The 19th century was a time of extraordinary scientific innovation, but with the rise of psychiatry, faiths and popular beliefs were often seen as signs of a diseased mind. By exploring the beliefs of asylum patients, we see the 19th century in a new light, with science, faith, and the supernatural deeply entangled in a fast-changing world. The book's great strength lies here, in the details, the vignettes, the stories of lives upended by tragedy and illness, and the ways in which physicians sought to alleviate suffering and gain a better understanding of what it was that led people to injure themselves or others, what caused melancholia or mania, and how religious belief played a part in this...It would have been helpful to find clearer definitions of slippery terms like 'religious belief' and 'insanity' from the outset...But the book as a whole provides a fascinating insight into the significance of religious belief and practice within the Victorian asylum and, perhaps, those unanswered questions serve to remind the reader that the borders between religious belief and insanity are more blurred than many of us would like to suppose.