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The Reformation: Roots and Ramifications . By Heiko A. Oberman. Translated by Andrew Colin Gow. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1994. xv + 232 pp. $29.99.

This collection of Heiko Oberman's essays is a translation of Die Reformation. Von Wittenberg nach Ggn/(G6ttingen, 1986). It is unabashedly a history of ideas, ones that challenge, elaborate, "ramify." They challenge traditional understandings and root those challenges in careful scholarship bolstered by lengthy Latin notes so that the reader can verify the particular reading that Oberman is using. This is not a book about the kinds of Reformation and their ramifications; readers will be disappointed who look for yet another attempt at a comprehensive treatment of Reformation in Europe and Britain. This book is primarily an analysis of the early period of Luther's Reformation, and only in the last two chapters does it venture into Zurich and Geneva. Oberman revisits the vexed question about Luther, the medieval or the modern man, arguing that Luther is very much a medieval theologian, particularly with regard to the place of the devil in his theology. Granted this point, Oberman points out the ways in which Luther's "satanology" differs from the medieval view; Luther's insistence that the conscience is the devil's own territory is peculiar to Luther. The psychology presented in chapter 3 indicates total corruption indeed, since there is no place left for God to speak to the soul, either to chastise or to console, even after justification. Indeed, the conscience would seem to be the devil's creation and possession. The reign of the devil in this world is one of the doctrines that separates Luther and Zwingli. For Luther, an apocalyptic end of the world will end that reign. Zwingli, on the other hand, teaches the conquest of the devil by Christ that it is the business of Christians to advance. This locus theologicus, Oberman argues, is subordinated to the different understanding each of the Reformers has regarding God's omnipotence which, in turn, is also the key to the differences in their eucharistic theologies. These theologies are themselves rooted in their adherence to different medieval philosophical systems: Luther to the via moderna which separates faith from reason as a way to understand Scripture, and Zwingli to the via antiqua which values reason as a tool for understanding Scripture. These differences underlie the famous eucharistic debate of the two Reformers, argues Oberman.