Protestant Faith Research Articles

Revolution as Reformation: Protestant Faith in the Age of Revolutions, 1688–1832. Edited by Peter C. Messer and William Harrison Taylor. Religion and American Culture. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2021. viii + 294 pp. $59.95 hardcover.

Revolution as Reformation: Protestant Faith in the Age of Revolutions, 1688–1832. Edited by Peter C. Messer and William Harrison Taylor. Religion and American Culture. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2021. viii + 294 pp. $59.95 hardcover. - Volume 90 Issue 3

Environmental protection as a global bioethical principle: Protestant faith tradition in conversation with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

The Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR) is an important, modern human rights instrument regulating global bioethical challenges. The Protestant faith tradition was excluded from any discourse regarding the UDBHR; consequently, the universality and credibility, especially in Protestant circles, have been questioned. For the Protestant faith tradition, the voice of the Bible is decisive. An ethical foundation for article 17 of the UDBHR (enviromental protection and health) is, therefore, important, as it can contribute to the internalisation of the principle. In the analysis of article 17, it has been shown that the international community is convinced that an irrefutable relationship exists between nature and the health of the human interconnectedness. A damaged creation harms the health of the human and, therefore, the protection of nature is an indisputable obligation. From a Protestant ethical perspective, this global principle could be associated with or founded on the themes of creation, sin, covenant, Christology and eschatology. Grounded in this preliminary evaluation, article 17 can be supported by the global Protestant community. A few facts from South Africa indicate the necessity of promoting the global bioethical principle in this country.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This study is an interdisciplinary analysis in the sense that it focuses on Theology and Human Rights Law within the context of Global Bioethics. It challenges the view that the Protestant perspective can be excluded in the discourse regarding the relation between environment and human health (article 17 of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO] Bioethics Declaration).

Shifting Religious Influences on Attitudes Towards Same‐Sex Behavior and Civil Liberties: A Multilevel Across‐Time Analysis

AbstractAmericans' acceptance of same‐sex sexual relations and their willingness to restrict the civil liberties of sexual minorities vary substantially across both time and place even as overall trends have been towards more liberalizing stances. Yet few quantitative studies have explored both the individual and contextual religious factors shaping Americans' views and none have applied such an analysis to examining attitudes over time. Using hierarchical ordered logistic modeling and time‐year interactions with 1973–2016 General Social Survey data, we examine whether the religious characteristics of residents and the contexts in which they reside moderated Americans' liberalizing attitudes over time. We find that more religiously engaged people, those who belonged to evangelical and Black protestant faiths, as well as those living in areas with higher overall levels of religious attendance changed their moral perspective about same‐sex relations at a lesser rate over time. However, we do not find similar moderating influences of religious factors for explaining Americans' willingness to restrict the civil liberties of individuals identifying as homosexual. We frame these findings relative to the morality and equality discourses permeating the culture and the concerted efforts of the Christian Right to influence public opinion and policy since the 1970s.

Capitalism as religion: From Max Weber to Giorgio Agamben through Walter Benjamin

The article, based on the work “Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism” explores the concept of «capitalism» by Max Weber, as well as a critique of capitalism itself based on the texts of Walter Benjamin and Giorgio Agamben. All three authors have different views on the nature of capitalism. If Weber is positive about capitalism, Benjamin and Weber see it as a danger. Weber approaches the issue from the point of view of Protestant practice, Benjamin and Agamben see capitalism as a parasite that uses Christian theology for its own useful purposes. Weber writes about the “spirit” of capitalism, Benjamin and Agamben write about capitalism as a form of religion. Weber wrote that «unbridled lust» is by no means identical with capitalism, much less its «spirit». Weber characterizes capitalism through such virtues as honesty, punctuality, diligence, moderation. Benjamin suggested that «Christianity during the Reformation did not contribute to the advent of capitalism, but was transformed into capitalism». He writes that capitalism is perhaps the most extreme of all religious cults, because it is based on a purely psychological connection to the object being fetishized. This cult, devoid of ideology or theology, exists solely through the continuous performance of its rituals — the purchase of goods and their consumption. Agamben asks very important question: “if capitalism is a religion, how do we interpret it in terms of faith? What does capitalism believe in?” He writes that capitalism is a religion based on faith. Capitalism is not simply the secularization of the Protestant faith. Agamben writes that capitalism is a religion where faith and credit replace God. Ever since money became a pure form of trust, capitalism has become a religion in which money is the God.

