Reviews for Institutes of Christian Religion,v.1

The average rating for Institutes of Christian Religion,v.1 based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-08-02 00:00:00 Michael Popovich Years ago I took a course in Reformation Theology for which this book was a required text. It was a good course, taught by a knowledgeable professor, who did not force us to read the entire book. After the course was over I determined to read the entire book, but abandoned it in frustration when I got to about p. 250. Last year, I had to use it for work and decided that, since that was the case, I was going to conquer it finally. The book is a long treatise on systematic theology, meant to provide basic but thorough instruction in the Protestant faith. It has an obviously trinitarian structure, devoting three large sections to the work of the three Persons of the Christian Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, with a fourth section on the Christian Church. Along the way it discusses many things found in traditional Christian catechisms, such as the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, faith, prayer, and the importance of the Word (i.e. the Bible) and the sacraments. The style of Calvin takes getting used to. Before he became a theologian, he was a lawyer, and it shows both in his style and in his manner of argumentation. He can write in long convoluted sentences that rival those of Proust himself. But when he is arguing a point about which he feels strongly, he can be not only lively but vitriolic. This can be startling, and even offensive by today's standards of political correctness, especially when he lets his theological opponents have it with both barrels. But his argumentation, and the facts and research with which he backs it up, are staggering. One need only scan the footnotes and the indices to realize how much he quotes the Church Fathers, especially St. Augustine. In this he is obviously part of the Renaissance movement which aimed to go back to the sources of Christianity. But he is also good at taking a point and looking at it from all sides. For example, when he discusses the Ten Commandments, he talks not only about how to obey a particular commandment, but how to avoid its opposite. And later when he discusses the sacraments, he defines very carefully what they are; this will influence his later discussion of whether it is proper to call various practices sacraments or not. He looks at what the Bible says, but also what was practiced in the early church, and what is done in his own time. Moreover, most often, he knows his opponents' opinions thoroughly, and seems to relish lining up the arguments and shooting them down one by one. One thing that surprised me was his treatment of predestination, which is supposed, still today, to be something with which Calvinists are eternally obsessed. Even as he was writing about it, Calvin realized that this issue was a "hot potato," and he treats it carefully but not fearfully. The point he emphasizes is this: the fact that God chose beforehand those who would be saved (election) is meant to reassure us of salvation, not to make us full of doubt. Another thing that surprised me was that Calvin's vehemence was not directed solely at Catholics in general and the unfortunate non-trinitarian Michael Servetus in particular. There were others as well. The targets of his rhetoric are not always mentioned by name, but they include Lutherans, Zwinglians and Anabaptists. This is the aspect of Calvin's work that makes me squirm the most, because I believe that if Christians hold differing opinions, the best way to handle it is respectful discussion. But Calvin was from a time when fervour burned bright and tempers and tongues waxed hot. When one takes this into consideration, he is quite cool-headed--most of the time!

Review # 2 was written on 2009-07-18 00:00:00 Ryan Mark Just finished Volume 1. The first time I read this I was still an Arminian, and I appreciated it then. Now I am simply amazed. What a treasure this is.