Freedom and Religion in the Nineteenth Century ed. by Richard Helmstadter (review)

716BOOK REVIEWS an emerging early modern Christian conscience is given its due and assessed accordingly. Students who remain indebted to the older series Histoire de l'Eglise (1934-1960), edited by A. Fliehe and V. Martin, will be drawn to this and other useful tomes in Histoire du Christianisme. Finally, it should be noted that the editors of Histoire du Christianisme evidently appreciate The Catholic Historical Review: of nearly thirty scholarly periodicals found in the Table des Abréviations, the CHR is the only American journal listed. David C. Miller Kansas City, Missouri Freedom and Religion in the Nineteenth Century. Edited by Richard Helmstadter. [The Making of Modern Freedom Series.] (Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1997. Pp. xiii, 446. $55.00.) This important volume, part of a series exploring the concept of freedom, is the result of a fall, 1995, conference of scholars at the Center for the History of Freedom at Washington University in St. Louis. The eleven articles contained in this book are "case studies" of religious liberty which challenge the "liberal narrative " by first identifying traditional interpretations and then showing how to reread the historical record. The lengthy introduction rehashes the "master narrative ofreligious liberty" and then summarizes each of the articles in the book. The broad and ambitious title indicates the wide-ranging content of the articles , the majority of which deal with Europe (particularly England and France but also Germany). Other articles explore religious liberty in the early United States, in Chile, and in British Protestant missionary activities in India and Africa. Another article dispels the Enlightenment notion that science necessarily supports religious liberty. While most articles focus on Christianity, one article addresses European Judaism, and another includes a discussion of Islam in French Algeria. The articles vary in length from twenty-two pages to forty-seven pages, and one "case study" (France) is divided into two parts for a total of sixtynine pages. All presuppose some historical knowledge and all are well written. Because the broad range of topics raises interesting points of comparison and contrast, a concluding chapter in which the authors might have commented on and dialogued with each others' materials and conclusions would have been a valuable addition. Several significant themes emerge in this volume: the transition in the nineteenth century from corporate liberty to individualistic liberty and the distinction between the two,the ambiguity and complexity of the concept of religious liberty, the role of religion in "cultural and ethnic identity," and the growth and the development of religious pluralism. Further, the authors look not so much at the church-state dimension as at the social, cultural context—including the BOOK REVIEWS717 struggle for religious liberty within church structures. While acknowledging in the introduction the importance of the question of gender (meaning women) in the history of religious liberty, the absence of an in-depth analysis ofthis phenomenon is a regrettable lacuna—though several articles at least treat the issue briefly. Though there is no bibliography, there are fifty-two pages of notes, many of which refer to primary sources. This book is of value to historians of religion and of the nineteenth century and will be useful in graduate seminars. It offers plenty of food for thought and ably demonstrates avenues for further research. Under one cover, it explores the concept of religious liberty in several countries (e.g., England, France, Germany , Chile, United States) and suggests possibilities for comparative historical analysis. It is a model of scholarly collaboration and of how one concept can be examined in various contexts and circumstances. M. Patricia Dougherty, O.P. Dominican College ofSan Rafael Varieties of Ultramontanism. Edited byJeffrey vonArx, SJ. (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University ofAmerica Press. 1998. Pp. viii, 152. $34.95 clothbound ; $1995 paperback.) Ultramontanism is among those big categories that are at once unavoidable and hazy. Its emphasis on the authority of the papacy and the Roman Curia in the government of the universal Church is obvious. Beyond that, ultramontanism is perhaps more often used as a shibboleth, whether of acclaim or of reproof , than as a tool of historical analysis. As Jeffrey von Arx, SJ., reasonably observes in introducing the essays he has collected in Varieties of...