This book is based on Jason Lane's doctoral dissertation at the University of Hamburg. Lane contends that Luther's use of the Epistle of James, Lutheran commentaries on James from roughly 1530 to 1700 and Lutheran sermons on James during the same period have been largely neglected by scholars. He seeks to fill this gap in research, and thereby elucidate the history of Lutheran interpretation of James, as well as to challenge prevailing assumptions about Luther's appraisal of the book.

Lane's book focuses strictly on the sixteenth century through the first half of the seventeenth century. He examines the role of James in the Lutheran postil tradition by looking at the sermons of Luther, his students and those who succeeded him after his death. Lane explains his rationale for focusing on the postils, including that ‘postils offer the widest possible selection of Lutheran interpreters of James’, and citing Frymire that postils were ‘the most important genre for the dissemination of ideas in early modern Germany’. The book is arranged as four major chapters. After a short introduction, the first chapter begins by investigating the place of the book of James in the early Lutheran Church (i.e. the early sixteenth century), specifically through the lens of the sermons of Andreas Althamer. The second chapter focuses on Luther's sermons on James. The third chapter looks at the mid- and late sixteenth century through the lens of the Lutheran preachers Anton Corvin, Johann Spangenberg, Lucas Lossius, David Chytraeus and Simon Pauli. And the fourth chapter examines the late sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century through the lens of Simon Musaeus, Siegfried Sack, Balthasar Kerner and Hartmann Creide. Lane concludes with a summary list of forty-six ‘theses’, where, ostensibly in reverence to Luther, he is careful not to eclipse Luther's list of ninety-five. Lane includes, as an appendix, his own English translation of Luther's five sermons on James (1535–9).

Lane's research has much to commend. It is an interesting read, particularly in chapters iii and iv where the examples and analyses are especially rich. Lane compares and contrasts the different sermons and commentaries, skilfully showing the consistencies, inconsistencies and development of the Lutheran postil tradition on James in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He also shows how the postils on James had a broader and more significant role in the period than has often been appreciated – for the Lutheran mass, Lutheran catechesis, schools, universities and kitchen table discussions in the home. He demonstrates how the postil tradition reflects the evolution of Lutheran theological interpretation of the book of James, as well as the historical context in which these sermons flourished. He calls attention to numerous places, for example, where the sermons evince the Lutheran response to controversies leading up to Book of Concord, and to Calvinist theology. Finally, the choice of preachers and postils which appear in the book was well thought out, and Lane justifies his choices throughout the book. In short, Lane successfully shows that to frame Luther and the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Lutheran preaching tradition as being in opposition to the book of James, or as dismissing the book completely, is a deficient and inaccurate characterisation.

Some points of constructive criticism can also be made. Lane makes some weighty claims, but at times provides the reader with only modest evidence to support them. For example, he compares Luther's 1530 and 1534 Bible translations of parts of James with Althamer's 1533 translation, and concludes that Luther ‘altered his translation of the passage to conform to Althamer's translation’, which he admits is ‘based solely on a comparison of translations between 1530 and 1534’. While the translations are indeed similar and in places identical, Lane gives no other substantial evidence to substantiate the causality, leaving open questions. Did Luther anywhere mention Althamer's translation in his letters? Do Luther's revision notes or hand entries in his Bibles address the text in question? How do earlier German translations compare, and could both Luther and Althamer have drawn upon these translations? The reader is left to wonder, as these questions are not addressed in the text or the footnotes. Simply put, at various places in the book Lane is speculative and quick to make a conclusive finding, without providing sufficient supporting evidence to justify his claims. In this instance, in lieu of providing additional evidence, simply pointing out the parallel and his suspicion (a practice which Lane does indeed use elsewhere) would, I think, have been a better approach. On a separate issue, it is a bit curious that chapter ii is arranged according to the liturgical calendar (i.e. Sunday lectionary), while chapters iii and iv are arranged chronologically (chapter i begins with Althamer's 1527 annotations, followed by his 1533 commentary, and is thus also essentially chronologically arranged). Finally, chapter iv only addresses two examples from the seventeenth century, and these account for less than twenty pages of the book. Greater attention to the seventeenth century would have been a welcome addition. The choices of Kerne and Creide were excellent none the less, and Lane's analysis of each was exceptional and interesting.

In summary, interested readers should not hesitate to pick up a copy of Lane's book. It provides an excellent, even if unavoidably brief, elucidation of sixteenth- and seventeenth- century Lutheran history of interpretation of the book of James, the Lutheran postil tradition and the connection between Lutheran piety and the book of James. The book should leave many readers eager to learn more, and looking forward to future work from Lane on the subject.