David Whitford's intention in this book is to present beginners in the subject of the German Reformation with an introduction not just to Martin Luther but to his broader environment. He declares at the outset (p. 2) that ‘It is the hope of this volume that by better understanding Luther's context, the world in which he lived and worked and wrote and prayed, one will come to see Luther in a clearer light so that a more realistic portrait of the man and his significance can then emerge.’ The book implicitly stands as an expression of confidence that the celebration in 2017 of the five-hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Lutheran Reformation engendered sufficient interest to produce a demand for such an anthology. Whitford has gathered together forty-seven six- or seven-page encyclopedia-like entries on pertinent topics ranging from St Anne to Huldreich Zwingli, from the Anabaptists to the University of Wittenberg. Approximately two-thirds of the contributors are affiliated with departments of religious studies or with theological seminaries; one-third are historians; and one is an art historian. Several are very accomplished, well-known scholars. All have summarised the topics assigned to them to a high standard but in very brief compass. Each essay concludes with several bibliographic sources and suggestions.
This collection is not for the adept. Despite the expertise of the writers, the scope of their participation remains small. The expert will know where to go to find expanded expressions of their findings; the initiand will presumably not need to. Nevertheless, several colleagues expound on matters not often included in introductions to the Reformation and thus broaden the background that Whitford seeks to offer. Christopher Carlsmith's survey of education (pp. 22–9) allots a page to Italy and even mentions Isotta Nogarola, Laura Cereta and Cassandra Fedele as exceptions to the exclusion of girls from formal tutelage. Both Kenneth J. Woo (‘Western Christianity in 1500’, pp. 49–57) and David H. Price (‘Northern humanism and its impact’, pp. 100–7) stress the indispensability of humanism in facilitating the Reformation. I doubt that untrained readers will correctly interpret Woo's description of humanism as ‘celebrating humanity’ (p. 51); it might feed the stereotype of the Reformation's promoting the standing of the individual. Michael G. Baylor (‘The German Peasants’ War’, pp. 135–42) compresses his treatment to include late medieval revolts, and he even refers to the role of women peasants (p. 140). Amy E. Leonard (‘Women and gender’, pp. 160–9) rightly observes that women had agency even in the midst of a severely patriarchal movement and themselves reinforced gender boundaries (p. 168). Stephen G. Burnett (‘Jews and Judaism’, pp. 179–86) provides an admirable thumb-nail sketch of the position of Jews within the Holy Roman Empire. Timothy Orr responds to the stimulus of Nicholas Terpstra in Orr's ‘Persecution, martyrdom, and flight in Luther's Europe’ (pp. 204–11). Traditional accounts have not drawn attention to the human suffering caused by the Reformation as people either endured or fled the violence of its spread and its enforcement. These essays are but examples only; I neglect by omission the admirable presentations of many other scholars.
A few chapters are impressive for their illumination in a brief space of difficult themes. Tarald Rasmussen (‘Monastic life and monastic theology in early modern Germany’, pp. 30–7) makes of monastic theologies a very different topic from those strains to which Luther was exposed in Erfurt and sheds additional light on his attraction to mysticism. Euan Cameron (‘Calls for reform before Martin Luther’, pp. 74–84) manages to convey the scope and complexity of reform movements before the Reformation: ‘“Reform” before Martin Luther’, he says, ‘displayed almost every imaginable variety’ (p. 82). I appreciate Mickey L. Mattox's (‘Martin Luther's university lectures and biblical commentaries’, pp. 326–34) discussion of Luther's Christianisation of and interaction with the Book of Psalms. I myself learned from Vincent Evener's ‘German and Latin editions of Luther's works: from the sixteenth century to the Weimar edition’ (pp. 358–65).
The essays’ fine qualities aside, the question remains, who will pay the requisite high price for what is essentially a primer. Having just laid out $166 for a Spanish-language textbook, I may be wrong in thinking that undergraduates are not good candidates for such purchases. Graduate students certainly are not, for they must acquire deeper knowledge than that proffered here. I enthusiastically recommend that every Lutheran congregation purchase this book for consultation by its members. Other churches, too, should add it to their libraries.
