EARLY MODERN 265

© 2008 The Author. Journal compilation © 2008 The Historical Association and Blackwell Publishing.

The Marketplace of Christianity.

By Robert B. Ekelund Jr., Robert F. Hébertand Robert D. Tollison.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. 2006.x + 355pp. £19.95.

This is an assertive effort by three economists to demonstrate the usefulnessof a micro-economic analysis as a means to understand the Reformation, thesuccesses and failures of the various groupings and institutions, as well asthe current shifts within Christianity. It opens with an attempt to persuade thereader of the thesis, starting with Adam Smith, touching Weber and more recentinterests. This is taken further with four case studies showing the theory inpractice setting the stage for the central chapters discussing the Reformation,the Counter-Reformation, and the establishment and ‘evolution’ of Protestantism,finishing off with a revision of Weber with the addition of a supply-side analysisand a final chapter predominantly on current struggles within AmericanChristianity. This analysis is troubled in two ways. The economic explanationoperates as a given; it ‘assumes that individuals choose particular forms in arational manner as a function of economic variables’ (p. 69), which leaves this assomething to be assumed rather than proved. At its worst, this imposes theauthors’ agenda on the contemporary mindset. The Council of Trent issueddecrees concerning reforms in doctrine and practices, ‘but we choose to concentrateon the practical reforms because this is what lay at the heart of the movement’(p. 140); it would be more accurate to say that this lies at the heart of theauthors’ interests. The imposition of a consumerist open market encouragesinstances that run counter to the statistical work to be explained away asanomalies rather than as indicators of problems in the model itself. Secondly,the familiarity with the period is predominantly through secondary literatureand frequently simply mistaken. Sixteenth-century Presbyterianism was structuredalong ‘lines that loosely conform to representative democracy’ (p. 169); Methodismwas one of the immediate results of the Elizabethan Settlement (and wasfounded by Wesley, formerly ‘a High Church Anglican prelate’ (p. 240)). Thisgoes beyond factual errors in that it reflects an economic analysis which seeks tounderstand religious change with no attention given to spirituality or the politicsof religion. The most persuasive section is on the pick-and-mix of Christianityin the United States; the overarching model fits because it is one generated fromwithin this system. It is not wrong or counter-productive for economists to offerinsights into early modern religious conflict; such insights simply need to bemore willing to make the effort to understand early modern culture than is thecase in this volume.

University of Edinburgh

TOM WEBSTER

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and Early Modern Print Culture.

By John N. King.

Cambridge University Press. 2006. xviii + 351pp. £60.00.John Foxe’s

Acts and Monuments

(or Book of Martyrs) is a book four timesas long as the Bible. Those who study it deserve a special kind of respect, especiallywhen – as in this engaging and illuminating monograph – they use familiaritywith the text to open up broader issues about the reading culture of earlymodern England. John King is principally interested in the

Book of Martyrs

asmaterial object, and in (employing Robert Darnton’s phrase) the ‘communicationscircuit’ that allowed it to become arguably, after the Bible, the most influential