A Special on Calvin Resources

For a limited time (the website doesn't say exactly how limited), Reformation Heritage Books is offering Henry Beveridge translated edition of John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion and J. Mark Beach's new book, Piety's Wisdom: A Summary of Calvin's Institutes with Study Questions for just $25.  I think the Battles translation of the Institutes is better but you can definitely do just fine with Beveridge's edition and while I haven't read it the excerpt from Beach's book certainly looks helpful.  The offer is available here.

Michael Horton on the "Two Kingdoms"

Listeners to the White Horse Inn or those who read articles by many of the Professors with Dr. Horton at Westminster Seminary California have probably at least heard of Two Kingdoms theology. Most simply put, this position argues that we have to maintain a strict separation between the kingdom of Christ, realized in the church, and the kingdom of the state. David VanDrunen from WSC has a book coming out this winter on the subject and Jason Stellman, a PCA Pastor in the Pacific Northwest Presbytery, recently wrote Dual Citizens: Worship and Life Between the Already and Not Yet.

Mike Horton has recently published three blog post addressing what he sees as some common misconceptions about two kingdom theology:

• The "Two Kingdoms" doctrine is a distinctly Lutheran view
• The "Two Kingdoms" doctrine encourages individualistic and passive view of the church's role in culture today
• The "Two Kingdoms" doctrine denies the presence of Christ's kingdom today

I want to preface the following by noting that I do not subscribe to the two kingdoms doctrine. I do think that the latter two arguments that Horton addresses are strawmen. However I do find Two Kingdoms doctrine to be an overly simplistic attempt to set forth a doctrine of church and culture and I do think the criticism that modern articulations of it are a Lutheran doctrine are valid and that Horton does not adequately answer this in his post. We should clarify that even if it is a Lutheran doctrine that this is not a sufficient reason to reject it but rather that our concern is that it is not a biblically or confessionally consistent way to address the relationship between church and culture.

When we examine the historical underpinnings of this doctrine we first need to note that Calvin, while explicitly separating the spiritual kingdom and the civil jurisdiction, does not go so far as to say that the spiritual kingdom is limited to the church. Instead he teaches that the civil jurisdiction has spiritual and religious duties imposed upon it by Christ as King. He writes that the state has the duty "to cherish and protect the outward worship of God, to defend sound doctrine of piety and the position of the church." (Institutes, 2:1487). Calvin goes on to say that civil government must “prevent idolatry, sacrilege against God’s name, blasphemies against his truth, and other public offenses against religion from arising and spreading among the people.” (Institutes, 2:1488) Further, Calvin explicitly gives the government the power to rightly establish religion. (Institutes, 2:1488) He states that the magistrate is charged “to promote religion, to maintain the worship of God, and to take care that sacred ordinances be observed with due reverence.” (Commentaries on the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, 52) Calvin also argues that the civil government must be concerned with both tables of the Law and not only the second. He argued that it would be folly to suppose that God gave magistrates the authority to judge over earthly controversies but then forbade them from enforcing the pure worship of God who is the source of their authority. (Institutes, 2:1495) Ultimately Calvin places the same limitations on the civil government in establishing laws that he does on the church in directing the exercise of religion; that neither can go beyond Scripture (Institutes, 2:1156-7; 1488).

On this basis Calvin's separation of the civil jurisdiction and the spiritual kingdom differs radically from that of Luther and Melanchthon and also from more modern articulations. Neither Calvin nor his immediate spiritual descendents ever argued for a modern separation of church and state in Geneva (nor did Bullinger or his students in Zurich). In fact, Beza and Bullinger wrote a strongly worded condemnations of the English regicide of Charles II following the English Civil War and Beza's counsel to the French Reformers enduring persecution was that their resistance could only extend so far as obedience to the king required disobedience to God and that he did not argue for an armed rebellion (Doug Kelly's book, The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World, is very good on this subject).

