Abstract
This chapter examines the political and cultural significance that the established colonial churches in the British West Indian slave colonies attached to Christian baptism. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Pentecostalism rejects infant baptism as a path to salvation. Instead, Pentecostalism’s strong theological emphasis on the conversion experience and the ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit’ confirms and welcomes large numbers of poor Caribbean women and their families.
I was made a Christian
When my name was given
One of God’s dear children
And an heir of Heaven
Born to be a Christian, I will glory now
Evermore remember, my baptismal vow
—Anglican Book of Common Prayer
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Aymer, P.L. (2016). Baptism, Gender, and Family Redefined in Caribbean Pentecostalism. In: Evangelical Awakenings in the Anglophone Caribbean. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56115-2_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56115-2_5
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