CALVIN'S TEACHING ON JOB
By Derek Thomas
Christian Focus (Mentor). 416 pages
ISBN 1 85792 922 5
Are you looking for a book on Job which has 416 pages, of which 60 pages comprise the introduction, the bibliography and notes? Would this book contain 225 pages of detailed references, roughly half of which are in Latin or 16th-century French (albeit Calvin's deliciously vigorous prose)? Would you like about 40 of the remaining 135 pages of text to be from a translation done in 1574 to ensure that the quaint spelling is a distraction from the argument of the author. Then this is the book for you!
The book began life as a doctoral dissertation, and is not for the faint-hearted. Derek Thomas claims that studies on Calvin's understanding of divine providence have tended to focus on the systematic approach of the Institutes and overlook the 159 sermons he preached on the book of Job in the years 1554-55 while a minister in Geneva.
