In the scholarly imagination, Ulrich Zwingli is often a secondary figure—Luther’s foil, the Anabaptists’ antagonist, Calvin’s precursor, and so forth. Increasingly, Anglophone scholarship is seeking to place Zwingli on his own terms and understand the particular influences on and impacts of Zwingli in the religious landscape of 16th-century Europe. Eccher’s work is a popular primer on the life and theology of the Zürich reformer, focusing on his pastoral charge for Zürich and the conflicts that shaped it. As a broader introduction to Zwingli, the book succeeds but suffers somewhat from the common tendency to subordinate Zwingli to other concerns.

Eccher does not set out to give a full biography of Zwingli nor an exhaustive discussion of his theology, both of which can be found elsewhere (Bruce Gordon, Zwingli: God’s Armed Prophet and W.P. Stephens, The Theology of Huldrych Zwingli). The book aims to explore Zwingli’s pastorate in Zürich from 1518–1531, particularly how the conflicts that defined the Reformation shaped and informed his ministry (4). After briefly introducing Zwingli’s life, chapter 1 sets forth Zwingli’s theology of preaching, doctrine of sola Scriptura, and Christocentric hermeneutics against both Rome on one side and Anabaptists on the other. In chapter 2, Eccher investigates Zwingli’s concept of true religion that propelled his theology of worship and the practical liturgy he implemented in Zürich. This chapter shows well how Zwingli’s theology informed his liturgy and was embedded in it, as well as Zwingli’s pastoral patience and prudence while enacting these changes. The third chapter steps back to look at the foundations of both Zwingli’s preaching and theology of worship in his understanding of the gospel. Zwingli’s gospel proclaimed Christ as the sole mediator between the Holy God and sinful humanity and the need for unalloyed faith in Christ alone for forgiveness. Eccher helpfully shows how this view both resonates with Luther’s articulation of justification by faith and subtly differs from it in emphasis. Chapter 4 discusses the themes of divine sovereignty, providence, and predestination within Zwingli’s theology. Eccher points specifically to Zwingli’s brush with death in the plague of 1519 as the inciting reason for his transformation on these matters. The chapter also brings out some of the usefulness of these doctrines within Zwingli’s pastoral theology.

The final two chapters give more attention to the conflictual side of Zwingli. Chapter 5 focuses on Zwingli’s partners and rivals in ministry looking at the influences of Erasmus, Anna Reinhart (Zwingli’s wife), the Zürich Prophezei, and Heinrich Bullinger. The conflict with the Anabaptists is given center stage with the execution of Anabaptist Felix Manz bookending the chapter; the Swiss Brethren are presented as taking Zwingli’s ideas to their logical conclusion against a compromised Zwingli (152–156). The final section addresses the Eucharistic Controversy with Martin Luther culminating in the 1529 Marburg Colloquy (190–195). Eccher ably outlines the debate and avoids the trope that Zwingli is a “mere memorialist” by showing the development of his Eucharistic theology across his corpus. The book concludes with the Second Kappel War and Zwingli’s battlefield death and dismemberment as well as five theses for “remembrances of a vilified and lauded Reformer” (201). In the conclusion, Eccher judges the 16th-century reformer wanting in light of 21st-century standards of Christian irenicism and broader tolerance. He leaves the reader with five admonitions. “Thesis 1. The Way of the Cross Does No Violence, Thesis 2. Avoid Conflating Kingdom with Christendom, Thesis 3. Distinguish Between Scriptural Authority and Scriptural Interpretation, Thesis 4. Beware the Blind Spots, [and] Thesis 5. Understand the Responsibility of Remembrance.” (201).

Considered on the whole, Zwingli as Pastor is a successful and engaging overview of Zwingli’s life and theology. Eccher, in the body of the work, effectively weaves together Zwingli’s theology from primary sources and illuminates both the development and continuity across his career. Throughout, the book draws the reader into the narrative of Zwingli’s life and ministry. With that being said, the work has shortcomings that ought to be noted both in coverage and approach. Although the book sets out to focus on Zwingli’s pastoral ministry in Zürich, this theme intermittently fades, overshadowed at times by theological and biographical expositions. While the chapters on preaching and worship dig into Zwingli’s shepherding of the Zürich population, this recedes into the background in later chapters. The focus on Zwingli as pastor might have been enhanced with greater attention to his pastoral theology and understanding of the Christian life and ethics. By defining him around conflicts and debates, the more day-to-day pastoral work of Zwingli is eclipsed. From the book’s perspective, the most defining event in Zwingli’s life is his death on the battlefield of the Second Kappel War, the defensive nature of which against an invading Roman Catholic force is studiously avoided (17–18, 198–200). While the quality of the scholarship and writing for this primer should be noted, a tendency toward presentism, seen both in the conclusion and in asides throughout, enervates the project’s impact. The concluding negative assessment of Zwingli’s overall ministry and pastoral activity leaves one wondering what he has to offer as a pastor. The final theses, for all the talk about remembrance, seem to indicate that Zwingli may as well be forgotten. The core of the work, however, offers a solid introductory discussion of Zwingli’s life and theology with its conflict and complexity.