Although the Institutes itself grew five-fold from its first to the fifth edition, the contents of the Preface written to King Francis I remained largely the same. Precedent for publishing an introductory theological essay to the King had been set…
A reader asked about the different English translations of Calvin’s Institutes. Any translation would probably be serviceable in understanding Calvin’s main intent. We will be using the Battles/McNeill translation for blogging through the Institutes. There are four main English translators/translations:…
The Institutes begins with an introductory, “To the Reader” making references to the unexpected “success” of “the first edition” (1536), the “summary” nature of its contents, the publication of further editions (in Latin: 1539, 1543, 1550 and 1559; and in…
That’s why I am excitedly looking forward to reading through The Institutes with the Ref21 gang. Calvin was an incredibly fruitful discipler of man. By God’s grace he turned out hundreds of men for the ministry, shaping them according to…
A helpful book to have in your library is A Theological Guide to Calvin’s Institutes: Essays and Analysis, ed. David Hall and Peter Lillback. J.I. Packer has a most helpful foreword, which is a helpful preface to reading the Institutes…
Why should you read through Calvin’s Institutes with the lads here at ref21 as we blog through this work every weekday of 2009? Ten reasons: 1. Because it the most important book written in the last 500 years. 2. Because…
I remember where I was when I got my very first copy of Calvin’s Institutes. I was crossing the Minch on the Caledonian Macbrayne ferry that takes over two and a half hours to travel between my native Isle of…
Some find it misguided to praise men. It was, after all, the Corinthian problem that they openly declared their allegiance to men: Apollos, Paul, or Peter. In doing so they caused major divisions in the Corinthian church. But we are…
