The Reformation of the Keys: Confession, Conscience and Authority in Sixteenth-Century Germany by Ronald K. Rittgers (review)

REVIEWS 285 non-specialists. Yet Menocal does not hide her hopes that the book and its lessons will inspire our multicultural, global society to construct a new “culture of tolerance,” and she selects historical examples based on that criterion. Menocal ’s secular project is not unlike that of the eighteenth-century Maskilim, who sought to reform their society by modeling it on al-Andalus, which they eulogized as a more culturally refined and religiously tolerant era that could lead them to another Golden Age. Most of the contributors to Renewing the Past, Reconfiguring Jewish Culture were in the final stages of preparing their dissertations when they wrote these essays. Their individual work is marked by creativity and insight that makes the whole volume a significant contribution not just to Medieval Studies and Jewish Studies, but to the broader study of history, literature, and philosophy as well. JESSICA ANDRUSS, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara Ronald K. Rittgers, The Reformation of the Keys: Confession, Conscience and Authority in Sixteenth-Century Germany (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press 2004) 318 pp. In the historiography of the early Reformation, various theological loci have been treated exhaustively. Justification has always received the most attention, with the sacraments and ministry following close behind. Confession and absolution have, however, received scant attention, except insofar as they relate to justification. In The Reformation of the Keys, Ronald Rittgers seeks to fill this void. Using a pleasant prose style unencumbered by some of the jargon associated with too much work on social discipline, Rittgers details the transformation of confession and absolution from its medieval penitential forms into a new evangelical tool for the consolation of the sinner’s conscience. His particular focus is on the imperial city of Nürnberg, where the adoption of the new evangelical form of absolution followed a different path than that of other cities that adopted the Reformation early on. In the first two chapters, Rittgers lays out the historical and historiographical background to the medieval doctrine of penance, bringing the reader up to the eve of the Reformation. In particular he focuses the reader’s attention on Nürnberg ’s reputation as having a relatively well-informed and pious laity. Consequently , as Luther’s writings became known in the city, Nürnberg’s laity was particularly responsive to it. Chapter 3 details how quickly the ministerial makeup of Nürnberg changed. By 1522, Rittgers notes, nearly all the key ecclesiastical offices in the imperial city were occupied by evangelicals. In appointing clerics devoted to the teachings of Luther, the city magistrates had effectively wrested control of the city’s religious life away from Rome. The transition hardly proved easy however, and Nürnberg struggled for the next thirty years to maintain its newfound independence . That struggle is discussed in chapters four through nine. Chapters 4 and 5 detail how confession was initially (and very quickly) shed by the Nürnbergers, and then how equally quickly both theological and civil authorities realized their mistake. In dropping confession, leaders discovered how quickly the population became unruly, as it had no perceived check on its behavior. This discovery runs parallel to the discoveries detailed by Sachiko REVIEWS 286 Kusukawa in her excellent work on Melanchthon, and this reviewer finds the only fault with Rittgers’ work here. Precisely because Rittgers has an extended and engaging discussion on the debates over the balance between ecclesiastical and civil authorities (chaps. 5 through 8), it is both surprising and disappointing that he did not engage at all the work of Kusukawa on Melanchthon’s use of natural philosophy in social discipline. While Kusukawa does not deal directly with confession and absolution, her arguments regarding Melanchthon’s shifting the balance of social disciplining toward civil authorities make one wonder if Osiander and Melanchthon were not inadvertently at war with one another. Chapter 6 describes the development of a new order of worship in the imperial city, culminating in the 1533 Brandenburg-Nürnberg Church Order. The order made room for both general and private confession, albeit with a new evangelical framework, intended to offer both a benchmark for the appropriate way to live one’s life, but also consolation to...