philosophy and theology. The last two decades have seen awealth of scholarship on the Lombard, beginning with M.Colish’s Peter Lombard and continuing in P. Rosemann’sPeter Lombard and The Story of a Great Medieval Book: PeterLombard’s Sentences. The present volume, as with the firstvolume of Mediaeval Commentaries, continues this trend.The second volume of Mediaeval Commentaries is a collec-tion of twelve commissioned essays and a synthetic con-clusion which “takes stock” of the present state ofresearch. As noted in the Introduction, the volume seeksto address various lacunae such as the understudied com-mentaries of the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Thus, thevolume includes essays on: Pseudo-Peter of Poitier,Stephen Langton, Alexander of Hales, Hugh of St. Cher,Thomas Aquinas (Lectura romana), Robert Kilwardby,William de la Mare, Henry Harclay, Aufredo Gonteri Brito,Roger Roseth, Richard FitzRalph, Peter of Candia andMartin Luther. These high-quality essays each addresses aseries of questions, including: 1) the manuscript andtextual tradition of the given commentary; 2) the genre ofthe commentary in question (i.e., is it a literal “commen-tary” on the Lombard or a question based commentary?);and 3) some thematic questions of perennial interestwithin the fields of medieval theology and philosophy, e.g.,theology as a science, trinitarian theology, divine fore-knowledge, etc. These essays will be of interest to studentsof medieval thought and in many cases will establish them-selves as the point of departure for future work on the Sen-tences commentary under consideration.

John T. SlotemakerBoston College

ISABELLE OF FRANCE: CAPETIAN SANCTITY ANDFRANCISCAN IDENTITY IN THE THIRTEENTHCENTURY. By Sean L. Field. Notre Dame, IN: University ofNotre Dame Press, 2006. Pp. xii + 288. Paper, $35.00.

Over the last decade, Field has written numerousstudies that have increased our understanding of Franciscanorder policies in the 1250s and 1260s, the ambitions of theCapetian dynasty, and the interplay between female agencyand church politics vis-à-vis female monasticism. Thecurrent book provides a stimulating overview of Isabelle ofFrance’s achievements. Its first chapter explores the evi-dence for Isabelle’s early life and explains how she with-stood dynastic pressures to marry. The second chapterrelates how Isabelle obtained a reputation as a devout virginat the royal court and engaged in highly visible charitableenterprises. Chapter three depicts how Isabelle used hergrowing reputation to create a monastery at Longchamp, andpartook in the writing process of a new rule. Chapter fourdescribes how Isabelle’s revised rule from 1263 secured theLongchamp community’s link to the Franciscan order andprovided an alternative to the Urbanist rule that mostother Poor Clare houses had to accept. The fifth chapterdiscusses Isabelle’s role as a living saint residing outside the

monastery until her death. The final chapter analyses theway in which various parties, including her brother Charlesof Anjou, helped promote Isabelle’s cult as part of a cam-paign to assert Capetian sanctity. Field’s study thoroughlyexploits the available historical evidence. When necessary,he speculates beyond his sources, to create a meaningfulpsychological profile of the historical actors. Althoughcautious historians might raise their eyebrows at this,I think he has done the world of Franciscan scholarshipa great service.

Bert RoestRadboud University

History of Christianity (Modern)THE ENGLISH CATHOLIC COMMUNITY, 1688-1745: POLITICS, CULTURE AND IDEOLOGY. ByGabriel Glickman. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2009.Pp. ix + 306. Cloth, $115.00.

Until quite recently, eighteenth-century EnglishCatholicism was easily dismissed as isolated and ratherlackluster. We were told that penal legislation, the declin-ing fortunes of the Catholic gentry, a general anti-papistmood, and Catholic attachment to the Jacobite cause allmilitated against the English sons and daughters of Romeplaying a significant cultural role. Even many nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Catholic historians talkedabout a period in the doldrums. As Glickman points out,this analysis has undergone considerable revision (notleast when it comes to identifying the artistic role ofeighteenth-century English Catholics) but he believes thatmore readjustment is required. He makes an excellentcase. This book, based upon an impressive amount ofuntapped or neglected archival, manuscript, and printedsources, paints a surprising but very convincing portrait ofeighteenth-century Catholicism. The key point is thatCatholic involvement in the public sphere and political dis-course was often very significant. English Catholics morethan dipped into debates about burning political issues athome, foreign policy, and the wider intellectual battles ofthe era. They found themselves in a unique position, con-cerned, for obvious reasons, with arguments about tolera-tion, religious coercion, and the relationship betweenchurch and state, and connected, courtesy of the extensiveEnglish Catholic diaspora, with continental variants of allthese debates. It might be argued that Glickman exagger-ates the coherency and vitality of English Catholic thoughtat certain points, but as a much-needed corrective, thisbook scores very highly. It will be of great interest to stu-dents of late early-modern Catholicism, especially thosewho are attempting to analyze the nature of the new andvery useful category of the Catholic Enlightenment.

