This successor volume to Phillip Tovey’s earlier Anglican Confirmation 1662–1820 Footnote ¹ investigates Anglican confirmation from three principal perspectives: theological, liturgical, and practical.

Tovey relates the developing theologies of confirmation first to the baptismal regeneration controversy which raged from Pusey onwards – mention of the Gorham caseFootnote ² understandably recurs through much of the book – and second to the ‘two-stage theory’. For those who subscribed to this contested theory, a new relationship with the Holy Spirit followed confirmation. The two-stage theory, in drawing so clear a distinction between confirmed and unconfirmed ‘made a hard boundary in the body of Christ and excluded many Christians’ and was ‘something that inhibited the movement to unity’ (p 63). Tovey alludes to the ecumenical consequences of this theory: it would be interesting also to explore how much the theory influenced the debates surrounding the qualifications for electoral roll and PCC membership in preparation for the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919.Footnote ³ The significant Anglican theologians’ views on baptismal regeneration, the two-stage theory, and the sacramental principle generally are given in helpful precis, so in the first part of the book these individual summaries are more prominent than the broader narrative.

The liturgical discussion in the book focuses on prayer book revision, both in the Church of England (focused on the proposals leading up to 1928) and across the Anglican Communion. Specific proposals or changes to confirmation rites are helpfully placed in the broader context of liturgical revision. Clear tables present the structures of different rites side-by-side, and the different proposals are related to the theological positions described earlier in the book, demonstrating an author with a deep as well as expansive knowledge of the material.

It is in the third part of the book, exploring the developing practice of confirmation during this period, that some particularly interesting fruits of Tovey’s research are shared. He has amassed evidence refuting the ‘railway theory’ of confirmation: the changes to location for confirmation services pre-dated the coming of the railways, and was not caused by them.

Few (if any) ritualism cases dealt with confirmation because the officiant at confirmation – always a bishop – was during the nineteenth century unlikely to be a ritualist. However, there were ritualist controversies caused by the practices around preparation for confirmation, or by the bishop’s visit to ritualist parishes. That great defender of ritualists, the English Church Union, also took up the question of the legal right to confirmation. This intriguing note is not explored further, but the very copious and detailed endnotes would allow the interested reader easily to follow up this or any other of the book’s many references to find out more.