Thomas Netter of Walden, the fifteenth-century English theologian and churchman, is presently enjoying something of a renaissance: this study, by a fellow Carmelite, is the second volume on Netter to have appeared since 2009. It aims to situate Netter and his Doctrinale within a broad, pan-European context, seeking to demonstrate that Netter “deserves to be recalled for far more than being a polemicist” (259). Indeed, to many scholars Netter is known only as a staunch opponent of John Wyclif and his later associates, the lollards. Alban shows that Netter's work was instead theologically constructive, an assertion supported by careful and critical analysis of the text. Following introductory chapters on Netter's biography and intellectual context, Alban treats Netter's views on God, humanity, and Christ; the church; religious life; the sacraments; and devotional practices. A final chapter surveys Netter's legacy.

This is a well-written, accessible volume, and Alban effectively makes the case for a sensitive, theological, and in fact christological reading of Netter. Apart from the occasional factual error, its primary weakness is something of a lack of attention to recent developments in the study of Wyclif and lollardy. For instance, the book accepts uncritically the traditional view that Wyclif held an almost Calvinist doctrine of predestination, though many Wyclif scholars now consider that view anachronistic; its treatment of Wyclif's followers on the eucharist is also somewhat out-of-date. Nonetheless, this long-overdue book is a highly welcome resource that does indeed “allow the voice of orthodoxy to be heard on its own terms” (267).