The Protestant Reformation: John Calvin

"This book attempts to understand Calvin in his sixteenth-century context, with attention to continuities and discontinuities between his thought and that of his predecessors, contemporaries, and successors. Richard Muller is particularly interested in the interplay between theological and philosophical themes common to Calvin and the medieval doctors, and in developments in rhetoric and method associated with humanism."--Publisher description.

Dr. Niesel shows that previous efforts to understand Calvinistic thought on the basis of structure or in terms of some "central doctrine" served only to compound the contradictions with which scholars are so familiar in this area. Continuing failure, however, educed the keener insight that the real problem of Calvin's theology springs from the fact that it attempts seriously to be theology. "This means," the author declares,"in Calvin's doctrine it is a question of the content of all contents - the living God. The effort to bear witness to him makes itself felt both in structure and substance." But does this thesis really correspond to Calvin's own intentions? That, says Dr. Niesel, is precisely what we must discover. -Jacket.

This volume translates selected works of John Calvin (1509-1564), the great reformer of Geneva, with special emphasis on his piety.

"The Bondage and Liberation of the Will" is undoubtedly the most significant of Clavin's works hitherto not translated into English. This is in striking contrast to Luther's study on the same topic, which is one of his best-known publications. While Calvin's work may not be of such crucial significance as Luther's, it is still his fullest treatment of the relation between grace and free will, and contains important material not found elsewhere in his writings. It also contains far more discussion of the early church fathers than does any other of Calvin's works,apart from the Institutes. It is high time that this major work is made available to those whose knowledge of Calvin is confined to English translations. -Back cover.

"Calvinism and the Amyraut Heresy" advances the challenging thesis that the Calvinism commonly accepted today is not an accurate representation of Calvin's thinking.This evaluation is presented through a detailed examination of the controversial doctrines of the seventeenth-century French theologian Moise Amyraut, whose Calvinism was challenged in his lifetime by his own colleagues.-Jacket.

This book, a sequel to the author's well-received Luther in Context (1986, Indiana), illuminates Calvin's thought by placing it in the context of the theological and exegetical traditions--ancient, medieval, and contemporary-- that formed it and contributed to its particular texture. Steinmetz addresses a range of issues almost as wide as the Reformation itself, including the knowledge of God, the problem of iconoclasm, the doctrines of justification and predestination, and the role of the state and the civil magistrate.

This volume grew out of a conference jointly sponsored by the Calvin Studies Society and the University of Notre Dame, and both the content and the spirit of the book reflect that collaboration. The contributors have much to offer their readers with regard to both Calvin studies and contemporary ecumenical dialogue. Three themes emerge in these studies. The first is that Calvin himself intended not to form a new tradition but to restore the Catholic Church to a truer form. The second theme concerns Calvin's engagement with contemporaries who remained within the Roman Catholic Church, some of whom were evangelical in their theology. Finally, this volume illustrates that some of the best contemporary research on Calvin is being done by Roman Catholics and that the Catholic and Protestant traditions have much to learn from each other. - Publisher.