Calvin's Institutes

[Greg]

I'm just beginning reading Calvin's Institutes for the first time. Where can I go to learn more about why Calvin wrote it, what he was addressing specifically, more or less the backdrop behind his writing the Institutes?

 

[MW]

There is a mass of Calviniana, but Ford Lewis Battles' "Interpreting John Calvin," part 1, 'The Origin and Structure of Calvin's Theology,' is a good place to start.

 

[VaughanRSmith]

Make sure you read the Battles translation. I started reading Beveridge, and it took me a year to finish the first volume. I'm waiting until I can afford the new Battles edition to read the next volume. Beveridge is very difficult.

 

[Greg]

Thanks Rev. Winzer.

Hi Vaughan, yes I have the Battles edition. I've only read a little so far, but it reads pretty easy, I like it.

Thanks again for the recommendations.

 

[VaughanRSmith]

Good, good. I really felt hamstrung by the Beveridge translation. Not something you can read before bed!

 

[JM]

Try this free course here.

 

[Anton Bruckner]

Make sure you read the Battles translation. I started reading Beveridge, and it took me a year to finish the first volume. I'm waiting until I can afford the new Battles edition to read the next volume. Beveridge is very difficult.

Beveridge is the best. shame, shame, shame on you for not honoring the sophisticated writing style of beveridge.

 

[VaughanRSmith]

Make sure you read the Battles translation. I started reading Beveridge, and it took me a year to finish the first volume. I'm waiting until I can afford the new Battles edition to read the next volume. Beveridge is very difficult.

Beveridge is the best. shame, shame, shame on you for not honoring the sophisticated writing style of beveridge.

I decided, after a while, that commas, and compounded sentences, while useful, in some situations, really got to me, although I am a patient man, in a way that made my head, with brown hair, spin.

 

[Ivan]

Make sure you read the Battles translation. I started reading Beveridge, and it took me a year to finish the first volume. I'm waiting until I can afford the new Battles edition to read the next volume. Beveridge is very difficult.

Beveridge is the best. shame, shame, shame on you for not honoring the sophisticated writing style of beveridge.

I decided, after a while, that commas, and compounded sentences, while useful, in some situations, really got to me, although I am a patient man, in a way that made my head, with brown hair, spin.

 

[Philip A]

I'm just beginning reading Calvin's Institutes for the first time. Where can I go to learn more about why Calvin wrote it, what he was addressing specifically, more or less the backdrop behind his writing the Institutes?

Muller's The Unaccomodated Calvin is a must.

 

[reformedman]

In my paperback edition of calvin's commentaries, it gives a little history about the pressures placed on him to write of which I didn't read about (or missed) anywhere else.

 

[py3ak]

Richard Muller prefers Beveridge.

 

[JohnOwen007]

What's really important in all this is to remember that Calvin intended his Institutes to be read side-by-side with his commentaries. Calvin (after his time in Strassbourg) saw his commentary writing as his chief task. His commentaries would give a running explication of the text of Scripture, and if the reader wanted to follow up on particular theological topics (loci) they should go to the Institutes.

People like Martin Bucer attempted to combine both theological and textual comment in his Romans commentary but it became unwieldy, extending into many volumes. We do Calvin's Institutes a disservice if we think it's like a modern Systematic Theology.

As for translations of the Institutes Beveridge is more exact, but Battles is easier to read;it has some very infelicitous renderings of the underlying Latin. The indexes in Battles are brilliant.

 

[CalvinandHodges]

Greetings:

Read Calvin's prefaces to the Institutes. I wrote a paper for my History of Apologetics class on the Apologetic approach of John Calvin (in which I got an A!) It may be of some help to you in reading Calvin. If you are interested, then PM me with your email address and I will send it to you.

Enjoy your reading!

-CH