Written from a cultural studies point of view, thirteen original essays analyse literary accounts of historically famous sites of conversion. Beginning with the Renaissance and extending to the present, authors under discussion include: Beaumont and Fletcher, Lope de Vega, Guamam Poma, Thomas Nashe, Daniel Defoe, Chateaubriand, Salvation Army pamphleteers, Chinese missionaries, Stephen Riggs, Samson Occom, Shusaku Endo, Mongo Beti, and Rigoberta Menchu. What were the missionaries' intentions, and how were they perceived?