This volume is a translation of the author's Religion und Kultur: Europa, 1500–1800, first published in 2000. Kaspar von Greyerz is a professor of early modern history at the University of Basle and an acknowledged authority on the Reformation and religious change in Europe through the Enlightenment. His original book was a magisterial synthesis of research in German, English and French dealing with early modern religion as a cultural phenomenon. Greyerz refers to his book as ‘an essay in interpretation’. The translation is not an updated edition and Greyerz states that, although seven years of additional research has accumulated, he feels that his interpretation based on social anthropology remains valid. His hope is that the translation will help American readers to gain a better understanding of recent trends and debates in European scholarship on the cultural history of early modern Christianity. Another goal of Greyerz's book is to demonstrate to his readers the profoundly religious nature of societies during the late medieval and early modern eras when compared to the secularised societies of the present. Religion and culture is a wonderful guide to many issues in religious history. One of these is confessionalism, the idea that the Lutheran, Reformed and Roman Catholic denominations created statements of religious beliefs or confessions during the latter part of the sixteenth century which secular rulers then enforced and used to gain greater political and social control. Other topics involve the secularisation or deChristianisation of European society that began during the Enlightenment. Greyerz in turn touches on the controversial thesis of Jean Delumeau which suggests that French rural society was not truly Christianised until after the implementation of the Tridentine reforms of Roman Catholicism. He also provides some interesting comparative chapters. One looks at the common and contrasting traits of Nadere Reformatie, Pietism, Puritanism, Jansenism, the Moravian Brethren and Methodism. Another looks at outcast groups such as Jews and witches, while a third discusses the differing religious separatisms practiced by Anabaptists, Baptists, Quakers and radical Pietists. English-speaking readers should be grateful that this fascinating and important, albeit dense, book is available in translation.