Toba Spirituality
The
Remarkable Faith Journey of an Indigenous People in the Argentine
Willis
G. Horst
The
Toba people1 are one of several indigenous
ethnic groups living today, as they have for centuries, in the low-land
members, they maintain a traditional
relationship with their environment by hunting, gathering and fishing.
The Toba present for us a remarkable
example of a people whose unique spirituality has shaped their Christian
experience. Their particular path toward
Christ has resulted in a
distinctively indigenous church, and a
uniquely relevant theology worthy of being heard and respected.
Toba spirituality, emerging in the
church today, is not a formal, systematized, written theology, organized in
terms of European traditions. Rather, it
is a spirituality that sees Jesus through Toba cultural glasses and that is
lived out simply and practically in daily life.
The religious experience of the Toba
Christian movement teaches us that receiving Jesus Christ results in life and
wholeness when Christ is authentically perceived and uncoercively interpreted
from within one’s own worldview.
Toba traditional wisdom prepared
the way for embracing the gospel
The
one who does not share from the cooking pot
will surely lose his or her way in the forest.
—Mocoví
proverb
Every human culture accumulates a
body of wisdom that defines that which is considered to be the proper, or
correct, way to live. Each member of the
culture acquires this wisdom as part of daily life. Wisdom reflects what is considered to be
“just the way things are,” dealing with appropriate human behavior and
“correct” relationships of humans with regard to creation, to others, and to
the transcendent.
This wisdom is contained in and
transmitted by a people’s myths, rituals, proverbs, dreams, celebrations,
songs, religious liturgies, and popular adages repeated over and over
again. In indigenous cultures, wisdom is
also passed along through the stories told by elders or “wise ones.”
Fundamental to the traditional Toba
worldview is the concept of the universe as a reality cared for by its
“owners.” All of creation, as well as
each of its parts, “belongs” to its owner with whom it maintains a relationship. These owners are spiritual beings. They are not owners in the sense of having
private property; rather, they are administrators in charge of some part of the
total-ity which the Creator/Owner/Giver has made and constantly renews for the
use of all. Thus, each area of “vital
space” (forest, swamp, river, grassland, etc.) as well as each species of prey
(or fruit or plant to be harvested for consumption) within that “space” has a
spiritual caretaker. Consequently, life
depends upon adequate relationships with these owners or caretakers. Life is understood as the struggle to
maintain a state of tranquility, balance and harmony with all
the created world and, above all, with the owners or guardians.
For example, before going out to
hunt in a particular open grassland, the traditional
Toba hunter would pray, seeking the protection of the owner of that space as
well as instructions as to where to go and how many specimens of the prey he is
to be given. If he doesn’t obey the
instructions, especially by
taking more than he is allotted, he
risks harm through illness
or death. The interpretation given is that the hunter,
by his disobedience, disrupts the state of harmony. This is more than a simple violation of
established taboos, since the real issue is the relationship with the owner(s)
involved.
The experience of Benjamin, a
35-year-old hunter who lives in the outskirts of the city of
I don’t
see anyone.”
Toba spirituality seeks for holistic
health within this overall state of harmony.
Health is understood to be a spiritual state, and healing a spiritual
process. Illness is considered to be the
result of actions that disrupt the desired state of harmony and tranquility,
which is restored through spiritual “therapies.”
In the context of the Toba
extended-family communities, there are spiritual specialists who either have
greater innate sensitivity or are able to develop more sensitivity toward
communication with the spiritual owners.
These “power people” are traditionally the healers in Toba society. They go through special “training” to prepare
for using powers granted them by the spiritual owners for service to their
community. They dedicate their very
lives to maintaining and restoring the state of tranquility, balance and
harmony with the surrounding world.
However, these specialists may also choose to use the powers at their
disposal for evil, inflicting harm on others.
This occurs with greater frequency in the modern context than has been
the case traditionally, and causes intense internal conflict in many Toba
communities.
Toba traditional spirituality
includes the following elements:
Much of the traditional Toba wisdom
described here – already present in pre-Christian culture – provided the Toba
people with a framework for comprehending and embracing the good news of Jesus
in terms they could understand.
A powerful people movement among
the Toba is born
We
heard that a powerful One (a god) had come
down in the city of
horseback, mule, on foot, for days – sometimes
suffering hunger or cold.
We went because we
wanted salvation.
—Felipe
Cabrera, Toba elder3
The evangelical movement among the
indigenous peoples of the Argentine Chaco began more than 60 years ago. A few elderly Toba who witnessed the
beginning of this movement among their people are still living today.
