Book Review of The Urgency of Indigenous Values

What is a way forward in the midst of the environmental and ecological crisis? How does religious studies engage with Indigenous Peoples? Philip P. Arnold explores these two different but interrelated questions in The Urgency of Indigenous Values, which offers an alternative perspective on religion that shifts away from a settler-colonial worldview to better affirm Indigenous values. The book begins with the premise that there is a crisis in how humanity relates to one another and to the land. Arnold describes this ecological and social crisis as one of values. Indigenous values often stand in contrast to the modern values of settler-colonial people. He contends that understanding Indigenous values is essential for the survival of all life—human and nonhuman. It is through this lens that he critiques the category of religion. Considering the history of Native Peoples, the term religion, and the category of Indigenous religions more specifically, is problematic. Arnold claims that “religion was used to systematically obliterate Indigenous cultures by attempting to destroy their special relationship with the natural world” (5). He argues for a more appropriate term and category—Indigenous values. For Arnold, a collaborative model is the most viable path to understanding Indigenous values and securing the survival of all life.

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