In this provocative book, which explores one aspect of early Christian identity-formation, Burrus seeks to undo the familiar opposition between ‘shame’ and ‘guilt’ that was popular among anthropologists some decades ago – and that was borrowed by students of antiquity. Burrus engages other talking partners, mainly psychologists and psychotherapists (especially affect psychologists) and contemporary theorists ranging from Levinas, Foucault and Derrida to Kristeva and Butler. Christianity, Burrus argues, innovated by ‘embracing shame shamelessly’ in its disruption of what was considered the ancient honour/shame system. In chapters treating various early Christian texts from the first seven centuries ce, she explores the intersection of flesh and text in narratives of (especially) martyrdom and asceticism – narratives that give ample opportunity for confession, the process that ‘archives shame’. Glory is routed through shame, dignity is won via humiliation, in a model set for Christians by the Incarnation itself. Narratives of women – from those in John's Apocalypse to Syncletica and Mary of Egypt – are, unsurprisingly, prominent in Burrus' account. The manifestations of and reflection on shame in Augustine's Confessions and City of God and in Cassian's Conferences are ripe sources for discussion. Evagrius Ponticus' discussion of the logismoi is nicely analysed for the connection of the various ‘thoughts’ to shame. The link of shame to desire and the erotic, to spectacle and verbalisation, is probed throughout. Power relations are also indirectly explored, as those who seek to shame others find themselves shamed. In an ‘Afterword’, Burrus seeks to link her ancient materials with modern popular reflections on whether shame is a primitive emotion to be sloughed off, or an important guide to morality and civic virtue. Burrus' view is rather that we lack ‘a cultural mechanism for dealing effectively with an excess of shame and disgust in a world that has, like that of the Romans, grown far too large and complex to be managed effectively by the subtle give-and-take of communal appeals to a shared sense of honor’ (p. 150). As Burrus remarks about one of her ancient authors, ‘there is plenty of humiliation to go around’ (p. 91). The texts discussed in this book are for the most part very familiar to students of late antiquity; what gives the book its particular verve is the interweaving of early Christian theology and history with recent theoretical discussions that relate to shame, honour, the moral life, as well as with the history of the emotions.