John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion is a defining book of the Reformation and a pillar of Protestant theology. First published in Latin in 1536 and in Calvin's native French in 1541, the Institutes argues for the majesty of God and for justification by faith alone. Here, Bruce Gordon provides an essential biography of Calvin's influential and enduring theological masterpiece, tracing the diverse ways it has been read and interpreted from Calvin's time to today.

Table of Contents

• PREFACE
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION USED
• INTRODUCTION: Remembering a Man and His Book
• CHAPTER 1: A Book Emerges
• CHAPTER 2: 1559: The Year of the Book
• CHAPTER 3: The Inheritors
• CHAPTER 4: Enlightenment Ambivalence
• CHAPTER 5: Fashioning a Reformer
• CHAPTER 6: America's Calvins
• CHAPTER 7: “A Very Calvinist Professor” and His Dutch Friends
• CHAPTER 8: Titans: Barth and Brunner
• CHAPTER 9: Prophet of Modernity—Prince of Tyrants
• CHAPTER 10: Oppression and Liberation: South Africa
• CHAPTER 11: Change and Dissent: China
• CHAPTER 12: Contemporary Voices
• AFTERWORD
• APPENDIX 1: Burning a Man and His Books
• APPENDIX 2: Calvin's Editions of Institutes of the Christian Religion