Lehner's very readable book is a hybrid between a monograph and a textbook. By so describing it, my intention is not to criticize it but rather to praise it. In ten short chapters, which are themselves divided into short sections, Lehner presents a new history of the Catholic Reformation, one that centers on the reform of souls rather than on the reforms of institutions, the reaffirmation of doctrine, or the implementation of the decisions of the Council of Trent. Significantly, the Council of Trent, which is so often the focus of books about the Catholic Reformation, is mentioned in the first chapter merely to inform readers that most early modern Catholic believers were hardly aware of the Council's decisions, and that the impact of this event was very slow and haphazard.

Instead, we are presented with detailed analyses of practices and techniques whose goal was individual conversion. Early modern Catholicism was an immense educational machine, meant to transform souls and to revive believers’ ability to reach God. New devices were invented and implemented, and old monastic and elite techniques of self-improvement were now adapted and diffused to train and advise lay believers on how to save their souls, to become “pleasing to God,” and thus to achieve a state of grace.

This dramatic inner transformation had never been directed at the masses of simple believers. It demanded spiritual resources that had to be developed and disseminated, as well as the cultivation of a heightened awareness of one's current spiritual state, of one's inherent sinfulness and shortcomings. This huge enterprise needed human agents—be they church leaders or female lay beatas. Early modern Catholic virtuosi, among them bishops, saints, and fathers—along with mother superiors—developed new method of animating spirits.

Some methods were new. Others were revised from the Middle Ages. Some breached monastic walls and became available for the first time to the laity. They all are at the core of Lehner's book, each one discussed in a separate chapter. A reformation of souls was to take place through homilies and sermons, confraternities and Marian sodalities, personalized confessions administered by caring confessors, spiritual written and oral guidance, new modes of prayer that cultivated and expected practitioners to achieve comprehension—both intellectual and affective—of the impact of prayer on their soul and hence contrition, and, last but not at all least, spiritual exercises and simple meditations.

This reform of self by enhancing piety was accompanied, and in fact made possible, due to numerous new technologies of education and transformation. Bishops, such as Charles Borromeo, and founders of religious orders, such as Ignatius of Loyola, promoted visitations and parish and overseas missions, the means by which these new forms of piety reached believers in the European countryside, as well as in South and Central America, Africa, and even China. Cheap prints and emblems; collections of vernacular prayers; catechisms; new cultic activities related to Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and others; and standardization of wax Agnus Dei, cloth scapular, and other sacramentals made devotion and piety more accessible than ever before.

Lehner's fascinating account is thoroughly supported by his immense reading in primary sources in all the major European languages and all types of theological, liturgical, and spiritual documents from the period. But as Lehner readily admits, The Inner Life of Catholic Reform deals with prescribed techniques and rituals rather than their implementations and adoption by lay individuals. This, of course, is the nature of our documentation that presents to us normative texts, describing entrepreneurial ecclesiastics and idealized believers. It was the rare individual who was not a priest or a theologian who left behind a spiritual diary, a written general confession, or a set of meditations or contemplations. And these unique individuals who did compile such records were often suspected of unorthodox innovations, and more often than not reach us through inquisitorial records. (Interestingly, Protestant lay people left many more such written records, and the comparison opens a door to further elucidate the meaning of inner reform.) But this being said, the creativity and ingenuity of early modern Catholicism comes across vividly.

Just as important as the exposition of what we already know about early modern Catholic lay piety is Lehner's list of what additional techniques of the transformation of selves are still awaiting scholarly investigation. We know too little, he reminds us, about the role of the Bible, biblical exegeses, and translations of the Bible in their relations to and their impact on devotion and spirituality. We lack an audial history of the Catholic reformation (what did it sound like, with its bells, hymns, “pious sighs,” and prayers?), while the material culture of early modern Catholicism has only started to be excavated. These, like the techniques and practices of devotion Lehner does present, were, of course, always shaped by local traditions, charismatic role models, and gender and class entrenched expectations and self-understanding. The Inner Life of Catholic Reform introduces us to a multifaceted Catholic church in a time of transition, challenging the top-down common view of its transformation with a convincing reminder that reform can only be enacted with the willing participation of practitioners.