<DIV>Thomas More is a complex and controversial figure who has been regarded as both saint and persecutor, leading humanist and a representative of late medieval culture. His religious writings, with their stark and at times violent attacks on what More regarded as heresy, have been hotly debated. In <i>Writing Faith and Telling Tales</i>, Thomas Betteridge sets More's writings in a broad cultural and chronological context, compares them to important works of late fourteenth- and fifteenth-century vernacular theology, and makes a compelling argument for the revision of existing histories of Thomas More and his legacy.</div><DIV> </DIV><DIV>Betteridge focuses on four areas of More's writings: politics, philosophy, theology, and devotion. He examines More's <i>History of King Richard III </i>as a work of both history and political theory. He discusses <i>Utopia</i> and the ways in which its treatment of reason reflects More's Christian humanism. By exploring three of More's lesser known works, <i>The Supplication of Souls</i>, <i>The Confutation</i>, and <i>The Apology</i>, Betteridge demonstrates that More positioned his understanding of heresy within and against a long tradition of English anti-heretical writing, as represented in the works of Hoccleve, Lydgate, and Love. Finally, Betteridge focuses on two key concepts for understanding More's late devotional works: prayer and the book of Christ. In both cases, Betteridge claims, More seeks to develop a distinctive position that combines late medieval devotionalism with an Augustinian emphasis on the ethics of writing and reading. <i>Writing Faith and Telling Tales</i> poses important questions concerning periodization and confessionalization and will influence future work on the English Reformation and humanist writing in England.</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV>"<i>Writing Faith and Telling Tales</i> is an exciting study poised to resituate Thomas More as a late medieval thinker, revealing his as a corpus of work at odds not only with emergent Protestant writing and practices but with the confessional logic of the Reformation in general. Thomas Betteridge delivers a vivid and compelling picture of Thomas More, a picture that will act as a point of departure for future conversations on this interesting and important author. In addition, this study will serve as an influential survey of early Tudor genres and authors." —<B>Russ Leo, Princeton University</B></DIV>