Calvin A Biography

Author : Bernard Cottret
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 0567530353
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Calvin, A Biography written by Bernard Cottret and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2003-05-22 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major new authoritative and comprehensive biography, shedding new light on the life and personality of the great Reformer - and the milieu in which he lived and worked. Cottret's Calvin is not the 'static' theologian of earlier biographies, but a man of enormous vigour, constantly on the move in his thinking as well as in his life. Professor Cottret introduces the reader to the world into which Calvin was born, and follows him from childhood to humanistic and literary pursuits in Basel, to ministry in Geneva, to the halcyon Strasbourg years and finally back to Geneva. The vital issues of the day are encountered as it were through Calvin's eyes, as the author leads the reader through the dramatic upheavals of sixteenth-century Europe. A classic biography which will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars for years to come. Praise for Calvin: 'A tour de force. . . Cottret has avoided the trap of painting a character who would have had, from the beginning, all of the traits of his later years, and endeavours to show how Calvin became Calvin. . . Brilliant.' --Le Monde 'This excellent book regards the French Reformer with new eyes. . . Cottret mixes seriousness and welcome humour. For the public interested in a history of Protestanism, this book is full of reflections of the spirit of the Reformation.' --Les Livres du Mois "Bernard Cottret is an accomplished and successful writer . . . He has an idiosyncratic style that mixes narrative and professional bon mots of a cold philosophical nature . . . Cottret is also the first of recent biographers [. . .] to make extensive use of Calvin's sermons, many of which languished unpublished until recently. Calvin had grave doubts about the publication of such works and thought them fit only for a local and transitory audience; but it is here, in this less guarded medium, that Calvin's skill as a teacher and expositor shines forth with greatest clarity." --English Historical Review

Author : Alister E. McGrath
Publisher : Blackwell Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780631189473
Total Pages : 358 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Life of John Calvin written by Alister E. McGrath and published by Blackwell Publishing. This book was released on 1993-10-08 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the best sources for understanding the impact of John Calvin, McGrath's work updates The History and Character of Calvinism by John T. McNeill with a fascinating biography that also explores Calvin's cultural importance.

Author : T. H. L. Parker
Publisher : Presbyterian Publishing Corp
ISBN 13 : 0664231810
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book John Calvin written by T. H. L. Parker and published by Presbyterian Publishing Corp. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Calvin was one of the most important leaders of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. In this revision of his major biography, T. H. L. Parker explores Calvin's achievement against the backdrop of the turbulent times in which he lived. With clear and concise explanations of Calvin's theology, analyses of his major works, and insights into his preaching, this definitive biography brings this crucially important reformer and his world to life for readers.

Author : Bruce Gordon
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300159811
Total Pages : 423 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Calvin written by Bruce Gordon and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-21 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Author : Théodore de Bèze
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 124 pages
Book Rating : 4.61/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Life of John Calvin written by Théodore de Bèze and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Herman J. Selderhuis
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 0830829210
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

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Download or read book John Calvin: A Pilgrim's Life written by Herman J. Selderhuis and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2009-01-21 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professor and renowned Reformation historian Herman Selderhuis has written this book to bring Calvin near to the reader, showing him as a man who had an impressive impact on the development of the Western world, but who was first of all a believer who struggled with God and with the way God governed both the world and his own life.

Author : Bruce Gordon
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400880505
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion written by Bruce Gordon and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential biography of the most important book of the Protestant Reformation John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion is a defining book of the Reformation and a pillar of Protestant theology. First published in Latin in 1536 and in Calvin's native French in 1541, the Institutes argues for the majesty of God and for justification by faith alone. The book decisively shaped Calvinism as a major religious and intellectual force in Europe and throughout the world. Here, Bruce Gordon provides an essential biography of Calvin's influential and enduring theological masterpiece, tracing the diverse ways it has been read and interpreted from Calvin's time to today. Gordon explores the origins and character of the Institutes, looking closely at its theological and historical roots, and explaining how it evolved through numerous editions to become a complete summary of Reformation doctrine. He shows how the development of the book reflected the evolving thought of Calvin, who instilled in the work a restlessness that reflected his understanding of the Christian life as a journey to God. Following Calvin's death in 1564, the Institutes continued to be reprinted, reedited, and reworked through the centuries. Gordon describes how it has been used in radically different ways, such as in South Africa, where it was invoked both to defend and attack the horror of apartheid. He examines its vexed relationship with the historical Calvin—a figure both revered and despised—and charts its robust and contentious reception history, taking readers from the Puritans and Voltaire to YouTube, the novels of Marilynne Robinson, and to China and Africa, where the Institutes continues to find new audiences today.

