In this book, his doctoral thesis in theology from Heidelberg University, Pavlo Khimenets sets out to explore the role of Protestantism in the social and cultural history of the Ukrainian people. Based on a wide range of published primary sources, some archival research and broad reading in secondary materials in several languages, Khimenets argues that Ukrainian Protestantism constitutes an original phenomenon in the history of Protestantism. He asserts that the roots of Ukrainian Protestantism lie less in the influence of the western Reformation than in an internal reform process. In this way, the eastern Christian tradition shaped the Ukrainian Reformation, just as Reformation ideas worked their way into Orthodox reformers' ideas and practices. Thus, Khimenets devotes considerable space to the ways in which this synthesis played itself out in the writings of major early modern figures such as Kyrill Lukaris, Petro Mohyla or Feofan Prokopovich, as well as in the famous church brotherhoods of the same period. In so doing, Khimenets aims to combat widespread views in Ukrainian society and scholarship that regard Protestantism as a foreign presence. Although there is much of interest here, the book's sweeping scope and somewhat idiosyncratic choices about what to focus upon make it somewhat frustrating reading. In particular, although he states that his aim is to explore Protestantism's influence on Ukrainian culture and everyday life since the sixteenth century, the author could have been more systematic in his analysis of this social aspect. The discussion of the sixteenth century remains primarily in the realm of ideas and the nineteenth century, a period that saw the rapid explosion of Protestant-influenced movements, in particular the Shtundists or Baptists, among ordinary Ukrainians, is passed over almost entirely. Yet this latter period would have provided a fascinating case study of the extent to which general Protestant ideas abroad in Ukrainian society might or might not have laid the groundwork for these groups' rapid expansion and longevity in the Ukrainian context. A more ‘ground-up’ view would also have helped to clarify the connection between the multi-ethnicity of the territory that now makes up Ukraine and the religious particularities of the region throughout its history.