This study by Freya Sierhuis describes various aspects of Dutch culture through the lens of the Arminian controversy leading up to and following the Synod of Dordt (1618–19). This debate was at its height roughly from the Remonstrance of 1610 until the opening of the first public Remonstrant church in Amsterdam in 1630. The book aims to show the connections between, on the one hand, the political and religious controversies related to Arminianism and, on the other hand, popular literary culture. Where political and social histories tend to ignore religious dimensions, and vice versa, Sierhuis seeks to bridge the gaps. And literary culture is not narrowly defined, but includes a variety of genres and media. It would be an oversimplification, but perhaps not inaccurate, to suggest that much of the book may be summarized by this question in the introduction: “What happens when predestination, one of the arcana Dei … becomes a matter of public debate?” (7). Thus the book focuses on pamphlets, poems, and plays—with their satire, libel, and invective—that both shaped and were shaped by the religious and political aspects of the Arminian controversies.

After an introduction, chapter 1 sets the stage with a survey of the rise of the Dutch Reformed Church in the context of the Dutch Revolt, along with the gradual loss of freedom of religious conscience and an overview of Arminius and the Remonstrant debates leading up to the Synod of Dordt. Chapters 3, 4, and 6 flow chronologically from the founding of Samuel Coster’s private Nederduytsche Academie in 1617 and his anti-Calvinist play Iphigenia, to the events and literature surrounding the execution of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, to the shift to unofficial toleration of the Remonstrants under Frederik Hendrik in the late 1620s. Chapters 2 and 5 focus more on the literary media and genres, with chapter 2 given mostly to Remonstrant literature before Dordt and chapter 5 providing an in-depth look at Joost van den Vondel’s Palamedes (1625). Throughout the book, both sides of the controversies are represented in the analysis, but the bulk of the study attends to authors who were sympathetic to the Remonstrant cause.

Sierhuis knows the Dutch primary and secondary literature well, making both corpora accessible to an anglophone audience. As it promises, the book moves between religious issues, political events, and their effects in literary culture. As such, it is not for beginners, but should be comprehensible to readers who are already familiar with the Arminian controversy and the broad contours of the early history of the Dutch Republic. At times, the narrative and logic of structure can be difficult to follow. The difficulty is perhaps native to a book that attempts to cover such a wide range of territory, which is why good style and editing should be a priority. In some places, though, the narrative is unexpectedly broken and therefore potentially confusing. For an early instance, in the section labeled “The Development of Arminianism,” the story of Arminius’s career is interrupted at 1605, without notice, with a three-page aside on the difficulties of keeping the peace that then moves to an event that postdates Arminius, namely, the Vorstius affair, a one-sentence statement that should have been either expanded or omitted. Without additional transition, the story then picks right up again in 1605 with Arminius. This case and others like it further complicate an already complex history. A few other errors are distracting: for example, the incorrect dates for one of the book’s major figures, Oldenbarnevelt (1547–1619, not 1522–90) (2); Petrus Bertius somehow becomes “Paulus Bertius” (77 and index); and occasional, otherwise innocent typos, the greatest concentration of which was the seven I found in the space of fourteen pages (103–16).

Such infelicities do not nullify the value of this text that is often informative and insightful, showing how the literary culture added fuel to an already raging fire. Anyone interested in the Dutch context of the Arminian controversy will benefit from this volume.