Following their fierce defense of
the land against invaders for 400 years, the Toba had finally been defeated by
military force in the late 1800s. Their
native healers did not have sufficient power over the illnesses brought by the
conquerors. A British missionary
who has lived in
As early as 1934, the first
non-Catholic mission, the British “Emanuel Mission” was established in the Toba
territory of the Argentine Chaco. Within
10 years, three additional foreign non-Catholic missions began work with the
Toba: Go Ye Mission, Mennonite Nam Cum
Mission, and Grace and Glory Mission, all three North American. In addition, an increasing number of Toba
heard the evangelical message in denominational churches (especially
In the decades of the 1940s and
1950s, a significant religious awakening took place among the Toba. Through contact with pentecostal
preachers, especially John Lagar of the Go Ye Mission, the Toba began to
believe in Jesus in large numbers.
Through physical healings they understood Jesus as a great power. They understood that God loved, valued and
accepted them as indigenous people, regardless of how they were rated alongside
white society. They were enabled to leave
the vices to which they had resorted in their state of cultural
disintegration. Within a few years,
thousands of Toba converted to Jesus and congregations of “believers” with
local leadership sprang up in many of the communities throughout the
This movement resulted in a
revitalization of the Toba people, which permitted them to continue existing
within the world of criollo
(non-indigenous) civilization that was encroaching upon them. Toba social leaders were among the first to
support the religious movement, since they recognized in it the possibility of
surviving the profound crisis in which they found themselves and their
people. As the movement spread, a novel
evangelical religious expression took shape:
the indigenous evangelical culto.
North American Mennonites began work
in the
“The church is like our
Mother. We love our Mother.”
That’s
why we celebrate the church’s anniversary
every year. The
church is like our Mother. So we
bring gifts for her, we celebrate, we praise, we eat.
We
love our Mother.
—Luis
Mendoza, Toba pastor5
In the late 1950s, Mennonite
missionaries and some of the Toba spiritual leaders agreed on the idea of
organizing a totally indigenous church.
Today, the Toba attribute that idea to the Holy Spirit. This seems to have been confirmed by the
unusual birth and growth of an authentically indigenous church that came to be
called the Iglesia Evangélica Unida
(IEU), the
Because the Mennonites supported the
Toba in this important step by assisting with the legal process involved, they
have had a special relationship with the IEU churches and its leaders that
continues to the present. Mennonite missionaries
together with Toba leaders prepared the original handbook that
pro-vided guidelines for the church life and structure of the new
organization. They deliberately left
details vague and undefined in order to allow for maximum indigenous initiative
in determining the future shape and theology of the movement.
It must be recognized that as the
Toba evangelical movement gathered strength and took on organizational shape,
it achieved a legitimization not accorded to either their traditional
spirituality nor to the Catholic faith.
This came about through the legal documents (fichero de culto) granted by the national government in Buenos
Aires, a required authorization for all religious organizations that did not
form part of the established Catholic Church, the official religion of Argentina. Since these documents were not necessary for
Catholic organizations, and because native spirituality did not qualify as an
organized religion, evangelical churches were able to demonstrate written
legitimization not available elsewhere.
These legal documents became powerful tools in the hands of Toba leaders
as they sought recognition from local authorities. In addition, at this stage of history,
leaders of the defeated indigenous peoples attributed great value and power to
written documents of all types because the oral nature of their culture had
been thoroughly disparaged as worthless by the dominating Spanish culture.6
Thus, an official government policy
designed to curb the influences of non-official religions became, in effect, a
great influence in just the opposite direction.
At first, through affiliation with missions or denominational churches
from outside, and later through their own autonomous indigenous church
organization, the possession of important legal documentation strengthened the
Toba evangelical movement. Although this
legitimization was not among the motives for accepting the gospel in the early
stages of the movement, it became an important factor in giving impetus once
the evangelical movement became organized.
Internationally recognized as one of
the few examples in
The movement has been very missionary from its beginning, with congregations forming
wherever Toba settled to find work or traveled to sell their crafts. The majority of the congregations are in
all the
way from La Plata, nearly 800 miles to the south, to Salta in the northwest, to
Paraguay near Asunción, as well as in Formosa, Chaco and Santa Fe provinces of
Argentina.
This
growth is a result of the living testimony of faith of the indigenous
people.
The coming of the gospel among
the Toba has broken down ethnic barriers and created a new family of faith
The
The IEU is not the only Christian
church among the several indigenous peoples of the
congregations, which have resulted from the
IEU movement.