It should be noted that as Reformed and Calvinist political developed from Calvin that it did not do so in the same two kingdoms direction as Lutheran theology and that this can be seen on both sides of the Atlantic. In England and Scotland the Westminster Confession of Faith included a chapter regarding the duties of the civil magistrate to govern only in accordance with Scripture. In America the Presbyterians argued that, while church and state were separate, believers have the responsibility to enter the political sphere as representatives of the Prince of Peace. They insisted that civil government could only work with theistic principles and that this implies that while people should have freedom of religion that civil freedom only extends so far as what men have the moral right to do. In the Continental Reformed churches the influence of Abraham Kuyper and his ideas of antithesis and common grace led to a separation of church and state with the understanding that all spheres are under the rule of Christ.

Ultimately we have to find that the Reformed tradition does not give the state the liberal license that the modern articulation of the Two Kingdoms doctrine does. Instead, the Reformed tradition insists that Jesus Christ is King and that all authority on heaven and on earth has been given to him. This means that all individuals and institutions are called to submit to Christ's Lordship and that ultimately this is a gospel call. So the Reformed tradition teaches that this submission is not realized through a state establishment of religion but rather through equiping believers to put on the new man, not just in their church activities, but in every sphere of human activity and then to always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks a reason for the hope that is within us, with meekness and fear.

It's worth closing by quoting R.L. Dabney's encouragement to Christians in the North and the South before the Civil War broke out. He writes:

But alas! how often do we go on Monday to the hustings, after having appeared on the Sabbath as servants of the Prince of Peace and brethren of all his servants, and in our political action forget that we are Christians? Here, then, is our first need, if we would save our country: that we shall carry out citizenship in the kingdom of heaven everywhere, and make it dominate over every public act. ("Christians, Pray for Your Country")

Calvin's Institutes and other Systematics works

Tom asked in a comment to the last post for a few notes on the various editions to Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. I'm only going to reference the four editions available from the WTS Bookstore because anything else you can find either isn't in English or is probably too expensive to be worth looking at.

The main editions that are available are the Beveridge translation and the Battles translation edited by John McNeill. Both of these are good. The main differences are general readability and the Scripture references. The Battles version is a better English translation in that it's a lot easier to read. The language is closer to modern English and you can get through it very quickly. McNeill also provides some footnotes describing opponents that Calvin occasionally references. The main problem is in the Scripture references (more on that to follow).

The Beveridge translation is an older one and so it does not read as easily as the Battles one. The main advantage is that unlike McNeill/Battles, Beveridge did not add Scripture references into the text. When Calvin wrote his Institutes he intended for them to be read along with his Commentaries. When you see a Scripture reference in the Institutes it was meant to serve as a sort of footnote so that you couldthen turn to the Commentaries on that passage and see the exegesis that lies behind Calvin's systematic presentation of the teaching of Scripture. This really illustrates how strongly Calvin's work in systematic theology is tied to his Biblical exegesis and how that has been the Reformed tradition following in his footsteps. The problem with the McNeill/Battles edition is that they add references to the text but do not note which references are original and which are editing. This makes it more difficult to move back and forth between the Institutes and the Commentaries as Calvin intended.

The other editions available are the 1536 edition (this is the first edition that Calvin wrote) and the 1541 French edition (Calvin himself translated his work from Latin to French several times so that it would be available to laity). These editions are really mainly only of advantage to people who want to look at the development of Calvin's thought over about 20 years between the first and final editions. One of the truly interesting things about Calvin is that unlike Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, and Bullinger he never changed his mind about any significant doctrinal point. The major differences lie in the order of presentation and what he expanded upon over the years.

In the end you really can't go wrong with either Battles or Beveridge. Personally, I think that it is worth the money to have both the Institutes and the Commentaries if you have the option. You ought to be able to find a package with all of the Commentaries and the Beveridge edition together for no more than $120. I think that's a great bargain and worth the price. If that's too much money for what is budgeted towards books then the Battles edition is an easier read if all you have is the Institutes. Beveridge is still a lot cheaper but you'll find Battles to be better going. One other thing that I would recommend with any option is the recent Theological Guide to Calvin's Institutes: Essays and Analysis. This is an extremely helpful resource on Calvin's theology. While it shouldn't replace reading Calvin it can be used as a great supplement and many of the writers do reference the Commentaries and other writings in their essays.

