As a contribution to Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies, this collection attempts to fill a large hole in imperial historiography. As Hilary Carey observes in her introduction to the book, for many imperial historians religion remains a ‘minority concern’. For others, however, religion is at the centre of a controversial debate, to which, as Carey notes, there are four dimensions. The first of these is the relationship between missions and empire, a debate spearheaded by Andrew Porter who questions how far missionaries were the agents of imperialism. The second dimension considers the Linda Colley thesis, or the role of Protestantism in the formation of British national identity; the third is concerned with notions of empire as a cultural construction rather than as a political or economic system; while the fourth considers issues of gender, race and class. The object of this collection is to offer contributions to all of these aspects and to attempt to synthesise the debate over religion and imperialism in one volume. Ultimately the book represents an attempt to answer a specific question: was religion an essential or a useful tool for imperial expansion?

Drawn from a selection of conference papers, the volume is divided into three thematic sections. Part i, ‘Religious metropoles’, includes four essays on aspects of imperial and missionary discourse in the British Isles. Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin and John Wolffe's contributions highlight the extent to which Protestantism underpinned concepts of Britishness, not just in the British Isles but in the wider British world, by pointing to the peculiarity of Irish Catholicism in the early modern era (Ó hAnnracháin) and to the anti-Catholic basis of a unifying British imperial rhetoric (Wolffe). Both of these essays thus endorse but also qualify the work of Linda Colley. As Wolffe observes, anti-Catholicism could be divisive in a multi-denominational empire. Catherine Hall argues in chapter iii that religion, although central to the imperial vision of Zachary Macaulay in the late eighteenth century, was for his son Thomas Babington Macaulay in the mid-Victorian period, a peripheral concern when compared to secular ideas of nationhood and Englishness. In the Scottish context, however, as Esther Breitenbach maintains in chapter v, missionary discourse shaped attitudes to empire throughout the nineteenth century. Responding to the second and fourth dimensions of the religion and empire debate, Breitenbach claims that while Scottish missionaries may have challenged the political structure of the empire, they ultimately helped to sustain it by solidifying Scottish commitment to it.

Part ii of the book, ‘Colonies and mission fields’, is divided into two subsections. The first chapter, by John MacKenzie, complements that of Breitenbach, by underlining the existence of distinctive ethnicities within the empire, and by highlighting the contribution of Scots, including Scottish women, in the eastern Cape Colony where they particularly influenced education and land policy. In chapter vii Peter Cunich likewise emphasises cultural distinction within the empire, focusing on the influence of the English Catholic Benedictine tradition in the colony of New South Wales. This religious tradition presented a challenge to the Anglican vision of empire, and contributed to the creation of a national Australian Church.

The next five chapters in this section tackle the themes of gender, race and class. Shurlee Swain shows how missionary discourse shaped the rhetoric of the children's rescue movement, which depicted children from British cities as a racialised other, and which helped to propagate ideas of white superiority. Anne O'Brien considers the career of two missionaries in northern Australia; their qualified defence of aboriginal rights and ambivalent support for the imperial project. John McAleer focuses on Jamaica, particularly on the perceptions of Alison Blyth, the wife of a Scottish missionary involved in protest – again, restrained protest – against slavery. In chapter xi Peter Clayworth investigates the attempts of the Anglican missionary Richard Taylor, a proponent of monogenesis, to reconcile science and theology by representing all mankind as the descendants of Noah. Elizabeth E. Prevost highlights the extent to which the Mothers' Union became a global movement which united women throughout the empire in a spiritual bond.

Chapters xiii, xiv and xv fall under the heading of section three, ‘Post-colonial transformations’. Chapters xiv and xv address the missionary movements of, respectively, Ireland and Canada, looking at the ways in which these, arguably post-colonial, countries contributed to the creation of a spiritual empire (Fiona Bateman), or the globalisation of a Protestant community (Ruth Compton Brouwer). The last chapter of the volume, by John Stuart, examines the role of the London Missionary Society, politically allied with the rulers of the Ngwato kingdom, in colonial Botswana.

These essays offer much thought-provoking comment on the relationship between religion and empire, a long neglected subject. They do contribute to the four-pronged debate outlined in Carey's introduction, remarking on the political roles of missionaries; on the centrality of religion to the formation of a British identity and a British world; on the construction of spiritual empires; and on the issues of empire, gender, race and class. Particularly impressive is the book's attempt to consider the development of colonial Churches as well as mission outposts in non-settler colonies. The volume also manages successfully to knit together domestic and imperial narratives by examining the impact of empire in the British Isles and the nature of British imperialist discourse, as well as by charting the activities of missionaries abroad. Another impressive feature is the book's attempt to approach British imperial history from a four nations perspective. Besides accounts of Anglican missions, the book includes discussion of Scottish settlement abroad; of Scottish missionary discourse; and of an Irish spiritual empire. The collection is, moreover, sensitive to the multi-confessional aspect of British culture and thus encompasses discussion of various British denominations including Benedictine Anglicanism, Scottish dissenting and established Presbyterianism, and Irish Catholicism.

These essays are wide-ranging in terms of theme, geography and time span. The book covers a wide geographical area encompassing the Atlantic and the Pacific worlds and the northern and southern hemispheres, and its attempt to include discussion of the entire modern period from the mid-sixteenth century until the mid-twentieth century is commendable. However, while the nineteenth century is particularly well-served, there are no contributions which tackle religion and imperialism in the eighteenth century. Overall, however, this book is an extremely welcome addition to the growing literature on the British empire, or empires, and religion. It offers much comment that is new while contributing to established historiographical debates. It is to be hoped that this volume will generate further interest and debate on a significant and too-long neglected dimension to imperial history.