Loyalty to the IEU as an indigenous
entity has been expressed through the following theme song, which grew out of
the early days of the movement and is still used today at anniversary
gatherings:
We are
the United Church, the United Church,
the people of God.
We
believe
in the promise of the Holy Spirit,
the Counselor.
Toba Christians are finding their
way between the spiritual legacy of their past and the radical newness of the
gospel
To express their new faith, Toba
leaders chose some forms and expressions from Pentecostal churches and some from
their traditional religion. On the
surface, the IEU can easily be confused with pentecostalism. Since pentecostalism
is the closest parallel expression of Christianity in the surrounding
non-indigenous culture, many Toba themselves accept this designation. However, there are enough distinctively
indigenous characteristics of the IEU to clearly differentiate it from the
non-indigenous pentecostal churches.
For example, due to cultural
factors, the IEU has largely adopted child baptism in spite of being aware of
the practice of Mennonite, evangelical and pentecostal
churches of reserving baptism for adults, or at least limiting it to teenagers
or older children.
Another difference may be seen in
the IEU church services in the expressions of religious ecstasy. The Toba personality is extremely sensitive
to altered states of consciousness.
Women are sometimes observed during a church service in a state of
ecstasy brought on by heavy breathing with chanting (a technique of
hyperventilation). Such ecstasy often
involves oblivion to surroundings, and occasionally results in falling to the
floor in a state of unconsciousness during which a dream or vision is
received. Although the Toba recognize
this behavior as something from their previous religious expression, by using
the Spanish term gozo (joy) to describe this behavior to non-indigenous
Christians, it is accepted in the context of pentecostal
Christianity as a form of possession by the Holy Spirit.
Because of the strangeness of some
elements of IEU church services, many non-indigenous Christians consider the
church to be little more than a pagan cult filled with superstitious practices
carried out under the name of the gospel.
Others, upon closer investigation, consider the IEU a syncretistic Christian
church, because of what looks like a strange combination of Christian teachings
together with ancestral Toba beliefs and practices. There are even those who, through ignorance,
consider the IEU as part of a fundamentalist conspiracy with North American
roots, imposed and managed by outside interests for the purpose of dividing and
conquering the people!
The IEU is, however, an authentic
Christian movement of indigenous peoples living out its own spirituality. This indigenous spirituality is expressed in
an authentic form of the gospel inculturated in a people with a worldview quite
different from that of Western-oriented churches.
Orlando Sánchez, a former president
of the IEU and one of the Toba Bible translators, is a second-generation believer
who has been preaching from the Bible for more than 30 years. He participated in a consultation in
is related to their previous
spirituality. In 1984,
The
IEU has its own authentic theology, which grows
out of its own religious experience and from the
Holy Scripture. The church is the center of life and
interest in the community, given that the indigenous
peoples
have their own history, culture and language,
which is
thousands of years old. Their
understanding
of the universe and of nature as created, is their own.
All
the cosmos and its laws are expressed in their life
and are the very reason for their existence.
When
the indigenous person heard the gospel,
it was
good news. It captivated his mind
because
many of
the things that he already perceived by means
of his own
understandings and wisdom came into focus
and
became visible. Thus, the Christian
faith and
the Bible are
expressed in a very strong way in
the life of the
indigenous peoples, and they define
themselves
as pentecostals. Ñim qad’ot (our
creator)
is one of the
expressions used to refer to God. It is
beyond
doubt
that indigenous people already had a notion of God
in ancient times.
Evangelization
and the Bible did not destroy anything
at all, such that for the indigenous the gospel has not
been
a process of brainwashing, but just the opposite.
The spirit of the indigenous was
freed through organ-
izing their own church, where they themselves respond
in their own way to the call of God. The indigenous
person is an individual with culture. That culture is
still intact.
In this way,
as parts of the same spiritual
reality,
Worship is at the heart of the
Toba religious experience
In
the book of Revelation a vision of the end times
shows a large number of people of God worshiping
together. It says there will be many nations and
languages. Since their activity is worship, it’s obvious
that
what identifies them as distinct nations must be
their style of worship.
It pleases God for us to worship
in our own way.