Jonathan WrightHartlepool, UK

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THE IMPACT OF THE EUROPEAN REFORMATION:PRINCES, CLERGY, AND PEOPLE. Edited by BridgetHeal and Ole Peter Grell. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2008. Pp.xii + 305. Cloth, $124.95.

This collection of twelve articles discusses an eclecticarray of topics ranging from conceptions of socio-religiousrevolution in the early German Reformation to enduringbeliefs about fairies in seventeenth-century Calvinist Scot-land, and from the Lutheran reception of Copernicanastronomy in Kepler and Brahe to the French-languagebooks sold at the Frankfurt book fairs in the late sixteenthcentury. Scholars of the Reformation will find some worthycontributions to issues pertaining to the political dimen-sions, social history, and lived Christianity (primarily ofProtestantism) in the German territories of the Holy RomanEmpire, southwest France, England, Scotland, and Transyl-vania, grouped according to the three terms of the subtitle.Ranging chronologically from the 1520s to the 1690s, theyinclude articles by major historians in the field, amongthem C. Haigh, A. Pettegree, T. Scott, M.Todd, and A.Walsham. The introduction rightly notes “the fragmenta-tion of Reformation studies” in recent decades with atendency of research “to be confined within specific geo-graphical, confessional or chronological boundaries,” andstates that “this volume aims to counteract this centrifugaltrend to provide a broad perspective on the impact of theEuropean Reformation(s).” But compilation alone cannotachieve this goal. With the exception of L. Schorn-Schütte’ssynthetic comparison of Protestant and Catholic clergy, thegeographical and topical diversity of the articles in the col-lection itself contributes further to the specialized and fis-siparous character of Reformation research that it purportsto counteract. This does not diminish the quality of theindividual contributions.

Brad S. GregoryUniversity of Notre Dame

EVANGELICAL DISENCHANTMENT: NINE POR-TRAITS OF FAITH AND DOUBT. By David Hempton.New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. Pp. x + 233.$30.00.

This book weaves two genres of writing—biography andsocial history—to tell a story of how nine eminent peoplewere once enthralled by, but became disenchanted withand subsequently repudiated, evangelical religion. LearnedEnglish novelist George Eliot offered a devastating critiqueof a strand of Reformed fundamentalism she was exposedto. Art critic Edmund Gosse was embittered against theexcesses of evangelical dogmaticism. To Victorian intellec-tual Francis Newman (brother of John Henry Newman),“immoral” (read: dogmatic) doctrines bred the inhumanetreatment he and others received from Plymouth Brethren.Anglican clergyman and anti-slavery activist T. D. Weldcalled evangelicals hypocrites in his quest to eradicateslavery. African American Pentecostal James Baldwin

pursued social liberation for “Black people.” Early feministsSarah Grimke, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Frances Willardspoke out against the oppression of women in church andsociety. Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh felt rejected by thesuperstructures of seminary education and mission boardsdespite his concern for the Irish poor. Hempton aims notto assess evangelicalism but to elucidate the movement’sstruggles from the perspective of nine “infidels.” In theirexperience, an infallible Bible became the pretext for adogmatic, rationalistic, literalistic interpretation of reli-gious experience that subjugated the pietism of the soul/conscience, commonsense morality, and the faith, hope, andcharity of Christianity. There is much to learn from thishistory regarding contemporary evangelicalism.

Timothy T. N. LimRegent University School of Divinity

UNA STRANA ALLEANZA. LA COMPAGNIA DIGESÙ IN RUSSIA DAL 1772 AL 1820. By SabinaPavone. Napoli: Bibliopolis, 2010. Pp. 470. €40.00.

With erudite panache, Pavone explores the “strange alli-ance” between the Russian Empire and the Society of Jesusafter the 1773 suppression. She sheds new light on a fasci-nating subject that has been the object of much study in thelast century with research defined by oscillations betweenthe Scylla of apologetics and the Charybdis of polemics, and,more recently, by in-depth but partial studies. The sup-pressed Society survived in Russia thanks to Catherine II.One of her many reasons for hosting the order was to posi-tion herself against the Holy See and the European states.For their part, Jesuits who went to Russia preferred toremain united in a “society” subject to the empire ratherthan to live as separated individuals loyal to Rome. Thissurvival was a symbol of rebellion against the contempo-rary papacy and a weapon of propaganda in the effort torestore the Order. The book—the result of extensive archivalresearch in Poland, France, and Rome—reveals both theRussian and Jesuit perspectives on the alliance and we learn,inter alia, about the relevance of education and colleges,about the Jesuit attitude toward Russian society and theOrthodox Church, about the accusations of proselytism bythe latter, and about Jesuits’ attempts to use their customarymissionary method—the accommodatio—in the unusualRussian environment. Pavone also includes a thoroughinvestigation of the period from 1814 to 1820. After therestoration of the Order, the general superior continued toreside in Russia for a few years, while the “strange alliance”was nearing its end. On the death of the general superior T.Brzozowski in 1820, Jesuits, now perceived as a foreignbody, were eventually expelled from Russia.

