Call number
Publication
Richmond, VA: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1900
Physical description
94 p.; 23 cm
Notes
The full text of this work may be accessed in several digital formats, at https://archive.org/details/johncalvingeneva00john
Opening words, from the Preface:
We offer to the public, in the present form, our lectures on John Calvin and the Genevan Reformation, as given during the present session, 1899-1900. they were intended to serve as a supplement to class-book instructions, to correct, as we see things, some current misrepresentations, and to give emphasis to certain features of Calvin's teaching and life adjudged by us to be of special value as means to the enlargement of Christian manhood and the production of holy living. Nevertheless, it is hoped that it may be granted that we have fairly called it a sketch of Calvin's life and of the movement in Geneva of which he was the heart.
While the lectures were designed to meet the needs of our students as we conceive them, designed through them to affect the life of our Southern Zion, we hope that intelligent men in our church generally, and in other Calvinistic churches who have not time to read long biographies, will find in our "Sketch" a clear outline of the "Great John of Geneva" and his work; and we are perfectly assured that the men of our day ought to acquaint themselves with the character of Calvin. A thorough acquaintance with Calvin would prove a powerful uplifting force in all who love God, and would fill with veneration and awe for the majesty of Calvin's character a large portion of the unregenerate multitude, and that, too, the nobler portion of that multitude.
It is hoped by some of our wide-awake pastors that history classes may be formed amongst their young men and women for the common study of the past of our own faith, polity, worship and life, and thus the life of the present church be deepened and broadened by close contact with those great epochs in the Reformed faith in which God opened the windows of heaven and poured out his blessings upon His waiting church. We have not been able to throttle the wish that this little book might come to be so used; and if that should happen, we would undertake, with the blessing of God, to follow it soon with similar sketches on the Reformation in the Netherlands, in England, and in Scotland, and in France.
Finally, we pray to the God of all grace, who gave John Calvin to Geneva and to the world, to use these pages in creating in every one who shall read them that supreme love to God, that sense of personal responsibility, that combination of purity, strength and sweetness which the Calvinistic system, beyond any other, has been creating in the past.
T.C.J.
Union Theological Seminary
Richmond, Va., December 25, 1899.
CONTENTS
Preface.
Bibliography [pp. 7-10]
Chapter I.
General Statement.--Divisions of Calvin's Life.--Origin of the Genevan Reformation.--Its Progress.|
Chapter II.
Calvin's Childhood and Youth : The Period of his Training under the Parental Roof and in Schools till his Sudden Conversion in 1532 and Determination to the Service of Christianity.--Birth and Parentage.--His Education.--His Conversion and Further Education.--His First Literary Venture.--Determination to the Service of Christianity.
Chapter III.
The Period of Calvin's Elaboration of the Doctrines of the Holy Scriptures, Embodied Chiefly in his Immortal Institutes, 1532-1541.--Open Break with the Church of Rome.--A Wandering Evangelist in France, 1533-'34.--In Exile in Basle : The Production of the Institutes.--Travelling in Italy and France under the Name of Charles d'Espeville, 1535-1536.--The Reformation in Geneva Prior to Calvin's Coming, 1535-1536.--Calvin's First Period in Geneva, 1536-1538.--Calvin in Strasburg.--Still the Head of the Genevan Church, 1538-1541.
Chapter IV.
The Period of his Establishment and Defense of, as Scriptural, of an Order of Ecclesiastical Polity, Corresponding to his System of Faith, Which is Known as Presbyterianism, 1541-1549.--Calvin's Labors in this Period.--Distinctive Principles of Calvin's Ecclesiastical Polity.--His Struggles with the Patriots and Libertines in Behalf of Discipline.--The Death of his Wife in 1549.
Chapter V.
The Period of Calviin's Great Controversies Waged with the Purpose of Advancing Union Amongst Bodies of Evangelical Christians and Maintaining the Truth of his System, 1549-1564.--Calvin's Labors and Achievements, 1549-1564.--The Agreement with the Zurichers on the Lord's Supper : An Instance of Calvin's Irenical Efforts.--The Controversy with Servetus, an Illustration of Calvin's Honor to God's Word as he Understood and to the Unity of the Church.--Calvin's Death.--Some of his Characteristics.
Chapter VI.
