Review by Choice Review
This skillfully edited, posthumous collection comes from one of the most eminent Reformation historians in Germany and the US, best known for Luther: Man between God and the Devil (1989). Written from the author's deathbed, the book offers erudite if controversial comments on themes relating the Reformation to the modern world in the vein of the social history of ideas. Themes include the relationship between the German Reformation and National Socialism, iconoclasm's relevance to the Reformation, the impact of 16th-century religious refugees, Martin Luther's relationship to the via moderna, and the connection between Calvinism and modernity. Chapters on Calvin present a penetrating overview of centuries of secondary literature on Calvinism's religious and political legacy. Oberman provocatively relates medieval theology to totalitarianism, and challenges readings of central Reformation texts by reemphasizing Luther's apocalypticism. Early-20th-century German Luther scholarship of the Luther Renaissance (Emanuel Hirsch, Karl Holl) comes in for contentious comments. Two-thirds of the essays are reprinted. "From Luther to Hitler" comments usefully on the Goldhagen controversy, but the book's parting shots on debates in the field over the last four decades are more likely to interest researchers and graduates than undergraduates. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students and faculty. S. R. Boettcher University of Texas at Austin
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
