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Calvin

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This is the best edition to date of the Institutes. Most editions have the smallest type imaginable, as if it wasn't already hard enough to read through these deep books, but this edition has very a readable type. It is bound well, and Ford Lewis Battles' translation is FAR superior to Henry Beveridge's in terms of smoothness, clarity, and readability. If you want to read the Institutes, one of the most powerful and thought-provoking works in history, this is the edition to get.

Why you should read this book:

1. It's not to heavy (thought it does make you think a lot). I have read a couple of puritan book of the 17th century and they are filled with great stuff but because you read them in the original English it's hard going, but this book translated from the Latin is much more readable. Although the book is v. long it is not as hard as you think it is - trust me.
2. It is nice to read a good theologian not setting out purely with the aim of defending the doctrines his own denomination has been teaching for centuries. Although is influenced by tradition he is not as obsessed by it as some Protestants today. He does suffer slightly sometimes, i.e. has some wrong ideas about minor points (e.g. the ancient church on confirmation), because he is not just re-plowing a furrow that has be furrowed a thousand times, but these slips are usually picked up in the notes. It's so refreshing.
3. He really, really cares about the truth. Yes he does sometimes call his opponents "dogs" and "swine" which is less acceptable now than it once was, but he calls them that because he is angry because he sees heretics catching Christians in their nets, are you not upset when you see that?
Earlier reviewers have called him a tyrant because he used his limited power (he wasn't even a citizen of Geneva) to try to stop people sinning as much. Sometimes he went a bit overboard but at least he cared.
4. He uses the church fathers a lot more than anyone else I've ever read. He had read so much compared to now. I have heard that he worked very hard, 4hrs sleep, into an early grave etc, and it's not hard to see what he did. He was a full time pastor and yet had read all these books. Scripture is infinitely better than the fathers, but Calvin was concerned about the Catholics and he uses Augustine etc to show the Catholics of then and now that their beloved fathers would have hated the RC church post-500ish. You won't get that much elsewhere.
5. His chapters on providence and man's sinfulness. People think this book is all about predestination to salvation, but it doesn't really have a central theme like that. But essential to your understanding of election is God's providence and our depravity and Calvin gives these the right weight and makes so much so clear. However overriding all his writing on election and everything else is that we should try to understand as much as the bible tells us but go no further. He was, it seems to me (<I can't see his heart like God can), really humble before God and his word.

The fact that this review is so badly written should prove to you that I am not an eminent scholar, just a lowly maths student, and so this book is easy enough for most to read. Don't bother with an abridged version spend the rather large amount of money and get this book - it is worth it. If you want a big book mainly for reference get Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof which though not perfect (no book by man ever will be) has more scripture references and less human writing.
However, if there was one book other than the Bible with me on a desert island it would be this one. No other human author has ever been as edifying for me. He helped me realize for the first time since I had started calling myself a Christian a few months earlier that I was saved totally by grace and am myself the most vile creature on earth when you realize God's holiness (read Hopeful's story in Pilgrim's Progress that's me). This book (would you believe it a 16th century work) truly drove me to my knees. Buy it! Sorry for rambling.

You either like him or hate him - and I am not yet sure. John Calvin has affected theologians for centuries - from whole denominations to great 20th century thinkers (e.g., Karl Barth). For the english reader, this 2 volume set is essential to grasp this quite readable theologian; and Calvin's passion for theology is not lost in this edition. The books are very well footnoted, despite the somewhat dated referenced to theologians in the 40s and 50s.

As someone who grew up in the Calvinist tradition, I felt it important to actually read the Institutes for myself and was surprised to discover things that many Reformed church do not emphasize - not to imply that its a good thing. For example, did you know that Calvin said that evil is also God's will? That, although carried out by Satan, evil is still directed by God? While many may accept the sovereignty of God, such extrapolations may be unsettling. And I think being unsettled is a good thing when doing theology. It makes you think about what you think.

Again, you may love him or hate him, but you must read him!

