Calvin's "Institutes"

[bookslover]

I'm currently making my first trip through it. It's marvelous, but I must admit it can be frustrating reading a book written before the first editors were born. Calvin makes all the points he needs to make, but it takes him oceans and oceans of words to do so.

I think a modern editor or publisher might tell him, "Jack, we'd like to publish it, but it needs to be tightened up considerably. Let us introduce you to Rose Bluepencil. I think she can help you. She says there's a really good book on Christian theology buried in there, somewhere..."

 

[ZackF]

There were numerous versions of the Institutes in Calvin's own lifetime. The first edition was essentially a tract.

 

[MW]

Calvin makes all the points he needs to make, but it takes him oceans and oceans of words to do so.

Mapping the oceans is important to land discovery, especially when we have seen so many lost at sea because they have gone looking for doctrine on the basis of a false premise.

 

[Captain Picard]

Honestly I disagree. I like just about every word of the Institutes.

 

[timfost]

Honestly I disagree. I like just about every word of the Institutes.

One thing that stands out in the Institutes is that Calvin was very concerned to apply the doctrine to life. This translates to more words, but helps the doctrines sink past the head and into the heart. Even if I could provide the best argument on every point of doctrine, if the doctrine does not affect and change my life, it's useless. The only other reformer I've come across that really applies like Calvin is Thomas Watson. They are both very devotional.

 

[DMcFadden]

I LOVED the Institutes and consider it one of the most important books I have ever read!

If reading it is difficult for you, use one of the modern translations and have Analysis of the Institutes of the Christian Religion of John Calvin by Battles (ISBN-10: 0875521827) next to you as you read.

 

[VictorBravo]

I LOVED the Institutes and consider it one of the most important books I have ever read!

Same here. I've read the Beveridge and Battles translations and noted the differences. Battles is an easier read, Beveridge is more like the old language of the Latin (which I don't read very well).

So then I went back and read most of the middle French version (one version found here) to get the full flavor of it. It is indeed worth all the effort to get to know Calvin's thought in his own words.

 

[Tirian]

I'm currently making my first trip through it. It's marvelous, but I must admit it can be frustrating reading a book written before the first editors were born. Calvin makes all the points he needs to make, but it takes him oceans and oceans of words to do so.

I think a modern editor or publisher might tell him, "Jack, we'd like to publish it, but it needs to be tightened up considerably. Let us introduce you to Rose Bluepencil. I think she can help you. She says there's a really good book on Christian theology buried in there, somewhere..."

I'm with you - but not only Calvin! Notwithstanding the enormous debt we owe these men and without any disrespect whatsoever, fewer trees needed to die for the cause

 

[aadebayo]

I started studying it last year. I am currently 60% through it. It has been a blessing. The version that I am studying is below.

Translated in 1845 (9781598561685)

 

[py3ak]

For its genre, Calvin's book isn't exceptionally long.

One popular edition is 1059 pages long.

• Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics are 3024.
• Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica is 3020.
• Chafer's Systematic Theology is 2880.
• Pieper's Christian Dogmatics are 2722.
• Hodge's Systematic Theology is 2400.
• Turretin's Institutes are 2311.
• Erickson's Christian Theology is 1312.
• R.D. Culver's Systematic Theology is 1304.
• Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology is 1296.
• Peter Lombard's Sentences are 1192.
• Michael Horton's The Christian Faith is 1056.
• Berkhof's Systematic Theology is 992.
• The 1-volume abridgment of Bavinck's Dogmatics is 864.
• W.G.T. Shedd's Dogmatic Theology is 816.
• Bavinck's Our Reasonable Faith is 576.

It comes with the territory of discussing the whole range of Christian doctrine that even lucid brevity can only be so brief without becoming cryptic or misleading.

 

[bookslover]

I started studying it last year. I am currently 60% through it. It has been a blessing. The version that I am studying is below.

Translated in 1845 (9781598561685)

That's the one I'm reading: Beveridge's translation, in the 1-volume Hendrikson edition published during the Calvinpalooza in 2009.

Let me repeat that I'm a fan of Calvin. It just takes him so long - he's very discursive.

 

[joebonni63]

I like Calvin's Institutes great reading so much so that we need to sent several copies to Congress and the Pope. The Pope probably wont read it due to the fact he still needs to read the Bible.

 

[py3ak]

I like Calvin's Institutes great reading so much so that we need to sent several copies to Congress and the Pope. The Pope probably wont read it due to the fact he still needs to read the Bible.

I don't know about Francis, but Benedict XVI was given a copy of the Institutes and at the presentation evidenced some pre-existing acquaintance with it.

 

[Captain Picard]

I think it's giving the pope a little too much credit to assume he hasn't read the Bible.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

I love Calvin's Institutes. I suppose if I ever write a book that was still read widely centuries after my death then I might wonder at whether modern editors would improve upon my work.

 

[Peairtach]

Calvin's Institutes is a model of simple and lucid writing but may he may belabour a subject in one or two places.

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