Rebaptism Calmly Considered

Download or read book Rebaptism Calmly Considered written by Sharon J. Grant and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-09-10 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.