This collection of essays celebrates the work of Carlos Eire, the celebrated Yale historian, whose books War against the idols (Cambridge 1986), From Madrid to purgatory (Cambridge 1995) and A very brief history of eternity (Princeton 2010) have helped to shape our understanding of early modern religion. A very useful introduction by the editors, students of Eire at Virginia and Yale, draws out three common themes which emerge out of these works. The first, ‘Exploring boundaries’, relates to Eire's interest in the boundaries between this world and the next, as well as the frontier between Protestants and Catholics, and is perhaps too loose to function as a distinct theme. More meaningful are the other two themes distilled by the editors, ‘Living one's faith’ and ‘The physicality of spirituality’. The first of these points to the important moral repercussions of theological belief on the lives of early modern Christians; the second, related theme points to the importance of physical objects and physical suffering to (especially Catholic) spirituality. The essays by Eire's colleagues and students are organised according to these themes.

Alison Weber begins the ‘Exploring boundaries’ section with a study of Spanish iconophilia. She contrasts this enthusiasm for miracle-working images with the careful distinctions made by the Council of Trent. According to Weber, for Trent and the Erasmian Juan de Avila images were only iconic signs (a signifier), whereas for a later generation they were indexical signs (a signifier in which a trace of and link to the signified remained). The distinction between the two, as Weber admits, can be ambiguous, and not all her examples are as clear-cut as they might appear. Emily Michelson's chapter explores two sermons of the Italian preacher Francesco Visdomini which marked from a distance the ascent of Mary Tudor to the English throne (and England's reconciliation with Catholicism) and her death. The tone of the two sermons was (unsurprisingly) markedly different: the former was a ‘universal moral example’ and a clear sign of divine favour, the latter low-key and uncertain about divine intent. (One wonders what Visdomini would have made of Reginald Pole's death on the same day as Mary's.) Erik Midelfort's illuminating chapter explores attempts by eighteenth-century English divines to make sense of the Gadarene demoniac in the New Testament. Midelfort shows that new ways of reading this episode (by then inconvenient) allowed exegetes to re-interpret the demonic possession in terms of natural illness, an alternative to adopting Cartesian or Spinozan ideas. Lastly, David D'Andrea studies a seventeenth-century history of Marian miracles by the Venetian cleric Giovanni Astolfi. D'Andrea shows how Astolfi used miracles to confirm Catholic doctrine and concludes that ‘the early modern Catholic remained awash in wonder.’

In the second section, ‘Living one's faith’, Darren Provost explores Erasmus’ understanding of ‘spiritual warfare’ as a struggle to transform oneself into the image of God. Provost's contrast with devotion to the saints (which Erasmus disparaged) could have been fleshed out further; imitatio Christi (1 Corinthians xi.1) was also a cornerstone of the cult of the saints. Jodi Bilinkoff's study of the missionary aspirations of Teresa of Avila, which were frustrated by her gender, provides a wonderful introduction to the saint's life and a counterpart to Eire's study of her death. Mary Noll Venables takes us to Lutheran Germany, where the educational reformer Sigismund Evenius interpreted the sack of Magdeburg by Catholic forces as a sign of God's anger. Noll Venables interprets the event's rather predictable impact on Evenius’ writings (which evince a new emphasis on catechism and instilling piety) within a longer-term trend towards Lutheran Pietism. Ping-Yuan Wang's chapter studies the death notices of nuns of the Brussels Visitandines. She is struck by their mundane nature; for many of the nuns religious life had not been their first choice. Her suggestion that the Visitandines were an order for those endowed with less religious zeal is credible but gives perhaps too little recognition to attempts by these nuns to find God in the ordinary.

William Christian, Jr, starts the final section, ‘The physicality of spirituality’, with an illuminating comparison between the intercession of earthly and saintly patrons. When the town of Almonacid de Zorita offered thanks for its delivery from earthly lordship it was at times (tellingly) unclear whether the señor thanked was God or Charles v. The comparison illustrates just how early modern Catholics understood heaven as a celestial court and helps to explain why towns assembled so many heavenly intercessors in this period. In his chapter Bruce Gordon introduces us to Heinrich Bullinger's Compendium of the Christian religion and its account of the hereafter. (Its inclusion in this section as opposed to the first is somewhat puzzling.) Martin Nesvig's chapter explores the use of peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus, by Spaniards in colonial Mexico. After a somewhat confusing introduction (where the person introduced turned out not to be the protagonist but only her alias), the chapter offers a very useful contribution to the ways in which indigenous practices and produce influenced the mentalities of Spanish settlers. Scott K. Taylor studies attitudes towards tobacco and its influence on the human body in a period when the idea of addiction was not yet understood. Taylor shows how the religious prism adopted has continued to influence our understanding of addiction; the road to recovery of an addict still begins with a confession. Special mention must be made of Ronald K. Rittgers's concluding chapter which explores how Carlos Eire's own Catholic faith has shaped his history writing. Eire's insight that beliefs should form the starting point for historical research not their end point to be explained away should remind many about the dangers of historians projecting their secular beliefs onto their subject matter.

To sum up, some contributions perhaps needed more air to ‘breathe’ and words to develop their argument further. However, when taken as a whole, the volume offers many stimulating new insights and is fitting testimony to one of the leading historians in the field. It should be of interest to any scholar interested in the history and historiography of early modern religion.