—Rafael Mansilla, Toba church leader
and reservation administrator8
The primary function of the church
service in Toba spirit-uality is that of re-establishing the state of tranquility
and harmony that is constantly being threatened by the interference of evil
forces. Throughout any service the
question is repeatedly articulated: “How
many of you are contented?” or “Are you all contented, brothers and
sisters?” The desired goal is that sense
of well-being that results from right relationships with all the
surroundings. Thus, reconciliation,
healing and exorcism are important ministries in restoring damaged
relationships. Prolonged stretches of
singing, strong preaching and forceful prayer are spiritual forces useful in
warding off evil.
Carrying out the church service in
an adequate way becomes the most serious activity of the believers. They often refer to the culto, as well as to
its different components, as “our work.”
In fact, one of the complaints of leaders of non-indigenous society is
that the Toba spend so much time and energy in church services, they are
neglecting their other social responsibilities.
Regular church services are long,
usually two to four hours, colorful, enthusiastic and bilingual. Frequently, multiple expressions occur
simultaneously: dancing, audible prayer,
preaching, ecstasy, children participating
spontaneously, entering and leaving, moving about with relative freedom. Singing is predominant in the informal
liturgy, as well as being a favorite youth activity and entertainment outside
of services. Congregational singing
expresses the collective lament of the people, and includes “praise songs,” a unique
musical form of repetitive medleys based on traditional chant.
Prayers are offered aloud, fervently
and collectively. In rural churches the
pattern still observed for congregational prayers includes closing windows and
doors. Most
services include an extended time for
healing, often as part of the final prayer.
The importance
of following correct ritual
observance for effectiveness is seen especially in the liturgy used for the
celebration of The Lord’s Supper. During
this ritual, singing is a cappella and songs are limited to certain hymns
translated from English hymnals of the period and introduced by missionaries
during the earliest part of the movement.
Local pastors and other church
leaders are usually men, although women are frequently
called on to speak. Recently, women have
organized themselves at local and churchwide levels, patterning activities
after criollo evangelical churches in
the area. Men evangelists have a popular
role in current church life, and often organize extended evangelistic
“campaigns” that are referred to as movimientos
(movements). Evangelists are expected to
be effective as spiritual healers, thus replacing traditional power-person
healers within the church.
Large, seasonal, camp-meeting-style
gatherings have a prominent part in Toba church life. Birthdays, anniversaries and memorials are
significant annual, festive events.
These larger meetings provide opportunities to share with relatives from
a distance, and for the interaction of youth.
They are reminiscent of the traditional assemblies of several bands or
groups for feasting during the annual season of abundance. The sense
of well-being that results from
these gatherings reveals their function as corporate healing services. Ambrosio
Peña, an elderly Wichí man,
expressed this sense of well-being when he said to me early one morning at an
IEU gathering as we got up from our blankets under a tree at the edge of the
clearing, “I’m
contented, and I dance well.”
Jesus Christ is, for Toba
believers, the completion and perfection of traditional spirituality
So
many of the teachings of the Bible are similar to
the teachings of the older Tobas. When I remember
the faith of the elders, I feel contented to be Toba.
Rediscovering
their theology is like a perfume for me.
It’s
just like a huge tree over us, giving off a fragrance
which we are breathing.
—Joel
Jara, Toba pastor9
The spiritual worldview of the Toba
is expressed in their wisdom. This
wisdom prepared the Toba to be able to perceive and receive Jesus. The book of Hebrews in the New Testament
gives us a paradigm of how Jesus is understood in terms of the Jews’ previous
religious system. For the early Jewish
Christians, Jesus was seen as the superlative high priest who had come to
resolve what they understood to be the problem of humanity – separation from
God due to sin. Similarly, the Toba
recognize in Jesus the final solution to their problem – disruption of the
tranquility and harmony of creation due to the actions of evil powers.
Through the
gospel, the Toba found in Jesus One with power to restore wholeness. The Holy Spirit was understood as putting
each believer in direct relationship to the Ultimate Owner of the whole of
Creation. They recognized in Jesus the
continuity and the perfecting of the spiritual presence that they already knew
and experienced as an active force within their own culture, and with whom they
were accustomed to relate. Thus, in a
very few years the majority of the Toba embraced faith in Jesus.
The following testimony from José
Sánchez Daanqui is an eloquent illustration of the relation of traditional Toba
wisdom and the gospel. Daanqui, an
elderly Toba clan leader, had trained as a power-person in his younger years. In middle age, he became a believer in
Jesus. From that time on, he experienced
“persecution” by other powers who wanted to discourage him from following
Jesus. For Daanqui, the process of
synthesizing traditional spirituality and present experiences of the power of
Christ happens primarily in the context of the dream. In Toba spirituality the dream is one of the
primary spaces where communication with the transcendent powers occurs.
