Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1536 Edition
Overview
John Calvin was just 27 years old when the first edition of his Institutes was published in Basel in 1536. Building on the work of Erasmus and Luther, Calvin wrote with brilliance and passion of the many ways the church and its theology had been “deformed,” and he presented a case for restoring the church and theology to its pristine purity. Calvin’s “little book”—as he affectionately called it—grew in size through the rest of his life; eventually, this early, shorter version evolved into what is now known as the Institutes, the 1559 edition, which Calvin considered the authoritative form of his thought for posterity.
Noted Calvin scholar Ford Lewis Battles translated the 1536 Institutes in 1975, after completing his masterful translation of the 1559 Institutes. This revised edition is intended both for readers who wish to gain a better understanding of this earliest expression of Calvin’s theology and for scholars who may wish to pursue further research. It contains extensive notes and references. The book’s four appendices include a new translation of Calvin’s preface to Olivétan’s Bible (1535); the five indices include an index of biblical references and a comparative table of the 1536 and 1559 Institutes. The numerous citations in the endnotes from the writings of Calvin’s predecessors and contemporaries illuminate the significance of the text in its historical context.
Top Highlights
“doubt grant it to us. Everything our sins deserved he forgives, and receives into grace.” (Page 17)
“Secondly, that all things in heaven and on earth have been created for his glory” (Page 15)
“But this is nothing but conscience,* for us the witness within of what we owe God; it sets before us good and evil, thus accusing and condemning us, conscious as we are within ourselves that we have not discharged our duty, as was fitting. Yet man is swollen with arrogance and ambition and blinded by self-love. Consequently, he is unable to see himself and, as it were, to descend into himself, and confess his misery.” (Pages 16–17)
“Seeing our condition, the Lord has provided us with a written law to teach us what perfect righteousness is and how it is to be kept: that is, firmly fixed in God, we turn our gaze to him alone, and to him aim our every thought, yearning, act, or word.” (Page 17)
“To hold with sure faith, first that he is infinite wisdom, righteousness, goodness, mercy, truth, power and life” (Page 15)
- Title: Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1536 Edition
- Authors: John Calvin, Ford Lewis Battles
- Publishers: Eerdmans, The H. H. Meeter Center for Calvin Studies
- Print Publication Date: 1995
- Logos Release Date: 2016
- Era: era:reformation
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Reformed Church › Doctrinal and controversial works; Theology, doctrinal
- ISBNs: 9780802841674, 0802841678, 9780802823199, 9781598561685, 080282319X, 1598561685
- Resource ID: LLS:NSTTTSCH1536DTN
- Resource Type: Systematic Theology
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:55:14Z