This volume collects essays presented at a conference organised by the editor in 2017 to mark the five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation. Comprising thirteen chapters, the book is divided into four parts: (I Church Law and the Reformation; (LI) Catholic and Protestant Approaches to Law in the Life of the Church; (III) Catholic and Protestant Approaches to Church and State Law; and (IV) Catholic and Protestant Approaches to Particular Areas of Law.
The book situates itself in the wake of influential scholarship on law and the Reformation, including works by John Witte Jr (Law and Protestantism, 2002). Harold J Berman (Law and Revolution II, 2003), Mathias Schmoeckel (Das Recht der Reformation, 2014; Das Recht der Reformation in Frankreich, 2024), Martin Heckel (Martin Luthers Reformation und das Recht, 2016), and Robert von Friedeburg (Luther's Legacy, 2016), to mention only a few. As the editor notes in the preface, the core message of the book is that '500 years after it occurred the sundering of Christendom at the Reformation still resonates in the law, but equally the Reformation was not an isolated event. It was the product of forces in society that were present before Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door at Wittenberg and to this extent the Reformation did not create change in all cases but instead recognised new forces at work in society and at times accelerated changes which, had the Reformation not occurred, might well have come about anyway' (xiii).
The volume is not fully homogeneous. Its contributions vary significantly in chronological scope, methodological approach, and confessional focus. Some chapters concentrate primarily on the early modern period, while others extend their analysis into the contemporary era. Some focus exclusively on Catholic ot Protestant contexts, while the majority attempt a comparative perspective. Inevi- tably, chapters that seek to offer broad overviews from the Reformation, or even from the late medieval period, can only provide succinct accounts, often relying more heavily on secondary literature than on primary sources. Nevertheless, the effort to connect early modern legal developments with contemporary legal frameworks is one of the book's notable strengths. As David Mclroy observes. 'the debates within and between the different strands of Christianity which emerged from the Reformation were a key factor in the development of legislation in respect of freedom of religion, civil rights and human rights'.
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DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2049677X.2026.2671630
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