpoint inherent in most indigenous religions, and does so in a way that any patient and intellegent reader can grasp.Very coherent, challenging but not impenetrable. Dr. Deloria explores his subject matter deeply without patronizing and leaving the reader behind. He's been a favorite of mine for decades, and this is close to being my favorite work by him. I would love to take one of his classes!
Rating:
Summary: An important, thought-provoking, but flawed book.
Review: God is Red, by Vine Deloria, Jr., is an important, thought-provoking book that should be required reading in religous studies courses. However, there are several shortcomings that should be pointed out: 1. He tends to lump Jews and Christians together in discussing the problems of the so-called "fall" story in Genesis, and the concept of "original sin." Judaism does not have a doctrine of original sin. The morning prayers in the Jewish prayer book include the following: "My God, the soul you have given me, she is pure." 2. Many Christians also do not subscribe to the doctrine of "original sin/original guilt," especially as propounded by Augustin of Hippo. Nor is the notion of personal salvation from an inherited state of sin the only Christian theological position. Salvation and redemption are more complex concepts about which there is a broad range of theological definition. Mr. Deloria's opinion that the validiity of the Christian religion depends critically on treating the "fall" as a historical event is a narrow view. It may be the most prominent stream of Western theology--and certainly the one that has in confronted native peoples with claims of superiority and demands of conversion, for which it justly deserves condemnation--but it is by no means the universal Christian theology or spirituality. 3. Mr. Deloria has set up one theological position as a counterpoint to his argument. He should read more broadly in theology--e.g., the Eastern Orthodox churches, whose theology is substantially different from that of most Potestants and Roman Catholics. 4. There are many "dispersed" peoples in the world, who long ago lost any connection to a specific sacred place. That does not necessarily mean that they are spiritually adrift. I have a varied ancestry covering different countries, cultures and religions. I have no spiritual connection to one sacred place. If I can't know the place under my feet as sacred, and realize the holiness of the earth, trees, grasses, rocks, waters, birds, animals, etc. around me, then I would have little connection to creation indeed. And I agree with Mr. Deloria that a religion whose "connection" is solely with history and the time-dimension is one bereft of real spiritual rootedness. Despite the criticisms mentioned above, this book presents a powerful challenge to some deep flaws in inherited Christian doctrine, and any religion that attempts to base itself on abstract, "universal" concepts divorced from the reality of creation. The "Native view of religion" is perhaps the most viable antidote, and Mr. Deloria presents the rich truths embodied in American Indian tribal religions with clarity and forcefulness.
Rating: 
Summary: God is Red and Deloria is Right-On!
Review: HIGHLY recommended! Scathingly humorous critical views of the social, political, and financial aspects of religion, centering on Christianity and questions of religious freedom. You will gasp!
Rating: 
Summary: Author's reach exceeds his grasp...and it shows!
Review: I came across this volume in a used book store and my copy is copyrighted 1973. I can not speak to any revisions in any newer edition. The author is given to writing books with polemical titles. Unfortunately, a catchy title is no substitute for quality analysis. This book purports to be a critique of Christianity and Western civilization from the perspective of naturalistic American Indian spirituality. A great concept, poorly executed. Doubtless the author is sincere and intelligent, but he lacks the knowledge base from which to undertaken his ambitious task. Despite his alleged theological training, the author draws his insights from more or less contemporary Protestant theologians. His knowledge of early Christian and Orthodox theology is apparently nonexistent. The author delights in erecting strawmen, which he handily knocks down. Thus, he relentlessly critiques western civilization, while his "take" on Native American spirituality and culture is totally romanticised and utterly shallow. He lets lose with an occasional "fact" that reflects an astonishing ignorance of the subject. One minor example, the author states, "Much of the misunderstanding of the place of the United States in the postwar worlds (sic) involves this tendency to reject the Russians because of their rejection of Christianity." I could devote paragraphs deconstructing the absurdity of this one sentence. Suffice it to say, the "Russians" did not reject Christianity. The Soviet regime murdered millions of Russian Christians because they dared to fail to "reject Christianity". I could cite numerous such absurd statements made by the author. I wish this book had been written by someone with more breadth and depth of knowledge. To be sure, the author's native intelligence (no pun intended) is such that he serves up some useful and sound insights, but his argumentation is weak. Indeed, it is clear the author had a conclusion and scared up some facts and analysis to fit that conclusion. Not the best way to tackle such a project! Best read for amusement and nostalgia for the overheated counter-culturalism of the early 1970's. Not an intellectually serious book, despite its pretensions to the contrary.
Rating:
Summary: God Bless America
Review: I have read a lot of books, and very few have moved me, inspired me and blown me away like this one. Vine Deloria is one very wise man. If you come to this book with preconceived ideas and stereotyped conceptions about Native Americans (as most of us do) you will no longer have them once you have opened your mind and your heart to what this man has to say. While it is true that he may not be an *expert* on Christianity or the Judeo-Christian ethic (whatever that means), he certainly speaks truth to the perception of Christianity as it made its way into Indian country, and the hypocrisy and irony in the face of what he knows to be true. His awareness of Native spirituality is what is important here. It is important in reading this book to take that in, and balance it against what many of us consider to be "true faith." "The test of the extent to which a religion has a claim to historical validity, therefore, should at least partially involve its identification of the specific location and lands where the religious event that created the community took place," Deloria states in attempting to ground the concept of spirituality, "...we are left with a religion devoid of any significance in either time or space." This ability to articulate what rings so true for me (and others) is what makes this man the shaman that I believe him to be. Deloria is well read, and this book is far more than I expected it to be. As for those who cling to the superiority of Christianity, I suggest they did not read the book in its entirety. This phrase will haunt me until the day I die: "The Spanish, in slaughtering the Indians, would have a priest standing by with Holy Water available as they disemboweled pregnant Indian women." God Bless America.
Rating:
Summary: God is Red? I don't think so.
Review: I really did not care for this book. The Author uses quotes to push his anti-"christian" agenda. I too have a bias against "christianity" because of the way I was treated by *some* "christians". I will never take the "christian" path; but I have no right to influence other people to take a path I follow, or to try to persuade you NOT to take a specific path because I have a strong dislike for it. If "christianity" works for you; Fine. I suggest for people to explore different paths and follow the one that answers more of your spiritual questions. The entire reason for a spiritual practise is to get in touch with the creative force whether you call it God, the Great Spirit, Jehovah, Sugmad, the Source, Universe, etc. Two Bears Wah doh Ogedoda (We give thanks Great Spirit)
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