Protecting the Health of Future Generations as a Global Bioethical Principle: A Broad Protestant Perspective.

In the development of the Universal Declarations of Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR) of UNESCO, the Protestant tradition did not participate in the conversation. This treatise is a humble contribution. The global community is convinced that the present generation can have a positive and negative impact on future generations. Article 16 of the UDBHR expresses serious concern about the negative impact of technology in the context of the human, animal and plant genome in particular, as well as the environment in general. The Protestant concept of the covenant provides a solid theological grounding for article 16 of the UDBHR. In light of this reasoning, article 16 of the UDBHR, which has the purpose of promoting the health of future generations, can fully be defended by Protestant ethics and included in the prophetic message of the Protestant faith tradition.

Text, Performance, and the Production of Religious Knowledge: The Protestant Passion Play and the Catholic Saint Play

The article examines two specific types of theatre plays of the German-speaking theatre history of the Late Medieval and Early Modern period: The Passion Play and the Saint Play. In general, German-speaking theatre of the 16th and 17th century was characterized by the Reformation and Counter Reformation movements, and performances of theatre plays were, amongst other things, meant to spread religious beliefs and to show the citizens the 'right' way to believe and to behave. Also, performance practices as such were influenced by these movements: on the one hand, Reformation theatre rolled back the aspect of seeing, thus spectacle; on the other, the Counter Reformation tried to uphold the traditions of the 'old' faith – an effort which is seen in the staging of Saint Plays, rejecting by their very nature the solus Christus dictum of the Protestant faith but also upholding pre-reformatory performance practices. The drama texts analysed in the article show the reaction of theatre to socioreligious developments by enacting specific content and performative features and hereby shaping the history of Christendom as well as theatre history.

"For the Good of Their Souls": Performing Christianity in Eighteenth-Century Mohawk Country by William B. Hart

Reviewed by: "For the Good of Their Souls": Performing Christianity in Eighteenth-Century Mohawk Country by William B. Hart Darren Bonaparte (bio) "For the Good of Their Souls": Performing Christianity in Eighteenth-Century Mohawk Country By William B. Hart. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2020. Native Americans in the Northeast. 288 pages, 6 halftones, 6" x 9". $90.00 cloth, $26.95 paper, $26.95 ebook. I grew up in Akwesasne, one of the three Mohawk communities in the valley of the St. Lawrence River. My ancestors left the old homeland in the seventeenth century to be a part of the mission villages of New France. They forged a new alliance with the Natives already there, placing themselves at the head of it. It is said that two out of three Mohawks were in Canada by the end of the century, but those who remained in our homeland did not dwindle away and disappear. The fire of the Mohawk Nation continued to burn just as brightly back in the old Mohawk Valley. The Mohawk Valley Mohawks, as I tend to call them, loom large in the history of the century that followed. They were a vital factor in how events unfolded in the colony of New York, first with the military conflicts with the French and then in the American Revolution. The people of these relatively small villages played such a critical role in the Revolutionary War that they had to stop living in them. Their descendants are now in Canada at the Six Nations Reserve on the Grand River and the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory at the Bay of Quinte. [End Page 420] When they still lived along the Mohawk River, the Mohawks of the homeland continued to participate in confederacy affairs uninterrupted and undeterred by the absence of their wayward northern kin. They were still considered the "keepers of the eastern door" of the "extended lodge" that symbolized the League of the Iroquois. They would attend grand councils at Onondaga and join the rest of the confederacy in diplomatic or military endeavors. One might assume that because of that relationship, they maintained all of their traditional beliefs and eschewed Christianity, but that did not happen. Their close proximity to European colonists of New York brought the Protestant faith to their doorstep, which they found expedient to entertain. Much like the French and their Jesuits in Canada, the English and their ministers made for a similar chess game back in the homeland. This aspect of Mohawk history has been largely overlooked by historians, who typically gravitate to the soap opera romance of Sir William Johnson and his Mohawk wife, Molly Brant, or the warrior exploits of her hot-head younger brother, Joseph. John Wolfe Lydekker's The Faithful Mohawks, published in 1938, was the first book-length study of the subject, but it was not exactly something you'd take to the beach. William B. Hart brings a fresh, new focus to the subject of Christianity in the old Mohawk Valley in "For the Good of Their Souls": Performing Christianity in Eighteenth-Century Mohawk Country. Since there is a whole century (and a fair bit of the previous one) to cover in 288 pages, Hart goes about the work methodically, stepping back from the subject a bit to put it all in its proper perspective, then focusing in on a few key moments that illustrate his points as he crafts his narrative. The seasoned researcher might find some of the stops along the way to be repetitive of other scholarship, such as his take on the journey of the "Four Kings" to England in 1710, who were not really the big chiefs they were made out to be. But for those who might be new to the subject, he has written a great introduction to a complex topic. The author handles his sources very well for the most part, but I did notice one error that jumped out at me. He confuses two notable Mohawk leaders from the seventeenth century, the "Great Mohawk," Kryn, also known as Joseph Togouiroui, with Canaqueese, also known as Smiths John and the "Flemish Bastard," describing them as the same person. In his source citation...

