In his The Reformation of the image (Chicago 2004), Joseph Leo Koerner drew attention to the importance of images in Lutheran worship, focusing in particular on the work of Cranach and the altarpiece painted for the Stadskirche in Wittenberg. This didactic work illustrated the sacraments of baptism and the lord's supper together with confession, with Reformation theologians – Luther, Melancthon and Bugenhagen – depicted as participants in these liturgical rites. Published in 2005 and 2007, two further works on Protestant altarpieces have provided insights into the relationship between the word and the visual image. The later of these, Wolfgang Brückner's Lutherische Bekenntnisgemälde des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts focuses in particular on the depiction of the Confession of Augsburg in Lutheran altarpieces and was produced in conjunction with an exhibition of these paintings. Around forty of these altarpieces are reproduced as full-page colour plates with a thorough analysis of each painting in sections 5 and 6 of this study (pp. 205–82). Brückner identifies four main typologies in the composition of the altarpieces, with a separate, fifth, category of variants. In the Nuremberg form of painting, the presentation of the Confession of Augsburg to the Emperor Charles v is portrayed to one side of the altarpiece while the main picture illustrates the celebration of the lord's supper and the full range of Lutheran religious practice. The variants of this depiction of the Confession of Augsburg emerge during the seventeenth century, in general terms either depicting the enthroned emperor in the centre of the painting or showing the Lutheran princes as on-lookers in the Lutheran liturgical round of services. The altarpieces therefore had a didactic role in portraying key elements of the Confession of Augsburg such as the sacraments of baptism and the lord's supper, communion in both kinds, confession and penance. Published slightly earlier in the Adiaphora. Schriften zur Kunst und Kultur im Protestantismus series is Dietrich Diederichs-Gottschalk's thesis, Die protestantischen Schriftaltäre des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts in Nordwestdeutschland. This monograph reflects the greater complexity in understanding and interpreting the material culture of Protestantism which can be seen in altarpieces from the coastal region of northwest Germany, focusing in particular on Bremen and East Friesland. It is a region in which confessional identity was less clear cut, with enclaves where the Reformed rather than the Lutheran faith held sway, most notably at Emden. In particular this work considers the use of scriptural texts over visual images in this case study of some thirty altarpieces. The reasons for the use of text in part reflected the extent of the Reformed influence in parts of this region, the earlier altarpieces favouring the word over the image. These altarpieces had a didactic purpose with the inclusion of biblical quotations or key texts such as the Ten Commandments. Besides the inscription of simple texts on the altarpieces, some organised the text in a form that also conveyed a eucharistic message by portraying it in the shape of a chalice and host, while some went further to include paintings in conjunction with the script. It is interesting that some of these texts were later covered with paintings which were considered to accord better with what was considered to be Lutheran confessional identity. These two volumes are a useful addition to the study of the material culture of Protestant worship and the shaping of Lutheran confessional identity.