The collision of Europeans and Native Americans at and after contact was led predominately by two groups of people, conquistadors and missionaries. Of the two, missionaries tended to view indigenous people as lost and in need of conversion and civilization. As European missionaries, primarily Jesuits, attempted to “save” the Native Americans, they raised European Christianity above all native religions. On the surface the Jesuit preference for monotheism over polytheism is apparent. But the Jesuits were a highly educated group of men, trained not just in theology but in the classics as well. Though the supremacy over native religions has been widely discussed by scholars, the Jesuit comparisons of North American polytheistic religions to Greek and Roman traditions have been overlooked. Using the Jesuit Relations, this paper analyzes how Jesuit respect for European polytheistic religions contradicted their condemnation of non-Christian beliefs. Revealing Jesuit reproofs of Native Americans to be based not in religion, but in a conviction of European civic and racial superiority.