As an aside to this, I wanted to point people to a recent post by Wes White, a PCA pastor. Pastor White recommends a few systematic theologies that are pretty foundational from all of the options out there. All of his recommendations are very good though I probably wouldn't put Hodge quite as high just because of how much Scottish Common Sense Realism affects his prolegomena [first things] (it is rather interesting that Hodge is word-for-word with Turretin almost everywhere but in the first volume). I would also say that if you only ever have one Reformed Systematic Theology then you want either Herman Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics or Francis Turretin's Institutes of Elenctic Theology. If you can only get a one volume work then Van Genderen and Velema's Concise Reformed Dogmatics that is only recently available in English is probably your best bet. Finally, possibly in place of any of these (again, if you're limited if what you can get) I would recommend John Murray's Collected Writings. While Murray never wrote his own systematic theology (he worked from Hodge and Turretin at WTS) he covers nearly all of traditional categories in various essays and articles included here. I find Murray very lucid and you should enjoy his careful exegetical theology. Murray is also very sensitive to redemptive history, having been a student of Geerhardus Vos at Princeton.

Calvin books on Sale and Trueman on new Calvinism

Just a few quick things to highlight for you today. First, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary recently held a conference on Calvin and following it they are offering a number of books on the Geneva Reformer on sale through Reformed Heritage books. You can get all the details here. Howard Griffith, who spoke at the Shady Grove PCA conference on Calvin, suggested in a class I took with him that Herman Selderhuis might be the world's foremost scholar on Calvin today and you can find his most recent book on this list. I would also strongly recommend getting Calvin in the Public Square: Liberal Democracies, Rights, and Civil Liberties by David Hall. A very interesting book that not only deals with what Calvin's political and social theology was but also places it in the context of Augustine, Aquinas, and the earlier Reformers like Luther, Zwingli, and Farel. A very helpful book.

Second, here is an article from Carl Trueman about the new Calvinism movement, called "young, restless, and Reformed" in the book by Collin Hansen of the same title. I don't always agree with everything that Dr. Trueman rights but he is always insightful and thought-provoking. Take a look at his article and share your thoughts in the comments section.

Nevin vs. Hodge on the Lord's Supper

In the 19th there was a debate between John Williamson Nevin and Charles Hodge over the Reformed doctrine of the Lord's Supper. The debate arose from a book that Dr. Nevin wrote called The Mystical Presence. Dr. Hodge reviewed the book and took issue with several of Nevin's conclusions. Keith Mathison with Ligonier Ministries has posted links to the primary sources on this debate. For what it's worth, I think that Nevin's book is one of the two best resources on this subject and that he was right on this question. This was written during a very tumultuous time in American history and in American Presbyterianism in particular. As Chair of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, Hodge was involved in virtually every major theological debate of the period (and many political/social debates as well). When comparing Hodge's Systematic Theology on the Supper and Nevin's book there does not seem to be nearly as much disagreement as Hodge's review of Nevin's book suggests. I think that due to how busy he was Hodge did not take the time to carefully read and understand Nevin's work. Still, it is interesting to have access to all of this material and a good chance to deepen our understanding of what we believe about the sacrament.

Darryl Hart recently wrote a biography on Nevin for the American Reformed Biography series (the next volume to be published in this series will be on Charles Hodge) that I would recommend for trying to understand more of Nevin's theology and motivations.

Books to celebrate Calvin's birth

I wanted to put some book recommendations up in honor of today being the quincentenary of John Calvin's birth. This is a good opportunity to remember to thank and praise God for his providence in giving this Reformer, and all of the Protestant Reformers, to the church. I've divided recommendations into books by Calvin, about Calvin's life, about his theology (though these last categories can be tough to split sometimes), and then devotional books featuring Calvin's writing and thought. I have linked to Monergism books for these and check my last post for how to get free shipping on all orders of $25 or more.

