Christianization, Colonialism, and the Secular

David Hollinger helpfully suggests that, in the context of the United States, what scholars have called “secularization” would be better identified more specifically as “de-Christianization.”  Building on insights from historians of North America, as well as recent debates about the concept of the secular and its historical effects, my paper argues that it is equally important to consider the ways that the authority of the “secular” state are tied to the process of Christianization.  Focusing on the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Northwest, I argue that Christian missionaries and institutions helped to create the authority of the secular in the colonizing of North America, in part by imposing such concepts as “real estate”, “zoning”, and “resources” on First Nations land and communities.  I conclude by reflecting on the significance of these concepts for debates around such terms as secular, postsecular, and secularization, which have largely (but not entirely) avoided discussions of colonialism and Christianization.