The English Bible in the Early Modern World. Robert Armstrong and Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin, eds. St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History. Leiden: Brill, 2018. x + 218 pp. €109.
language used by the Catholic and Protestant factions to vilify each other are innovative examinations of conceptual hierarchies relating New World populations to European colonizers and the gendering of heresy. The most interesting and original essays in the collection, however, are found in the third section, “L’au-delà des langues: Décloisonner le langage” (Beyond languages: Breaking down the barriers of language). Sadly, this is also the shortest of the three sections, containing only four essays. Nonetheless, the essays included here greatly expand the concept of language that has informed the collection to this point. The authors of these studies examine iconoclasm and the visual language of polemics, critiques of music as an impediment to the intelligibility of the liturgy, theatrical body language as a representation of the inner state of the soul, and the language of mysticism and prophecy. These broader perspectives on symbolizing and communication give a much fuller shape to our understanding of the time. If this collection leaves anything to be desired, it would be a greater focus on these less traditional aspects and concepts of language. Though at times straining to live up to the grand, European scale announced in the title, this is a generally strong collection of competent analyses and interesting perspectives on a topic that can sometimes feel overstudied—that is, the importance of language in the Reformation. By thinking beyond the traditional limits of linguistic study, the editors have made it a richer field of inquiry and, perhaps unconsciously, illustrated the truth of their starting premise: that any real change will require a renewal of language.