Calvin's writings:

• Commentaries and Institutes of the Christian Religion - While this translation of the Institutes is not as readable as the one below it is valuable because the original Scripture reference are left untouched (the MacNeill/Battles translation adds additional notes) and so it is easier to go back and forth from the Institutes to the Commentaries. For only $140 (and you may be able to find cheaper elsewhere) it's definitely worth looking at for devotion and study material. I have this edition of the Commentaries and they look very stylish with a good binding. This is available as an older edition in the church library.
• Institutes of the Christian Religion - These volumes remain as important expositions of the teaching of Scripture. This is the best English translation available. This is available as an older edition in the church library.
• Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life - This little booklet is taken out of the Institutes and focuses on how to live as a devoted Christian. It's a very practical, pastoral, and helpful little book to have.
• On Prayer: Conversation with God - This is another good book taken from Calvin's Institutes on an aspect of the Christian life. Very encouraging.
• John Calvin's Sermons on Ephesians - As I mentioned on Sunday, the church in Geneva made a point of having Calvin's sermons transcribed as closely as possible and so they are available to us. This is a very helpful collection. This is available in the church library.
• John Calvin's Sermons on Galatians - This may be the best introductory point into Calvin's writing and teaching. Fantastically helpful. This is available in the church library.
• On the Bondage and Liberation of the Will - While this is very similar to Luther's On the Bondage of the Will it is less polemic against Erasmus (as this was the context for Luther's work) and more comprehensive in presenting the Reformed doctrine. It is also very interesting to compare Calvin and Luther with Edwards on this point to see where Edwards makes some pretty signficant modifications to the faith taught by Calvin and his successors in the Reformed church like Turretin and the other scholastics.

Calvin's life:

• The Piety of John Calvin: A Collection of His Spiritual Prose, Poems, and Hymns by Ford Lewis Battles - This is a fantastic book for getting a real glimpse of Calvin's character and spiritual devotion. Calvin is so often portrayed as a stoic intellectual and this does not fit the image of him that comes from his writings. Battles helpfully draws out the piety and love for God that Calvin had in this book. For musical folks out there the book includes six Psalms from the Psalter that Calvin wrote for Geneva with musical arrangements.
• John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology ed. by Burk Parsons - While some of the essays in this book get more at his teaching I think that on the whole this is a good book about Calvin's character and passion for various aspects of ministry in Geneva and to the neighboring nations. One of my top recommendations on this list.
• John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor by Robert Godfrey - This is a new book on Calvin that just recently came out. It is available on the church book table.
• John Calvin: A Pilgrim's Life by Herman J. Selderhuis - This is a new book on Calvin that I have not been able to read yet but has gotten some great reviews.
• John Calvin by Simonetta Carr - This is a fantastic children's book to introduce young readers to the Genevan Reformer.
• John Calvin and his Passion for the Majesty of God by John Piper - There's not a lot in here that is different from the write-up available on the Desiring God website but you may still find it to be a helpful introductory biography to Calvin. I should note that I think that Piper's response to the Servetus issue is pretty weak but he's pretty helpful on Calvin's second stay in Geneva as a whole and interactions with the libertines.
• John Calvin: His Life and Influence by Robert Reymond - This book is helpful in addressing many of the charicatures of Calvin out there.

Calvin's theology:

• A Theological Guide to Calvin's Institutes: Essays and Analysis ed. by David Hall and Peter Lillback - This is a fantastic reference manual to have on Calvin's theology by some of the greatest Reformed theologians and pastors of our day. They help to summarize Calvin's thought, often connecting his teaching in the Institutes to his Commentaries, sermons, and other writings. This is one of the most valuable items on this list.
• Calvin in the Public Square: Liberal Democracies, Rights, and Civil Liberties by David Hall - I just recently read this book for a paper I'm writing and found it to be very readable and engrossing. The short sections in the beginning surveying the views of Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Zwingli, and Farel and how they influenced Calvin's political theology alone are worth the price of the book and you're only 45 pages in!
• Calvin and the Atonement by Robert Peterson - This is a very helpful little book from Peterson that survey's Calvin's teaching about Christ's atonement and what that means for the salvation of sinners. This is more than just what Calvin had to say about the cross but surveys his teaching in general about the once-for-all work of Christ for our salvation.
• Given For You: Reclaiming Calvin's Doctrine of the Lord's Supper by Keith Mathison - This is a helpful book contrasting Calvin's teaching on the Supper with the almost Zwinglian view that even many Presbyterian and Reformed church unintentionally seem to support today.
• The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World by David Hall - In this book Hall examines ten important ways that Calvin's teaching has influenced thought in Western civilization since the Reformation.

