There is always a tension in collections between the need to ensure a degree of coherence and the desire to include a range of diverse chapters. As editor one has to choose between the twin evils of excessive diversity and restrictive homogeneity. In trying to navigate between these twin poles the editors of Love, friendship and faith have produced a collection full of interesting chapters but not one that is totally satisfying as a coherent response to the volume's title. Indeed it is difficult see how in 230 pages it would be possible adequately to cover such topics as love, friendship and faith from 1300 to 1800 in Europe. This is not to suggest that Love, friendship and faith lacks an overarching frame since what unites all the chapters in this volume is that their authors, one way or another, position their work in relation to that of Alan Bray. There are, of course, any number of legitimate reasons for this. Bray's work has been fundamental in terms of setting the agenda for the study of early modern friendship. However it would have been useful if the focus on Bray had been made explicit in the title of the collection. It is also problematic that in a collection that claims a pan-European scope six of the nine essays focus on England, two on Germany and one on Bray's work. Given the title of the collection it is surprising not to see any work on France or Italy.

These criticisms are important since it would be a shame if this volume missed is intended audience, which is scholars working within the space created by Bray's work. Love, friendship and faith contains a number of excellent chapters. Alan Stewart's paper, ‘A society of sodomites: religion and homosexuality in Renaissance England’, is a witty but also critical engagement with Bray's problematic treatment of the figure of the papist sodomite as he appeared in English Protestant polemical writing. The chapters by Alexandra Shepard and Tim Hitchcock are fascinating case studies of the ways in which, within specific privileging arenas, in Shepard's case the ale-house and in Hitchcock's the relationship between beggars, servants and masters, male friendship could take unusual and potentially subversive forms. Shephard comments that ‘It is likely that the alehouse offered opportunities for bodily intimacy that were unacceptable in other contexts, not only between men and women but also between men themselves’ (p. 125). For Hitchcock what is important in the relationships that existed between men from very different classes is the extent to which they embodied specific images and assumptions about masculinity.

The collection contains a number of other interesting chapters. Valerie Traud's work presents an overview of Alan Bray's career while Klaus Oschema's chapter, ‘Sacred or profane? Reflections of love and friendship in the Middle Ages’, is impressive in its ambitious discussion of medieval love. In their chapters Jonathan Durrant and Naomi Tadmor discuss the ways in which religion impacted upon ideas of sociability and friendship in the early modern period, while Adam Sutcliffe's chapter takes the volume into the Enlightenment with its discussion of Spinoza and his friends. Laura Gowing's chapter, ‘The politics of women's friendship in early modern England’, discusses in detail the pressures and problems that surrounded female friendship in this period.

Love, friendship and faith contains numerous interesting chapters; what it lacks is a real sense of coherence. This is a shame since individually these chapters deserve to be read.