This timely and insightful essay collection balances the study of the institutionalisation of Catholicism in Taiwan with a sociocultural analysis of the Catholic faithful. Two major themes run through the essays. The first is the interplay between global politics and local Churches. Emphasising the effects of geopolitics on the Catholic experience, José Eugenio Borao Mateo surveys the trajectories of Spanish missionaries, who were expelled by Dutch Protestants from Taiwan in the seventeenth century, and Wei-Ying Ku reconstructs the Catholic experience under Japanese rule (1895–1945). Michael Chuan-Sheng Chang explores how the exodus of European missionaries and Chinese clergy from Maoist China after 1949 gave rise to competition between Taiwanese and external church leaders over church management. The second theme is the transformation of Taiwan-Vatican relations. Because the Vatican is the only European state that still recognises the Republic of China in Taiwan as a legitimate government, bilateral ties are perceived by Taiwanese rulers as being of prime importance to the island's diplomacy. Because of the Vatican ties, Taiwan and to a certain degree, British Hong Kong, have provided important channels for global Catholics to gather information about Churches in Mainland China. Beatrice K. F. Leung and Yen-Ban Kuo study the Taiwanese Church's ‘Bridging Endeavor on the Mainland’ project, which was designed to counter the appeal of Maoism in the West throughout the Cold War. Peter Yao-Tang Lin and Beatrice K. F. Leung review Catholic higher education in Taiwan, the only Chinese cultural sphere that hosts three officially recognised Catholic universities. Brian K. Reynolds examines the Focolare Movement, which gave church members numerous opportunities to experience living in a monastic community, pursue pastoral ministry and conduct dialogue with Buddhists and Daoists over moral, sociocultural and environmental issues. In a study of pilgrims to the famous Wanchin Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in rural Taiwan during Christmas, Chiao-Li Wang shows that effective collaborations with township authorities helped local Catholics to enmesh their sacred festivals into a deeply religious environment. Beatrice K. F. Leung concludes that Taiwan-Vatican encounters have developed into a triangular relationship between Taiwan, China and the Vatican. Behind these case studies is the complex process of cross-cultural adaptation involving foreign missionaries, Mainland Chinese clergy, Taiwanese and local aborigines. Intense encounters among these actors permitted a high degree of accommodation, without domination or victimisation. Global Catholic values, norms and practices fused with Taiwanese customs into a spirit of cosmopolitanism. One minor criticism about this book is that the pronouncements of the small band of missionaries and local bishops represented the totality of the Catholic Church. This mindset overlooked gender relations, the aboriginals’ encounters with Catholicism and local Catholics’ involvement in the pro-democracy movement. Nevertheless, Taiwanese Catholics combined their Churches with kinship networks to strengthen their faith. Positioning themselves as congregations of the people, the Churches emphasised confession of sin, direct experience of grace and mercy, values of charity and liberation from injustice, all of which corresponded to the forces of charismatic spiritualism and liberation theology, which have impacted global Catholicism.