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The review argues that Riel’s unorthodox Catholic ambitions to reform the Church and save the Métis were sincere and should be taken seriously. It traces his prophetic beliefs, compares them with historical messianic movements, and highlights Flanagan’s fresh context based on newly available documentation.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/louis-david-riel-a-fresh-and-compelling-look-at-a-great-canadian-hero/440750/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/louis-david-riel-a-fresh-and-compelling-look-at-a-great-canadian-hero/440750.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Liam","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-04","2026-09-29",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":39},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How does the review describe Thomas Flanagan’s main argument about Louis Riel?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Flanagan argues that Riel was not simply a radical politician or a figure of madness, but a sincere religious prophet acting on religious impulses and a divinely ordained mission.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What religious beliefs does the review say Riel held and acted upon?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The review states that Riel believed the Holy Spirit authorized him to save the Métis and reform the Catholic Church, that the Métis were chosen people, and that he would rise again on the third day like Jesus.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why does the review compare Riel’s beliefs to other historical religious movements?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It presents Riel’s views as typical of nativistic and millenarian religions found among oppressed peoples, placing him in a category with groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists and with nineteenth-century messiah movements.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},440750,1791405074,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":39,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},8796095461564,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","VOLUME 20 NUMBER 3  \nCANDANREADER  \na new view of louis riel ■ matt cohen'sbreakthrough novel■ lévesque's québec  \n# LUBJELECTION\n\nLouis 'David'Riel  \n# A fresh and compelling lookat a great Canadian hero\n\nBy Thomas Flanagan  \nReviewed by Robert Fulford  \nLand the most melodramatic figurein Canadian history,but he is rarelyseen as a religious personality.We viewhim as a rebel,as a métis nationalist,and as one of the men who shaped theCanadian West.We see him essentially asa radical politician,and we often com-pare him with various left-wing re-formers of his time or later times.Hisdefeat-as we depict it in our textbooks,  \nour TV shows,our plays,our mostfamous opera-is the defeat of a poli-tical ideal and a political movement.  \nWrong,says Thomas Flanagan in thiscompelling and original book.Riel was areligious figure who acted on religiousimpulses and saw his own life in theCanadian West-and indeed in the worldat large-as the fulfilment of a religiousmission ordained by God.Riel was anunorthodox Catholic who set out,among other things,to reform theCatholic Church.He believed profound-ly if erratically in his heaven-ordainedpurpose.  \nSome of this we have all known for along time,but most historians havetended to dismiss it as irrelevant:theysee these beliefs as Riel's private super-stitions at best,or Riel's outright mad-ness at worst.Riel's own contem-poraries,when they did not follow him,tended to dismiss him as crazy.ButFlanagan sets aside this traditional view-point as well.He takes Riel's religiousambitions seriously.  \nRiel,Flanagan argues-and arguesvery persuasively-was no crazier thanmost prophets.He was a self-proclaimedmessiah who believed that he came tosave the world.His evident madness layin the fact that his beliefs were unac-ceptable to many of those around him-they defined madness,and placed Riel  \n\n| within their definition.But by objective  \u003Cbr>standards his beliefs were no more  \u003Cbr>outlandish than those of Mohammed,  \u003Cbr>Jesus,or Moses.  \u003Cbr>Flanagan-who teaches in the depart-  \u003Cbr>ment of political science at the Univer-  \u003Cbr>sity of Calgary-has gone carefully over  \u003Cbr>the Riel record,including some docu-  \u003Cbr>mentation that has come to light since  \u003Cbr>the appearance of George Stanley's  \u003Cbr>standard Louis Riel(1963).He traces  \u003Cbr>the religious views of Riel as they  \u003Cbr>developed over his lifetime and changed  \u003Cbr>under the pressure of events-including  \u003Cbr>the pressure to conceal his most outra-  \u003Cbr>geous views.  \u003Cbr>Riel believed that on December 8,  \u003Cbr>1875,the Holy Spirit authorized him  \u003Cbr>both to save the métis and to reform the  \u003Cbr>Catholic Church.He believed the métis  \u003Cbr>were the Chosen People(he said they  \u003Cbr>were descended from the Hebrews)and  \u003Cbr>he believed that under his guidance a  \u003Cbr>new branch of the Roman Catholic  \u003Cbr>Church would be formed,with its Holy  \u003Cbr>See at Montreal.When he died on the  \u003Cbr>gallows he believed that,like Jesus,he  \u003Cbr>would rise again on the third day.  \u003Cbr>Flanagan explains,in clear and care-  \u003Cbr>ful prose,that Riel's beliefs were typical  \u003Cbr>of the nativistic and millenarian reli-  \u003Cbr>gions that often appear among op-  \u003Cbr>pressed peoples.He puts them in rough-  \u003Cbr>ly the same class with those of the  \u003Cbr>Jehovah's Witnesses,the Seventh Day  \u003Cbr>Adventists,and the various Jewish  \u003Cbr>messiah movements that appeared in  \u003Cbr>eastern Europe during the nineteenth  \u003Cbr>century.  \u003Cbr>“The message”of Riel,says Flana-  \u003Cbr>gan,\"was that a new era had dawned in  \u003Cbr>1876 when he began his prophetic  \u003Cbr>mission.It was the third and last epoch  \u003Cbr>of the Kingdom of God.Spiritual lead-  \u003Cbr>ership had passed from Rome to the  \u003Cbr>New World.Montreal would be the first  \u003Cbr>residence of the Holy Spirit in America,  \u003Cbr>followed after 457 years by St.Boni-  \u003Cbr>face.The métis would be redeemed  \u003Cbr>from their present state of oppression.   | \"Flanagan con-  \u003Cbr>tributes a fresh  \u003Cbr>point of view...  \u003Cbr>probably we will  \u003Cbr>always think dif-  \u003Cbr>ferently ","cbCaiv3kLWy5d7TQ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiv3kLWy5d7TQ","pdf",2886453,17,"English","# LUBJELECTION\n## Louis 'David' Riel - A fresh and compelling look at a great Canadian hero\n## Flanagan’s interpretation of Riel as a religious prophet\n## Riel’s beliefs, historical context, and comparisons","[{\"question\":\"How does the review describe Thomas Flanagan’s main argument about Louis Riel?\",\"answer\":\"Flanagan argues that Riel was not simply a radical politician or a figure of madness, but a sincere religious prophet acting on religious impulses and a divinely ordained mission.\"},{\"question\":\"What religious beliefs does the review say Riel held and acted upon?\",\"answer\":\"The review states that Riel believed the Holy Spirit authorized him to save the Métis and reform the Catholic Church, that the Métis were chosen people, and that he would rise again on the third day like Jesus.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the review compare Riel’s beliefs to other historical religious movements?\",\"answer\":\"It presents Riel’s views as typical of nativistic and millenarian religions found among oppressed peoples, placing him in a category with groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists and with nineteenth-century messiah movements.\"}]","Louis 'David' Riel - A fresh and compelling look at a great Canadian hero | PDF",1790693211,26]