Text, Performance, and the Production of Religious Knowledge: The Protestant Passion Play and the Catholic Saint Play

The article examines two specific types of theatre plays of the German-speaking theatre history of the Late Medieval and Early Modern period: The Passion Play and the Saint Play. In general, German-speaking theatre of the 16th and 17th century was characterized by the Reformation and Counter Reformation movements, and performances of theatre plays were, amongst other things, meant to spread religious beliefs and to show the citizens the ‘right’ way to believe and to behave. Also, performance practices as such were influenced by these movements: on the one hand, Reformation theatre rolled back the aspect of seeing, thus spectacle; on the other, the Counter Reformation tried to uphold the traditions of the ‘old’ faith – an effort which is seen in the staging of Saint Plays, rejecting by their very nature the solus Christus dictum of the Protestant faith but also upholding pre-reformatory performance practices. The drama texts analysed in the article show the reaction of theatre to socio-religious developments by enacting specific content and performative features and hereby shaping the history of Christendom as well as theatre history.

Another Royal Encounter for the Woman of Endor: 1 Samuel 28 as a Proof Text in King James vi's Daemonologie

One of the loci classici for the Renaissance witchcraft debate is 1 Samuel 28, the story about King Saul's desperate consultation of a female necromancer in Endor at the eve of his battle against the Philistines. The demonization of the woman of Endor reached its climax in the learned concept of witchcraft as it circulated throughout Europe and on the British Isles in the late medieval and early modern period. The much-maligned necromancer also featured prominently in the only witchcraft treatise ever written by a monarch, namely Daemonologie (1597) by King James VI of Scotland. James wrote this tract in the aftermath of the North Berwick trials (1590–1591), in which he had interrogated some of the suspected witches who had been accused of treason by sorcery. The king's personal involvement in these trials convinced him of the immediate danger that witchcraft posed to his reign as well as to the Protestant faith. Fulfilling his God-given duty, James zealously sought to eradicate the "slaves of the devil" from his country and educate his subjects in the reality of witches and witchcraft, both past and present, including the "Witch of Endor" and her dark craft. Daemonologie is considered a largely derivative work, interspersed with proof texts, and this article discusses in detail how reliant James's exposition of 1 Samuel 28 was on antecedent traditions in Renaissance art and literature.

R.W. Emerson's Views on the Nature of Historical Knowledge

In his moral philosophy of transcendentalism the American essayist, lecturer and poet R.W. Emerson (1803–1882) reflected the quest of a whole generation of American intellectuals for a new spirituality in the first half of the 19th century. Rooted in the heritage of Protestant faith and culture, like many of his ancestors for two centuries, Emerson received spiritual training and education and began his ministry as a pastor of one of the oldest parishes in Boston. However, later, in the course of spiritual and philosophical inquiries, he changed both his worldview and the nature of his creative activity. Emerson evolved from being a pastor for a local community to a popular lecturer to mass audiences across America's cities and states. Considering this change, the paper traces the genesis of R.W. Emerson's historical epistemology as it developed from his early writings (sermons and notebooks, including correspondence) towards his lectures and essays. We start by discussing the interest of Nietzsche in historical ideas of Emerson, identify the points at which their concepts diverge in their attitude towards doctrines of Christianity. We immerse Emerson's perceptions of history in the context of covenant theology, the meaning of Lord's Supper and the nature of Christ as expressed in the opinions of the ministers of Congregational and Unitarian Churches in Massachusetts. Special attention is paid to Emerson's concept of history denying Gospel events as the centre of the world's history and implying a possibility for an authentic and credible reenactment of historical events within the subjective experience of an individual. The analysis involves the essay History, Sermons No.5 and No.162, the Lectures on the Gospels and on the Philosophy of History.

