The spiritual vulnerability of colonial settlement, I would argue, is one important reason why both Christian and secular condemnations of credulity and superstition have long been so anxious, and so resonant, in colonial modernity. As the persistence of Indigenous spiritual jurisdiction shows, however, even if those living in settler-colonial states use concepts such as property, law, and secular reason to close their ears to the steady hum of Indigenous presence on the land, the vibrations refuse to go away.
My 2018 book The Story of Radio Mind: A Missionary’s Journey on Indigenous Land was part of The Immanent Frame’s forum discussion entitled Modernity’s Resonances: New Inquiries into the Secular. My contribution to that discussion can be read here.