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A revealing new portrait of John Calvin that captures his human complexity—and the sixteenth-century world in which he fought his personal and theological battles

“A very stimulating book—extensive, detailed, in many respects brilliant.”

—Euan Cameron,

Union Theological Seminary

“Bruce Gordon’s lively new biography presents Calvin embedded in his sur-roundings, developing his ideas as events unfolded.”

—Merry Wiesner-Hanks,

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

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During the glory days of the French Renaissance, young John Calvin (b. July 10, 1509, d. May 27, 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 in this engaging biography 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.

 

Additional Information

• Size: 234 wide x 156 height x 0 deep mm
• Weight: 0 gms
• Ages:0

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