This book is an excellent collection of essays on Theodore Beza (1519–1605), commemorating the 500th anniversary of his birth. Top scholars contribute thirteen chapters to the book's four parts: “Beza's Place in History”; “Beza and Biblical Interpretation”; “Beza on Prophecy, Prodigies, and Predestination”; and “Beza and His Catholic Opponents.”

The volume is introduced by an outstanding piece by the editors: “New Perspectives on an Old Reformer.” Here the editors consider Beza's multifaceted life and contributions on a wide variety of fronts, indicating that “Beza was recognized by his contemporaries as the leader of the French Reformed movement and one of Europe's most influential (and controversial) scholars and public intellectuals.” The essays that follow reconsider “the legacy of this Genevan minister and, in so doing, provide new perspectives on an old reformer” (54).

Beza fled Paris to find safe haven in Geneva. He was an exile and envisioned the Christian life as “a journey in a boat through the flood of the deadly perils lurking beneath the waves and through the straits. For the Christian, the ark becomes the Church, and the solid ground on which it comes to rest the Word,” depending on prayer “to steady his soul in the face of the storm buffeting and battering the Church” (17). These convictions about the church, the Word, and prayer were guiding dimensions of faith enabling and sustaining him through the full range of his activities and contributions.

Beza's involvement with the church in England is detailed in an essay by Manetsch. Beza saw flaws in Queen Elizabeth's religious establishment but—due to the church's doctrinal standard—“remained convinced that England's church was a legitimate member of the family of Reformed churches, even if it was the only one that did not practice biblical discipline” (135).

Beza's biblical scholarship was full and deep. Jennifer Powell McNutt's fine essay, “From Codex Bezae to La Bible,” presents “an overview of Beza as biblical scholar with attention to his relationship with Codex Bezae and his advancement of the French Geneva Bible of 1588” (159). Ultimately, McNutt concludes that Beza's life of biblical scholarship, in its many facts, was “time spent for the purpose of expanding the ministry and reform of the church” (175).

Eunjim Kim's “‘The Leader of the Ancient Theologians’: Beza's Use of Augustine in His Predestination Doctrine” shows how Beza appealed to Augustine in developing the doctrine of predestination. He does not refute Augustine, even at points when he did not agree with the church father (233). Also, Beza's use of Augustine was “based on a careful selection.” But Beza could acknowledge Augustine as “an authority who spoke on the matter” and “appropriated his writings side by side with Scripture” (234). Beza aligned himself with the orthodox fathers as authorities, “for they had faithfully proclaimed the gospel” (239).

This small sampling gives a flavor of this splendid and helpful volume. When Beza died, a notice at the Genevan Academy said: “Yesterday, a great light in the Church was extinguished” (54). So it was.