Once
while lying in the hospital deathly ill, as I was praying in the early dawn,
I “saw” eight pi’oxonaqpi
(power-persons) at my bedside. I
said to them, “What
are
you doing here? Why have you come to me,
seeing there is no other name given to humans for healing, except the name of Christ?” With that name, that word, they left.
Later in a dream, I was about to
be hanged from a tall tree by “the man of this world.” At the last minute a “light” rescued me,
taking me up through the air at such a great height that I was afraid of
falling. Then the light spoke to me, “I
am, I am the
light of all humans who live on earth.
So the one who follows me cannot be in darkness.” So I said, “Aaaahh, so it was the same Jesus
Christ, since that’s what the Bible says.
Now I undestand.” I looked back over my shoulder then, and the
same person was still coming after me. I
said, “Now, what am I going to do?” The
light said,
“I’ll take care of you. I put you into
the very hand of God!”
Afterward,
ferocious animals came after me repeatedly. Each time I said to them,
“God is the owner of all you animals, because God is the one who made all the
animals and humans – together. So you belong to God and must obey him.”
With that, they left me alone!
Finally, there appeared to me a
headless woman sitting on my sickbed.
Her voice came from her head that was hanging on the wall. She seemed to represent death. I said to her,
“God is fire, God is fire. No one can touch where he is present.” Then came smoke and when I looked, the woman
and her head were burning. They both burned
up. Thanks to God! So then I got well, and I told the people,
“God is fire, and no one can come close to him.”10
The previous paragraphs illustrate
how traditional Toba spirituality provides the categories for Daanqui’s
understanding of Christ. Each paragraph
highlights at least one theme, which I summarize here in the order in which
they occur:
The gospel came to the Toba in pentecostal clothes.
Such pentecostal forms as being filled with the
Spirit, speaking in ecstasy, spiritual healing, praying fervently, repetitive
singing, spirit possession, and exorcism were all forms that were easily
understandable in terms of Toba wisdom.
Since there was broad coincidence between the two symbolic systems
(traditional Toba wisdom and pentecostal), the Toba
understood with little difficulty the significance of Jesus for their lives and
that of their people.
In this way the wisdom of the Toba
culture prepared them to find in Jesus new dimensions of power, love and life:
Self-respect, self-confidence and
self-determination have come to characterize the Toba Christian movement
The spirit of the indigenous
people was freed through organizing their own church, where they themselves
respond in their own way to the call of God.
The
indigenous person is an individual with culture. That culture is still intact.
—Orlando Sánchez, Toba pastor
As
a result of the military defeat by “Christian” conquerors, the Toba found
themselves in an advanced state of cultural disintegration at the historical
moment in which they heard the message of Jesus. Not surprisingly, their initial reaction as
early believers was to reject both the official religion of the conquering
powers, as well as much of their own traditional religion, which they
considered to have failed them.
With time, however, the Toba
developed an alternative religious experience that permitted them to maintain
their differentiation from the dominate culture, while allowing them to achieve
the respect of the non-indigenous Christians around them by also being
considered believers in Jesus.
The result of this historical
process over the past 50 years has been the strengthening of Toba identity and
the empowerment of the indigenous church.
The Toba experience the love and power of Jesus Christ in their
lives. They are fully in charge of
determining and carrying out their own faith and religious practice. Participating in the translation of the Bible
(New Testament and, up to 1999, one-third of the Old Testament text completed)
into the Toba language has contributed to the restoration of their sense of
self-worth. This religious self-
determination, together with other
sociopolitical factors, has enabled them to recover their sense of confidence
in being able to exercise choices that self-determination requires.
The healthy effects of the gospel on
Toba people and culture, strengthening self-identity in their struggle for
survival,
can be seen in the following
dialogue, recounted by José Mendoza, a Toba evangelist and youth worker, who
lived in Lote 68, a settlement of more than 400 indigenous families near the
city of
One
time there was a man here in
One
day I was waiting at the bus stop to come home, and that man came up to me
and
said,
“You’ve been here awhile?”
– “Yes.”
–
“Which bus are you waiting for?”
– “The one that goes to Lote 68.”
–
“You live in Lote 68?”
– “Yes.”
–
“Are you Indian?”
– “Yes, why do you ask?”
–
“Because I’m looking for peones
(“workers”) and I don’t find any. I need
six or
eight, and I’ll
have them work for bread and wine.”
–
“And that’s all you pay?” I asked
him. “Only wine and bread to those poor men?
