In this impressive study, a revised version of his 2007 theological dissertation at the LMU Munich, Tim Lorentzen focuses on the Pomeranian reformer Johannes Bugenhagen and his attempts to reform the system of public social care on the basis of Reformation theology. The author wishes to show that Bugenhagen aimed towards, and organised, a system of public care that covered not only poor relief, but also care for the sick, for students, for mothers and delinquents, as the task of a Christian community. Lorentzen follows a decidedly theological approach and highlights Bugenhagen's social care ‘under the primacy of Christian love’ in contrast to more governmental concepts in southern Germany. He describes the development of Bugenhagen's theology and its practical dimensions on the basis not only of the normative sources like Bugenhagen's well-known church ordinances for cities and territories all over northern Europe, but also by analysing selected archival sources from different regions (Lübeck, Hamburg, Holstein, Pomerania) and even material objects like ‘Armenbretter’. After a detailed discussion (60 pages) of the sources and the state of research, Lorentzen begins with a description of the late medieval system of poor relief as a part of individual ‘Jenseitsvorsorge’ (care for the afterlife). He then contrasts Bugenhagen's concept of good works as part of his Lutheran theology with models developed in southern Germany by theologians like Bucer or Hedio. Following a scrupulous step-by-step line of argument, in the second part of the book Lorentzen analyses the organisation and the achievements of Bugenhagen's model. He carefully describes all the different components of diaconal works, starting with the poor relief funded by a ‘gemeinen Kasten’ (common chest) and the funding for church personnel out of a separate ‘Schatzkasten’ (treasury chest), and emphasises the deeply humane, sympathetic attitude towards all those in receipt of public support. The last chapter examines what Lorentzen calls ‘the order of the services’: care for the sick, care for criminals and sinners, care for pregnant and birthing women, care for students and church order as a duty of the temporal authorities. In each of these fields the planning of Bugenhagen's church ordinances is contrasted with the outcomes as documented in archival records. In a résumé the author highlights the results of his study under the categories of theology, functionality, public relevance, importance for women and the primacy of Christian love. He consequently shows that Bugenhagen's ordinances did not foster tendencies to secularise poor relief nor competition of any kind between ‘State’ and ‘Church’. Lorentzen's book is meticulously researched, carefully judged, well organised and – by the standards of a German dissertation – elegantly written. To the delight of all those readers who are able to read Low German, all quotations are given in the language of the sources. To the delight of all other readers, High German translations of all the quotations are given in the footnotes. The reader is left with only a minor criticism: the fruits of Bugenhagen's policies are placed in the context of the development of the Wittenberg Reformation in general, especially Luther's theology, and contrasted with examples from southern Germany. But there is no comparison with Reformed policies and practices, as realised in northern Germany or in the Netherlands, and this could have been done easily by reference to Timothy G. Fehler's Poor relief and Protestantism: the evolution of social welfare in sixteenth-century Emden (Aldershot 1999). This study is none the less an excellent contribution to research in both the history of social care and in Reformation theology. It shows and proves that Bugenhagen was a successful organiser of a newly motivated system, based on the principle of Christian love, of support for the weakest in the Christian community.