{"product_id":"john-calvin-steward-of-gods-covenant-isbn-9781400096480","title":"John Calvin: Steward of God's Covenant","description":"This selection of the writings of John Calvin (1509—1564) is the first for general readers to appear in many years. It showcases his powerful legacy, which has had far-reaching consequences for the development of religion and culture in Western Europe and in the  shaping of American identity.\u003cbr\u003eCalvin was a prodigious preacher and writer, and his sermons, Bible commentaries, tracts, and letters fill dozens of volumes. The works chosen for \u003ci\u003eJohn Calvin: Steward of God’s Covenant \u003c\/i\u003ehighlight ideas central to the Reformation but also to his influence on modern life, e.g., the importance of a work ethic and the notion of being “called” to action in the world; his belief in universal education for boys and girls; and his belief in the sanctity and freedom of individual conscience. Calvin’s theology of the “elect” of God motivated the English and Dutch Calvinists who settled the Atlantic seaboard, their Promised Land. The traditions of their communities and churches and laws produced the widespread present-day American belief in a divinely favored national destiny. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn her brilliant preface to this edition, Pulitzer Prize—winning novelist Marilynne Robinson makes the clearest connection between John Calvin’s own biblical and patristic heritage and the heritage he in turn left the modern world.ABOUT THE VINTAGE SPIRITUAL CLASSICS\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eby John F. Thornton and Susan B. Varenne, General Editors \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePREFACE TO THE VINTAGE SPIRITUAL CLASSICS\u003cbr\u003eEDITION \u003ci\u003eby Marilynne Robinson \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA NOTE ON THE TEXTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom \u003ci\u003eTHE NECESSITY OF REFORMING THE CHURCH \u003c\/i\u003e(1543) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom \u003ci\u003eTHE INSTITUTES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOf the Knowledge of God the Creator \u003c\/i\u003e(Book 1, Chapters 1–5) \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Life of a Christian \u003c\/i\u003e(Book 3, Chapters 6–10) \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOf Prayer \u003c\/i\u003e(Book 3, Chapter 20) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCOMMENTARY ON SCRIPTURE \u003cbr\u003eThe Old Testament \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Author’s Preface to the Commentary on the Psalms \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePsalm 16 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePsalm 23 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePsalm 51 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePsalm 90 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eIsaiah 55:1–13 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe New Testament \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eMatthew 5:1–12 \/ Luke 6:20–26 \u003c\/i\u003e(The Beatitudes) \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eMatthew 7:1–5 \/ Mark 4:24 \/ Luke 6:37–42 \u003c\/i\u003e(Judge not . . .”) \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eMatthew 8:5–13 \/ Luke 7:1–10 \u003c\/i\u003e(The Cure of the Centurion’s Servant) \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLuke 7:36–50 \u003c\/i\u003e(The Woman Who Was a Sinner) \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eMatthew 27:45–56 \/ Mark 15:33–41 \/ Luke 23:44–49 \u003c\/i\u003e(The Crucifixion)\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eMatthew 28:1–7 \/ Mark 16:1–7 \/ Luke 24:1–8 \u003c\/i\u003e(The Women at the Tomb of Jesus) \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eJohn 14:15–18 \u003c\/i\u003e(“If you love me, keep my commandments.”) \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eRomans 1:16–17 \u003c\/i\u003e(God’s Righteousness) \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eJames 2:14–26 \u003c\/i\u003e(Faith and Good Works) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSELECTED PRAYERS AND SERMONS \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePrayers \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSermon on the Fourth Commandment \u003c\/i\u003e(Deuteronomy 5:13–15) \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSermon on the Fifth Commandment \u003c\/i\u003e(Deuteronomy 5:16) \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Lord Answers Job \u003c\/i\u003e(Job 38:1–4) \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhen Curse Becomes Blessing \u003c\/i\u003e(Galatians 3:13–18) \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSermon on the Doctrine of Election \u003c\/i\u003e(2 Timothy 1:9, 10) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE DEATH OF JOHN CALVIN \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READINGJohn Calvin, born in 1509 and designated for the Catholic priesthood by his father, became the great French Protestant reformer famous for his doctrine of predestination and his theocratic view of the state. When he died in Geneva in 1564, he left both a city and a world transformed by the impact of his ideas and beliefs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMarilynne Robinson is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Gilead. Her previous novel, Housekeeping, was nominated for the Pulitzer and has made numerous lists of the best novels of the twentieth century. She is also the author of a collection of essays, The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought, which deals with Calvin's legacy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn F. Thornton is a literary agent, former book editor, and the coeditor of \u003ci\u003eDumbing Down: The Strip-Mining of American Culture \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eTongues of Angels, Tongues of Men: A Book of Sermons. \u003c\/i\u003eHe lives in New York City.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSusan B. Varenne is a New York City high school teacher with a strong avocational interest in and wide experience of spiritual literature. She holds an M.A. from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.THE NECESSITY OF REFORMING THE CHURCH\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    A Humble Exhortation   to the most invincible Emperor Charles V   and the most illustrious Princes and other Orders,   now holding a Diet of the Empire at Spires   that they seriously undertake the task   of restoring the Church   presented in the name of all those who wish Christ to reign  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy Dr. John Calvin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    August Emperor,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    This Diet is summoned by you in order at last to deliberate and decide,  along with the Most Illustrious Princes and other Orders of the Empire,  upon the means of ameliorating the present condition of the Church, which  we all see to be very miserable and almost desperate. Now, therefore,  while you sit for this consultation, I humbly beg and implore, first of  your Imperial Majesty, and at the same time of you