The Shaping of the West Indian Church, 1492–1962 (review)

The Shaping of the West Indian Church, 1492-1962. By Arthur Charles Dayfoot. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 1999. Pp. xvii, 360. $49.95.)

This scholarly work of Arthur Charles Dayfoot is a very welcome piece of research. The history of the Church in the English Caribbean had been overlooked by historians. Maybe, the reason is that the time was not ripe yet. For the most part, the history of the Catholic Church in the Spanish (Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico), the French (Haiti), and the English (Jamaica) Caribbean has been researched and published systematically. As a matter of fact, the author takes the reader from the Caribbean to North America, to Central America, to South America, and to the other parts of the Caribbean in order to establish the liaisons between the different church developments. The final product is a history that gives the reader a global idea of how Christianity thoroughly interrelated the different periods of time and places.

Another important aspect of this work is the ecumenical sense in which it is written. As the Church the author understands not only the history of the Protestant churches, but also that of the Catholic Church; the latter has been approached objectively. Dayfoot shows through his approach that that dreadful time of historical works written with the sole purpose of highlighting the best aspects of one church and the bad ones of the other churches has been overcome. For that reason the contribution of this work to the knowledge of the development of Christianity in the Caribbean basin is very important.

One may say that the chronological parameters used are very ambitious, covering a wide scope of time, from 1492 to 1962. But we can forgive the author for that, since the final product is a variety of historical information not found in a single work anywhere else. Besides, Dayfoot explains that his goal is to explain the historical development of the Church in the English Caribbean from Columbus' discovery to the time when the islands started getting their independence from the European powers. Let us remember that this is a general work on church history, and not a monograph dealing with a specific church and place. Let us hope that the questions raised by the reading of this work open the door to more specific research by other scholars.

Another highlight of Dayfoot's history is its contribution not only to the knowledge of the development of Christianity in the area, but also to the knowledge of other histories, associated to the human beings and institutions that came into contact with the churches researched here. A contribution is made to the knowledge of political, economical, and social history, as well as the knowledge of other fields such as anthropology, liturgical development, and pastoral work.

Besides being well documented, with an up-to-date selected bibliography and notes for each chapter at the end of the book, the fluent way in which the author narrates this history makes it attractive not only to scholars, but also to those who are not historians, but have an interest in the subject.