This tall stack of sheets houses the most comforting words a man can read outside of the Holy Bible. Calvin writes of the one true God in all of His goodness, sovereingty, and majesty, of mankind created for His glory, of mankind's wllfull rebellion against Him, of His just punishment of mankind in this life and the next, and of His Incarnation to bring mankind back to Him by faith alone in Christ's blood alone. Calvin also writes of the Christian's proper use and enjoyment of this life and the Christian's real hope, the resurrection of the dead at the end of the world when Jesus Christ will come again to complete His deliverance of His people from their own sin, death, hell, the devil, and the wicked. Happily ,Calvin does not neglect to expose heresy and condemn it at the same time he feeds us with the good word of our Lord and our forgiveness and righteousness in His incarnation, death, resurrection and ascension. These volumes are a delight, a cellar of the best gospel wine.

This book is certainly not for the light-hearted! Divided into two volumes that add up to around 1500 pages in length, this is a definitive work of the Reformation movement that fundamentally challenged the Catholic Church in Europe and altered every aspect of life up to today. The author of this massive work, Jean Cauvin, known in English as John Calvin, was one of the great thinkers of the Reformation, second only to Martin Luther in influence. Calvin was born in France and received an education in the classics (common for the time) and went on to train as a lawyer. Both of these influences help shape this book. Many classical references abound, and Calvin's legal thought helps him organize and argue his positions. Calvin left France under less than ideal circumstances, and he quickly set up shop in Geneva and became a central figure there to other Reformation figures, as well as formulating a church system quite different from the Catholic Church. Probably the most impressive aspect of Calvin is how prolific he was. He wrote this book over the space of several decades, but also wrote numerous sermons, tracts and letters. He also wrote commentaries on nearly every book in the Old and New Testaments, a collection that stuns the eye and one that would cause many bookcases to collapse under its sheer weight.

The main purpose of the Institutes is to establish a theology, but it also is a detailed rebuttal of many arguments by both Catholic theologians and Reformation figures. The language is bracing; Calvin calls his foes dogs and even says that some of them are sick enough to require medication! What is most impressive about this book is the number of scriptural references Calvin makes. It seems as though he knows the Bible by heart, and he uses this knowledge to excellent effect. He also quotes Aquinas, Augustine, Cicero, Luther, and a million other figures both major and minor. His knowledge is truly amazing and puts most modern scholars to shame.

It just isn't possible to summarize Calvin's theological positions in this review. There isn't enough room for it. It is safe to say that Calvin believes that the Bible is the absolute word of God, and that to know God, we have to read the Bible. But Calvin also believes in the sovereignty of God, which is that we can't know what God thinks or does, or even understand much of what God does. We have to have faith that God does what God does because he has a plan. Calvin also touches on faith, justification and salvation, and predestination. His doctrine of predestination was (and still is) very controversial, as it strikes directly at the heart of Catholic dogma. Essentially, Calvin believes that some have been predestined to salvation, and that many of us have not.

There is so much I'm skipping out on, and some could probably argue with the little that I've written. I particularly enjoyed Calvin's argument that most of the Old Testament figures were actually proto-Christians, as well as his examination on how the Catholic Church became a hulking corruption. Calvin goes so far to call the office of the pope an Anti-Christ! You have to admire Calvin for making such brave accusations in a time when doing so could cost you your life. I read this book over an entire semester for a class on John Calvin. Whether you are a Catholic or a Protestant, or even of no faith, you could find much to enjoy in this book. Recommended.

. . .because I am not a Calvinist!

HOWEVER, there is no denying that John Calvin was one of the greatest theological thinkers of all time, regardless of whether one accepts his views. Certainly, among Protestantism, his work represents the first, and until Karl Barth's "Church Dogmatics", the greatest attempt at Systematic Theology in the Reform Protestant tradition. His work gave legitimate academic and philosophical credibility to the Reformation.

His "Institutes" deserve a place in the library of every theologian, regardless of denominational affiliation or level of agreement. It's too important an historical resource to be without.

Calvin has long been esteemed a prince of expositors. Father Simon, a Roman Catholic, declared unequivocally, "Calvin possessed a sublime genius." Scalinger, the 16th cent. classical linguist and historian (best known for his study of methods of calculating time)wrote: "Oh, how well Calvin has reached the meaning of Scripture!" B. B. Warfield, possibly the finest theologian writing in English in the early 20th cent., appraised: "In Calvin theism and evangelicalism come to their own."

