This book, assembling the papers from a conference in Leuven in 2002, offers numerous acute and well-researched insights into the history of Christianity in continental Western Europe in the second half of the twentieth century. Highlights include a characteristically lucid and wide-ranging initial survey chapter from Hugh Mcleod, contributions by Karel Dobbelaer, Jaak Billiet and Bart Cambré analysing the Belgian case in a wider comparative European framework and exploring the relationship between church commitment and attitudes to immigrants, Lilian Voyé's discussion of syncretism in contemporary Europe and significant analysis by a number of the authors of the implications of Vatican II. There is also useful material on Christian social thought, on women's religious leadership, and on ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue. The volume, however, does not offer a systematic or comprehensive treatment of the theme suggested by the title: only limited attention is given to the Protestant Churches and the research it makes available is centred primarily on the Low Countries and on the central institutions of the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, if these papers are judged by what they do offer rather than by what they do not, they offer important insights into a field ripe for further research, to some extent supporting a conventional narrative of secularisation, but also suggesting intriguing cross-currents and complexities in recent European religious history.