Why Christians and Vodouists in Haiti have so often stood in opposition is the question the editors begin with, tracing the hostility to both historical circumstance and competing ideas. From there the collection turns practical, proposing ways the two communities might live together with less friction.

Contributors approach the problem from several directions, among them memoir, anthropology and fieldwork, the study of religious experience, and gender analysis, and the volume also supplies concrete material for those who want to run interreligious dialogue or teach it in Haitian settings.

Three convictions hold the project together: that religion is a good worth defending, capable of serving dignity and justice; that a country cannot be built democratically without cooperation across differences, which the editors take to be a central task of religious traditions; and that religion's public standing can be turned toward reconciliation and friendship rather than division.