Calvin’s preaching – 2

As noted last month, in his preaching John Calvin began at the beginning of a book and expounded it passage by passage, clause by clause, sermon after sermon, until he came to the end.

Then he started on another book. This way of preaching was not unique to Calvin in the Reformation. Others like Huldrych Zwingli had used it. And, well before them, some of the early Christian preachers, like John Chrysostom, had preached in this way.

The sermon shape

Calvin never intruded his learning into his sermons. In fact, his learning is so well hidden that one might hear him preach for a month without suspecting that he had read any book other than the Bible. But he did prepare, and it was three-fold.