Heinrich Bullinger, successor to Huldrych Zwingli as leader of the Reformation in Zurich, lived longer than any other major reformer from the early days of the Reformation. This longevity, and the hindsight that came with it, gave him a unique perspective on the history of the movement. Thus, in the 1560s, as his own health was deteriorating and as most of his family and friends had already died, Bullinger wrote a work of history, known simply as his Reformationsgeschichte. The history was not published until the nineteenth century and has been mostly neglected by modern scholars. One reason for this neglect is the greater attention paid to Bullinger's many other writings, most of them theological or pastoral and, therefore, deemed more important to the study of the Reformation. Another reason is the disdain with which modern historians have treated many ‘confessional’ histories written in the sixteenth century, seeing them as somehow inferior because of supposed bias or superficiality.

In his Die Dignität des Ereignisses Moser attempts to rectify this historiographical imbalance, and largely succeeds. In so doing, he builds upon two strands of research that have developed in the last twenty years. First, there has been a notable increase of scholarship on Bullinger himself. (The work of Fritz Büsser and Peter Opitz are just two examples.) Scholars now argue that he was a leading reformer and theologian in his own right and not just Zwingli's inferior successor. Second, the historical value and intellectual depth of various other confessional histories of the sixteenth century have been reevaluated by scholars (Irena Backus and Alexandra Kess). Christian Moser's study adds much original research and insight to both of these developing historiographical traditions. The first volume is a monograph in which he analyses thoroughly the creation and content of Bullinger's historical writings, with most of the focus on the Reformationsgeschichte. The second volume provides an extensive collection of transcriptions and, in some cases, translations of various key sources for the study of these writings previously available in manuscript or in Latin only. Volume ii also provides a list of all the known drafts of the Reformationsgeschichte, as well as another work by Bullinger, the Tigurinerchronik, and an extensive bibliography.

Die Dignität des Ereignisses is a formidable work of scholarship. Its length and level of detail might be overwhelming even to native German speakers and readers. Nevertheless, Moser makes some important arguments that deserve highlighting. The main assertion is that Bullinger's history writing, especially the Reformationsgeschichte, should not be dismissed because of supposed confessional bias. Bullinger, like other historians of the time, placed enormous value on objectivity and the use of accurate primary sources. Moser demonstrates in detail how he (Bullinger) gathered and perused documents for his histories over thirty years and how he remained faithful to these sources in his narrative. Moreover, Bullinger's claims of and efforts towards objectivity were related, rather than contradictory, to his belief that history is the revelation of God's will. According to Bullinger, because historical events play out according to God's will, all the historian has to do is present what happened plainly and according to witnesses in order to tell God's truth. (Hence the title of the study: ‘The dignity of events.’) The history also makes clear that Bullinger firmly believed that the apocalypse was near, that the period of the Reformation was the ‘endtime’ prophesised in the Old and New Testaments. This is significant, because it provides more evidence that eschatology was central to the Reformed tradition, as well as to the Lutheran.

Moser admits that Bullinger did not achieve the same level of objectivity that we have come to expect of historians in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, but he rightly points out that the same can be said for all historians of the early modern period. For example, the Reformationsgeschichte contains very little theology or polemic, although these are not completely absent. (Apparently Bullinger directed his polemical ire sparingly, mostly at the pope and at Zwingli's fiercest detractors within the city of Zurich itself.) Nevertheless, Bullinger clearly wrote the history with a confessional goal in mind, which was to defend Zwingli and the Zurich Reformation and to expose the, in his view, false interpretations and insults circulated by Zwingli's enemies (primarily Catholics and Lutherans). This emphasis on Zwingli is presumably why Bullinger's history contains very little material past the year 1532. Furthermore, Moser demonstrates that Bullinger read and was influenced by humanist historians, such as Juan Luis Vives, and other Protestant historians, like Johann Sleiden, and he argues that Bullinger should rightfully be grouped with these other, better-known historians.

Moser also argues that Bullinger's historical writings need to be viewed as a fundamental, rather than tangential, part of the reformer's work. Bullinger wrote the Reformationsgeschichte towards the end of his life not only because he felt the pull of mortality, but because it was the culmination of his life's work. Throughout his adult life, Bullinger always had a historical project in process, in addition to his theological and pastoral works. Moreover, as head of the Zurich Church and at the centre of an extensive network of international correspondents, he was ideally placed to collect letters and other documents to serve as evidence in his histories. In short, Die Dignität des Ereignesses makes an important contribution to the histories of the Protestant Reformation and of early modern history writing. Volume i is the most significant of the two, because it contains Moser's analysis and arguments, but volume ii will be very helpful to readers who want to learn more about the primary sources themselves or to test Moser's claims against their own reading of the documents.