Caribbean Religious History: An Introduction

"Crafted by prominent scholars and instructively organized, this splendid book provides a sophisticated account of the liveliness and resolve of indigenous as well as transcultural faiths found in the Caribbean. It will be indispensable to professors and students intrigued by the region's past, present, and future." Darren J. N. Middleton, Texas Christian University

"Carefully researched and highly accessible, Caribbean Religious History: An Introduction investigates the development, emancipation, and transformation of diverse religious traditions in the region. Clearly the most important text on Caribbean religions to appear in the last 20 years. A must read for students of religion." Noel Leo Erskine, author of From Garvey to Marley: Rastafari Theology

The colonial history of the Caribbean created a context in which many religions, from indigenous to African-based to Christian, intermingled with one another, creating a rich diversity of religious life. Caribbean Religious History offers the first comprehensive religious history of the region.

Ennis B. Edmonds and Michelle A. Gonzalez begin their exploration with the religious traditions of the Amerindians who flourished prior to contact with European colonizers, then detail the transplantation of Catholic and Protestant Christianity and their centuries of struggles to become integral to the Caribbean's religious ethos, and trace the twentieth-century penetration of American Evangelical Christianity, particularly in its Pentecostal and Holiness iterations. Caribbean Religious History also illuminates the influence of Africans and their descendants on the shaping of such religious traditions as Vodou, Santerfa, Revival Zion, Spiritual Baptists, and Rastafari, and the success of Indian indentured laborers and their descendants in reconstituting Hindu and Islamic practices in their new environment.

Paying careful attention to the region's social and political history, Edmonds and Gonzalez present a one-volume panoramic introduction to this religiously vibrant part of the world.