Two overarching and interrelated features of the Reformation period help to bring the variegated landscape of Reformation ethics and moral theology into focus. The first is a common emphasis on a fuller Christianization of the entire population, not simply of clerics and monastics, and hence on the importance of lay religious instruction and formation. Initially pursued in the hope of reform and renewal of the Church Universal, as Reformation divisions hardened the focus turned to competitive confessionalization. The second is a sense of cultural crisis; the drive for reform emerged not primarily out of a sense of optimism and capacity, but rather out of a sense of crisis, as a response to a perceived falling away from the divinely ordained social order. Reformers of various camps parted ways over whether the Christianization of society required doctrinal and institutional reforms or simply better education and formation, and over whether new religious movements represented heightened disorder or a move toward restored order.