This fascinating collection of essays explores an array of missionary encounters with communities in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. The different pieces hold together in their use of microhistory to expose how colonized peoples engaged with the ambiguous efforts of evangelization. Chandra Mallampalli's analysis of a mid-19th-century property dispute draws out the ways varied Catholic and Protestant Indians and missionaries sought to redefine differences between "Hindu" and "Christian" practices. Beth Baron's study of a scandal over missionary treatment of a female orphan in Egypt in the 1930s is alone worth the price of admission. She examines how a marginal young woman could engage with nationalist anxieties and become a popular heroine. Heather Sharkey's chapter on Biblical translations into now-extinct vernaculars reveals the class and gendered aspects of translation. Stephen Berkwitz tackles the ways Sri Lankan Buddhists and converts drew from one another's literary conventions, often at the expense of missionary hubris. While the main audience will be scholars of global religion and colonization, area specialists will be able to use individual chapters in their courses.