So what did I do last summer vacation? I continued to do something
that I started January 1 of this year. Late last fall I came upon a plan
for reading through all of John Calvin's Institutes---his
four-volume, 1,500-or-so-page systematic exposition of the teachings of
the Christian faith---in one year. Calvin and Martin Luther together
were the two leading lights of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th
century. Today, however, Calvin has a dismal reputation as a pinched,
narrow-minded, cold, and cerebral dogmatician.
I knew much of this image was caricature, and, while over the years I had read a good deal of the Institutes, I
treated the books like an encyclopedia or dictionary that one dipped
into to learn about specific topics. I had never read it straight
through, consecutively, until this year when I began the program, which
allots an average of six pages a night, five nights a week, for an
entire year. Almost immediately I was amazed by several things.
True Work of Literature
First, it is not just a textbook, but also a true work of literature.
It was written in Latin and French and is a landmark in the history of
the French language. Calvin was a lawyer and seems at time to relish
debate too much (a flaw he confesses in his letters). But despite such
passages, even in English translation it is obvious that this is no mere
textbook, but a masterpiece of literary art, sometimes astonishing in
its power and eloquence.
Second, it is nothing if not biblical. Even if you don't agree with
what Calvin is saying, you will always have to deal with one or two
dozen texts of Scripture, carefully interpreted and organized as he
presents his case to you. To describe these volumes as "theology" or
"doctrine" is almost misleading---it is mainly a Bible Digest, a
distilled readers' guide to the main teachings of the Scripture and how
they fit together. Continue at Tim Keller
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