Friends of Calvin
So far I have surprised myself by sticking to my intended reading list for the Summer, and have just finished Machiel A. Van Den Berg's excellent paperback, Friends of Calvin. This collection of twenty-four of Calvin's colleagues, contemporaries, relations, friends and (in some cases) treacherous allies helps to set Calvin's life in a very personal historical and social context. The author introduces us to friends from Calvin's youth, friends in high places, friends of the heart, friends from different places - all of which build a composite picture of a very human Calvin. I appreciated the discussions of Pierre Viret ('the best friend of all'), with its suggestion that Viret's image ought to have gone on the Reformation monument, and of John Knox ('a Scottish friend'), whose image did go on the wall to indicate the international character of Calvinism.
I found the chapter on Heinrich Bullinger ('a Swiss friend') particularly moving and helpful. In discussing Bullinger's role as 'the formal leader of the Reformation in and around
In fulfilling this responsibility, he concentrated on the preaching of the Word. For many years he preaching as many as six sermons a week, and after 1542 he still continued with at least three a week. It has been calculated that he preached a total of well over 7500 sermons during his lifetime. He knew how to present the Word in a spiritual and practical manner and how to touch the hearts of simple people as well as scholars. Many of his sermons were published not only in Switzerland but they were also translated and distributed throughout Europe ... there is every reason to regard him, along with Calvin, as one of the founders of Reformed Protestantism' (p221).
All of which goes to prove that there is no Reformation of any kind, and no genuine Christian piety, without the unadulterated and unadorned preaching of the Word.
