This collection arises from a series of seminars for doctoral students in the history of religions organised in the universities of Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg in 2002–3. Most papers are in French, though one is in English and two in German. The first part of the book consists of substantial interpretative papers mainly by guest speakers, while the second part comprises shorter reports on research in progress by members of the seminar. The papers mainly focus on the contemporary religious situation in Europe, though a few are historical. The central themes of the volume, connecting the very diverse papers, albeit rather tenuously, are European identity, the ways in which Europe's religions might contribute to the quest for common European values, and the problems inherent in this search in a continent which is home both to believers of many different kinds and to many non-believers. Among the longer contributions, some, such as Rute Vicente and Ansgar Jödicke, focusing respectively on the legal and constitutional aspects of religion in Europe and on religious teaching in schools, adopt a mainly factual approach, while others rank more as think-pieces. Among the latter are an extended reflection by Jean-Paul Willaime on ‘Religion as a symbolic and ethical resource in a secularised and pluralistic Europe’ and Grace Davie's chapter on ‘From obligation to consumption’. She accepts Steve Bruce's view that declining church attendance has undermined any kind of religious orthodoxy, but argues that it has led to more amorphous beliefs and more individual choice, rather than to secularity. The only author to adopt a strongly historical approach is Valentine Zuber, who compares the forms of Church–State struggle in Germany, France and Geneva in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jocelyne Cesari, in a wide-ranging comparison between Islam in Europe and the United States, also reflects on the nature of Moslem identity, stressing like other contributors the dynamism, fluidity and variability of religious identities. The shorter papers cover a wide range of topics, mostly related in one way or another either to European identity and religious traditions or to more general questions of religious identity and boundary definition. The topics are: the emperor Julian's critique of Christianity; the treatment of non-Jews in rabbinical teaching; Falun Gong and religious freedom; the observance by Moslems of Ramadan; and the writings of Luce Iragaray and Mircea Eliade. While several contributions to the volume are very stimulating, and all include points of interest, the volume as a whole suffers from the lack of overall coherence.