Preferably, the audience of a review is the same as that of the reviewed book. Otherwise, the reviewer is in danger of not doing justice to either his audience or the book. The audience of this Journal is, first of all, the academic community of church historians. The audience for this introduction to Theodore Beza is composed, first of all, of those with little or no formal theological background, and second, of those with some theological training (p. 2). In order to do justice to both the readers of this Journal, and to the authors of the book reviewed here, I will first make some general remarks; then I will evaluate the book according to academic standards, and finally to the standards of an introduction for a non-academic public.

The authors give a brief survey of Beza's life, then devote a chapter to several parts of his theology, i.e. God, Scripture, Christ, the Spirit, sin and salvation, Church, Word and sacraments, the state and the last things, and conclude with the abiding significance of Beza. They correctly note that, although Beza is a lesser known theologian than, for instance, Calvin, his significance for Reformed theology was substantial. They avoid making Beza ‘the theologian of predestination’, or describing him only or primarily as Calvin's successor, but instead describe him as a theologian in his own right, including the various aspects of his work, like text criticism, and, as a poet, the versifying of the Psalms to be sung in Reformed services.

The book depends heavily, almost completely, on publications in English, as if that is the only significant language in which relevant literature has been written. English is even dominant among the ‘primary’ sources, which means that the authors treat a translation as a primary source. But a book that pretends to be a gateway to Beza, at whatever level, should mention the original publications and relevant works in other languages as well.

When assessed as an academic publication, this books falls short and has little added value, which is significantly due to its dependence on English literature. The biographical sketch depends on Baird's 1970 biography of Beza, which they themselves call outdated. That important nineteenth-century biographies of Beza in German by Schlosser (1809), Baum (1843) and Heppe (1861) are not mentioned might be reasonable for this small introduction (although these authors might be better than Baird in some respects, for instance in judging him against the background of his own time). But that Dufour's 2009 French biography is not mentioned anywhere is incomprehensible and indefensible. The same holds for not even mentioning the valuable – for a work on Beza even indispensable – publication of his Correspondance; a great source for students of Beza. Even when the authors did not use it themselves, a book that pretends to be a gateway to Beza should at least mention this series.

The dependence on translations sometimes becomes bizarre, for instance in this sentence: ‘What he asserts in the Summary in 1566 he maintains in the mid 1570s and later’ (p. 39). References here are made to the date of publication of the translations, as if this was the year wherein Beza actually published the original editions of the works in question. In fact the original date of the publications was several years earlier in both cases.

The authors correctly treat Beza's doctrine of predestination as one of many doctrines and have avoided the pitfall of various earlier scholars who made this his central dogma. Nevertheless their treatment of this doctrine in Beza's theology shows two shortcomings. Recent relevant literature with new insights is missing. If I may be so immodest I would call my own study Predestination and preaching in Genevan theology from Calvin to Pictet (2017) relevant literature, as it includes a chapter on Beza. More regrettable is that Beza's very compactly written explanation of his predestination table has not been read carefully enough, or in fact has been read in a very free translation or rather paraphrase only. The authors seem to quote Beza in asserting that the first cause of the damnation of the reprobate is only God's just will in predestination (p. 110). But this is exactly what Beza avoided saying. In the very aphorism quoted (chapter ii, aphorism 5), he stated that predestination precedes all causes of damnation (‘illud mysterium … quod omnes damnationis illorum causas ordine antecedit’), which excludes predestination itself from being a cause of damnation. God's just will is the cause of this mystery of predestination, but predestination is not the cause of damnation. This erroneous interpretation depends on the use of an erroneous English translation of Beza's explanation of the table of predestination, which indeed has the sentence ‘this high secret, which by order is the first cause of their damnation’, but this is not a faithful rendering of either the original Latin words or the intention of Beza. Translations are useful, but scholars need to read works in their original language, or run the risk of misinterpretation.

Now most of these critical remarks have little relevance for an audience that is not academic-theological. For them, the book for the most part does what it should do: it gives a survey of Beza's life and a summary or introduction to his most important writings and ideas. It can serve as a gateway to Beza's theology and to publications on this Reformer, albeit that even then a gateway should also open a road to publications in other languages. Nevertheless, as a first introduction and gateway to Beza, it can raise interest in the man and his ideas, and in that way even indirectly serve the academic community of church historians by being the means by which new students become interested in Theodore Beza.

The Cascade Companions series aims to ‘combine academic rigor with broad appeal and readability’. This volume is not characterised by the first feature, but it is certainly a readable book and hopefully will have a broad appeal among non-academic readers and maybe even among beginning students of church history. As McKim and West themselves conclude in their acknowledgments (p. xi): ‘If Beza is a little better understood and a little more appreciated in the English speaking world, this little book will have served its purpose well.’