Calvin’s Ecclesiology: A Study in the History of Doctrine

by Tadataka Maruyama

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2022

Overview

In this fresh and original monograph on the ecclesiology of John Calvin, Tadataka Maruyama sifts exhaustively through the corpus of Calvin’s writings—in both Latin and French—to crystalize the French reformer’s conception of the Christian church. After elucidating Calvin’s influence from other reformers such as Jacques Lefèvre, Guillaume Farel, and Martin Bucer, Maruyama shows how Calvin’s ecclesiology evolved throughout his life while remaining firmly rooted in key principles and interests.

Maruyama discerns three phases in Calvin’s ecclesiology:

• Catholic ecclesiology—in which Calvin saw the church as a unified and ideal institution situated both above and within history
• Reformed ecclesiology—in which Calvin described the concrete, historical form of the Christian church over against the Catholic Church
• Reformation ecclesiology—in which Calvin came to understand the Christian church as an eschatological reality situated in a broader European context, which Calvin portrayed as the “theater of God’s providence”

This trajectory mirrors the way the Protestant Reformation was focused on reforming particular churches while also reimagining the Christian world as a whole. Indeed, as Maruyama thoroughly illustrates, Calvin never lost sight of his original vision of reforming the church of his French homeland even as his work grew into a much larger movement.

Key Features

• Explores Calvin’s conception of the Christian church
• Focuses three phases in Calvin’s ecclesiology
• Examines Calvin’s influence from other reformers

Contents

Academic Formation and Catholic Ecclesiology

• Section 1: Academic Formation
• Section 2: From a “Sudden Conversion” to Exile in Basel
• Section 3: The Writing of the First Institutes of the Christian Religion and the Formation of Catholic Ecclesiology

The Early Genevan Reformation and the Practice of the Catholic Ecclesiology

• Section 1: Lefèvrianism and Evangelicalism in Farel
• Section 2: Three Documents of the Genevan Church
• Section 3: Practice of Catholic Ecclesiology

The Strasbourg Period and a Transition to New Ecclesiologies

• Section 1: Bucer’s Strasbourg
• Section 2: Bucer and Calvin
• Section 3: The Second Institutes and the Romans Commentary

Reformed Ecclesiology and Reformation Ecclesiology

• Section 1: Reformer of Geneva and Europe
• Section 2: Reformed Ecclesiology
• Section 3: Reformation Ecclesiology

Product Details

• Title: Calvin’s Ecclesiology: A Study in the History of Doctrine
• Author: Tadataka Maruyama
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2022
• Logos Release Date: 2022
• Pages: 472
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Calvin, Jean › 1509-1564; Church › History of doctrines--16th century; Religion › Christian theology--Ecclesiology
• ISBNs: 9780802881854, 0802881858
• Resource ID: LLS:CLVNSCCLSLDCTRN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T22:46:48Z

About Tadataka Maruyama

Tadataka Maruyama formerly served as president and professor of church history at Tokyo Christian University. He is the author of The Ecclesiology of Theodore Beza: The Reform of the True Church.