Author: Bernard Cottret
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802831591
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 393
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Book Description
"Modesty, softness, and mildness"-such was John Calvin, in his own words. This brief self-portrait will surprise posterity, quick as it is to detect in Calvin a deeply passionate man of zealous action. Calvin adds elsewhere: "I acknowledge myself to be timid, soft, and cowardly by nature." He repeated the same idea feelingly on the eve of his death, calling himself "timid" and "fearful" before an astounded group of pastors who knew by experience that the old fellow could raise up storms. These various descriptions of Calvin strongly underline the vigor of a character that owed all its energy to God alone. At the same time, the apparent contradictions within Calvin's personality make it hard to capture his true nature. The large number of biographies attempted to date attest to this fact, many of which simply picture Calvin as a rigid fundamentalist or as a totalitarian who ruled Geneva with an iron hand. Such interpretations, however, are much too one-dimensional. This sterling new biography by Bernard Cottret opts for a Calvin "in movement," thus distinguishing itself from works that present Calvin as a man of relatively static character. The aim of this book is simply to recover the truth, or rather to reclaim the intelligibility of a man in his time. This is a historian's Calvin, the work of a university professor who is neither a theologian nor an ordained minister. Cottret's welcome approach sheds new light on the great Reformer's personality by concentrating on the milieu in which Calvin did his life's work. In the largest part of the book, Cottret explores Calvin's life chronologically. We are introduced to the world into which Calvin was born, a Europe in the throes of upheaval owing to the development of the printing press and divergent religious views. We follow Calvin from his birth and childhood in Noyon to his school years in Paris. We accompany Calvin on his humanistic and literary pursuits in Basel, his early ministry in Geneva, and his halcyon Strasbourg years. Finally, we move again to Geneva, where the brunt of Calvin's serious-and better known-life was lived. Along the way we encounter the major issues of Calvin's day-the sacrifice of the Mass, iconoclasm, predestination, the Arianism of Michael Servetus-issues to which he reacted with all his religious emotion. We tarry with him in Geneva and get an up-close look at the governance of Calvinism's "holy city." And we share in Calvin's joys and sorrows through a reading of his prolific correspondence. In the final chapters, Cottret explores thematic aspects of Calvin's persona-Calvin the polemicist, the preacher, and the writer-and looks in greater depth at his foremost work, the Institutes of the Christian Religion. Widely acclaimed in its French edition, this balanced and beautifully written biography will take its place among the best-and most enjoyable-portraits of Calvin's life, work, and lasting influence.
Author: T. H. L. Parker
Publisher: Presbyterian Publishing Corp
ISBN: 0664231810
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 226
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Book Description
John Calvin was one of the most important leaders of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. In this revision of his major biography, T. H. L. Parker explores Calvin's achievement against the backdrop of the turbulent times in which he lived. With clear and concise explanations of Calvin's theology, analyses of his major works, and insights into his preaching, this definitive biography brings this crucially important reformer and his world to life for readers.
Author: Bruce Gordon
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300159811
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 423
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Book Description
During the glory days of the French Renaissance, young John Calvin (1509-1564) experienced a profound conversion to the faith of the Reformation. For the rest of his days he lived out the implications of that transformation—as exile, inspired reformer, and ultimately the dominant figure of the Protestant Reformation. Calvin's vision of the Christian religion has inspired many volumes of analysis, but this engaging biography examines a remarkable life. Bruce Gordon presents Calvin as a human being, a man at once brilliant, arrogant, charismatic, unforgiving, generous, and shrewd. The book explores with particular insight Calvin's self-conscious view of himself as prophet and apostle for his age and his struggle to tame a sense of his own superiority, perceived by others as arrogance. Gordon looks at Calvin's character, his maturing vision of God and humanity, his personal tragedies and failures, his extensive relationships with others, and the context within which he wrote and taught. What emerges is a man who devoted himself to the Church, inspiring and transforming the lives of others, especially those who suffered persecution for their religious beliefs.
