Whipple’s Vision: Theology of the Land and Nineteenth-Century Episcopal Missions to Minnesota Native Americans

This article considers theologies of the land by examining the legacy of the nineteenth-century Episcopal bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple and his encounter with Minnesota’s Native American people. Using the work of Willie James Jennings as an interpretive lens, it argues that Whipple developed and implemented a theology in which land is (1) fundamentally separate from people, (2) passive physical material, (3) a resource for human productivity, and (4) an instrument for the formation of Christian and American identity. It shows how such a vision of the land has contributed to a destructive theology of displacement, conquest, wealth, and assimilation. It briefly proposes an alternative theology of the land in which land is (1) distinguishable but not separable from people, (2) differentiated and sacred, (3) a creature with value exceeding its productivity, and (4) a place for mutual formation of people and land through God’s power.