And what will they put on if they don’t
even have a shirt and pants? You won’t
find
that kind of
worker anymore!”
– “Why?”
–
“Because that kind of worker woke up and now lives in Christ, and Christ lives in
him.”
–
“And just where did you learn that?”
–
“From the Bible,” I told him,
“and from my pastor. My pastor lives in
Lote 68. If
you want to
know about it, you’re invited. The door
is open. But those workers
you hired for
wine and bread, you won’t find anymore. They’re all believers now.”
You
know, when I told him that, it upset him.11
Finding a way to be both Toba and
Christian is the major challenge that lies ahead
Come
stay with us, not for a short “cross-cultural
experience” – make it a lifetime commitment; be
good listeners; accompany us in recovering our
cultural values, especially the language; teach the
Bible
in such a way as not to fracture the life-
process of the indigenous people.
—Orlando Charole, Toba political
leader12
Younger Toba leaders are
increasingly demonstrating their clear sense of confidence that indigenous cultural
identity holds the secret to the future.
Milton Caballero, 50-year-old believer and community leader of a
semi-urban Toba settlement, expressed his hope in 1996 in these words: “We must try to make it on our own, and we
must be strong in our own culture, because the civilized world has failed. We know where civilization is headed, and it
is useless.”13
IEU leaders are convinced that Jesus
Christ is the hope for the future.
Through their faith in Christ, they are transforming their own mythology. This can be seen in the way they tell the
history of the IEU. They refer to the
IEU as their mother, and the formation of their own church as their Exodus,
with their church founder as something of a cultural Moses.
However, in the face of the globalization
that the dominating Empire (world economy) is forcing upon all indigenous
groups, the continuing survival of the Toba requires a redefinition of their
own identity as both Christian and Toba.
This includes defining and articulating their own
theology.
In 1996, Hugo Díaz, a regional
overseer of the IEU, expressed a growing confidence among Toba church leaders
in doing just that. Speaking at a study conference on indigenous
theologies and discrimination, Hugo declared to non-indigenous church workers, “We no longer want
you to come and teach us the Bible. We
want you to come and read the Bible together with us.”
In this new moment in history, the
indigenous church is indeed actively involved in the process of redefining Toba
identity.
Up until now, the methodology has not been that of developing a
systematized written theology, but instead, a process that is coherent with their own spirituality.
Identity is being worked out through the development of their own
religious forms and rites. However,
these clearly demonstrate the
ambiguity in the struggle to define their identity. Will the Toba
continue to see themselves as
evangelical, pentecostal believers who embrace more and more of the criollo
culture, or will they define themselves
more and more as Toba believers? Or will, perhaps, both of these occur? The struggle is evident in the question
raised by an elderly Toba woman following a congregational decision-making
discussion: “How can they show a video
in the church service when we are searching for the power?”
One
of the areas that most clearly reveals the struggle
for identity is the place given to the various power-persons in church
life. What – some are asking – should be
the role and space given to the shaman as healer in the indigenous church? What would be the Christology that
theologically relates shamanism to the claims of Christ? Can the two coexist?
Today, this theme is being
considered intensely at all levels of the church. However, rather than calling for official
conferences at which written documents are drawn up to define doctrine, the
struggle is reflected in the variety of forms and spaces given to shaman
activity within the church service itself.
Some congregations allow recognized shaman healers to participate in
prayers for healing during the service’s regular healing ritual. Others prohibit shaman participation during
church services, but allow or even encourage shaman healing if carried out at
the healer’s home, which serves as a kind of professional doctor’s office. Some churches allow power-persons to lead the
praise marches and praise dances, while other churches prohibit their
participation or limit them to non-leadership roles.
The theological work that lies ahead
for the Toba believers today has two facets:
(1) the continued re-reading of the Bible in the light of their own
traditional wisdom and of present-
day reality, and (2) the
reinterpretation of their own “Old Testament” myths, wisdom and sacred history
in the light of Christ. This process has
already been going on for 50 years,
but today it is intensified because
of the urgency for greater self-identity.
Toba spirituality can contribute
to the faith of Christians everywhere
But
the people of that time weren’t like now.
In that
time they weren’t united, each was only with their
own culture, only with their own people; they didn’t
mix with others because they were somewhat like
enemies. Now they are
all mixed together – Toba,
Pilagá, Mocoví, Wichí – by means of the gospel.
Now
they are all united because of the gospel, they
trust each other.
There wasn’t trust before. Now
because of the gospel, all accepted the same unity.
