This book offers an unusual perspective on Anglican identity from the Reformation to the nineteenth century, with some reflections on the state of the Anglican Communion today. Chapman demonstrates that Anglican theology has always been complex and contested. Historians already know this, but students may need to be undeceived. The method is historical narrative with theological commentary, based on wide reading. Interestingly, earlier periods are viewed through the lens of mid nineteenth-century controversies and the ressourcement that fuelled them: the Parker Society's publication of the Anglican Reformers; the Tractarians' publication of the Fathers and of seventeenth- and and eighteenth-century ‘Anglo-Catholic’ divines; the programme of the ‘ecclesiologists’ for church design. But this is a strangely selective work: the legacies of Augustine, Aquinas and the failed Conciliar Movement for the reformed English Church deserved to be expounded. The eighteenth century does not get its due and the more modern period is dealt with sketchily: there is no reference to Lightfoot, Westcott and Hort, though William Reed Huntington and Colenso are covered. There is no mention of Gore and Temple (who had much to say about Anglican theological method), though Michael Ramsey, their disciple, is discussed. The phenomenon of ecumenical convergence through dialogue is also significant for questions of ecclesial identity. The book illuminates some key moments in the making of Anglican theology up to a certain point, while then jumping to contemporary issues. There are some debatable judgements, but this is a very useful study text for the periods that it covers.