The Calvin 500 Series (8 vols.)

by David Hall; Matthew D. Burton; Marvin Padgett; David W. Hall; Peter A. Lillback

and

1 more

Publisher:

P&R

, 2008–2015

Overview

The 2009 Calvin Quincentenary celebrated the life and work of the great Reformer in Geneva, John Calvin. The volumes in this series highlight various enduring contributions by Calvin.

Key Features

• Provides a groundbreaking section-by-section analysis of John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion
• Identifies ten ways that Calvin’s thought transformed the culture of the West
• Examines Calvin’s spiritual pilgrimage and faith

A Theological Guide to Calvin’s Institutes: Essays and Analysis

• Editors: David W. Hall and Peter A. Lillback
• Series: Calvin 500
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 2009
• Pages: 528

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Twenty-one contributors, including some leading Calvin scholars, provide a groundbreaking section-by-section analysis of John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. They supply essential background information; further develop Calvin’s discussions of topics including prayer, ethics, faith, assurance, and church and state government; and conclude with a valuable bibliography of Calvin resources. A long-needed work, this volume serves as the natural companion to Calvin’s magnum opus for classes, students, pastors, and others.

A very valuable volume, which I commend with enthusiasm. For making Calvin known today as well as once he was, and in every age deserves to be, this really is a major step forward.

—J. I. Packer, Board of Governors’ Professor, Regent College, Vancouver

Calvin and Commerce: The Transforming Power of Calvinism in Market Economies

• Authors: Matthew Burton and David W. Hall
• Series: Calvin 500
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 2009
• Pages: 256

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Is capitalism dead? Beyond recovery? Our current economic climate is leading more and more people to think so. But here, Hall and Burton ardently defend capitalism as both consistent with biblical teaching and also sensible. They draw on John Calvin’s insights from Scripture and their own expertise in theology and finance to highlight a way out of our economic morass.

What we really need now, more than any time in the last fifty years, is a thorough renewal of our understanding and commitment to a Reformed worldview on the markets. Carefully opening up Calvin’s radically Biblical, Christ-centered application of the creation, fall and redemption motif to the matter of market economies, this very readable book enables the reader to navigate the infamous criticisms and frequent misunderstandings of free markets to discover a truly free market model.

—Michael A. Milton

Calvin and Culture: Exploring a Worldview

• Editors: Marvin Padgett and David W. Hall
• Series: Calvin 500
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 2010
• Pages: 352

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

No other Christian teachings in the past five hundred years have affected our Western culture as deeply as the worldview of John Calvin. It extends far beyond the theological disciplines as demonstrated by the list of contributors and subjects below. They have inspired a large number of followers to apply his thought to every form of human endeavor, so that the power of Calvin’s worldview continues to this day.

As a worldview, Calvin’s theology is comprehensive. It affects all fields of human study and activity.

—John M. Frame

Calvin in the Public Square: Liberal Democracies, Rights, and Civil Liberties

• Author: David W. Hall
• Series: Calvin 500
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 2009
• Pages: 352

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

This volume examines Calvin’s thought and impact on political ideas. Not only does it set forth the Reformer’s political ideas in his own words from multiple sources but it also shows how his germinal political ideas were furthered and spread by his disciples, both in Europe and to the West.

Calvin’s political formulations on republicanism, decentralized government, and open democracies provide one of his most lasting contributions. Calvin’s disciples—beginning with Theodore Beza, Francois Hotman, John Ponet, and John Knox—spread many of the ideas that are now widely accepted in free governments. Historically, there is a clear before and a discernible after in terms of governmental forms, and Calvinism is one of the major fuel rods for that massive change. Calvin contributed and buttressed ideas like the consent of the governed, open elections, checks-and-balances within government, civil liberty, the right to oppose tyrannical governments, and the need for constitutionalism. Moreover, these seed ideas would not have grown without the support of the clergy and churches who regularly taught these ideas as having divine precedent.

In this engaging volume, David Hall offers a crisp distillation of the latest scholarly findings and a clarion call to reclaim the Calvinist pedigree of some of our most cherished political ideas and institutions.

