Andrew Muirhead sets himself an ambitious task in his book Reformation, Dissent, and Diversity: The Story of Scotland's Churches, 1560–1960. The book is roughly divided into three sections in order to accomplish the work set forth in the title. The first section examines the history of the Scottish churches from 1560 until the Revolution of 1688 (the invasion of England by William of Orange); the second from the Revolution until the Disruption of 1843 (the break within the established Church of Scotland, which led to the creation of the Free Church of Scotland); and the third from the Disruption until 1960.

Muirhead's talents as a librarian shine through in this volume. He is master of the minutest details and able to follow the genetic trail of even the smallest church within the Scottish landscape. However, all this information can be overwhelming, and Muirhead lacks an overarching narrative that might draw all the specifics together into a single story. The first half of the book (1560 to the Disruption) particularly suffers from this problem. Muirhead's unwillingness to omit any detail of the period leaves little room for exploring why changes were happening in the churches of Scotland or what those changes might mean. His focus is almost exclusively on the facts and figures of various denominations as well as their splits, reunions, and fade-outs. The discussion revolves around church politics, organization, and geography, resulting in spare treatment of the intellectual issues driving the churches of Scotland.

Reformation, Dissent, and Diversity is at its best when Muirhead engages in an intimate portraiture of the age, chapters 5 and 9 in particular. Chapter 5 explores everything from marriage, divorce, and baptism to temperance, Sabbath observance, and discipline, with stories of individuals scattered throughout. Chapter 9 presents an interesting history of the minor non-Presbyterian churches in Scotland. Because these denominations are smaller and have fewer connections to the established Church of Scotland, Muirhead is able to give a more personal narrative of each one, usually through the story of the founder or primary leader.

The chief drawback of this book is the almost total lack of discussion regarding the role of theology in the formation and growth of churches in Scotland. Even the chapter entitled “Non-Trinitarian Churches” contains nary a word on the Trinity or the manner in which these churches rejected the doctrine. The few times Muirhead does venture into the theological realm, such as when he tries to explain why some Calvinist churches marginalized the doctrine of election, his statements are either reductive or obscure. In addition, while the book closes with a generous recommended reading list for each chapter, Muirhead uses no footnotes or endnotes to document his sources, making the book less helpful for research purposes than it might have been. Unfortunately, typos are also widespread throughout the volume, making its reading more arduous than it should be.

Reformation, Dissent, and Diversity functions more as a reference book than as a text to be read from cover to cover, either by the individual or by a class. Muirhead's attention to detail is fastidious throughout the volume, culminating in a series of maps and charts that give quick overviews of various denominations and their geographical spread throughout Scotland and trace the genetic flow of those churches. This book makes a useful resource for anyone interested in the ecclesiological history of Scotland as it pertains to organization, geography, and national politics.