Shakespeare and Religious Change considers Shakespeare's relationship to the religious past, to the religious identities of the present, and to the deep cultural changes that would shape religion in the future. Richard Strier and Debora Shuger demonstrate Shakespeare's interest in the impact of religious change on the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. Alexandra Johnston and Mary Blackstone probe the shifting relationship between theater and religious culture before Shakespeare, while Elizabeth Williamson and Karen Sawyer Marsalek scrutinize the playwright's recollection and transformation of this past. Phebe Jensen, Glenn Clark, and Tom Bishop engage with religious and ethnic identities in the plays, exploring Catholic festivity, Protestant ministry, and biblical exile. The volume concludes with a debate between Jeffrey Knapp and Anthony Dawson, who read Shakespeare's theater through conflicting narratives of religious pluralization and secularization. Together the essays place Shakespeare at the center of a major rethinking of the meaning of religion and religious theater.