Devotional material from Calvin:

• 365 Days with Calvin: A Collection of Daily Readings from the Writings of John Calvin ed. by Joel Beeke - A bit hard to start a devotional in July but it's worth picking up and working through in the coming year. For those who want something to use in their morning devotions Beeke has provided a goldmine.
• Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin on the Psalms - Calvin thought that the Psalms were "an anatomy of all parts of the soul." He believed that every experience and emotion in the Christian life was reflected in them. This makes this collection a helpful devotion in tracking through Christian experience.

An affordable version of Calvin's Institutes

I've maintained that John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion are an invaluable book that even lay people in the church should study and read. A new edition has recently been published that includes the full text in a single hardcover volume. It is available at Amazon for a $16.47 and at Reformation Heritage books for just $15. It does use the Henry Beveridge translation, which is a little older for modern readers and probably not quite as readable as the Ford Lewis Battles translation. On the other hand, it's also available for about $35 less.

Obama, Calvin, Fesko, and Lucas

A hodgepodge of things for today:

First, as I'm sure no one could have missed, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America yesterday. God commands that his people pray for the earthly leaders who have been set over them and promises that these prayers are pleasing to him (1 Tim. 2:1-4). When it comes to President Obama we might begin to wonder how we ought to pray for a leader who we may disagree with a number of important issues (particularly abortion). Ligon Duncan, pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi, answers that question. Further, Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, offers a prayer for President Obama on his inauguration that I think all Christians ought to be able to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second, Westminster Seminary California has concluded their conference on the legacy of John Calvin. You can purchase the mp3 files of the conference from the WSCAL bookstore.

Third, some seminary news for you. John Fesko, who is currently the pastor of Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church outside of Atlanta and adjunct Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Atlanta, has accepted a position as academic Dean and Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Seminary California. Rev. Fesko is the author of Justification: Understanding the Classic Reformed Doctrine and Last Things First: Unlocking Genesis with the Christ of Eschatology. The former is a fantastic book on the doctrine of justification and I highly recommend it to everyone and particularly anyone who has questions about newer false views of justification as are articulated in the New Perspective of Paul and Federal Vision theologies. The latter book is an introduction to the theological issues that are raised in Genesis 1-3 (what Fesko argues should be classified as protology). This is a very good book that will definitely get you thinking. Further, just published this week was a book that Fesko co-edited with Bryan Estelle and David Van Drunen titled The Law Is Not of Faith: Essays on Works and Grace in the Mosaic Covenant. This is in a box waiting for me on my doorstep now so hopefully I'll be able to offer some thoughts on it soon.

Finally, I wanted to point you to some resources that have been made available by Sean Michael Lucas, Assistant Professor of Church History at Covenant Theological Seminary. Dr. Lucas wrote a book titled On Being Presbyterian: Our Beliefs, Practices, and Stories. This book is the best introduction to Presbyterianism that I have read. I do not know if it is quoted in the book for Presbyterian Theology that I prepared for Sunday School but I can assure you that much of the reason that we focus on Presbyterian Theology as opposed to "Calvinism" or "Reformed Theology" more broadly is due to this book. I highly recommend it (Shady Grove PCA provides it to those who take the Inquirers' Class along with a copy of the Westminster Confession of Faith and a binder on practices at Shady Grove). At the Covenant Theological Seminary website you can now access powerpoint files to go along with this book. These might be helpful in reading along with the book. Dr. Lucas is also the author of a biography of Robert Lewis Dabney that is very good.

Hopefully another post later today.

Calvin Questions

I just saw that it's been a week since I've posted something on here. Apologies for that. With the break in Sunday School I don't have quite as much that I feel like I need to get up here. I am working on an essay on Robert Lewis Dabney (as promised) and I will be putting that up in a series of posts in a few days when I finish.

For now I wanted to put something up responding to two of the really interesting questions that I remembered from the Q&A session with Dr. Griffith at the Calvin Conference this past weekend. First, one person asked a question relating to Calvin's millennial views (and eschatological views more broadly). Dr. Griffith pointed out that this really was not a topic during Calvin's time as it is now. Carrying this a bit farther we should emphasize that the American and English focus on millennial viewpoints is rather unique. Well through the second half of the 20th century this simply was not a question for Reformed believers on the continent. Even today it is simply assumed that Dutch, German, and French Reformed believers have an amillennial viewpoint (though it is not usually called that since there isn't much of an opposing view that they need to argue against) unless they go out of their way to distance themselves from that perspective.

