Chasing Religion in the Caribbean

Focusing on ten islands through the Caribbean, this ethnography examines how charismatic religious leaders develop creative transnational religious networking strategies that help spread the movement and increase its potential to become a greater force in shaping the future in the English-speaking Caribbean. The large and explosive global Charismatic movement spread in powerful ways in the small and tranquil English-speaking Caribbean. It is here in the deep Caribbean world of demonic possessions, spiritual demons, and supernatural healers where the Charismatic movement continues to shape a resilient culture. Placing the Charismatic movement in the realm of culture provides some highly surprising findings that reveal the potential of a religious movement and its ability for change in a late-modern social world.

Peter Marina is Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, USA. His research specializes in sociology of religion, transgressive sociology, urban ethnography, criminology, Hispanic immigration, and city life, among other topics. 

Stephen D. Glazier contributed the foreword. He is Graduate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA. He is the general editor of The Encyclopedia of African and African American Religions (2001) and a founding member of the editorial board of the journal PentecoStudies.