Lauren Pond's work suggests that the art of grasping genuine cultural difference . . . demands so much more. It asks us to shed our preconceptions, enter strange communities in a spirit of tolerance and humility, interact with genuine respect and curiosity, and earn the trust of our subjects. It asks us, in other words, to do so much more than conventional journalism currently asks us to do.

Visually stunning . . . Pond is deeply aware of the ethical quandaries of photographing a person while he is dying, which she writes about in a theologically provocative afterword. Her photographic eye is more compassionate than voyeuristic, and she captures something of the essence of Wolford’s faith even while hesitating to pin it down.

Who are these purposeful, vibrant people so different from myself? Test of Faith commands this question and prompts me to consider the basis and limitations of my own worldview.

Photographers know that trust is key to getting access to the most intimate moments of folks’ lives. But what happens if that trust is broken? This is a rare and heartbreakingly beautiful story of loss, of grace, and of forgiveness. This work is challenging and thoughtful.

Pond’s book will not make you believe in sign following, but perhaps you will see it. Perhaps you will come to see that sign followers do need not to be explained away in yet another documentary. They need to be seen. Test of Faith lets you see them. What then is tested?

To move through this book is to feel the author unwind herself. We feel her taking the measure of the space in which her subjects live . . . We get a sense that Pond has arrived somewhere very different than where she sought to go when she began, and it also feels like the beginning of a larger story.