The <<Institutes of the Christian Religion>> -- I own the Henry Beveridge translation -- is Calvin's greatest work. Over a quarter of a century, until this massive treatise reached its definitive form in 1559, he expended his utmost powers in revision and expansion of this, his masterpiece. The <<Institutes>> is the representative treatise of the Reformation. It was this work that gave to the Protestant Church the systematic presentation of doctrine and the apologetic defence of Protestantism indispensable to the polemic being conducted with Rome. It was the <<Institutes>> that turned the battle to the gate.

Calvin, to do full justice to his body of writings (and it is HUGE) is *par excellence* the chief theologian of the Protestant faith. The editors of the Brunswick edition of his works have not exaggerated by saying: " If Luther was supremely great as a man, Zwingli second to none as a Christian citizen, Melanchthon rightly designated the most learned of teachers, Calvin may justly be called the prince and standard-bearer of theologians. Or, again in Warfield's words: "What Thucydidies is among Greek, or Gibbon among 18th cent. English historians, what Plato is among philosophers, or the Illad among epics, or Shakespeare among dramatists, that Calvin's 'Institutes' is among theological treatises."

The <<Institutes>> is an immense work by anyone's reckoning. Yet, why do I recommend that we read any portion of it today? Because, although Calvin was a man of his age, the fact is that he remains to a remarkable extent (and to an extent hardly equalled by any other) a man of every subsequent generation. He was a humanist before he was a reformer. And logic in argumentation and in the sequence and arrangement of his topics is manifest on every page. But surpassing this gift was the biblically oriented and biblically conditioned way in which the material is treated that makes Calvin's presentation abidingly and irresistably relevant to all times. In sum, a magisterial production from an intellectual and spiritual giant.

Some fanatic gave me this as a wedding present! I was 22 and thought this was hysterical. I began to read it and realized very quickly that this was very profound stuff. I was amazed by what I read. Calvin is an intense, very deep thinker, but he writes in a simple, clear style. Once I got used to it, I foudn it pretty easy reading. I read most of it within a year and I have never been the same.

Since then I have read lots more Calvin. I would recommend this Ford Lewis Battles tarnslation very highly over the older and inferior translation of Beveridge.

If you are new to Calvin and like biographies, I'd recommend moving from here to Ronald S. Wallace or T.H.L. Parker's works on Calvin.

If one is looking for an easy introduction to the Reformed Christian faith, this is not the place to start. However, I heartily recommend Calvin's Institutes for their thoroughness and devotion. Calvin was simultaneously an outstanding humanist scholar who knew and applied the ancient Biblical languages, as well as a Christian man of great piety and humility. These two books are a treasure of Christian thought. I found Calvin's discussion of the nature of the Church to be especially strong. Pretty much every question a person could have about the Christian faith is addressed in Calvin's Institutes.

Further, in response to some petty personal attacks on Calvin ("heretic" and "petty tyrant"), the record shows that such attacks lack proof. Calvin was faithful to Scripture and the early Church writers. Calvin, in fact, deserves a great deal of credit for rescuing the entire Christian Church (including today's Roman Catholic Church) from the swamp of tyranny and supersition into which it had fallen by 1500 A.D. In addition, Calvin was a moderate and tolerant ruler for his time, holding sway by his moral authority. Followers of Jesus Christ continue to owe John Calvin a great debt.

Of course with any theologan comes much criticism. But I will say that no other book has brought me to a closer understanding of the Bible than Calvin's Institutes. I have no doubt whatsoever that Calvin was empowered by the Holy Spirit to present an essentially pure doctrine of Christianity. Of course there are many that will have "issues" with some of Calvin's teachings (heck, people have "issues" with Jesus' teachings), but I am more than willing to trust someone who will use hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of Biblical references in his work to support his teachings. Let's face it: Calvin knew the Bible inside out. One little section of Calvin's Institutes will make references to dozens of verses from many books to support one little point. His passion overflows in his teachings. He truly loved the Lord. Don't let any negative reviews of Calvin's Institutes dissuade you from reading this monumental work. My best Bible studies have been with John Calvin. I am twenty-year-old student and am majoring in Religous Studies. My deepest learning of Bible has come from this book. It's sad that not one of my classes requires this book as part of its curriculum.