Producing a useful single-volume Companion to an emerging field of study is a challenge but John Lyden has succeeded. He acknowledges that the religion and film discourse arises from a number of different ‘parent disciplines’ and that it is futile to attempt to ‘synthesize conclusions about the field or summarize its direction and foci’. Speaking of one particular section but reflecting the approach of the whole, he states that the book ‘does not claim to be exhaustive or authoritative [but rather] representative’. To this end, the Companion is divided into four parts, each containing a set of essays with a common focus: the history of the interaction between religion and film; depictions of religion and by religious practitioners in film; academic approaches to the study of religion and film; and categories applicable to religion and film studies. Readers of this Journal might be particularly interested in the first, historical, section with its fascinating accounts of key figures and key moments in the charged relations between religion and film. The second section, with its openness to the whole of world cinema, produces some of the most stimulating essays. In particular, Rachel Dwyer's contribution on Hinduism and Francisca Cho's chapter on Buddhism are eye-opening. They explain how these different religious contexts allow for completely different approaches to cinema. In India, where ‘the boundary between the everyday and the religious is porous or permeable’, a religious way of ‘seeing’ is easily transferred to film and ‘the religious image is held to be efficacious in film as it is elsewhere’. In a Buddhist context the very nature of cinema is understood differently; if ‘life itself is an illusory projection of our own minds … cinematic illusion is ontologically no different from life itself’. The final two sections of the book contain less material that will be new to someone with an ongoing interest in the field but still provide a helpful overview of the best scholarship. Commendably, the editor has not privileged any one approach or position. He draws the reader's attention to the fact that ‘the contributors frequently comment critically on each other's work’ and it is invigorating to see this inter-textual dialogue in action. In particular, I agree wholeheartedly with Clive Marsh's argument that if this new discipline is to flourish more must be done to balance the huge quantity of academic commentary ‘with evidence of what viewers themselves, say believe and do’. The bibliographies and filmographies that follow each individual essay are excellent resources but a more exhaustive final index might have made it easier to search for particular films, particular subjects and particular persons across the whole of the book. In summary, John Lyden has produced a valuable snapshot of the very best work in this young field and has created a vital reference tool for everyone interested in this fascinating area of study.