In this authoritative new study, Graham Holderness takes us through the context of Shakespeare's life, the times of religious and political turmoil, and looks at what we do know of Shakespeare the Anglican. But then he goes beyond that, and mines the plays themselves, not just for the words of the characters, but for the concepts, themes and languages which Shakespeare was himself steeped in--the language of the Bible and The Book of Common Prayer. Considering such plays as Richard II, Henry V, The merchant of Venice, Measure for measure, Hamlet, Othello, The tempest and The winter's tale, Holderness shows how the ideas of Catholicism come up against those of Luther and Calvin; how Christianity was woven deep into Shakespeare's psyche, and how he brought it again and again to his art.