Model European with religious book (7)
I believe the answer is:
epitome
'model' is the definition.
(epitome is a kind of model)
'european with religious book' is the wordplay.
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'religious' becomes 'pi'.
'book' becomes 'tome' (tome is a kind of book**).
'e'+'pi'+'tome'='EPITOME'
(Other definitions for epitome that I've seen before include "Paradigm" , "Model" , "Embodiment or perfect example" , "Essence or embodiment" , "Personification" .)