Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

John Calvin

20 Resources on the Protestant Reformation

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2017 is the 500th anniversary of an event that strangely ignited the Protestant Reformation.

If you want to learn more about the Protestant Reformation, consider these helpful resources. I combed through about 800 relevant resources in my Zotero library and selected only twenty—including some picture books and videos.

1. Bainton, Roland H. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther.

New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1950.

After hearing so many historians recommend this biography as a classic, I finally read it last year. It’s still in print for good reasons.

[Read more…] about 20 Resources on the Protestant Reformation

John Calvin Had 300 Books in His Personal Library

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Calvin“Calvin’s personal library has been estimated at three hundred to three hundred fifty volumes; after his death, his heirs sold the majority of the books to Geneva’s magistrates for inclusion in the library of the Academy.”

—Scott M. Manetsch, Calvin’s Company of Pastors: Pastoral Care and the Emerging Reformed Church, 1536–1609, Oxford Studies in Historical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 222.

When I read that, I recalled how I concluded a review article in 2006: [Read more…] about John Calvin Had 300 Books in His Personal Library

Whomever He Wills: A Surprising Display of Sovereign Mercy

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whomeverIn 2010, B&H published Whosoever Will: A Biblical-Theological Critique of Five-Point Calvinism (ed. David L. Allen and Steve W. Lemke). It arose from the 2008 “John 3:16 Conference.”

This book is much better:

Matthew Barrett and Thomas J. Nettles, eds. Whomever He Wills: A Surprising Display of Sovereign Mercy.  Cape Coral, FL: Founders, 2012. 401 pp.

Here’s the lineup: [Read more…] about Whomever He Wills: A Surprising Display of Sovereign Mercy

Motive

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Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?’” (Zech 7:4–6)

John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets (translated by John Owen), 5:172–73 (formatting added):

God reproved the Jews, who had returned to their own country, for ingratitude, as they had already begun to pollute themselves.

He therefore brings this charge against them, [Read more…] about Motive

Reeves Recommends Reformation Reading

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The “Further reading” section of Michael Reeves’s The Unquenchable Flame: Introducing the Reformation (Nottingham, England: IVP, 2009) flags six resources as “must reads” (pp. 189–91, numbering added):

1. Every Christian should read Roland Bainton’s classic biography of Luther, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Abingdon, 1950). A rip-roaring bedtime page-turner.

2. And why not try reading some of Luther himself? You can find his great The Freedom of a Christian online . . . .

3. Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion is a must. The title makes it sound scary; inside, it is easy to read and warm in style. If you can, get F. L. Battles’ two-volume translation of the 1559 edition (Westminster Press, 1960). [Read more…] about Reeves Recommends Reformation Reading

Calvin on the Necessity of Exegesis, Dogmatics, and Preaching

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Gerald Bray summarizes John Calvin’s hermeneutic with six statements, concluding with this one (Biblical Interpretation: Past and Present [Downers Grove: IVP, 1996], 203-4, emphasis in original):

6. Biblical interpretation passes through three distinct but related phases. If any one of these phases is omitted, the text will not be interpreted properly. The three phases are exegesis (represented by his commentaries); dogmatics (represented by his Institutes); and preaching (represented by his sermons). . . .

Perhaps the best way to appreciate the necessity of holding these three things together in harmony is by looking at what happens if one of them is left out. [1] Exegesis and dogmatics without preaching are dry and academic; there is no application. [2] Exegesis and preaching with no dogmatics are subjective and contentless; a passage of Scripture will be interpreted without regard for its proper context in the Word of God as a whole. [3] Finally, dogmatics and preaching without exegesis are mere propaganda; they are not based on a proper assimilation of the facts. Only as all three are held together in proper balance can the message of Scripture be properly applied to the life of the church, and God’s people be edified as they are meant to be.