This is a welcome survey of the secondary literature, in several languages, on the Christian Churches in continental Europe in the era of the Second World War, its key (though rather convoluted) question being ‘how did the Churches in Europe fare during the Second World War and what were their thoughts and, perhaps more importantly, their deeds as institutions made up of church leaders as well as individual believers?’ (p. xiv). Inevitably, the answer is a lengthy one which defies easy generalisation. Arising from a research programme entitled ‘The Impact of National Socialist and Fascist Occupations in Europe’ (p. xv), its origins help to account for the conspicuous strengths and salient weaknesses of the volume. In terms of the former, and for an Anglophone readership, it sheds useful light on such unfamiliar themes as the religious dimensions of Finland's struggle against the Soviet Union, the strength of Italian military chaplaincy, and the position of the Greek Catholic Church in the Ukraine – to name but a few examples among a great many. On the other hand, and because of its provenance, the volume excludes Great Britain, North America and the wider Christian world. In the context of a truly global war, the potential of Great Britain as a fruitful comparator, the strength of international missionary and ecumenical networks, to say nothing of the worldwide reach of the Catholic Church, this focus ineluctably lends the book an unduly insular feel. It also seems rather ironic given that the cover illustration features an American tank. Reflecting the secondary sources on which it relies, this is also largely an institutional and political history, and there is relatively little on the theme of the war's impact on religion at the grassroots. It is also notable that useful surveys of the impact of war on European Christianity by Andrew Chandler and Michael Burleigh do not appear to have been consulted. Nevertheless, given that the study of religion and the Second World War remains in its infancy (at least outside the sphere of Holocaust Studies), despite the attention that is now being lavished on the religious dimensions of the First World War, this remains a very worthwhile addition to the existing literature, and one that will help this neglected theme to acquire the prominence that it undoubtedly deserves.