Author : T. H. L. Parker
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1441131051
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Calvin written by T. H. L. Parker and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Calvin (1509-64) influence reaches from the Reformation to Karl Barth and beyond. Outstanding as biblical scholar, preacher and practical Church reformer, Calvin intended all his work to serve the Word of God. Although couched in 16th century terms, his theology drew on the wealth of previous Christian thought and continues to be relevant to the situation of the Church today.This book is a comprehensive introduction to the whole range of Calvin's theology. Concentrating on Calvin's major work The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Parker explains it's relevance to Christians of all times. This volume will give readers a full and serious sense of Calvin both as a Christian and as a thinker.

Author : W. Robert Godfrey
Publisher : Crossway
ISBN 13 : 1433521504
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book John Calvin written by W. Robert Godfrey and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2009-04-01 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to the essential life and thought of one of history's most influential theologians, who considered himself first and foremost a pilgrim and a pastor. July 10, 2009, marks the five-hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Calvin. As controversial as he was influential, his critics have named a judgmental and joyless attitude after him, while his admirers celebrate him as the principal theologian of Reformed Christianity. Yet his impact is unmistakable-a primary developer of western civilization whose life and work have deeply affected five centuries' worth of pastors, scholars, and individuals. What will surprise the readers of this book, however, is that Calvin did not live primarily to influence future generations. Rather, he considered himself first and foremost a spiritual pilgrim and a minister of the Word in the church of his day. It was from that "essential" Calvin that all his influence flowed. Here is an introduction to Calvin's life and thought and essence: a man who moved people not through the power of personality but through passion for the Word, a man who sought to serve the gospel in the most humble of roles.

Author : M. A. van den Berg
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0802862276
Total Pages : 279 pages
Book Rating : 4.73/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Friends of Calvin written by M. A. van den Berg and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2009-04-08 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In two dozen short, readable biographies of John Calvin s friends including some who turned into enemies Machiel A. van den Berg paints an intimate portrait of the great Reformer s life and circle that most of us have never seen. / Here we accompany Calvin from his early boyhood in Noyon to his student days in Paris and Orleans, to his pastorate in and exile from Geneva, all the way to his deathbed. We meet his famous Reformer friends William Farel, Martin Bucer, Philip Melanchthon, Heinrich Bullinger, John Knox, Theodore Beza and friends whose names are more obscure: his cousin Pierre Robert Olivtan, the first translator of the Bible into French; Rene de France of French royalty; Laurent de Normandie, the mayor of Noyon who later escaped to Geneva; Pierre Viret, his best friend of all ; and Idelette van Buren, his beloved wife during their brief but happy marriage. / Calvin may be known as a scholar who preferred his study to imperial and ecclesiastical politics, but he was also a rebel of faith against the papacy, which controlled most of the empires of Europe and had a price on the heads of all reform-minded citizens, especially their leaders. Peppered with quotations from Calvin s voluminous letters, Friends of Calvin abounds with secret court relationships, love affairs, death threats, poisonings, and narrow midnight escapes from the pursuing authorities showing a full-blooded and dangerous side of the bookish Reformer s life. Readers of these colorful narratives will come to see how much Calvin s friends influenced his life and thought. / This work provides fresh and accessible insights into John Calvin s inner circle. The highly readable translation offers vignettes that show the Reformer s capacity for deep and enduring relationships with friends and family members. Karin Maag / H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies, Calvin College and Seminary