—José Mendoza, Toba evangelist14
Indigenous wisdom, like all human
wisdom, becomes hope only when it reflects divine truth. Or, stated from a Christian point of view,
wisdom becomes hope only as it is submitted to and measured by Christ, who is
the hope and finality of all
creation.
The wisdom of all cultures is perfected in the inclusive Christ, who
respects and brings to completion what the Creator has already begun. There is new hope only in turning life toward
the True Life – the New Humanity in Christ – in turning toward the new heaven
and new earth where each unique spirituality is finally given its rightful
place.
In the concluding paragraphs of this
piece, I will attempt to interpret, from the perspective of the broader
Christian faith, the deeper significance of the Toba experience as it relates
to Christ and to the worldwide church.
This significance I understand in terms of transformation and complementation.
Transformation.
The gospel affirms each person and the culture of each people as loved
and valued by God. Jesus Christ comes to
validate and complete whatever true Wisdom is already present in any given
culture. However, since every culture is
by its very nature a human product, no culture coincides perfectly with the
There is, therefore, no such thing
as a Christian culture, only cultures that include some of the recognized
Christian values. Wherever
the
Toba spiritual leaders are aware of
this tension and search for the best way to guide the transfor-mation process,
as shown in these words of Rafael Mansilla, a Toba church leader and reservation
administrator:
We
don’t want our culture to be destroyed, but neither
do we want to revive all the beliefs and practices of
our ancestors. What
we want is the “purification”
of our culture, a selective process that makes survival
possible. In that process the Bible is our guide.15
The transformation process does not
erase the uniqueness of the culture.
Rather, each culture is enhanced through its movement toward completion
in Christ, who in this way becomes its hope.
Complementation.
The Toba image of Christ can help Western and other Christians complete
their otherwise limited experiences of Christ.
Although it is true that Christians still do not know what the complete
image of Jesus Christ is going to be,16 we do know
that it will include Toba spirituality.
Had the Toba never embraced faith in Jesus, or had their distinctive
spirituality been erased in the process,
their contribution to the complete image of Jesus Christ would still be
lacking.
The Wisdom of God, which has already
been revealed in each culture, is completed in Christ only by recognizing
Christ in the “other,” in such a way that it is through “unity with diversity”
that full salvation will come.
We see glimpses of this
understanding of complementation in the New Testament. For example, the biblical author of the
letter to the Hebrews recognized the incompleteness of the salvation of those
who belonged to traditional Jewish spirituality, even though they were accepted
by God because of their faith. Thus, all
the ancestors included in the long list of “heroes of faith” in Hebrews 11 are
considered to be within the Jewish religious tradition, in spite of their
diverse characteristics
(or perhaps because of them!) since
they exercised faith. “Therefore, God is
not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them”
(Hebrews
In a similar way, we also stand in
complementation with other culturally conditioned perceptions of Christ. Only by coming together, while at the same
time honoring our diversity, will we discover a more complete understanding of
the salvation God offers. As we
contemplate faces of Christ perceived through other cultural eyes, rather than
considering them
culturally limited, we might begin to understand
them as culturally enriched.
With the Toba and other indigenous
spiritualities in mind, I offer this paraphrased inversion of the above truth
expressed in Hebrews: “God had provided
something even better so that we would not, apart
from them, be made perfect.” The
true Wisdom of God in Christ is hope for the future as it embraces each
cultural face of Christ without erasing the distinctiveness of any.
Notes:
1. Ethnographically, the Toba belong to
the Guaycuruan linguistic family.
They have been known by the name Toba since as early as the late 19th century, but in
recent years, many refer to them as the
the term by
which they designate themselves and which in their own
language
means simply “the people.”
2. Ideas
gleaned from a personal conversation with Helena Oliver in 1997.
3. Felipe
was a first-hand witness to the Argentine Chaco evangelical move- ment in the early
1940s.
4. See
William Reyburn, The Toba Indians of the
Argentine
5. From a personal conversation with
6. See
Pablo Wright’s unpublished dissertation, “‘Being-in-the-Dream.’ Post Colonial
Explorations in Toba Ontology” (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University, 1997), pp.
480-482.
7. From Memorias
del Gran Chaco, 2nd Part (1998), p. 197.
Translation
my own.
8. Personal
notes from a sermon given by Mansilla in 1994.
9. From
unpublished notes presented at the second workshop on Indigenous Evangelical
Spirituality,
10. From a personal
conversation with Daanqui in 1997.
11. From a personal
conversation with
12. Recounted by Luis Acosta in a 1998
conversation.