Instead the millennial debate really began with the work of Joseph Mede (an early 17th century professor of divinity at Cambridge). Mede advocated a literal thousand year reign of Christ that would proceed the second coming. Without going into the details of his eschatology this was the first serious articulation of historic premillennialism (very different from dispensational premillennialism as we find in the Left Behind novels) that was later picked up by students of Mede and also by men like Jonathan Edwards. Many of the Westminster divines were historic premillennialists (the rest were amillennialists with a few exceptions). Postmillennialism, in its present form, did not really appear in any real strength until the 20th century in America (though there are some figures who at least appear to advocate eschatological views similar to modern postmillennialism they are not identical) as closely tied to the theonomy movement.

This helps to emphasize the danger of different millennial viewpoints trying to claim Calvin as teaching a particular option in the above debate. This simply was not a question for Calvin (nor for his students and successors such as Theodore Beza and Francis Turretin). Similarly it was not a question for Herman Bavinck at the beginning of the 20th century. So Calvin did not write in language that was sensitive to this debate and did not temper his statements to acknowledge these different views. We can make some educated assumptions about where he may have landed based on other things he taught about eschatology but we cannot ascribe a definite position to him. For more on this general topic however I would recommend going over to the Reformed Forum and searching for "Jeff Jue." They conducted a discussion forum with Dr. Jue (church history at WTS) on the eschatological views of the Westminster Assembly. It's a little over an hour long but very good and informative. Dr. Jue's dissertation is available on google books but it is a dissertation and so is tough reading since it is written at a high academic level.

The other question that struck me was closely related as it asked what the relationship was between Calvin and Calvinism. I thought that Dr. Griffith's answer was very helpful in saying that there are certain aspects of Calvinism (or more broadly the Reformed faith) that are not clearly articulated in Calvin though his name is on them. Still this reflects the development of theology and new debates that have arisen since then. Much of this is related to the claims of Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, and the other neo-orthodox (also known as dialectic) theologians who tried to drive a dividing wedge between Calvin and the Protestant/Reformed Scholastics on the issues of predestination and definite atonement. For anyone who was curious I wanted to link to a few books that are focused on this exact topic:

• Christ and the Decree: Christology and Predestination in Reformed Theology from Calvin to Perkins by Richard Muller - Much of Richard Muller's work has been specifically directed to answer this charge that there is a vast gulf between Luther, Zwingli, Bullinger, and especially Calvin and the Scholastics who followed like Theodore Beza, Peter de Vermigli, Francis Turretin, and others. This book is focused on those issues brought up by neo-orthodoxy. This is a very educational book on Predestination and Christology and I think that you would find it very helpful even if you aren't wondering about the relationship of Calvin and Calvinism.
• Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics by Richard Muller - This is far deeper and more comprehensive than most people need to go on this subject but since it is a $200 set available for $80 I wanted to make people aware of it. Muller contends that 16th and 17th century Reformed thought is badly misrepresented in the church and so he presents the writings and teachings of the Scholastics on a number of topics but centrally theological prolegomena (first things), Scripture, theology proper, and the Trinity.
• Protestant Scholasticism: Essay in Reassessment edited by Carl Trueman and Scott Clark - This is an anthology of essays all focused on the topic of Calvin and the Calvinists. A good book but written on an academic level where I think that the first book on this list will be more helpful.

A couple of things

A few miscellaneous things for today. First here is a post from Justin Taylor announcing that the number of abortions in the United States since Roe v. Wade in 1973 has reached 50 million. That is a staggering number. To put that in some perspective that would be an average of 1,428,571 children put to death a year for the last 35 years. It is more than six times the number of people killed in the holocaust (using high estimates). Taylor notes that it is roughly the living population of 24 of the 50 states (follow the link to see). This is certainly a call to weep and pray over the state of our nation and to pray that God would work to change the hearts and minds of our leaders to end this practice as God's law clearly tells us, "Thou shalt not murder."

