From Library Journal
In this work, Bouwsma provides a clear and brilliantly argued analysis of Calvin's place in 16th-century European intellectual history, focusing on his thought rather than his life. Bouwsma places Calvin in the context of the humanist rhetorical tradition, the medieval Scholastic tradition, and the biblical scholarship of the Reformation. Thus, he explains how the contradictions in Calvin's thought represented the conflicting value systems of his day. Bouwsma also provides an excellent exposition of Calvin's views on issues of church, state, and society as an attempt to confront the existing anxieties of a transitional era witnessing the collapse of certainty. Susan A. Stussy, Marian Coll. Lib., Indianapolis, Ind.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
Historians have credited--or blamed--Calvinism for many developments in the modern world, including capitalism, modern science, secularization, democracy, individualism, and unitarianism. These same historians, however, have largely ignored John Calvin the man. When people consider him at all, they tend to view him as little more than the joyless tyrant of Geneva who created an abstract theology as forbidding as himself. This volume, written by the eminent historian William J. Bouwsma, who has devoted his career to exploring the larger patterns of early modern European history, seeks to redress these common misconceptions of Calvin by placing him back in the proper historical context of his time. Eloquently depicting Calvin's life as a French exile, a humanist in the tradition of Erasmus, and a man unusually sensitive to the complexities and contradictions of later Renaissance culture, Bouwsma reveals a surprisingly human, plausible, ecumenical, and often sympathetic Calvin. John Calvin offers a brilliant reassessment not only of Calvin but also of the Reformation and its relationship to the movements of the Renaissance.

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