The Influence of John Calvin.--Not Perpetuated by Imposing Tomb.--His Influence on Civil and Religious Liberty.--The Conserving Power of Calvinism in Protestant Church Life.--Conclusion.
Opening words, from the Preface:
We offer to the public, in the present form, our lectures on John Calvin and the Genevan Reformation, as given during the present session, 1899-1900. they were intended to serve as a supplement to class-book instructions, to correct, as we see things, some current misrepresentations, and to give emphasis to certain features of Calvin's teaching and life adjudged by us to be of special value as means to the enlargement of Christian manhood and the production of holy living. Nevertheless, it is hoped that it may be granted that we have fairly called it a sketch of Calvin's life and of the movement in Geneva of which he was the heart.
While the lectures were designed to meet the needs of our students as we conceive them, designed through them to affect the life of our Southern Zion, we hope that intelligent men in our church generally, and in other Calvinistic churches who have not time to read long biographies, will find in our "Sketch" a clear outline of the "Great John of Geneva" and his work; and we are perfectly assured that the men of our day ought to acquaint themselves with the character of Calvin. A thorough acquaintance with Calvin would prove a powerful uplifting force in all who love God, and would fill with veneration and awe for the majesty of Calvin's character a large portion of the unregenerate multitude, and that, too, the nobler portion of that multitude.
It is hoped by some of our wide-awake pastors that history classes may be formed amongst their young men and women for the common study of the past of our own faith, polity, worship and life, and thus the life of the present church be deepened and broadened by close contact with those great epochs in the Reformed faith in which God opened the windows of heaven and poured out his blessings upon His waiting church. We have not been able to throttle the wish that this little book might come to be so used; and if that should happen, we would undertake, with the blessing of God, to follow it soon with similar sketches on the Reformation in the Netherlands, in England, and in Scotland, and in France.
Finally, we pray to the God of all grace, who gave John Calvin to Geneva and to the world, to use these pages in creating in every one who shall read them that supreme love to God, that sense of personal responsibility, that combination of purity, strength and sweetness which the Calvinistic system, beyond any other, has been creating in the past.
T.C.J.
Union Theological Seminary
Richmond, Va., December 25, 1899.
CONTENTS
Preface.
Bibliography [pp. 7-10]
Chapter I.
General Statement.--Divisions of Calvin's Life.--Origin of the Genevan Reformation.--Its Progress.|
Chapter II.
Calvin's Childhood and Youth : The Period of his Training under the Parental Roof and in Schools till his Sudden Conversion in 1532 and Determination to the Service of Christianity.--Birth and Parentage.--His Education.--His Conversion and Further Education.--His First Literary Venture.--Determination to the Service of Christianity.
Chapter III.
The Period of Calvin's Elaboration of the Doctrines of the Holy Scriptures, Embodied Chiefly in his Immortal Institutes, 1532-1541.--Open Break with the Church of Rome.--A Wandering Evangelist in France, 1533-'34.--In Exile in Basle : The Production of the Institutes.--Travelling in Italy and France under the Name of Charles d'Espeville, 1535-1536.--The Reformation in Geneva Prior to Calvin's Coming, 1535-1536.--Calvin's First Period in Geneva, 1536-1538.--Calvin in Strasburg.--Still the Head of the Genevan Church, 1538-1541.
Chapter IV.
The Period of his Establishment and Defense of, as Scriptural, of an Order of Ecclesiastical Polity, Corresponding to his System of Faith, Which is Known as Presbyterianism, 1541-1549.--Calvin's Labors in this Period.--Distinctive Principles of Calvin's Ecclesiastical Polity.--His Struggles with the Patriots and Libertines in Behalf of Discipline.--The Death of his Wife in 1549.
Chapter V.
The Period of Calviin's Great Controversies Waged with the Purpose of Advancing Union Amongst Bodies of Evangelical Christians and Maintaining the Truth of his System, 1549-1564.--Calvin's Labors and Achievements, 1549-1564.--The Agreement with the Zurichers on the Lord's Supper : An Instance of Calvin's Irenical Efforts.--The Controversy with Servetus, an Illustration of Calvin's Honor to God's Word as he Understood and to the Unity of the Church.--Calvin's Death.--Some of his Characteristics.
Chapter VI.
The Influence of John Calvin.--Not Perpetuated by Imposing Tomb.--His Influence on Civil and Religious Liberty.--The Conserving Power of Calvinism in Protestant Church Life.--Conclusion.