"This study offers the first detailed examination of the Spiritual Baptists or "Converted" of St. Vincent. The most distinguishing characteristic of their religion is the emphasis on spiritual travel on a regular basis for all believers. On these journeys, all are required to do spiritual work by ecstatic means on behalf of the community. This makes Converted religion a possibly unique form of shamanism.

Yet, despite all of this, their beliefs are strictly based on a fundamentalist Christianity in which every action is justified by the Bible.".

"Drawing on 14 months of fieldwork on the Island of St. Vincent (where the religion arose) and among Vincentian immigrants in Brooklyn, Zane's spellbinding account of his experiences and his lucid analysis of the Converted religion, its origins, and development make this book an outstanding contribution to the literature on African American and African Diaspora religion and the anthropology of religion more generally."--BOOK JACKET.