The volume provides new evidence of how the legal ideas of the Lutheran Reformation were put into practice, especially in the Nordic countries, and how they worked in the history of law. Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden forming the largest Lutheran area in the world, this lacuna is considerable.
The first part of the book deals with the legal, theological and philosophical thought of the reformers. The second part examines the impact of the Reformation on particular aspects of legal reform, especially marriage and criminal law and the law on poor relief in the Northern Europe.
The study is based on interdisciplinary research by theologians and legal historians.

Contributors include: Kaarlo Arffman, Pekka Kärkkäinen, Mia Korpiola, Virpi Mäkinen, Heikki Pihlajamäki, Antti Raunio, Risto Saarinen, and Reijo Työrinoja.