Negotiating Religion

This article analyses the production of gendered subjectivities in contemporary cultural representations of women and girls belonging to conservative protestant communities in Northern and Western Europe. We take the recent work of the Finnish and Dutch female novelists Pauliina Rauhala and Franca Treur as our case study. We explore how their novels represent the negotiations of women and girls from conservative protestant faiths and traditions. Approaching the novels as narratives of sense-making, we focus on notions of creativity and imagination, and gendered embodied experiences. Our analysis thus sheds light on contemporary understandings of women in conservative religions in contemporary Northern and Western Europe.

Learning in encounter and spiritual development in stressful times: a reflection from the perspective of protestant evangelical youth ministry practices in Flanders

ABSTRACT This article explains why learning in encounter is a promising approach for current youth ministry practices. In particular, learning in encounter in relationship to spiritual development in the practices of youth ministry in Protestant evangelical faith communities in Flanders (Belgium) is explored focusing on two layers of normativity: (1) the layer of discourses in these practices and (2) the layer of professional theories in these practices. The author argues for the consequences that this exploration offers for the further direction of empirical research on learning in encounter for the spiritual development of children and youth in Protestant evangelical communities in Flanders.

한국개신교는 진정 극우적인가?: “2019년 사회 현안에 대한 개신교인 인식조사”에 대한 기독교 윤리적 비평과 성찰

In 2019, Korean society experienced extreme divisions between left and right, and unfortunately Korean Protestantism was the centerpiece of the division. In this situation, there was concern for the wellbeing of Protestantism and a study of Protestantism began. Thus, “the Protestant Perception Survey on Social Issues 2019” was conducted.BR This paper aims to provide Christian ethical diagnosis and alternative suggestions for the results of the Protestant Recognition Survey conducted in 2019.BR Despite the shift in the Protestant faith pattern in Korea from exclusivism to inclusiveness, the recent survey revealed that Korea still has an exclusivity tendency in terms of consideration and hospitality for the Other.BR I will analyze the cause of it based on the results of a religious, social and political awareness survey, and present it as the ethics of response, responsibility ethics and hospitality as Christian ethical alternatives.

Social responsibility for health as a global bioethical principle

The fact that the Protestant faith tradition was not involved in the discourse during the development of the Universal Declaration of Bioethics of Human Rights (UDBHR) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has made the universality of the declaration and specific article 14 (social responsibility in health) a point of contention and hampered full support of the document by the Protestant faith tradition. This study has shown, however, that the broad Protestant faith tradition may support the UDBHR and specific article 14 in its call to social responsibility to health because this global appeal can be grounded on the Bible. This discussion also gives a preliminary ethical perspective on the Life Esidimeni tragedy.

Protestants, Gender, and the Arab Renaissance in Late Ottoman Syria, by Deanna Ferree Womack

<i>Protestants, Gender, and the Arab Renaissance in Late Ottoman Syria</i>, by Deanna Ferree Womack

NON-DISCRIMINATION AND NON-STIGMATISATION AS GLOBAL BIOETHICAL PRINCIPLES: INTRODUCING AN OVERDUE PROTESTANT DISCUSSION WITH UNESCO

Until now there has been no official dialogue between UNESCO and the Protestant faith tradition regarding article 11 of the UDBHR; therefore, this article forms a first and preliminary introduction to the discussion. The purpose of this discussion is to formulate a theological ethical foundation for article 11 of the UDBHR. It is important from Protestant and UNESCO perspectives to formulate an ethical foundation. On the one hand, this conversation contributes to strengthening the credibility of the declaration, while on the other hand, it offers this instrument a necessary religious status. It is clear that article 11 of the UDBHR states that non-discrimination and non-stigmatisation are two principles that have been accepted by the world community and should to be promoted in the context of health. These two global bioethical principles are recognised and accepted by Protestant social ethics in the faith framework of the covenant and can, therefore, be promoted by the Protestant community in the context of health in South Africa and the world.

