The Spiritual Baptist Faith is the name given to the Christian religious group emerging among the Africans in the 19th century in Trinidad. In 1917 the group was outlawed by the Shouter Prohibition Ordinance against its mode of worship which was considered "too noisy" and "too African" and therefore uncivilized and unacceptable. It suffered legal persecution and prosecution until the ordinance was repealed in 1951. Syncretism and secretism are fundamental features of its growth. Its survival is a tribute to the resilience and faith of its adherents. The absence of written records of those early years facilitated the perpetuation of misconceptions about the Faith among the citizenry.

This book explores the development and the practices of the Spiritual Baptist Faith, its relationship with African religion and with Christianity, and reveals the essential tenets of the much maligned and misunderstood indigenous religious community in a clear and concise manner.