Rebaptism Calmly Considered

Christian Initiation and Resistance In The Early A.M.E. Church of Jamaica

Sharon J. Grant

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781532652998
  9781532653001
• eBook ISBN:
  9781532653018
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

This book describes the sociocultural context that shaped Christian initiation for many early Jamaican congregants within the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Christian initiation in early-twentieth-century Jamaican AME churches included the practice of two water rituals for children within most of its congregations--first, the christening or sprinkling of water on infants, and second, immersion when the child reached the age of consent and made a public confession of faith. The ambiguity of John Wesley's doctrine and practice of the sacrament of baptism are provided with the cultural milieu of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Jamaica to allow the reader to calmly consider the spectrum of evidence--and consider how the use of two water rituals became normative for many disciples of Christ to become full members within the early AME Church in Jamaica.

Chapter One

REVIVAL ROOTS

By and large, it was the hunger for revival of the soul that motivated the thousands of persons to gather to hear George Whitefield, and later, John Wesley preach. The crowds were a mixed multitude of persons of eighteenth-century British society. They were largely poor and uneducated, yet a few wealthy and intelligent were counted among those who heard the open-air preachers, and the outdoor congregation listened as mockers, skeptics, and well-intentioned seekers. The hunger was caused by a void of religious fervor, which had been largely stifled by Enlightenment ideology. Alongside important continental writings was John Locke’s anonymously published, The Reasonableness of Christianity, which argued for a liberal, rational form of Christianity and appealed to many clerics within the Church of England. Another matter was the fecundity of scientific experimentation, which challenged the role of divine revelation, such that Deism became a popular alternative to traditional Christianity.20 In this sensitive climate, religious enthusiasm became perceived as a vice for persons whose memories were still raw from events which caused so much bloodshed on the continent of Europe as well as Charles I’s regicide during the English Revolution. With the subsequent defeat of the Puritans and the onset of the Glorious Revolution, political and spiritual tolerance was achieved through rational, thoughtful forms of religion. In this context, rational religious expression became the dominant perspective of the Church of England, its clerics, and its universities, Oxford and Cambridge.

The moral laxity, ignorance of the masses and social and economic injustice of eighteenth-century England challenged the effectiveness of the “religion of the head” embraced by the Church of England.21 As a result, the charismatic preaching of George Whitefield was eagerly received by a hungry audience starving for emotive displays, which addressed their circumstance and stirred their “religious affections.” Wesley personally understood the limitations of a religion of the head, having been baptized and ordained before he experienced a profound visitation of the Divine at a society meeting at Aldersgate, on May 24, 1738. He would record in his journal that this experience provided the grounds for trust in God’s forgiveness of sin, through the sensory evidence that “my heart was strangely warmed.” As a result, under his watch, religious experience was kindled and stoked in the Methodist movement, which began as the ember of the Methodist Revival. The open air meetings were dynamic events as persons across class and station landed in one area, “thieves, prostitutes, fools, people of every class, several men of distinction, a few of the learned merchants, and numbers of poor people who had never entered a place of worship assembled in these crowds and became godly.”22

Persons in the crowds who affiliated with the Methodists did so by means of joining its Society.23 Whitefield had loosely organized religious societies in Kingswood and Bristol, however, as the societies grew in size and number, the problem of organization and leadership had to be confronted. The only condition of membership of the Societies was “the desire to flee from the wrath to come.” However, this desire was to be made evident through accountability, and accountability required intimacy and reliable leadership. The large crowds at the revival became manageable and accountable through the formation of smaller groups called “classes.” The Methodist Society Class was the brainchild of a man named as Captain Foy, created to solve the fundraising problem of finding money to purchase the first Methodist preaching house in Bristol. To alleviate the burden on the members of the society, who were mostly poor people, Foy suggested that the Society should be divided into groups of eleven under a leader who would collect a penny a week from each person. The classes would be led by laity who reported to John and Charles Wesley who served as the itinerate preachers for the Methodist societies. When Methodist societies evolved into Methodist churches in North America and the Caribbean as a result of missionary efforts, the class leader served as the primary resource person for determining and informing the pastor when inquirers were ready to become candidates for baptism and thus enter into full membership of the church.24