Connected Struggles: Catholics, Nationalists, and Transnational Relations between Mexico and Quebec, 1917–1945 by Maurice Demers

Reviewed by: Connected Struggles: Catholics, Nationalists, and Transnational Relations between Mexico and Quebec, 1917–1945 by Maurice Demers Robert Curley Connected Struggles: Catholics, Nationalists, and Transnational Relations between Mexico and Quebec, 1917–1945. By Maurice Demers. (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press. 2014. Pp. xii, 290. $100.00. ISBN 978-0-773-543560.) Connected Struggles is about Québécois nationalists and their relations with Mexican Catholics during the decade of the 1940s. From the outset, Demers plays with the unlikely pairing these two groups might seem to make. They found themselves at opposite ends of a North American cultural and geographical expanse, but found affinity and forged friendship against the backdrop of the fall of France to Nazi Germany and the "neo-colonial" powerhouses of Great Britain and the United States of America. The author sets out a historical context that ranges broadly, signaling out the importance of social revolution and religious rebellion in Mexico during the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the often tense and uncomfortable relationship between Anglophone Canada and its Francophone minority. This makes for a challenging and complex argument that spends equal time examining the internal politics of two sovereign nations and international relations as imagined, constructed, and played out between subaltern groups within each country. These histories are connected on several levels. First of all, as a study of international relations it consciously shifts the focus from government to organized groups in civil society that crafted policies at the margins of the state with an eye toward the advancement of their own political interests. Demers characterizes French Canadians as Catholics in a nation where Protestant faith and English language were hegemonic in state and society. Similarly, Mexican Catholics were subject [End Page 134] to, or subjects of, a post-revolutionary state that was actively, at times radically, anticlerical in its politics. These two groups built an unlikely friendship and alliance in the 1940s with the dual objective of achieving greater influence at home and channels of cultural diplomacy that might strengthen each one. Chapters 1 and 2 cover the general history of each country during the generation leading up to World War II. This background is crucial because most readers will be familiar with only one national history. The two chapters do a good job of laying out the key moments and figures, as well as a basic historiography for each side. The following three chapters tell separate but intertwined stories about how the two groups forged international bonds of friendship and political alliance with the goal of strengthening their lot domestically. Chapter 3 covers the Union des Latins d'Amérique as it developed a Pan-American Hispanism that relied on Roman Catholic identity and the general idea of a Latin tradition. Latinité might appeal to Quebec and Mexico as a shared "civilization" distinct from and opposite to Anglo-Saxon culture. Chapter 4 tells the story of student exchanges that brought Canadians, particularly young women, to visit Mexico City and its national university, as well as some Mexicans to visit Montreal between 1943 and 1945. Chapter 5 is about the 1945 crowning of Mexico's Virgin of Guadalupe as patron saint of the Americas. Canadian Catholics sent a large diplomatic delegation to the jubilee, and the week-long event played out as a test of the relations of good faith between the Catholic Church and Mexico's post-revolutionary state. All these events are meant to tell a more general story about the construction of the modern public sphere in secular society. They show political minorities in both nations as they attempt to practice citizenship in an expanding public sphere. Demers sees them as "stakeholders" who actively play diverse roles in civil society through the lens of identity politics, be it Canadian Franco-Nationalism or Mexican Catholicism. The concept of stakeholder is insufficiently parsed and problemetized. However, it serves Demers as a primary organizing concept to explain the faces of modern citizenship across two nations, languages, and cultures. It also pro-vides a way of explaining the affinities between these groups as they built bridges of friendship and informal channels of diplomacy across the continent during the Second World War...

Benefit-sharing as a global bioethical principle: A participating dialogue grounded on a Protestant perspective on fellowship

It has become evident from a practical, legal and theological perspectives that there are strong reasons that the principles underlying article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR) have to be grounded in the Bible. It is clear that the UDBHR states benefit-sharing in article 15 as a global obligation. A narrower understanding of obligation means that people participating in research has the right to share in the benefits. A broader understanding of article 15 states that it is also an obligation to share abundance in the health environment with the needy outside the context of direct research. It can be said that article 15 is based on the universal principles of equality, justice, solidarity and social responsibility. The theological argumentation indicated that it is acceptable to ground both the narrower and the broader interpretation of article 15 in the biblical concept of koinōnia [fellowship]. Koinōnia can be connected with trade justice or justice-in-exchange and research, as well as the duty to share the existing abundance in the health environment with the needy. Koinōnia , as an appeal to share, gives expression to equality, righteousness, solidarity and social responsibility. Article 15 of the UDBHR can be wholeheartedly supported and promoted by the Protestant faith community.

