On October 4, 1529, Lutheran and reformed theologians left the city of Marburg having failed at the task that Philip I, landgrave of Hesse, had set before them. They had come to the city to hammer out a doctrinal agreement between the Germans and the Swiss, or the Lutherans and the Zwinglians—or other, less pleasant appellations for the two sides. They could agree on everything but the Eucharist or Lord's Supper. Leaving without agreement, they tried to concentrate upon that which bound them together, but it was clear that the main goal—a doctrinal agreement that would support a military league against Hapsburg aggression—had not been reached. This is a story that many a seminarian or beginning early modern history student learns—rich with personalities of larger-than-life figures such as Luther and Philip and Zwingli—and demonstrating the ways that the realm of the life of the mind and soul could and did intrude upon the realm of military and political realities, especially in sixteenth-century Europe.

Frequently this story has been told as the fight between Luther and Zwingli, between consubstantiation (though Luther never used the term) and memorialism. Now, however, Amy Nelson Burnett has caused all of the things that we thought we knew to have to be reconsidered. In a brilliant tour de force, Burnett introduces a number of theologians into the struggle within early modern Protestantism while providing sophisticated analysis of the exegetical practices that undergirded both sides, giving detailed and thorough investigation of the sources that were produced through the early struggles, and adding a consideration of the role that radical religion played. In doing so, she produces a far more satisfying representation of the issues and personalities that were in play. One of the main problem scholars will have with this book is deciding which sections to assign to their students, because gems abound.

Burnett begins with the mythic origins of the 1520s. Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt published pamphlets against the presence of Christ's body in the wine and bread of the Lord's Supper, opening up a struggle with both Catholics and an internecine strife between differing confessional Protestant camps. Only a few months later, Conrad Grebel baptized Georg Blaurock in Zurich. Burnett points out how these events tend to be treated as two wholly separate events, even in the historiography of today. But these events happened at the same time, in the same places, and among the same people. Burnett claims that this “confessionalized and compartmentalized approach” to the debate concerning the two dominical sacraments in the early modern period has distorted our understanding of what was really going on in sacramental theology and authority in the early Reformation.

Burnett turns to exegesis to argue that the two approaches to the sacraments are foundationally disparate. Two schools of thought about how scripture signified grew up in Wittenberg and Basel, and those differing exegetical foundations supported contrasting understandings of the sacraments. Burnett argues that instead of Zwinglians, those who came to be known as “sacramentarians” might more accurately be called “radical Erasmians.” This moniker would both explain Erasmus's sway and the broad coalition of sacramentarian thinkers he influenced.

Beyond these discussions of the roots of the problem, Burnett goes deeply into the history of the various works that were published on the sacramental issue, intentionally examining works beyond those of Luther and Zwingli—the recognized standard bearers of the two sides. Here the book really shines, bringing to light texts that many have not considered or have incorrectly analyzed. She delves deeply into discussing the impact of pamphlets and considers the different levels of influence between pamphlets and treatises.

Burnett concludes by arguing that these differing models of biblical hermeneutics for how scripture was to be interpreted and the ways that different confessions resolved the questions of authority and the relationship of the material and spiritual worlds were the core issues—not only of the Eucharistic struggles but of the Reformation itself. In 1968, Gerhard Ebeling published a short article, “Church History is the History of the Exposition of Scripture” (in The Word of God and Tradition, trans. S. H. Hooke [Fortress]), in which he considered the possibility of viewing church history as the history of the interpretation of the Bible. Burnett's work proves that if exegesis is not the entire story, one cannot do Christian history without it. Further, she points out that these motives, methods, and even arguments used in the second half of the sixteenth century would borrow from these early efforts.

Debating the Sacraments will set the standard for considering the struggle within early Protestantism over the Lord's Supper for the next generation. The work reforms how we address ourselves to the events of the 1520s and places biblical exegesis at the heart of the matter. I will be using its insights the next time I teach the Reformations, and I would guess most of my colleagues will as well. For the teacher, there is no higher praise.