Author: Alister E. McGrath
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
ISBN: 9780631189473
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 358
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Book Description
One of the best sources for understanding the impact of John Calvin, McGrath's work updates The History and Character of Calvinism by John T. McNeill with a fascinating biography that also explores Calvin's cultural importance.
Author: Théodore de Bèze
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 124
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Book Description
Author: Bruce Gordon
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400880505
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 300
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Book Description
An essential biography of the most important book of the Protestant Reformation John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion is a defining book of the Reformation and a pillar of Protestant theology. First published in Latin in 1536 and in Calvin's native French in 1541, the Institutes argues for the majesty of God and for justification by faith alone. The book decisively shaped Calvinism as a major religious and intellectual force in Europe and throughout the world. Here, Bruce Gordon provides an essential biography of Calvin's influential and enduring theological masterpiece, tracing the diverse ways it has been read and interpreted from Calvin's time to today. Gordon explores the origins and character of the Institutes, looking closely at its theological and historical roots, and explaining how it evolved through numerous editions to become a complete summary of Reformation doctrine. He shows how the development of the book reflected the evolving thought of Calvin, who instilled in the work a restlessness that reflected his understanding of the Christian life as a journey to God. Following Calvin's death in 1564, the Institutes continued to be reprinted, reedited, and reworked through the centuries. Gordon describes how it has been used in radically different ways, such as in South Africa, where it was invoked both to defend and attack the horror of apartheid. He examines its vexed relationship with the historical Calvin—a figure both revered and despised—and charts its robust and contentious reception history, taking readers from the Puritans and Voltaire to YouTube, the novels of Marilynne Robinson, and to China and Africa, where the Institutes continues to find new audiences today.
Author: Herman J. Selderhuis
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830829210
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
Professor and renowned Reformation historian Herman Selderhuis has written this book to bring Calvin near to the reader, showing him as a man who had an impressive impact on the development of the Western world, but who was first of all a believer who struggled with God and with the way God governed both the world and his own life.
Author: W. Robert Godfrey
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433521504
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 210
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Book Description
An introduction to the essential life and thought of one of history's most influential theologians, who considered himself first and foremost a pilgrim and a pastor. July 10, 2009, marks the five-hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Calvin. As controversial as he was influential, his critics have named a judgmental and joyless attitude after him, while his admirers celebrate him as the principal theologian of Reformed Christianity. Yet his impact is unmistakable-a primary developer of western civilization whose life and work have deeply affected five centuries' worth of pastors, scholars, and individuals. What will surprise the readers of this book, however, is that Calvin did not live primarily to influence future generations. Rather, he considered himself first and foremost a spiritual pilgrim and a minister of the Word in the church of his day. It was from that "essential" Calvin that all his influence flowed. Here is an introduction to Calvin's life and thought and essence: a man who moved people not through the power of personality but through passion for the Word, a man who sought to serve the gospel in the most humble of roles.
Author: Thomas Henry Louis Parker
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664256029
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 184
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Book Description
John Calvin (1509-64) was a key figure in what we now call the European Reformation; but his influence extends to the twentieth century, most notably through the theology of Karl Barth. Outstanding as biblical scholar, preacher and practical Church reformer, Calvin intended all his work to be service of the Word of God. Although couched in sixteenth-century terms, his theology drew on the wealth of previous Christian thinking and possesses an enduring quality which makes it relevant to the situation of the Church today. This book provides a solid and comprehensive introduction to the whole range of Calvin's theology. Concentrating on Calvin's major work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, it explains what he has to say to all Christians at all times. It leads readers through the text of the Institutes in a new and original way that will give them a serious sense of Calvin both as a Christian and as a thinker.
Author: Theodore Beza
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781523873296
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 102
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Book Description
THE LIFE OF CALVIN is a short biography about the famed reformer by an eye-witness who knew him. Beza was a theologian and an ardent follower of Calvin who became his successor. As such, his "Life of Calvin" is not what could be called an objective biography, but a work that highlights the events in Calvin's life that helped spur on the Protestant Reformation. A great introduction to a man who helped shape his generation and continues to influence millions around the world today!