Second, and only slightly less sobering, I wanted to point you to a recent article by Carl Trueman (Church History and Historical Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary) over at Reformation 21 ("Why Are There Never Enough Parking Spaces at the Prostate Clinic?"). Trueman critiques the fascination in the church today with cultural studies and contextualization. He does not want to say that we should never seek to cultural issues or use context to preach the gospel. Instead his concern is that culture is used as an excuse for lawlessness and that often cultural matters are proclaimed and discussed rather than the gospel and the Christian faith. I do not agree with everything that Dr. Trueman says but this is a very challenging article and I highly recommend reading it and thinking over his points.

Finally, a few weeks ago I finished reading John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, & Doxology edited by Burk Parsons. This book is meant to be an introduction to the life, thought, and writings of the Geneva Reformer. It includes essays by Derek Thomas, Sinclair Ferguson, D.G. Hart, Robert Godfrey, Eric Alexander, Richard Phillips, Jay Adams, Philip Graham Ryken, Michael Horton, Jerry Bridges, and Joel Beeke.

The opening essays are largely biographical and are intended to introduce Calvin's life and work. Several of them involve a brief biographical survey that is intended to place Calvin within the context of the Protestant Reformation (often forgotten by Reformed Christians is the fact that the first edition of Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1539 was led by Melancthon's Common Places in 1521, Luther's The Bondage of the Will in 1526, and Bullinger's work on the covenant in 1534). Calvin did not write and teach in a vacuum but was a part of a movement to reform the church from heretical doctrines. Accordingly readers of Calvin will see that he often quotes the early church fathers to show how the Roman Catholic Church had departed from the teaching of Scripture and the historical confession of Christ's church.

Several essays follow that seek to paint a picture of Calvin as a preacher, evangelist, counselor, and writer. These essays do much to dispel the common picture of Calvin as a stern dictator in Geneva, nodding in approval as heretics like Severtus are burned at the stake (the mythical views people seem to have of this story are dealt with in several essays). Instead the authors reveal Calvin as a pastor with a deep love for his congregation and their spiritual lives. Many people do not know that Calvin had married a widow and adopted the children from her first marriage. While the Severtus story is exagerated to discredit him very few discuss the house ministry that he led to visit plague victims and preach the gospel to them, often risking exposure himself.

The second half of the book analyzes the thought and teaching of Calvin of chief doctrinal points. This is not a survey of the Institutes but instead engages all of Calvin's writings on specific subjects (all of the doctrines of grace are given a seperate chapter though they were split out and articulated more clearly in the debate over the Remonstrants in the Netherlands that were a reaction to Calvinism several decades after the Reformer's death). I thought that Bridge's and Beeke's closing essays on Christian piety and prayer were particularly valuable. It should be emphasized that Calvin's intent in writing the Institutes was not to write on theology for theology's sake but it was intended to be a manual for the Christian life.

As a whole I thought that this was a very useful book. I think that it is a more friendly introduction to Calvin than the longer and more academic Theological Guide to Calvin's Institutes. I recommend it as a starting point into studying how God blessed his church through this gifted preacher and teacher and then moving on to read his Institutes for yourself.

Company through Calvin's Institutes

Anyone who's read here at all has probably caught onto the fact that I think that all believers ought to read John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. Now there's a new opportunity to do so. The normal contributors over at the Reformation21 blog will be blogging through the Institutes starting in January with daily posts on their reading. This is a great chance to simply read through Calvin in small chunks and also have some outstanding theologians commenting on the sections and giving insights into Calvin's ideas and theology.

The bloggers who should be helping out on this include Derek Thomas (Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson and Adjunct Professor of Systematic Theology at RTS Jackson), Iain Campbell (A Scottish Presbyterian Pastor), Ligon Duncan (Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson and Adjunct Professor of Systematic Theology at RTS Jackson), Sinclair Ferguson (PCA Pastor and Adjunct Professor of Systematic Theology at WTS), and Paul Helm (A Calvinist Theologian in England).

If you don't already have a copy of the Institutes then you can pick them up from Monergism Books at the link above. You can also read online (or download them as a .pdf file) from CCEL but they do not have the MacNeill/Battles edition available that way. That edition is certainly the easiest to read in the English.