A Perception of Cultural Dialogue Between the Missionary Enterprise of a Protestant Faith and Benin Indigenous People of Nigeria

The seeming issue of syncretism between Christianity and African traditions had rarely been viewed from an historical research methodology especially between the Benin people of Nigeria and their declaration for Christianity which needs urgent attention. Hence, this study explores the subject matter through cultural interactions between the contemporary travail of the Seventh-day Adventist missionaries’ enterprise and Benin indigenous People. This study employs historical research methods of data collection and collation. Findings reveal that Benin culture impedes the faith of the indigenous people on wholesome biblical faith. This study suggests that it is imperative, among others, for every Christian faith to develop a set of biblical lessons on Bible and traditions as a prerequisite for contemporary Missiological approach and to be studied in various denominations within their host communities to avert the influence of the indigenous traditions over biblical injunctions. Keywords: Culture, Missions, Protestant Faith, Nigeria DOI : 10.7176/JAAS/57-05 Publication date : August 31 st 2019

The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy by Abigail Brundin, Deborah Howard, and Mary Laven

Reviewed by: The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy by Abigail Brundin, Deborah Howard, and Mary Laven Celeste McNamara The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy. By Abigail Brundin, Deborah Howard, and Mary Laven. (New York: Oxford University Press. 2018. Pp. xxxii, 366. $45.95. ISBN 978-0-19-881-655-3.) In The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy, Abigail Brundin, Deborah Howard, and Mary Laven, three eminent scholars of early modern Italy, argue convincingly for the vitality of a "Renaissance" religion that was centered in the domestic sphere. This is an impressive book, the product of a substantial research project conducted by a team of scholars, and it demonstrates the value of collaborative work in fields that do not often undertake it. By combining their [End Page 714] and their postdoctoral fellows' research expertise in Italian literature, art history, and history, and linguistic skills in several Italian dialects, they have created a wide-ranging study of domestic devotion in the Venetian terrafirma, the Marche, and Naples. The authors set out to make several key interventions, in many cases breaking out of tired trends in the scholarship. Rather than focus on the major urban areas that have long been the area of focus for Italianists, they join a growing group of scholars looking to the more ignored "peripheral" territories (Naples, while an incredibly vibrant and populated place, has nonetheless been understudied and thus still qualifies as peripheral in anglophone scholarship). Rather than seeing the religious history of sixteenth-century Italy as a "failed Reformation," they argue for the renewal of spirituality across a broader period, covering 1450-1600. It is for this reason that they consciously use the term "Renaissance" rather than the blander but less contentious "early modern." Not only do they reject the Reformation as a key breaking point, but they wish to demonstrate that even quotidian devotion benefitted from the spirit of creativity that imbued the Italian Renaissance. Their focus on domestic devotions, and in particular on the material aspects of it, also allows them to make two other interventions. First, their wide range of sources (visual, material, textual, architectural, and archival) and their theoretically sophisticated method of analysis allows them to access the realms of devotion not only of the elites but also of fairly ordinary Italian citizens. We often get a glimpse into their religious lives only when they ran afoul of some authority, so the ability to better understand their devotional practices is invaluable. Second, the authors found such a wealth of material objects that they can expand upon arguments about the burgeoning consumer culture of Renaissance Italy. Although shopping and conspicuous consumption are often assumed to be primarily secular activities, this book clearly demonstrates that materialism spread to the realm of devotion, and that devotional items had complex meanings within the home. A religious image or statue, for example, could represent a real saintly presence who lived with the family, and the household's human residents might lavish it with physical and verbal affection. At the same time, rosaries, crosses, and other small devotional objects would be listed in household inventories along with other types of jewelry and could be pawned just as easily as secular objects when the owner was short on funds. This is a book that accomplishes a great deal in its roughly three hundred pages, but perhaps the most significant contribution is to argue against the idea that it is the Protestant faiths alone that provided early modern Christians with a more personal and individual path to spirituality. Protestants had the Bible, access to which was denied to most Catholics. But as Brundin, Howard, and Laven demonstrate, Catholics had devotional books and pamphlets, images, statues, inscriptions, music, beads and figurines, and even household altars, all of which could be used in ways that were both familiar and Church-approved and yet intensely personal and individualistic. [End Page 715] Celeste McNamara State University of New York, Cortland Copyright © 2018 The Catholic University of America Press