Kjell Lejon examines the religious dimension of Bush's presidential tenure. After outlining the book's objectives (ch. i), Lejon walks through Bush's early years and education (ch. ii) and his political career, culminating in the vice-presidency and presidency (ch. iii). Religious references are distilled from Bush's domestic policies (ch. v), foreign policies (ch. vi) and failed bid to be re-elected (ch. vii). The book concludes with a re-evaluation of Bush's civil religion and a discussion of what Lejon terms Bush's ‘public theology’ (ch. viii). The primary thesis, as stated in the introduction, is to demonstrate that ‘a religious dimension clearly exists in [Bush's] life and work and it expressed itself through various political statements’ (p. 21). This thesis seems to be well met. The word ‘thorough’ is insufficient to describe the depth of research offered as evidence of Bush's ‘religious dimension’. Expanding on this, the book's second thesis describes the former president's civil religion as a ‘public theology’ in that it is ‘expressed in theological terms [and] … used in situations such as Bush's official White House rhetoric’ (p. 23). This thesis is more difficult to concede. Although ‘theology’ is technically defined as ‘words (or knowledge) about God’ (p. 22), a robust definition is lacking. In the wealth of information that he accumulates, the author could have been more selective towards meaningful theological data. For example, evidence such as Bush's use of the phrase ‘in the year of our Lord’ (p. 156) instead of the more secularised (?) ‘ad.’ should perhaps not be evaluated with the same merit as statements made during a National Day of Prayer event (pp. 191–2). Furthermore, although Lejon admits that every president must have a ‘certain modicum of faith’ to succeed in American politics (p. 110), he never fully unpacks the implications that this might have on a ‘public theology’. Can we learn anything about Bush's theology by noting, for example, that he uses the phrase ‘God bless’ a total of 916 times (p. 118)? Lejon calls this usage ‘astounding’ and extrapolates theological meaning from its usage, but it seems less astounding when compared (using the same citation) to the average Ronald Reagan (798), Bill Clinton (816) or George W. Bush term (864). The book seems to suffer from a lack of distinction between Bush's private and public theology and between theological ‘production’ and ‘promotion’. At best the evidence points in the direction of a ‘public theology’, but does not satisfactorily describe its contents. For those interested in the intersection of religion and politics in the United States, this book is a helpful (and thorough) guide to the forty-first president. For some, it may be frustrating because of the problems noted above. For all, it is both informative and thought-provoking. The amount of research suggests that those working in non-academic fields may find the book overwhelming at points; however for those acquainted with American politics it remains an approachable text.