The Messenger

“Like many other aspects of early Methodism, lay preaching evolved more out of necessity than design.”25 The emergences of many heralds of the good news in the Methodist evangelical revival were unlike Whitefield and the Wesleys in one major way: they were unordained, lay preachers. The success of the Methodist revival was its pragmatic flexibility. As the organization of Methodist societies became too cumbersome for John Wesley and Charles Wesley to serve effectively, persons who possessed leadership ability and spiritual discipline were nurtured and encouraged to “exhort” in the absence of clergy. Methodist classes thrived when effective laypersons were identified and allowed to lead; and a more intimate group, the “band,” was designed to facilitate persons who longed for deeper spiritual maturity. Without capable lay leadership, the early Methodist organizational structure would have suffered great difficulty.

Lay preaching emerged in the Methodist revival as early as 1740. Notable among the early lay preachers was Thomas Maxfield, a committed layman who came to faith in a very emotional way under John Wesley’s preaching, and he often accompanied Charles Wesley when he was itinerating. Because of Maxfield’s reliability, the Wesleys often entrusted him with leadership responsibilities over society meetings. When it was reported to John Wesley that Maxfield had begun to preach during the gatherings, rather than just simply exhort, Wesley was cautioned against reacting too harshly against the irregularity by his mother, Susanna Wesley. “Take care what you do with respect to that young man, for he is as surely called of God to preach, as you are. Examine what have been the fruits of his preaching, and hear him also yourself.”26 John Wesley heard Maxfield and conceded that his mother was correct in her assessment of his gifts and grace. Although Charles never warmed to the idea of the preaching office being inclusive of laity, he yielded to John’s leadership in the matter. This concession opened the gate wide for lay leadership in the Methodist movement.

What happened in the Class Meetings must have varied from place to place, time to time and leader to leader; but the leader was normally a layman-that is, he was neither an ordained clergyman nor a Methodist itinerant preacher—and very often of humble origin and little or no education. . . . Classes for women were separate from those for men, and for this reason women class leaders played an important part from the start.27

The Message

The substantial content of the preaching during the Methodist Revival was evangelical, following John Wesley’s admonition to young preachers that they had “nothing to do but save souls.” The A.M.E. Church of Jamaica would continue to adhere to this fundamental evangelical premise of the purpose of preaching.28 John Wesley was a well-read Oxford scholar who was attracted to—and theologically influenced by—Christian thinkers across eras and cultures throughout the Christian world who were ultimately concerned with heartfelt piety.29 Ted Campbell’s work has demonstrated that while the early Methodist movement emphasized a religion of the heart, this affective movement did not occur in isolation—but moved wherever people did during the eighteenth century. The European continent, the British Isles and their colonies in the New World would not escape the attraction of pietism and its piety with demonstrable religious affection.30

Wesley’s theological mentors were an eclectic group which included: Greek Fathers of antiquity; monastics; the Moravians and other European Pietists; Puritan leaders and Anglican writers who all shared a concern for heartfelt religious piety. These varied contributions to Wesley’s theology provided raw material for a Methodist message which was fundamentally soteriological and affective. Within the revival context, the message was orally presented with the sole intention to stir the emotions of the hearers and generate spiritual hunger for the transforming power of God in the listeners. Thus, the revival service was foremost designed to ensure that sinners heard the message of the atoning work of Christ.

For example, in preaching to unrepentant sinners, John Wesley spoke of the claims of the divine Law and the certainty of judgment, eliciting reverence for the Law and appropriate fear of divine judgment. In preaching to sinners who had repented but were yet unconverted, Wesley spoke of the promises of God and joy in the thought of forgiveness. . . . The range of emotions elicited in his sermons is huge and Wes...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Revival Roots
• Chapter 2: Jamaica and Revivalism
• Chapter 3: Baptism, the Western Church, and Wesley
• Chapter 4: Methodist Missions and Baptist Resistance
• Chapter 5: The Allen-Wesleyan Legacy in Jamaica
• Bibliography