13. Personal conversation in 1996.
14. Personal conversation in 1992.
15. From unpublished
notes (1996).
16. See Anton Wessels, Images of Jesus. How Jesus is Perceived and Portrayed
in Non-European Cultures (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990), p. 174.
Questions for Reflection and
Discussion
1. What most impressed you in this story about
the movement of God’s Spirit among the Toba
people of
2. What features of Toba worship did you find
most intriguing (pp. 11-13)? What parts differ
most from
worship patterns in your own congregation?
3. North American Mennonites have worked
alongside Toba Christians for nearly 60 years
without
establishing a “Mennonite” church in the region. How would you evaluate this
approach to ministry? Is it, in your opinion, too low-key,
culturally-sensitive, a little naive,
a missed
opportunity or, as Horst describes it, “a creative, courageous missionary
strategy?”
4. Some non-indigenous Christians, according to
Horst, consider the Toba Christian
movement to be
“little more than a pagan cult filled with superstitious practices carried
out
under the name of
the gospel” (p. 9). What is your
impression of the movement, based on
what you have
read in this booklet?
5. There are many statements made here about the
Toba’s view of
Jesus. How do you
understand these
statements? And in what ways do they relate to your own experience
with Christ?
–
Toba
traditional wisdom prepared them to perceive and receive Jesus.
–
The
Toba found in Jesus One with power to restore wholeness.
–
Jesus
Christ is, for Toba believers, the completion and perfection of traditional
spirituality.
–
Through
physical healings, the Toba understood Jesus as a great power.
–
The
Toba’s experience of the love and power of Jesus Christ in their lives has
contributed to the restoration of their sense of self-worth.
–
The
Toba image of Christ can help Western and other Christians complete their
otherwise limited experiences of Christ.
For
Further
–
“A declaration for independents,” Missions NOW [MBM quarterly magazine], Summer 1998.
–
BUCKWALTER,
Albert, “Brothers, not Lords,” in Being
God’s Missionary Community: Reflections on Mennonite Missions, 1945-1975
(Elkhart, IN: Mennonite Board of Missions, 1975), pp. 39-45.
–
HIEBERT,
Paul G.; SHAW, R. Daniel; and TIENOU, Tite, Understanding
Folk Religions: A Christian Response to Popular Beliefs and Practices (Grand
Rapids: Baker Books, 1999).
–
LOEWEN,
Jacob A.; BUCKWALTER,
Albert; and KRATZ, James, “Shamanism, Illness and Power in
–
MAST,
Michael, “An Approach to Theological Training Among
the Tobas of Argentina” (unpublished master’s thesis, Fuller Theological
Seminary, 1972). Available in the MBM
library.
–
MILLER,
Elmer, “Shamans, Power Symbols, and Change in Argentine Toba Culture,” in American Ethnologist (2) 3 (1975), pp.
477-496.
–
REYBURN,
William,The Toba Indians of the Argentine
–
SHENK,
Wilbert R., Changing Frontiers of Mission
[esp. chapter 5, “New Religious Movements and Mission Initiative: Two Case
Studies”] (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999), pp. 59-68.
–
TURNER,
Harold W., “New Vistas, Missionary and Ecumenical: Religious Movements in
Primal (or Tribal) Societies,”
–
WESSELS,
Anton, Images of Jesus: How Jesus is Perceived and Portrayed in Non-European
Cultures (Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 1990).
Back Page
Toba Spirituality
The
Remarkable Faith Journey of an Indigenous People in the Argentine
Willis
G. Horst
Almost
60 years ago, Mennonite workers arrived in the
The
remarkable story told here by Willis Horst – himself an active participant in
Toba church life for the past 30 years – is instructive to Christians anywhere
wishing to engage in cross-cultural gospel communication. Among the many lessons to be learned, writes
Horst, “the Toba experience teaches us that receiving
Jesus Christ results in life and wholeness when Christ is authentically
perceived and uncoercively interpreted from within one’s own worldview.”
A bit
unusual as a “missionary story,” the principal message emerging here has
particular relevance to Christians around the world on a spiritual journey from
the rich traditions of their past to the radical newness of the gospel.
Willis Horst and
his wife, Byrdalene, have served in the
since 1970 with MBM, giving continuity to the Mennonite
missionary presence that began in 1943. The Horsts serve as
coordinators of the nine-member international missionary
team in the
ening indigenous churches through Bible teaching, and
integrating Native and Christian spiritualities.
Mennonite Board of Missions