We all think we know the story of the First Thanksgiving, Pilgrims and Native Americans sharing a peaceful feast over turkey and pumpkin pie. But the truth is far more complex and theological.
In this episode of Theology Made, we uncover the real story behind the First Thanksgiving; a story not of cozy tradition, but of starvation, survival, providence, and covenant faith. The Pilgrims who gathered in 1621 had buried half their colony. They didn’t see their survival as luck, but as divine mercy. Their gratitude wasn’t sentimental, it was theology lived out in suffering.
We also explore the Wampanoag worldview, their spirituality of the land, and how two very different theologies of gratitude, Puritan providence and Native American reciprocity, met around one fragile table.
