This volume goes back to two workshops held in Barcelona which were organised by the editors. It combines three principal aims. First, preachers from the three religions are introduced, and, second, the transcultural and social interactions that were the background to their preaching are displayed. Third, the foci of Iberian sermon studies is broadened and enriched. This last goal is definitely reached if one looks at the variety of the thirteen contributions (including a lengthy introduction) in three languages although some articles concentrate on other areas. The book falls into three parts each consisting of four contributions.

The first part deals with ‘Religious and Gendered Identities and Alterities’. Jussi Hanska and Sari Katajala-Peltomaa study a single sermon delivered by the bishop of Tusculum, Eudes (or Odo) de Châteauroux (1190–1273), to the nuns of Orvieto. According to the authors that sermon, on John xvi.21, unfolds a new image of spiritual concepts of womanhood. Women who had given birth to one or more children before they entered earned none the less religious merit through their motherhood. The article is accompanied by an edition of the sermon itself which is to be found only in one manuscript. The article might have benefited from a comparison with further sermons by Eudes/Odo. Damien Ruiz introduces Hugh of Digne's (d. 1256) preaching. Since none of his sermons is preserved he does so by scrutinising Salimbene de Adam's Chronicle and Felipa Porcelet's hagiography of St Douceline of Digne. Hugh seems to have employed lots of examples to clarify his point, and he also showed some virtuosity in adapting his language and style to his audience, be it of women or brethren and theologians. Olivier Brisville-Fertin provides a useful overview of preaching in Aljamiado by the Madejars and the Moriscos (including a survey of manuscripts). Jonathan Adams turns to sermons in East Norse, the language of medieval Denmark and southern Sweden. His main interest is the image of Jews and Muslims in sermons from an area without a Jewish or Muslim population, or, as he calls it, an ‘absent presence’. With some of the examples he gives the question arises whether the preachers were generalising biblical images – which might explain why there are no references to Muslims – or sometimes simply did not have a sense of the difference between ‘Jewish’, ‘Muslim’ and ‘pagan’. Adams illustrates his article with several contemporary images.

Part ii considers ‘Hermeneutical Identities, Alterities, and Transcultural Relations in Christian and Jewish Preaching’. Oriol Catalán surveys about three hundred years of anti-Jewish preaching in Catalonia between the thirteenth and fifteenth century and comes to the conclusion that Judaism was only one of many topics of sermons of that time. With a few exceptions preachers aimed at a ‘conversion of the Jews and not incitement to violence’ (p. 136). Amélie De Las Heras rejects this conclusion in her analysis of Martino of Leon's (1120/30–1203) reception of Isidore of Seville's Contra Iudeos. In her view Martino used all Isidore's categories except that of conversion. Carolina M. Losada concentrates on Vincent Ferrer (1350–1419) and challenges the view that Jews were absent from his sermons. On the contrary, they were present ‘because they served a function in the preaching genre’ (p. 189). Ram Ben-Shalom presents Rabbi Isaac Nathan (first half of the fifteenth century) as a witness to inter-Christian controversies about Vincent Ferrer, Thomas Connecte and Pope Benedict xiii. For church historians this article is important for Ben-Shalom adds further sources to the discussion.

In part iii, ‘Muslim and Christian Orators and Interfaith Encounters’ are in focus. Xavier Renedo Puig analyses speeches (not sermons) by the Catalan king Jaume i which he delivered in 1228. Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby introduces a short biography and renaissance images of the preacher John of Capestrano. Linda G. Jones focuses on the Muslim preacher from Egypt Shu'ayb al-Ḥurayfīsh who transmitted a story about the Sufi master Abū Maydan that proves to be an invention. Cándida Ferrero Hernández introduces a Christian-Muslim disputation of the thirteenth century.

Although most articles in this volume concentrate on Christian preachers, Jews and Muslims are present both as actors and objects of the sermons and speeches. All the articles give useful insights into preaching practices mainly of the high Middle Ages and illustrate that interfaith encounters in that time have more facets than disputations or theological treatises. All the articles are important contributions to their respective fields and the volume as a whole deserves close reading.