In this brief volume, Amy Nelson Burnett, professor of history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, provides an examination of the origins of the debate over the corporeal presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper that came to split the evangelical movement. By focusing on the period 1518 through 1525, a phase of the controversy often neglected by scholars, she traces the late medieval roots of the debate and explains the divergent eucharistic theologies developed by Lutheran, Reformed, and Radical reformers. Exploring the interaction between theological debate and print culture in the early Reformation, she charts the circulation of ideas within the evangelical camp, demonstrating the diversity of Protestant positions on the Lord's Supper. Finally, Burnett succeeds in recovering the central role of the controversial reformer Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, showing his importance in initiating this crucial theological controversy and in setting the terms for the later debate.

The book begins with an account of the August 1524 altercation between Martin Luther and Karlstadt, a public confrontation that sparked the eucharistic controversy. In a series of pamphlets following this dispute, Karlstadt departed from Lutheran theology in denying Christ's physical presence in the Lord's Supper, a divergence that would eventually split the Protestant movement. While most scholars have presented the eucharistic controversy as an unfortunate and somewhat obscure episode, Burnett reminds us that the debate was a pivotal event that divided the evangelical camp in the precarious early years of the Reformation and led to the permanent establishment of two distinct forms of Protestantism. The work has three main goals. First, Burnett sets out to examine the public debate over the Eucharist by examining the pamphlets published during the early years of the Reformation. Second, she attempts to explore the reception of these theological positions within the evangelical movement. Finally, she seeks to situate Karlstadt not only as the figure who initiated the eucharistic controversy (as other scholars have done), but also as a key contributor whose theological positions helped to shape the debate.

Following a concise introduction, chapter one provides a “prelude” to the debate concerning the Lord's Supper by exploring the growing theological divide between Luther and Karlstadt on the eve of the dispute. In her second chapter, Burnett examines the reception and dissemination of Luther's ideas on the Eucharist through an analysis of nearly 400 pamphlets published on the sacrament between 1518 and 1524. These pamphlets, largely neglected by scholars, not only reveal the dominance of Luther's ideas, but also show the emerging theological differences between the Wittenberg reformer and the south German and Swiss theologians who rejected his belief in Christ's corporeal presence in the sacrament. In chapter three, Burnett returns to Karlstadt, analyzing the development of his distinct eucharistic theology, a theology based upon the opposition of the corporeal and the spiritual and influenced by the Christian Humanism of Erasmus and late medieval heresy. In the following chapter, Burnett explores the latter influence, analyzing the incorporation of Hussite views on the Eucharist into Karlstadt's arguments as well as those of the Swiss and south German theologians who agreed with his sacramentarian position. In chapter five, she examines the development of Zwinglian eucharistic theology, arguing that despite Zwingli's attempts to distance himself from Karlstadt, the Zurich reformer remained deeply influenced by his ideas. In her last chapter, Burnett examines the pamphlets produced by theologians outside Wittenberg and Zurich during the first year of the eucharistic controversy, 1525. This analysis of the circulation of ideas in the early Reformation demonstrates the dominance of Luther's position, as well as the diversity and dynamism of the eucharistic theology espoused by the followers of major sacramentarian reformers such as Karlstadt and Zwingli. While the book lacks a conclusion, Burnett suggests that the early years of the eucharistic controversy were pivotal in establishing the terms of the debate that would rage in the following decade when the Lord's Supper shattered the unity of the evangelical movement.

Burnett's book is written with exceptional clarity and makes a solid contribution to the study of early modern Protestant theology. She does an excellent job of charting the course of this pivotal debate, carefully elucidating the various theological positions of the reformers engaged in the eucharistic controversy. Ultimately, this book is about the circulation of ideas, not about their impact, and Burnett provides little discussion of the effect of the eucharistic controversy on Protestant religious practice or Reformation-era confessional politics. Thus, this work will be of great interest to readers concerned with the intricacies of theological debate during the early Reformation, but perhaps less appealing to a more general readership seeking to understand the role of religion in early modern society.