—John Witte Jr., Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory Law School, Atlanta

Preaching Like Calvin: Sermons from the 500th Anniversary Celebration

• Editor: David W. Hall
• Series: Calvin 500
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 2010
• Pages: 288

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

John Calvin was a transformative force for modern history, delivering thousands of sermons in Geneva’s St. Pierre’s Cathedral, where he pastored from 1536 until his death in 1564. What better way to celebrate the 500th anniversary of his birth than for many of today’s preeminent Reformed pastors to preach in Calvin’s home church? The sermons in Preaching Like Calvin show how Calvin’s theology is alive and well in the church today.

Many see Calvin’s imprimatur on Western Civilization to this day. These sermons by Reformed preachers manifest his abiding influence on biblical preaching as well. Read, study, and meditate on these Calvinistic sermons, and grow in your love for our Sovereign God.

—Peter A. Lillback, President, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia

The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World

• Author: David W. Hall
• Series: Calvin 500
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 2009
• Pages: 112

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

David Hall identifies ten seminal ways that Calvin’s thought transformed the culture of the West, complete with a nontechnical biography of Calvin and tributes by other leaders. The Legacy of John Calvin is brief enough for popular audiences and analytical enough to provide much information in a short space.

David Hall has gifted us with an innovative, succinct book on John Calvin and his influence on church and society in everything from education and benevolent assistance to politics and economics. . . . Some sections, such as Hall’s description of Calvin’s humility, are the finest I’ve read in all of Calvin literature. For a quick yet informative read about Calvin and his massive influence in the church and the world, this is the book.

—Joel R. Beeke

The Piety of John Calvin: A Collection of His Spiritual Prose, Poems, and Hymns

• Author: John Calvin
• Editor: Ford Lewis Battles
• Series: Calvin 500
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 2009
• Pages: 224

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

The Piety of John Calvin is an invaluable collection of his prose and poetry, masterfully assembled to promote a more personal grasp of Calvin the man and his devotion to God. Chapters examine Calvin’s spiritual pilgrimage and faith, his views of the Christian life and prayer, samples of his prayers, metrical Psalms set to music, and “prose-poems” adapted from Calvin’s more lyrical writings.

Adding interest are Ford Lewis Battles’s introduction to “True Peity According to Calvin,” David Hall’s foreword featuring both Calvin and Battles, daughter Nancy Howitt-Battles’s preface, and six Psalms from Calvin’s Psalter with music arranged by Stanley Tagg.

Here is a treasure. With impeccable scholarship and insight, Battles picks out products of Calvin’s pen that take us closest to his heart, and presents them in a way that gives them fullest force. What a godly man! And what a wonderful book!

—J. I. Packer, Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology, Regent College, Vancouver

Tributes to John Calvin: A Celebration of His Quincentenary

• Editor: David W. Hall
• Series: Calvin 500
• Publisher: P&R
• Publication Date: 2010
• Pages: 592

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

The essays in Tributes to John Calvin: A Celebration of His Quincentenary illuminate Calvin’s times, thought and legacy, and provide a celebratory tribute to one of the most influential people in history. This book commemorates the quincentenary of Calvin’s birth (July 10, 1509), and attests to the remarkably enduring influence of his life and work.

Twenty-three leading Calvin scholars exhibit a firm understanding of Calvin’s era, his understanding of Scripture, and the heritage he has bequeathed the church.

This long-needed work serves as an indispensable resource for students, pastors, scholars, and anyone who wishes to understand better Calvin’s thought and influence.

I am encouraged by this book that brings together these worthy essays and papers. . . . Half a millennium after his birth, Calvin’s theological contribution appears more, rather than less, important than it appeared in his own day.

—R. Albert Mohler Jr.

About David W. Hall

David W. Hall was senior pastor of Midway Presbyterian Church in Powder Springs, Georgia, from 2003 to 2008. He founded the Kuyper Institute and the Center for the Advancement of Paleo-Orthodoxy in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in 1994.