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. |
From inside the book
... Religion extensively between 1536 and 1559 to take account of his scriptural work, his reading of theological tradition, contempo- rary debates and his desire to find the correct and clearest order of argument. Likewise, the biblical ...
... religious reform: fierce Catholic opposition, reluctant, even hostile, political masters, and a laity often not at all persuaded of the necessity of change. They lived in an age when events moved quickly and information very slowly ...
... religious duty . As a means of supporting the education of a talented young boy there was nothing remarkable in this arrangement ; the revenues of the church had long been in the clutches of families eager to expand their patronage ...
... religion.22 Beda raised the Collège to become one of the elite institutions of the univer- sity, and its rigour was widely admired, if not always by its students. Among those who passed through its doors were Erasmus and the writer ...
... religious patronage. As most of the students were being prepared for service in the church, good behaviour, diligence and the approbation of Tempête marked the path to a secure future. These young men were cultivated in the spirit of ...