The substantial literary legacy of the Arian theologian Marcin Czechowic (1532–1613) provides the sources on which Magdalena Luszczynska has based her book. Czechowic is considered one of the masters of Polish prose, a leader of the Polish Brethren, and one of the most important figures of the Polish Reformation – comparable, for example, to Piotr of Goniądz. It is worth recalling that Czechowic was born and brought up a Catholic. During his studies in Leipzig he drew closer to Protestantism. He became first a Lutheran and then a Calvinist. His pamphlet Odpis Jakoba Żyda z Bełżyc na Dyalogi Marcina Czechowica, na który zaś odpowieda Jakobowi Żydowi tenże Marcin Czechowic [A response of Jacob the Jew of Bełżyce to Marcin Czechowic's Dialogues, to which said Marcin Czechowic replies], printed by Teofil Adamowic in Cracow in 1581, is one of the first and most important works in Polish containing a discussion on the Jewish religion. It is composed of two texts – the first is a supposed polemic of Jacob of Bełżyce with Czechowic's earlier writings, and the second is Czechowic's answers to Jacob's charges. Czechowic's first polemic, Gadki Żydowskie [Jewish chats] forms part of his opus magnum, Rozmowy christiańskie [Christian conversations], published in Cracow in 1575.

Luszczynska's book introduces Czechowic's views and information on his publications to the international scholarly community. She draws attention to their exceptional position on the map of early modern Europe. Contacts between Arians and Jews emerge from her pages, especially the interest taken by Czechowic, who seems to have based his orientation in Judaistic literature on second-hand accounts. These he employed avidly, but with varying felicity. He probably could not read Hebrew. Luszczynska has presented the Judaic texts which Czechowic knew best, probably thanks to ‘Talmudic digests’. He also made use of folk stories and ‘common knowledge’. It is striking that he rejected some works a priori, not because he disagreed with them, but because they did not fit his narrative. Did he use the Talmud in the original? Well, he did at least try to convince the reader of his better knowledge of the Talmud than the rabbi about whose learning he seems to joke – between the lines.

In early modern Europe, the multinational and multiconfessional Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, whose form of government was usually characterised as a monarchia mixta, offered unique conditions for the publication of polemical writings and the conduct of religious disputes. In the Commonwealth's religious kaleidoscope there was a place for Jews – whom Czechowic treated equally with adherents of other confessions. That said, Magdalena Luszczynska's critical approach both to Czechowic and his works – far from hagiography – deserves recognition. So does her command of the sources and literature.