This anthology of sixteen essays explores in some detail the relationship between Lutheran theology and the specific social models that it generated. On its own terms it is a satisfyingly coherent collection, moving from what is broadly conceived as the Lutheran ‘social imaginary’ (pp. 17–18) – that is to say, how the very notion of society was conceived within Lutheranism – towards certain early modern quotidian manifestations and negotiations of such social ideals. In particular, and with some justification, there are a substantial number of essays dedicated to the family because, within Lutheran thought, the Fourth Commandment was understood as the keystone of parental, priestly and royal authority. As such, the volume is required reading for anyone interested in Lutheranism, the family and the broader cultural forms that both subtended and permeated this form of Protestantism in the early modern period, especially but not exclusively as it unfolded in Denmark. Indeed, one of the slightly curious aspects of this otherwise useful anthology is the explicit declaration that it is about the ‘Danish monarchy’ when there are in fact several instructive essays focused exclusively on Germany. Even more confusingly, the title implies that the volume ought to cover the full Oldenburg dynastic state, centred in Denmark but including Norway, Iceland and the twin duchies of Schleswig-Holstein with colonial possessions in Greenland, the West Indies and on the Coromandel Coast. But, apart from Germany and the kingdom of Denmark proper, only Iceland is discussed in the anthology, and that only in one essay. In effect, those essays that are neither about Germany nor Iceland are structured tacitly but anachronistically around the geo-political entity that is the Danish state today. This a problem because it means missing out on vital evidence of both the theological and the social kind. For example, in the early eighteenth century Greenland was recolonised by a simultaneously clerical and mercantile expedition staffed by Norwegians but under direct sponsorship from the Danish monarchy. The ensuing settlements were, in several ways, meant to put Pietist social ideals into practice and were run by that fascinating Lutheran off-shot, the radically ecumenical Moravian Brethren under the stewardship of the Austrian Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf. Equally, the complex role of these Brethren in ministering to slaves kept and traded in the Danish West Indies would definitely bear theological and historical interrogation. As this suggests, Danish society has undoubtedly been shaped by its colonial past, and Lutheran theology remains imbricated in that past in a number of ways. That is to say, this anthology is certainly useful and stimulating but it comes with some rather worrying silences.