Introduction to front by Rex Nettleford. Dread is an exploration of the thought world of the Rastafarian Brethren of Jamaica as synthesized by the author. Father Owens, a white American-born Jesuit priest, did several years of intensive visiting with and listening to Rasta thinkers in the slums of western Kingston, Jamaica; most contact was from 1970 to 1972. He originally met the Rastas while he was doing teaching and social work in the area, and he seems to have been accepted by many of them as a sympathetic listener. Through Owens, Rasta thought comes across as a form of revitalization movement based on a unique interpretation of the Christian scriptures. These scriptures are taken by the Brethren as the source of all important knowledge and are the beginning point for many of their arguments. (However, the Rastas assume that not all of the true scriptures are available, since some were suppressed by the white men, and all are subject to mistranslation from their original language, which the Rastas say is Amharic). The focus of the book is on Rasta theology as systematized by the author, with his discussion supplemented by extensive quotations from tape-recorded interviews with more than sixty accessible, highly articulate black men, discussions which are sometimes aided by the smoking of the sacred herb ganja (marijuana).