Piotr Wilczek's text provides a brief but stimulating introduction to the history of the Polish Reformations. This lean collection of previously published essays is an efficient response to the challenge of illuminating the nuances of Polish religious history for readers misguided by outdated, biased, or West-centric narratives. It contains a useful beginner's bibliography of both long-tenured and more recent authors, publications, and research projects for Poland and Europe.

Professor Wilczek emphasizes the need to illustrate the “rich and colorful tapestry” (13) of early modern Polish religious history, independent of restrictive social, political, and cultural contexts and certain predominant narratives that for decades have limited its historical analysis. He begins by presenting past attempts to situate religious change in Poland within broader geographic, chronological, and thematic trends. He then briefly outlines the swell of Polish Calvinism—the most commonly treated aspect of the Polish Reformations. His largest section is a thorough description of Antitrinitarianism despite his stated concern with the prominence typically given to that movement. It delivers, however, a fascinating and necessary explication of an underappreciated and complex dimension of the European Reformations. Finally, Wilczek contrasts the works and legacies of some of Poland's most significant Reformation writers.

This collection does brush over some major aspects of the Polish Reformations. Issues such as Lutheran Reforms, Catholic and Counter-Reforms, the role of the church in state administration, and the diversity of the kingdom are treated lightly. Nevertheless, Wilczek's text advocates and supplies a vital and underrecognized perspective on the Polish Reformations.