Emanuele ColomboDePaul University

MODERN CHRISTIANITY TO 1900. Edited by AmandaPorterfield. A People’s History of Christianity 6. Minneapo-lis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007. Pp. xiv + 348. Cloth, $35.00.

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In keeping with the general ethos of the series, thislatest volume in Fortress’s ambitious venture obliges us toshift our gaze from institutional ecclesiastical history to thelives of “the ordinary faithful” as they confronted the chal-lenges of modernity. It is far from being a comprehensivesurvey; rather, it is “more of an impressionistic picture ofthis history than a panoramic one,” as the editor puts it.There are some very interesting analyses of shifting Chris-tian attitudes towards death, sex, capitalism, and scienceand a series of regional studies. The choices of where tovisit in this latter section do seem somewhat arbitrary.There are four quite specialized pieces: on missionaries inBrazil, iconography in Orthodox Russia between 1600 and1900, attitudes towards conversion in New EnglandCongregationalism, and a chapter focused on the mid-eighteenth-century parish rebellion in Northampton, Mas-sachusetts. A final section looks at questions of race andgender. The book is neither more nor less than the sum ofits parts, and while it would be difficult to recommend it asa general text for survey courses, it could certainly bemined for the best of its contents: pre-eminently C. Eire onhow the Reformation set in motion a transformation ofChristian understandings of death and the attendant ritualsand theologizing. The volume certainly warrants a place onthe shelves of academic libraries, to be dipped into accord-ing to the demands of fluctuating course requirements.

Jonathan WrightHartlepool, UK

FROM A FAR COUNTRY: CAMISARDS ANDHUGUENOTS IN THE ATLANTIC WORLD. ByCatharine Randall. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press,2009. Pp. 176. Cloth, $44.95.

This groundbreaking book adds much to our under-standing of the religious diversity on both sides of theseventeenth- and eighteenth-century Atlantic. Randallhomes in on French Huguenots (with whom we are quitefamiliar) and their more radical confreres, the Camisards(whose adventures in enthusiastic religiosity have neverreceived the attention they deserve). After a brief butaccomplished account of the trials and tribulations enduredby French Protestants during the reign of Louis XIV,Randall has many wise things to say about three centralissues. First, what strategies of survival were deployed byexiled French Protestants? Second, when charting theirhistory in North America, should we think (as the earlierhistoriography usually indicated) in terms of assimilationor (as Randall suggests) sophisticated adaptation? Third,what impact did the Huguenots and Camisards have on thebroader North American culture? The greatest obstacle forhistorians of this subject is a lack of reliable evidence(there was a great deal of compromise, confusion andcovert behavior in the air) and Randall makes the astutedecision to focus on three emblematic and relatively well-recorded individuals: the Camisard Ezéchiel Carré, Elie

Neau (especially noteworthy for work among the AfricanAmerican population), and the fascinating figure of GabrielBernon. Randall’s book tells us a great deal about the for-mation of individual and communal religious identities andperhaps its most valuable contribution is to identify theimpact Camisard piety had on a host of influential figuresfrom Cotton Mather onwards.

Jonathan WrightHartlepool, UK

LUTHER: OUT OF THE STORM. By Derek Wilson.Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2010. Pp. xiv + 400. $29.95.

In his introduction, Wilson explains the purpose of thisnew biography of Martin Luther. He seeks to do in thetwenty-first century what R. Bainton did in the twentieth.According to Wilson, Bainton’s Here I Stand spoke to apostwar culture that still embraced and understood religiongenerally and Protestant Christianity in particular. Bainton’sgenius was that he spoke to that audience with vitality andheroism. Wilson notes that today’s educated general readeris more likely to speak of spirituality instead of religion.Readers today are concerned about “spiritual longings [thatare] not being met by conventional religion.” This is Luther’sstory as well and therefore “his story is relevant in a newway to a new age.” Setting Bainton as one’s standard forwriting a biography of Martin Luther is a high calling. Bain-ton’s remains the most comprehensive and readable biogra-phy of Luther sixty years after it was first published. Wilson,an experienced and gifted writer, has succeeded in writing astory that is both readable and compelling. In general,Wilson presents a Luther who was a spiritual seeker in hisown right. The background history is nearly always accu-rate. Perhaps in writing a biography it is now inescapable todelve into the inner workings of the subject’s psyche, but Ifound this tendency to be the only significant drawback tothe book. Luther’s reaction to the Peasants’ War is framed interms of his own hatred of his modest background. In fact,Luther often prided himself on his humble origins. Ingeneral, those looking for a more contemporary assessmentof Luther will find this a readable alternative to the magis-terial Here I Stand.

David WhitfordUnited Theological Seminary

Jewish ThoughtA RIVER FLOWS FROM EDEN: THE LANGUAGE OFMYSTICAL EXPERIENCE IN THE ZOHAR. By MelilaHellner-Eshed. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009.Pp. xv + 469. Cloth, $60.00.

This innovative study of the Zohar, the core text ofmedieval Kabbalah, addresses the literary and experientialaspects of this work. What were the mystical experiencesthat lay under the surface of the text? What were the spiri-tual practices that led to these experiences? The Zohar does

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