The sacred pipe

the long version

At the funeral of Rex Long Visitor in 1965, Paul B. Steinmetz prayed with the Sacred Pipe as an image of Christ. This prayer was the beginning of a thirty-year journey of intellectual discovery for Steinmetz as he found the true meaning of the Sacred Pipe. The result: a book of deep religious faith and brilliant analytic acumen. One of the most important ritual objects used by many tribes throughout North America, the Pipe can best be understood in the context of Christian theology. Steinmetz presents an extensive ethnography about the Sacred Pipe and demonstrates how its many associations, in essence, are images of Christ. To explain fully this archetypal synthesis intuited at Rex Long Visitor's funeral, Steinmetz draws heavily on, and critically compares, the works of Mircea Eliade, Carl Jung, and Karl Rahner.