“Prepare to Meet Thy God”: Conjuring Initiation in Marrant's Narrative

This chapter explores John Marrant’s call and initiation into ministry. In his autobiographical Narrative of the Lord’s Wonderful Dealings with John Marrant, his call mimics phases of West African–based initiation rites which, in traditional settings, marked the transition from adolescence to adulthood. While variations of initiatory rituals are found throughout West and West Central Africa, five phases—call, wilderness seclusion, instruction from tutors or guides, physical impression, and communal reintegration, or covenant—represent a general model and provide the organizational structure for Narrative. Biblical models of initiation follow a similar pattern; thus, by narrating his call to ministry according to the pattern of Africana initiation, Marrant reveals that ritual and structural, rather than theological, modes of analysis informed his understanding of Christianity. Biblical call narratives along with initiation rituals derived from traditional African societies formed the constitutive grounds from which Marrant drew inspiration for the depiction of his call to ministry in Narrative.