This third volume in the Studies in Early Modern and Contemporary European History series is an intriguing collection of eleven essays that investigate the ideological foundations of the relationship between violence and Christianity during the Medieval and Early Modern periods. The scholars use varying categories of sources such as political and theological treatises, correspondence of missionaries, pamphlets, and visual arts in this endeavor. The editors also aim to include Japanese comparatives, which, according to them, lack “a similar interaction of religion and violence”; their analysis “will be a stimulus arousing the interest of European researchers.” (11)

In the introduction, Alfieri and Jinno provide a concise historiography of violence and religion in both the European and Japanese tradition. The first of the volume's three parts contains four essays concerning the theoretical foundations of divinely endorsed violence, ranging from a critical analysis of Exodus 15 to justifications for tyrannicide. In the second section, three essays explore how violence and religion are expressed in various areas of public discourse. Of particular note is Ishiguro's offering on the central role of religion in Machiavelli's political thought. The third section includes four essays devoted to violent practices (or non-practice) based upon religion from medieval Iberia to early modern Japan.

While this volume is full of engaging analysis, its diversity in themes, scopes, and settings belie the cohesiveness implied by its title. Similarly, the cross-epochal and global perspective is limited; most of the articles still relate to Europe and the Mediterranean between the 12th to 18th centuries. The comparatives to Japan emerge only briefly though claims such as Japan lacking “radical doctrines that tolerate violence as a means of achieving God's will” (8), an all too fleeting query concerning whether the concepts of tyranny or tyrannicide existed (63), and a curt reference to a poll showing the Japanese public valuing respect for religion over freedom of speech (123). All of these matters deserve further explanation or analysis.