The Lutheran theologian Leonhard Hutter (1563–1616) was already praised by his contemporaries as one of the most important theologians of the seventeenth century. Balthasar Meisner, professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg, wrote on 18 February 1617, on the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of Luther's posting his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, that Leonhard Hutter finished what Luther had begun: “LUTHERUS incepit, HUTTERUS finiit” (19). Meisner's assertion should not sound too rhetorical if one thinks of the long-lasting relevance and influence of Hutter's theological works after his death. Indeed, some of Hutter's books, which had been composed as manuals for students at the higher-level schools and universities in the German Empire, and as manuals for the exams to become pastor, were still in use at least until the beginning of the eighteenth century (e.g., Epitome Biblica [Wittenberg, 1609], a collection of Hutter's Bible summaries; Compendium locorum theologicorum [Wittenberg, 1610], of which 107 editions and even some translations appeared after the first edition; and Concordia Concors [Wittenberg, 1614], Hutter's major contribution to the Lutheran debates on the controversial theology).

Despite the prominence of Hutter's name in the Reformation lexica, his biography and even his works have not been thoroughly investigated. Röser-Israel's volume aims to close this gap by reconstructing Hutter's life (chapter 2), focusing especially on his activities as both a teacher of theology at the University of Wittenberg from 1596 until his death in 1616 (chapter 3) and as a theologian involved in the debates on controversial theology (chapter 4).

The book is the elaboration of Röser-Israel's doctoral dissertation (Georg August University, 2018) which was supervised by Professor Thomas Kaufmann. The author borrows the concept of Konfessionskulturen (cultures of confessionalization) from Kaufmann, which understands the historical paradigm of confessionalization as the integration of religious, political, and societal innovations. In this intellectual frame, Lars Röser-Israel sets out to explain how Leonhard Hutter understood and supported the theological innovations of his time, how these innovations were integrated into didactics at the Lutheran universities, and which strategies Hutter himself adopted as a teacher of theology and a theologian involved in debates on Christology and the doctrine of the Eucharist.

The starting point of Röser-Israel's study is the book by Kenneth G. Appold, Das theologische Disputationswesen an der Universität Wittenberg zwischen 1570 und 1710 (Tübingen, 2004), to which Röser-Israel adds a statistical analysis of the theological disputes held among the faculty of theology of the University of Wittenberg between 1592 and 1627 before comparing them to Hutter's works, especially his Disputationes (e.g., De verbo Dei scripto seu de scriptura sacra [Jena, 1596]; Disputatio de religionis Christianae principio [Wittenberg, 1597]; the Concordia Concors [Wittenberg, 1614]; and the Calvinista Aulico-Politicus [Wittenberg, 1609]). The statistical analysis substantiates Appold's findings and contributes to a more detailed understanding of the new methodologies adopted at the University of Wittenberg. Furthermore, by comparing Hutter's Wittenberg works with works published in Wittenberg shortly before Hutter's stay and ending a decade after his death, Röser-Israel highlights Hutter's innovations in both theological genres: the Disputationes (chapter 3) and the controversial theological works (chapter 4).

At the core of Röser-Israel's research, which is mainly biographical (4), are Hutter's works—not only manuscripts and prints in their different editions but also letters and other longhand texts, of which the scholar provides a detailed bibliography in the appendix. The appendix also includes the lists of the Wittenberg theological Disputationes between 1592–1627 of the Respondenten of the same Disputationes, and of the controversial theological works published in Wittenberg in the same period. Due to the accuracy of the data collected and presented as well as their statistical and hermeneutical analysis, Röser-Israel's contribution to Reformation studies and the history of the University of Wittenberg is beyond doubt. Furthermore, the introduction to the research question (1–3) catches the attention of the reader interested in the history of ideas, due to its reflections on the heuristic value of the notion of conflict, which help to understand not only early modern theology but, more broadly, the modern sciences and the emerging category of experts.