George Tinker

George E. "Tink" Tinker is a prominent American Indian theologian and scholar who is the author of many articles, the books Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation, Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide, and co-author of Native American Theology with Clara Sue Kidwell and Homer Noley.

Biography

George E. Tinker is the son of a Lutheran mother and an Osage father. Tinker identifies more with his father’s culture and spirituality than his mother’s Lutheran background. Tinker’s identification with his American Indian cultural and spiritual heritage parallels his academic career, which can be broadly described as a critique of Western intellectualism and economic, political, religious, and social systems. Tinker received his B.A. from New Mexico Highlands University, and a M.Div. from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary.

Career

George Tinker is the Clifford Baldridge Professor of American Indian Cultures and Religious Traditions at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, where he has taught since 1985. He earned his doctorate in Biblical studies at the Graduate Theological Union in 1983.

He is an ordained Lutheran pastor of Living Waters Episcopal/Lutheran Indian Ministry in Denver. Tinker is a member of the Osage Nation, and is also on the leadership council of the American Indian Movement of Colorado and director of the Four Winds American Survival Project.

The Rev. Dr. George Tinker was this year’s Bible Study Presenter at the 2014 National Workshop on Christian Unity, held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His Bible study sessions were sponsored by the Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus.

Quotes

• "The intellectual and religious realms have been crucial to colonial political and economic domination of indigenous peoples."
• "...genuine justice necessarily will result in peace."

Works

• Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide (1993)
• Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation (2004)
• American Indian Liberation: A Theology of Sovereignty (2008)
• co-author of "A Native American Theology" (2001)
• co-editor of Native Voices: American Indian Identity and Resistance (2003).

"Red Skin, Tanned Hide: A Book of Christian History Bound in the Flayed Skin of a Native American" (2014)

Sources

• Tinker, George E. "Spirituality Justice Reprint: Dreaming a New Dream Cowboys, Indians, Global Violence and the Gospel." Plenary address at CTA National Conference, Milwaukee, Wis., Nov. 5, 2000.[1]
• Treat, James. "Spirituality, Native American Personhood, Sovereignty, and Solidarity." Native and Christian: Indigenous Voices on Religious Identity in the United States and Canada. New York and London: Routledge, 1996.
• A Visionary Theology: 2004 GTU Alum of the Year: George E. 'Tink' Tinker