Dianne M. Stewart
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195154153
- eISBN:
- 9780199835713
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195154150.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter examines two chief African responses to the European missionary enterprise from slavery to the 20th century. One response was to incorporate aspects of the Christian faith into the ...
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This chapter examines two chief African responses to the European missionary enterprise from slavery to the 20th century. One response was to incorporate aspects of the Christian faith into the African religious heritage. Native Baptist (c.1830s-c. 1860s), Revival Zion (1860s- ), and Rastafari (1930s- ) traditions represent this type of religious formation. The Native Baptists were associated with the African-American evangelist George Liele, who began his missionary work in Jamaica during the late 18th century. The Revival Zion tradition represents a resurgence of the Native Baptist religion. With a Pan-African orientation and deep socio-political convictions, Rastafari, more than any other African-oriented tradition on the island, has shaped the postmodern, post-Christian African personality in Jamaica. African loyalty to Christian orthodoxy, another African-Jamaican response to European missionary Christianity, is also considered in this chapter as it was taught and reinforced by generations of missionary groups, especially after the last quarter of the 19th century.Less
This chapter examines two chief African responses to the European missionary enterprise from slavery to the 20th century. One response was to incorporate aspects of the Christian faith into the African religious heritage. Native Baptist (c.1830s-c. 1860s), Revival Zion (1860s- ), and Rastafari (1930s- ) traditions represent this type of religious formation. The Native Baptists were associated with the African-American evangelist George Liele, who began his missionary work in Jamaica during the late 18th century. The Revival Zion tradition represents a resurgence of the Native Baptist religion. With a Pan-African orientation and deep socio-political convictions, Rastafari, more than any other African-oriented tradition on the island, has shaped the postmodern, post-Christian African personality in Jamaica. African loyalty to Christian orthodoxy, another African-Jamaican response to European missionary Christianity, is also considered in this chapter as it was taught and reinforced by generations of missionary groups, especially after the last quarter of the 19th century.
Ennis B. Edmonds and Michelle A. Gonzalez
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814722343
- eISBN:
- 9780814722848
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814722343.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter investigates Afro-Christian traditions that have fused African and Christian elements to create new religious traditions, including the emergence and evolution of such groups as Revival ...
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This chapter investigates Afro-Christian traditions that have fused African and Christian elements to create new religious traditions, including the emergence and evolution of such groups as Revival Zion in Jamaica and Spiritual Baptists in Trinidad. Revival Zion and Spiritual Baptists may be considered as Afro-Christian (or African-Christian) because, while the adherents of these traditions unambiguously identify themselves as Christians, they retain African orientations and aesthetics in the way in which they understand and deploy their faith to deal with the exigencies of life. Unlike Creole African religions such as Vodou and Santería that retain African pantheons of a Supreme God and a host of lesser deities that govern the various natural and social forces, Afro-Christian traditions such as Revival Zion and Spiritual Baptists abandoned these, affirming belief only in the Christian God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.Less
This chapter investigates Afro-Christian traditions that have fused African and Christian elements to create new religious traditions, including the emergence and evolution of such groups as Revival Zion in Jamaica and Spiritual Baptists in Trinidad. Revival Zion and Spiritual Baptists may be considered as Afro-Christian (or African-Christian) because, while the adherents of these traditions unambiguously identify themselves as Christians, they retain African orientations and aesthetics in the way in which they understand and deploy their faith to deal with the exigencies of life. Unlike Creole African religions such as Vodou and Santería that retain African pantheons of a Supreme God and a host of lesser deities that govern the various natural and social forces, Afro-Christian traditions such as Revival Zion and Spiritual Baptists abandoned these, affirming belief only in the Christian God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.