The Westminster handbook to Martin Luther is a thin volume of very broad learning. According to the author, the purpose of the work is to provide the reader, whether historian, theologian, pastor, seminarian or general seeker, with a reference text to a selection of Luther's most important theological terms and concepts (fifty-eight in total), from ‘Anfechtung’ and ‘Angels’ to ‘Women’ and ‘Worship’. It is not arranged thematically or historically, but alphabetically; and it does not point the reader in the direction of the modern debates but rather back to the sources themselves, namely Luther's words in both the Weimar and Philadelphia editions. A compilation of this kind would be difficult to write on any sixteenth-century theologian, but the problems are magnified in a volume devoted to Luther, and not only due to the sheer extent of his writings and the complex and paradoxical nature of his theology. There is also the added problem of the contingency of his thinking. As Janz notes, Luther's answers to theological problems were not isolated abstractions; they were formulated ‘in the immediacy of the tangled events that made up his own social/political context’ (p. 47). Different concepts call for different techniques, but in general Janz's approach, as he defines it in his discussion of Luther's ethics, is to ‘comb through his works, gather up his scattered comments, try to isolate his foundational principles, and give the whole some kind of logical order’ (p. 44). Janz succeeds at this from start to finish, and not only in his efforts to explain the complex theological foundations of Luther's thought but with reference to the ancillary issues as well. There are few books on Luther with so much learning packed into so few pages that can serve at the same time as such as useful resource. It deserves to be on the shelf of every serious student of Reformation history.

Sister reformations is a collection of essays that were first written for a symposium held in September 2009 at the Humboldt University in Berlin devoted to the question of the relationship between the English and the German Reformations. This problematic is at the root of all the contributions, and in particular the question of influence in the face of the shifting profile of English Protestantism. As with all collections of this kind, there is no single focus or thread of interpretation that gathers the material into a whole. Each contribution takes up its own perspective on the question. Diarmaid MacCulloch opens the volume with a survey of the continental links that made up the ‘shopping list’ of theological influences ingredient to the English Reformation; Carl R. Trueman follows this with a study of early evangelical voices, further supporting the idea of a fairly open-ended notion of evangelical reform in the early days; Rory McEntegart sheds light on political affairs with a close study of the relations between Henry viii and the German Lutherans; Dorothea Wendebourg draws on a wide range of sources, both primary and secondary, to recreate the dialogue between the German reformers and the English, including the fascinating to-and-fro between King Henry and Luther; Ashley Null retraces the efforts of the English theologians to get a ruling from Wittenberg on the divorce; N. Scott Amos examines the affinities in the thought of Martin Bucer and Thomas Cranmer and their efforts to steer through a ‘measured and ecumenical reform’; Bryan D. Spinks examines the range of Lutheran influences on Edwardian liturgies; Martin Davie unpacks the relationship between the Augsburg Confession and the Thirty-Nine Articles; Alec Ryrie sifts through the vernacular literature of mid-century to get a sense of changing English attitudes to Luther; Martin Ohst provides a comparative survey of English and German notions of martyrdom; David J. Crankshaw offers a close study of the statesmanship of the English Church; and Thomas Kaufmann closes the volume with a meticulous comparative analysis of the Peace of Augsburg (1555) and the Elizabethan Settlement, both of which left a ‘sustainable religious and cultural imprint’ on their respective realms.

This volume is an important contribution to our evolving understanding of relations between the English and German Reformations. More might have been said on the historiographical dimensions, whether in an introduction or elsewhere, for the perspectives that have been adopted by the two interpretive communities, and in particular the English Reformation community, owe much to historiographical tradition. But perhaps this is an issue that can be taken up at a later date. Books such as this one, cooperative projects undertaken by leading scholars in their respective fields, are the important first steps and will do much to overcome barriers and encourage further dialogue. In her preface Dorothea Wendebourg expresses the hope that the Berlin symposium would provide ‘the impetus for further work’. Time will tell whether historians take up the dialogue, but if they do, Sister reformations is an ideal place from which to start.