This balanced and innovative collection explores the relationship of Shakespeare's plays to the changing face of early modern religion, considering the connections between Shakespeare's theatre and the religious past, the religious identities of the present and the deep cultural changes that would shape the future of religion in the modern world.

TOM BISHOP is Professor of English and Head of Department at the University of Auckland, New Zealand
MARY A. BLACKSTONE is Professor in the Department of Theatre and Director of the Centre for the Study of Script Development at the University of Regina, Canada
GLENN CLARK is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Manitoba, Canada
ANTHONY B. DAWSON is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, Canada
PHEBE JENSEN is Associate Professor of English at Utah State University, USA
ALEXANDRA F. JOHNSTON is Professor Emerita of English at the University of Toronto, Canada
JEFFREY KNAPP is Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, USA
KAREN SAWYER MARSALEK is Associate Professor of English at St Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, USA
DEBORA SHUGER is Professor of English at UCLA, USA
RICHARD STRIER is Frank L. Sulzberger Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of English and the College at the University of Chicago, USA
ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON teaches English literature at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, USA

Acknowledgments Note on Spelling Conventions Notes on Contributors Introduction: K.J.E.Graham PART I: SHAKESPEARE AND SOCIAL HISTORY: RELIGION AND THE SECULAR Sanctifying the Bourgeoisie: The Cultural Work of The Comedy of Errors; R.Strier 'In a Christian Climate': Religion and Honor in Richard II; D.Shuger PART II: DRAMATIC CONTINUITIES AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE William Cecil and the Drama of Persuasion; A.F.Johnston The Queen's Men and the Performance of Allegiance, Conformity, and Difference in Elizabethan Norwich; M.A.Blackstone Things Newly Performed: The Resurrection Tradition in Shakespeare's Plays; E.Williamson Staging Allegiance, Re-membering Trials: King Henry VIII and the Blackfriars Theater; K.Sawyer Marsalek PART III: RELIGIOUS IDENTITIES 'Mirth in Heaven': Religion and Festivity in As You Like It ; P.Jensen Speaking Daggers: Shakespeare's Troubled Ministers; G.Clark Othello in the Wilderness: How did Shakespeare Use his Bible?; T.Bishop PART IV: SHAKESPEARE AND THE CHANGING THEATRE: RELIGION OR THE SECULAR Author, King, and Christ in Shakespeare's Histories; J.Knapp The Secular Theater; A.B.Dawson Index