In this valuable addition to scholarship on Donne's sermons, Mark Sweetnam focuses on theological commitments rather than socio-political contexts. Acknowledging that readings must register the occasional nature of any sermon, Sweetnam none the less contends that we can observe recurrent patterns of thought across Donne's works. His readings support that contention, and he is careful to quote fully and in context, and to choose some sermons for extended analysis. Sweetnam's overall topic is ‘the three central areas of authority in Donne's thought – Scripture, the Church and the preacher’ (p. 16). In line with recent scholarship that argues against focusing too exclusively on predestination, Sweetnam traces the ways in which the locus and nature of religious authority preoccupied early Stuart churchmen and was central to Donne's thought. He demonstrates that Donne's views remained relatively consistent even as he responded to changes in the religious climate, and argues that attention to the issue ‘allows us to locate his work in the longer context of the Reformation’. The result, Sweetnam concludes, is ‘a Donne far more Protestant than has usually been recognized’ whose churchmanship was sui generis but ‘much closer to the conformist mainstream’ than is often argued (p. 10). To make his case, Sweetnam begins with Scripture as Donne's prime authority, devoting two chapters to Donne's view of the nature of that authority and of right interpretation. These chapters, while usefully demonstrating the way in which Donne balanced scholarship with pastoral aims and pointing out his emphasis on lay Bible reading, cover ground well discussed by Jeanne Shami and Katrin Ettenhuber. The next chapters examine Donne's conception of the Church's institutional authority, situating his views in relation to key conformist ideas – ecclesiastical polity as part of civil rule, the distinction between essentials and adiaphora. Sweetnam usefully considers Satyre iii as Donne's failed Hookerian experiment, a use of reason to ascertain the true Church that runs into the problem of state power. He further contrasts Donne with Hooker on the issue of rites and ceremonies. Sweetnam sensitively recognises the balance that Donne sought between the Church as institution carrying the authority of law and the room for ‘freedom and flexibility in the details and minutiae of ecclesiastical practice’ (p. 107). This discussion illuminates Donne's ecumenism, stressing his belief in unifying essentials, the need to interpret others generously, and the possibility of conforming to a Church's ordinances without violence to the conscience. Many of these aspects of Donne's thought have been recognised, but Sweetnam captures the balance among them particularly well. The final two chapters address the authority of the sermon and the preacher. Sweetnam shows Donne's distinctive redefinition of Puritan and conformist ideas about prophetic and apostolic calling, and the centrality of preaching to his concept of his office, demonstrating that, for Donne, ‘the preaching of the Word of God is both [the ministry's] heaviest duty and its greatest dignity’ (p. 185). This study deserves careful attention from anyone interested in Donne's religious thought.