To the challenge of writing a history of the Reformation century Hans Hillerbrand brings years of experience, magisterial scholarship and a thoughtful, discreet judgement. All these qualities appear in abundance in The Division of Christendom. This book presents a finely detailed narrative of the tumultuous events which divided Western Christianity into multiple diverse and often conflicting traditions. It does full justice to Lutheran, Calvinist, Anabaptist and Anglican strains, while also accounting for the resurgence and reshaping of the Catholic tradition in the second half of the sixteenth century.

Any history of this kind displays certain characteristics and makes certain choices. Those made by Professor Hillerbrand appear consistent and comprehensible, and shape an internally coherent narrative. A graduate of the University of Erlangen, though based for many years in the United States, Hillerbrand reflects the divide, deeply rooted in German academic life, between historical theologians and political church historians. He belongs in the latter camp. He studies the Reformation as a political process, where groups of agitators pushed a programme of reform onto their rulers’ agenda, and eventually succeeded, or failed, in persuading rulers to embody the programme in acts of state. Consequences follow from this approach. The narrative focuses particularly closely on the early stages of the reforming process, up to the point where the critical decisions were made. ‘The end of the Reformation’, Hillerbrand observes, ‘may be defined as the time when the political decision for or against the new faith was definitively made’ (p. 452). The subsequent processes of settlement, acculturation and church life receive much briefer treatment, at least until chapter 13. Professor Hillerbrand remarks several times that the Reformation programme only took effect if the ruler gave willing consent. Where the king remained obstinately Catholic (as in France) the Reformation ‘failed’. This explanatory principle entails some awkward adjustments to exceptional cases. In Germany a resolutely Catholic emperor capitulated to the power of Protestant princes; in Scotland a strong nobility enacted Reformation through parliament against a weak monarch. How the Netherlands fits this pattern never becomes quite clear.

Surprisingly (or perhaps not) Hans Hillerbrand shows something between impatience and lack of interest towards the doings of theologians, then and now. In the main narrative the reformers’ theological statements receive short shrift, discussed only when absolutely necessary to explain the flow of political events. Hillerbrand several times remarks that Luther's writings of pastoral spirituality sold better than his works of dogmatics (though one could argue that the latter informed the former). Chapter 12, ‘The Protestant Vision: the Theologies’, gathers and amplifies points drawn from elsewhere in the book, but deals only minimally with justification. Twice we are told that most Lutheran theologians denounced the Joint Declaration on Justification worked out with the Roman Catholic Church in 1999, but that church leaders endorsed the statement anyway (pp. 404–5). The point appears to be that theologians were, are and always have been irrelevant to the concerns of the majority.

The thirteenth chapter, though entitled ‘concluding reflections’, actually introduces new and necessary material. The reader is taken through relations between clergy and laity in the new churches, popular religion, music, poor relief, economic life, the status of women and toleration. In a perfect world these topics might have been integrated into the overall picture, but the author's resolute focus on political establishment would have made such integration difficult. In general – and every author who dares to write on such a vast subject knows this problem – the book suffers from some unevenness. The discussion of Scotland capitulates rather too easily to John Knox's self-serving portrayal of himself as the central figure. Occasional signs of uneven editing mar the text's latter sections.

Every Reformation book is different; each has its distinct strengths. One should appreciate Hillerbrand's for its thoughtful, reflective discussion of political motives, and admire its balanced and considered judgements on every issue. With a long career of deep immersion in the sources for the subject, Hans Hillerbrand could never have produced a book that was less than wise, learned and poised. The present book has all those virtues and more.