Krueger makes short work of the received idea that the introspective conscience, mediated by Augustine's reading of Paul, was unique to the Latin West. He discerns in Byzantium a development of the self that is none the less distinct from the inward regard in the medieval West. Krueger's book sets out to discover the Byzantine self, not from the inside out – as a work such as Augustine's Confessions might purport to do – but rather from the outside in, by examining the models of a penitent self presented to Byzantine lay and monastic audiences in liturgical texts. Most of the texts in question take the form of hymns: the kontakia of Romanos the Melodist (sixth century), the Great Kanon of Andrew of Crete (c. 660–740) and the kanons of the Stoudite Triodion (ninth century). Two major examples fall outside the realm of poetry: chapter iv examines the use of biblical exemplars to provoke compunction in the Anaphora of St Basil, while chapter vii focuses on a ‘liturgy’ of a different sort, the ritual self-accusation and self-administered corporal punishment prescribed for his monks by Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022). All of these texts rely heavily on biblical archetypes of repentance, bringing to bear on them the rhetorical technique of ethopoieia, or speech in character. The use of these models, however, shifts over time. Between the sixth and ninth centuries, the hymns move away from an in-depth exploration of the scriptural exemplars through their own imagined experience of biblical events to the more litany-like rehearsal of these figures as keys to inducing compunction in the hearers. While this shift parallels the oft-remarked decline in Byzantium of original scriptural exegesis in favour of the florilegium of patristic sources, Krueger makes the important point that the replacement of the earlier forms was not complete or absolute. The earlier mode of exegetical hymnody continued to be performed through this period in conjunction with the newer kanons. The increasing convergence of the ‘cathedral’ and ‘monastic’ rites in Byzantium after the ninth century meant that lay audiences were also exposed to kanons written originally for monastic communities. Although the main evidence presented here is textual, the author integrates Byzantine works of art into the discussion at several points in a way that both enhances the argument for the formation of the penitent self and points indirectly to the dissemination of these models beyond the texts under discussion. Krueger's lucid text is supported by ample and up-to-date documentation. While contemporary theorists make only occasional appearances by name, their impact is evident throughout as an aid to the sustained focus on the way in which the liturgy both scripted and reflected the Byzantine self. This book opens up new perspectives within liturgical scholarship, asking not only what the Byzantines heard and saw in the liturgy, but how what they heard and saw shaped their own view of themselves. It is thus a work of enormous value to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Byzantine religious experience.