A GUIDE TO CHRISTIAN LIVING
By John Calvin
Banner of Truth. 149 pages. £10.00
ISBN 978 1 84871 040 5
Move over the Little Book of Calm, here comes the Little Book of Calvin!
Attractively bound in green faux leather, this pocket-book-sized translation from the 1560 French edition of Calvin’s Institutes, is a small gem. And if this miniature approach gets people today into the massively important theological world of the 16th-century Reformer, then it’s a job well done!
We obviously don’t get the entire Institutes, just a bit of book three on the sanctification of the believer. But it’s enough to begin to appreciate just how readable and relevant Calvin remains. Admittedly, Robert White has managed to smooth some of the inevitably rough edges in his updating of the language so that little is lost in translation. And, more importantly, nothing disappears of Calvin’s grasp of a world in which a Sovereign God rules for the glory of his name and the good of his people.
Arguably, Calvin is at heart and above all a pastoral theologian. Here is evidence to support that point of view. He explores the frameworks of practical Christian living with typical insight, managing to pull together Scripture, experience and his pastoral wisdom. The cultural importance of his writing means that he deserves to be read by every generation in the same way that Shakespeare or Milton should be compulsory reading.
Pastors no doubt have a little bit of Calvin every week. But this mini version may encourage their wives, indeed anyone who has always wanted to be able to say in conversation, ‘I was reading something about that in Calvin’s Institutes’!
Of course, the complete works by their sheer size can frighten a Twitter and Facebook culture. But this little book of Calvin, not much bigger than an iPhone, may just tease a few more people to try him out. I hope so. And the bonus is that it fits easily into a handbag!
Sian Baker,
wife of Peter Baker, senior pastor of Highfields Church, Cardiff
