The Luther renaissance of our century was in large part a consequence of the determination of German scholars to find an explanation for the debacle of their nation following the First World War. For this reason the attitude of the first truly German genius of modern times toward the German territorial states and the Holy Roman Empire has been a matter of primary concern. This concern was intensified by the resurgence of German nationalism under the totalitarianism of the National Socialists who set about to interpret the life and work of every important historical figure of Germany in the light of the new national faith. German scholars will again study Luther's writings for the purpose of finding hope and inspiration after the catastrophic consequences of the Second World War is already indicated by the frequent references to the importance of religion in Germany's historical evolution.

Richard Hooker's Of The Laws of Ecclesiasticall Polity is in many ways the great explicit crystallization of the whole philosophic scheme by which Elizabethan England lived. Historically it represents the doctrinal “Thus far and no farther” which the English monarchy flung at the forces of the Reformation. Published at a moment of crisis in 1593, the first four Books provided a base upon which the hard-pressed Anglicans could rally against the renewed attacks of Presbyterianism. With the Fifth Book (published in 1597) they remained the great touchstone of Anglican doctrine throughout the seventeenth century. It is no small weapon in controversy to have your doctrines demonstrated so unanswerably as Hooker did the Anglican to be the logical manifestation of the one great integrated scheme of the universe which all parties already accept as valid.