This book presents an original and thought-provoking study, firstly of the nature and increasing influence of Spiritualism within the religious culture of England between 1850 and 1939 and, secondly, of the way in which, during this period, the Church of England adapted key aspects of its teaching on heaven, hell, judgement and the nature of the afterlife – not least, the author argues, by adopting elements of the language and imagery of Spiritualism that had become widely diffused within ‘common culture’. The book has several notable strengths. Spiritualism is treated seriously in its own right, is examined as a genuine system of beliefs, and is not merely dismissed or caricatured. Examples of explicit interest in Spiritualism amongst members – including clergy – of the Church of England are carefully documented. The extent and nature of the changes that occurred, especially between 1870 and 1939, in the Church of England's teaching on heaven, hell and the afterlife are clearly identified, but are also analysed with an awareness of the tensions within the process of change, including the retention of more traditional concepts and the distinctions that sometimes occurred between national policy and local practice. The section on the Church of England's response – especially in sermons, prayers and participation in memorialisation – to the theological and pastoral challenge posed by the sheer scale of death and bereavement caused by the First World War is particularly telling, especially in its demonstration of the adoption by clergy of imagery and ideas about the afterlife that were central to Spiritualism, including, most notably, the prominence of belief in spiritual progression after death and the diminution of themes of judgement or punishment. There also, however, remain certain weaknesses in the book. Whilst the extent of the adoption of Spiritualist language, ideas and imagery within a more liberal theology of the afterlife is persuasively demonstrated, it is not clear that the influence of Spiritualism prompted the rethinking of such beliefs by Church of England theologians and clergy. It would have strengthened the book if the possible interplay between Spiritualist ideas and imagery and the moral critique of Christian orthodoxy from within the Church of England had been examined more closely. It is also regrettable that more attention was not given to the circumstances surrounding the 1939 Church of England Report on Spiritualism. This report clearly caused concern and was thus suppressed until the 1980s. A closer examination of the issues involved here might well have proved illuminating. Finally, whilst the emphasis on the ‘negotiated’ nature of belief and the rejection of ‘static’ and simple understandings of ‘religious decline’ are welcome, there is an unfortunate tendency, both in the introduction and conclusion, to suggest that, because religious belief is indeed not static but is subject to ‘negotiated’ change, therefore it did not, in fact, decline, but was simply ‘redefined’. This may be true; but it is also possible that religious belief in this period was both redefined and declined.