Religion Around Shakespeare

“Peter Iver Kaufman examines in impressive detail the religious soil in which Shakespeare's plays flourish. By offering an expert survey of an immensely complex terrain, this book will serve those who want to scrutinize the religious discourses embedded in the plays. This book is significant, then, for Shakespearean scholars, for scholars of early modern English non-Shakespearean drama, and for historians of the English Reformation. Its originality derives from the author's command of his special subject: no other historian of religion has examined early modern English religion with as scrupulous and searching an eye to its potential Shakespearean connections. The value of the book lies in its extended examination of the religious pastures seemingly outside the plays' boundaries and into which the plays occasionally wander. It's difficult to think of any recent book to which Kaufman's can be accurately or extensively compared, an originality that will be its chief source of value for literary scholars. They will deeply profit from what this distinguished historian of religion has provided.” —Richard Mallette, Lake Forest College