As is true for most edited collections, the essays gathered together here range in approach, perspective, and quality. Despite this diversity, however, the book as a whole makes two arguments, both of which the editors lay out effectively in the introduction and the conclusion.

The first argument is historiographical. In Hambrick-Stowe's words, “the history of the Christian faith in the United States has often been told in ways that minimize the significance of classical doctrine and ecclesial traditions” (4). This book is, in part, a corrective aimed at integrating confessional traditions into the standard narratives about American religious history. As such, it presupposes the conventional understanding of “confession” as a doctrinal statement that Christians adopt as an authoritative expression of their faith.

But, second, the book argues that the term “confessional” should be applied more broadly than is conventionally done. The editors propose that confessing one's faith is a form of Christian practice. Moreover, religious practice can function like a formal confession, in the sense that practice sometimes defines religious identity and the boundary between religious groups. As a consequence of this broader understanding of “confession,” this volume includes chapters devoted to a wider range of Christian traditions than one might expect from the title: not only Lutherans, Presbyterians, and other Reformed traditions, but also Episcopalians, Catholics, Mennonites, and the Eastern Orthodox. The second argument is well-supported in the individual chapters, many of which trace the tension that Christians of different traditions experience between holding on to a distinctive religious identity, however defined, and reaching out to the broader culture.