Theater, Culture, and Community in Reformation Bern, 1523-1555. Glenn Ehrstine
has been understood correctly and so long as any allegory we resort to has Christ as its focal point and is compatible with the doctrine of justification by faith. Although Luther does not distinguish very clearly between typology and allegory, the distinction crystallizes in the work of seventeenthand eighteenth-century Lutherans such as Johann Gerhard or Solomon Glassius. The section on Luther's Mariology unfortunately does not include a discussion of its reception by Lutheran orthodoxy. The basic point made by the author is that whereas Luther rejected all notion of Mary as intercessor, he nonetheless attributed to her the special function of one who directs the faithful to Christ. The final section deals with Luther's and his followers' use of extracts, including expurgated Lives of the saints, as moral examples. This too often neglected crucial feature of Lutheran spirituality can be traced back to the reformer's project of publishing (with the help of Major and Spalatin) the expurgated editions (1544) of Vitae patrum and of the Legenda aurea. The persistence of the exempla genre can be documented through innumerable collections of moral examples drawn from diverse sources, which will continue to be published throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century. The two hitherto unpublished Christological treatises by Johann Gerhard which reflect Luther's own Christological interests, constitute a fitting appendix to Steiger's work. The book's weakest point is its unevenness. Steiger's treatment of the Lutheran reception of the five themes is, as he admits himself, sketchy and as such cannot be considered conclusive although it can serve as an incitement to further research. Some of the cases of reception cited do not seem to bear out Steiger's thesis. Hutter's disputation theses for example (85-103) limit communicatio idiomatum to Christ's two natures and, in marked contrast with Luther's use of the concept, do not extend it to cover other aspects of theology. Moreover, Steiger tends to treat Luther's theology as a block without distinguishing between young and old Luther. This means that he does not tell the reader that the reformer's interest in allegory and moral exempla is a mark of his later years. However, despite a certain unfinished quality, this is one of the most stimulating books on Luther published in recent years. We can only hope that it will bring similar research in its wake. IRENA BACKUS University of Geneva