Only ten myths? Kenneth Stewart, who identifies himself as a Calvinist, uses the device of myths about Calvinism to explore the diverse character of Reformed religion from the sixteenth century to the present day. Stewart provides an insider's perspective but not an uncritical view of a religious tradition which he acknowledges has generated its share of obsessive extremists and has had more difficulty in restraining its ‘ultras’ than many other forms of Christianity. Stewart first tackles four myths that ‘Calvinists should not be circulating (but are)’. Stewart focuses on the common misunderstanding that Calvin and Geneva should be treated as normative for establishing the true character of Calvinism. He points out that from the beginning Reformed Churches drew on the insights of a number of different theologians and that the Reformed tradition developed as a fractious coalition between autonomous centres of reform. The pre-eminent role often ascribed to Calvin is in part an image constructed by nineteenth-century British Evangelicals. On a visit to Geneva in 1817 Henry Drummond was shocked not to be able to find a copy of the Institutes available for purchase and financed its publication in French. In the 1840s the Calvin Translation Society took up the work of recovering Calvin's voice in English. As British Evangelicals created a Calvin in their own image, the diversity and complexity of the Reformed past was increasingly obscured from view. Treating Calvin's opinions as a litmus test for the true Calvinist has proved particularly thorny on the question of salvation theology. Stewart explains the development of Calvin's own thought on predestination and reviews the range of opinions among Reformed theologians on aspects of salvation theology both before and after the Synod of Dordrecht. All this undermines any view that Calvinist orthodoxy was carved in stone in the final edition of the Institutes or at Dordrecht. Stewart makes this point very neatly by tracing the first use of the acronym TULIP (total depravity, universal sovereignty, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints) to identify the beliefs of a true Calvinist. TULIP appears to have been first coined at a 1905 popular lecture given to the Presbyterian Union of New Jersey, and the text of a 1913 article about this lecture is reproduced on pp. 291–2. Stewart suggests that, given this recent vintage, it is surprising that those who tamper with the TULIP formula are sometimes met with considerable opprobrium from self-appointed defenders of Calvinist orthodoxy. In part ii of this book Stewart turns to ‘myths non-Calvinists should not be circulating (but are)’. Perhaps a Calvinist is not best placed to consider outsiders' views of Reformed religion and these latter chapters have a more apologetic tone. Stewart challenges ideas that Calvinism promotes antinomianism, undermines the creative arts, and that Calvinists have failed to advance gender or racial equality. This is an accessible and wide-ranging study informed throughout by command of an impressive body of relevant literature. It offers much insight on the development of the Reformed tradition and on the current state of North American Calvinism. Some myths about Calvinism remain notable by their absence – do Calvinists really make good capitalists?