Explores how Calvin's theology ministers to those who wrestle with the meaning of faith

Calvin became an important influence in the Reformation, and his theological beliefs, known as Calvinism, have become integral to many to today's major Protestant churches.

Are apostles amongst us today? According to a growing section of the church, the answer is yes. This book investigates and appraises the idea, seeking answers to the following questions in the context of the church in Britain and the USA: Is there arobust scriptural justification for the charismatic apostolate (CA) that most charismatic groups are proclaiming? How widespread is this belief and why has it become more commonplace? What kind of apostles are being advocated by influential popular teachers? What does church history and tradition have to offer to this idea? Is there a way to endorse and embrace the CA ecumenically? Does the CA have a future in the universal church? These are important questions to answer for the sake of the church's mission and health.

For over four hundred years, the city of Geneva has been important in Western history. The character of this city--steady, serious, erudite, clannish, and proud--has remained virtually unchanged since Calvin's time, the heroic age when she first became famous. Professor Monter relates the "success story" of this fascinating city through a fresh synthesis of printed and archival sources. In the sixteenth century, Geneva succeeded in winning and maintaining her independence, a feat unique in Reformation Europe. Into this special environment came Calvin--and his triumph was the result of a brilliant mind and an undeviating will being placed in the midst of the crude and confused surroundings of a revolutionary commune. Professor Monter explores the components of Geneva's and Calvin's fame in a number of ways. First, he outlines the history of the city from the early sixteenth century to Calvin's death in 1564, showing the tumultuous environment of the city where Calvin worked and the means by which local opposition to Calvin dissolved. He next describes the principal institutions and social groups of Calvin's Geneva: the established church, the civil government, and the foreign refugee communities. Finally, he assesses Calvin's legacy to Geneva and discusses the workings of Calvinism after its founder's death. As a whole, Calvin's Geneva is a revealing portrait of a major city and an acute analysis of its effect on one of the most important men in the sixteenth century.

Historians have credited--or blamed--Calvinism for many developments in the modern world, including capitalism, modern science, secularization, democracy, individualism, and unitarianism. These same historians, however, have largely ignored John Calvin the man. When people consider him at all, they tend to view him as little more than the joyless tyrant of Geneva who created an abstract theology as forbidding as himself. This volume, written by the eminent historian William J. Bouwsma, who has devoted his career to exploring the larger patterns of early modern European history, seeks to redress these common misconceptions of Calvin by placing him back in the proper historical context of his time. Eloquently depicting Calvin's life as a French exile, a humanist in the tradition of Erasmus, and a man unusually sensitive to the complexities and contradictions of later Renaissance culture, Bouwsma reveals a surprisingly human, plausible, ecumenical, and often sympathetic Calvin. John Calvin offers a brilliant reassessment not only of Calvin but also of the Reformation and its relationship to the movements of the Renaissance.

The Theological Foundations series highlights the enduring influence of prominent figures from church history. The present volume features John Calvin’s Commentary on Romans, along with an introduction by series editor Timothy George that explores the life, ministry, and scholarship of the French reformer. Many today know Calvin as a systematic theologian, yet this volume introduces us to a seeker and biblical scholar whose mind and life were captivated by God’s Word. Scholars, pastors, and students will benefit as they read Romans alongside Calvin.

Is it really impossible for the average person to hear the gospel and come to Christ by inviting him into your life? Is it true that God has determined your eternal destiny even before you were born? Christ seems to invite everyone to himself throughout the pages of the New Testament, but is this a hoax? Calvinists have been relegated to a closet inside of evangelicalism for nearly five hundred years but they have broken out and have become aggressive in their promotion of what they call their Doctrines of Grace, even to other Christians. This book will help if your friend is a Calvinist and is promoting what sounds logical to your ears. It will give you answers if your new pastor is promoting Reform Theology in your church. Written in a easy-to-read handbook format, Cracking Calvin will give you the answers to these and other questions that you have been searching to find.

This English edition of the epistolary writings of Calvin, complete in four volumes, contains six hundred sixty-eight letters, last discourses, and an appendix of eighteen additional letters. The letters here are selected from the Paris edition, which embraces the originals of all that are extant, and represent our most complete English edition of Calvin's letters. The industry of Calvin and the reach of his power, as disclosed in these products of his pen, are well sketched in a few lines of the preface. ÒInvested, in virtue of his surpassing genius, with an almost universal apostolate, he wielded an influence as varied and as plastic as his activity. He exhorts with the same authority the humble ministers of the Gospel and the powerful monarchs of England, Sweden, and Poland. He holds communion with Luther and Melanchthon, animates Knox, encourages Coligny, Conde, Jeanne d'Albret, and the Duchess of Ferrara; while in his familiar letters to Farel, Viret, and Theodore Beza, he pours out the overflowings of a heart filled with the deepest and most acute sensibility.

Offers a comprehensive understanding of Calvin and the scope of his work and writing in a clear, accessible fashion.