CalvinA revealing new portrait of John Calvin that captures his human complexity and the sixteenth-century world in which he fought his personal and theological battles 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. |
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... Lord's Supper. It was nothing more than a sop to appease the Protestant German princes of the Schmalkaldic League. Although the deed had been spectacular, the placards played brilliantly into the hands of the opponents of reform. The ...
... Lord's Supper. From the early years of the Reformation Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli had profoundly and acrimoniously parted ways in their teaching over what took place in the sacrament.25 To reduce a complex matter to a few words ...
... Lord's Supper and Baptism, the text possessed the traditional form of a catechism, which meant that it followed the ... Lord; and next, that as the same cruelties might very soon after be exercised against many unhappy individuals ...
... Lord's Supper.11 Scholars have heralded this moment as demonstrating Calvin's intellect and ability to turn a debate. He did score, but only when his team already held an invincible lead. Viret and Farel had carried the day and the ...
... Lord's Supper or brought their children to the Reformed church for baptism, and there was little that resembled evangelical preaching. Instead, Catholic prayers were often said in the Reformed churches outside the regular hours of ...