This large and heterogeneous collection of thirty-three French and English essays brings together a wealth of current scholarship dealing with topics as diverse as the conflicts of the Protestant Reformation, the sixteenth-century reception of the Church Fathers, archiving practices of the early modern consistories, Reformed natural theology, the ministry of women and the clandestine literature of the Enlightenment, to name just a few. Despite the diversity of contributions and the broad scope of topics discussed, the essays have one thing in common: their subject matter is framed in relation to the immensely rich and wide-ranging scholarship of the historian Irena Backus, in whose honour this collection was compiled. Backus distinguished herself as a highly erudite and original researcher with a rare linguistic expertise and theoretical reflection, but also as a prolific writer, as her impressive bibliography at the end of the volume testifies. The collection is a worthy tribute to the breadth of her research interests, and to the influence that her work has had on generations of scholars. Many of the contributors are Backus’ colleagues or former students, and a large number of essays directly stem from and expand on her previously published research.

The editors have divided the volume into four parts, which deal in turn with the Reformed Churches (part i), the reception of the Church Fathers and the history of biblical hermeneutics (part ii), the reformers (part iii) and theology and philosophy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (part iv). The collection is relatively coherent in terms of referring to various aspects of Backus’ scholarly work, although its thirty-three papers deal with a multitude of topics using different methods and addressing diverse audiences. While some of the essays remain firmly embedded in the field of intellectual history and/or offer close reading of primary sources and fine-grained textual analysis, others will speak also to historians of practices and material culture. The latter is exemplified by Christian Grosse's paper on the practices of archiving and registering developed by the Reformed consistories, which is one of the chapters that stands out in this volume; but also the essays by Federico Zuliani, Brian Cummings and Antoinina Bevan Zlatar. Similarly, Philip Benedict and Nicolas Fornerod identify personal conflicts, authority issues and improper devotional practices as being at the heart of the dissidence within the early French Reformed Churches, which is a conclusion in line with much of the recent scholarship on the practices and material relations of the Protestant Reformation (see for example Charles H. Parker [ed.], Judging faith, punishing sin, Cambridge 2017, where Grosse's essay on the consistories was also published). Overall, the consideration of practices is, however, relatively marginal in the collection, although some of the essays would have benefitted from paying more attention to the contexts and uses of the texts that they analyse. Karine Crousaz's paper, for instance, examines the role of the pagan authors in the Colloques of Erasmus and Mathurin Cordier without discussing in any detail how and by whom the Colloques (especially those of Erasmus) were actually used and for which audience they were written.

Although the individual papers do not seem to share any one underlying methodological or theoretical approach and they do not work towards a unified conclusion (the volume does not end with a summarising essay, either), many of the contributors are quite original in their choice of subject matter, and some offer non-trivial conclusions. Thus, for example, the close reading of primary sources in the chapter by Geneviève Grosse on the expulsion of Antoine Froment from Geneva; Bruce Gordon's examination of Zwingli's account of his dream of the Lord's Supper in the context of the early modern culture of sleep and the formation of the religious community; and Daniela Solfaroli Camillocci's reconstruction of the conflict over the Epistre très utile of Marie Dentière. Methodologically, the most curious approach is likely Denis Crouzet's attempt to apply Freudian psychoanalysis to the personality of Charles v. From the point of view of the historiography of concepts, two texts are especially worthy of attention: Randall C. Zachman's informed criticism of the scholarly usage of the term ‘Catholic Church’; and Ueli Zahnd's chapter on humanism as a label in the conflicts between Nikolaus Zurkienden, John Calvin, Theodore Beza and Sebastien Castellio. I would argue, however, that Zahnd could go further in his interrogation of the concept of humanism. A number of scholars offer valuable comparative and textual-critical work in their papers (for example, Alain Dafour, Mark Vessey and others), but not all of them scrutinise the texts against their historical and cultural backgrounds in the fashion of Backus (for example, Hartmut's essay on Leibnitz). While individual essays will be of varying interest to readers, the general standard of the scholarship is quite high. Where the volume slightly loses its coherence, though, is the format of the contributions. Some chapters lack research questions and conclusions, and many, though presenting interesting material, are not clearly situated in the context of the existing scholarship on their subject matter, which sometimes makes it difficult to assess the originality of the pieces.