also, Most Illustrious  Princes and distinguished gentlemen, that you will not decline to read and  diligently consider what I have to lay before you. The magnitude and  weight of the cause may well incite you to an eagerness to listen. I shall  set the matter so plainly in front of you that you can have no difficulty  in determining what part you must play. Whoever I am, I here profess to  plead in defense both of sound doctrine and of the Church. In this  character I seem at all events entitled to expect that you will not deny  me audience, until such time as it may appear whether I falsely usurp the  character, or whether I faithfully perform its duties and make good what I  profess. But though I feel that I am by no means equal to so great a task,  yet I am not at all afraid that, after you have heard the nature of my  office, I shall be accused either of folly or presumption in having  ventured thus to bring this matter before you. There are two things by  which men are wont to recommend, or at least to justify, their conduct. If  a thing is done honestly and from pious zeal, we deem it worthy of praise;  if it is done under the pressure of public necessity, we at least deem it  not unworthy of excuse. Since both of these apply here, I am confident,  such is your equity, that I shall easily approve my design in your eyes.  For where can I exert myself to better purpose or more honestly, where,  too, in a matter at this time more necessary, than in attempting,  according to my ability, to aid the Church of Christ, whose claims it is  lawful in no instance to deny, and which is now in grievous distress and  in extreme danger? But there is no occasion for a long preface concerning  myself. Receive what I say as if it were the united voice of all who  either have already taken care to restore the Church or desire that it  should   be restored to true order. On my side are several exalted Princes and not  a few distinguished communities. For all these I speak though an  individual, so that it is more truly they who at the   same time and with one mouth speak through me. To these add the countless  multitude of pious men, scattered over the various regions of the  Christian world, who yet unanimously concur with me in this pleading. In  short, regard this as the common address of all who so earnestly deplore  the present corruption of the Church that they are unable to bear it any  longer and are determined not to rest till they see some amendment. I know  with what odious names we are marked down for disgrace; but meanwhile,  whatever be the name by which it is thought proper to call us, hear our  cause, and after that judge what place we are entitled to hold.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    First, then, the question is not whether the Church suffers from many and  grievous diseases, for this is admitted even by all moderate judges; but  whether the diseases are of a kind whose cure admits of no longer delay,  so that it is neither useful nor proper to wait upon too slow remedies. We  are accused of rash and impious innovation, for having ventured to propose  any change at all in the former state of the Church. What? Even if it has  been done with good cause and not imperfectly? I hear there are persons  who, even in this case, do not hesitate to condemn us; they think us right  indeed in desiring amendment, but not right in attempting it. From them,  all I would ask at present is that for a little they suspend judgment  until I shall have shown from the facts that we have not been prematurely  hasty, have attempted nothing rashly, nothing alien to our duty, and have  in short done nothing until compelled by the highest necessity. To enable  me to prove this, it is necessary to attend to the matters in dispute.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    We maintain to start with that when God raised up Luther and others who  held forth a torch to light us into the way of salvation and on whose  ministry our churches are founded and built, those heads of doctrine in  which the truth of our religion, those in which the pure and legitimate  worship of God, and those in which the salvation of men are comprehended,  were in a great measure obsolete. We maintain that the use of the  sacraments was in many ways vitiated and polluted. And we maintain that  the government of the Church was converted into a species of horrible and  insufferable tyranny. But perhaps these statements have not force enough  to move certain individuals until they are better explained. This,  therefore, I will do, not as the subject demands, but as far as my ability  will permit. Here, however, I have no intention to review and discuss all  our controversies; that would require a long discourse, and this is not  the place for it. I wish only to demonstrate how just and necessary the  causes were which forced us to the changes for which we are blamed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    To accomplish this, I must show that the particular remedies which the  Reformers employed were apt and salutary; not here intending to describe  the manner in which we proceeded (for this will afterward be seen), but  only to make it manifest that we have had no other end in view than to  ameliorate in some degree the very miserable condition of the Church. Our  doctrine has been, and is every day, assailed by many cruel calumnies.  Some declaim loudly against it in sermons; others attack and ridicule it  in their writings. Both rake together everything by which they hope to  bring it into disrepute among the ignorant. But there is in men’s hands  the Confession of our Faith, which we presented to your Imperial Majesty.  It clearly testifies how undeservedly we are harassed by so many odious  accusations. We have always been ready in times past, as we are at the  present day, to render an account of our doctrine. In a word, there is no  doctrine preached in our churches but that which we openly profess. As to  contested points, they are clearly and honestly explained in our  Confession, while everything relating to them has been copiously treated  and diligently expounded by our writers. Hence judges who are not unjust  must be satisfied how far we are from every kind of impiety. This much  certainly must be clear alike to just and unjust, that the Reformers have  done no small service to the Church in stirring up the world as from the  deep darkness of ignorance to read the Scriptures, in laboring diligently  to make them better understood, and in happily throwing light on certain  points of doctrine of   the highest practical importance. In sermons little else used to   be heard than old wives’ fables and fictions equally frivolous. The  schools resounded with brawling questions, but Scripture was seldom  mentioned. Those who held the government of the Church had this one  concern, to prevent any diminution of their gains. Accordingly, they  readily tolerated whatever brought grist to their mill. Even the most  prejudiced admit that our people have in some degree reformed these evils,  however much they may impugn our doctrine at other points.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    But I do not wish that all the profit the Church has derived from our  labor should avail to mitigate our fault, if in any other respect we have  injured her. Therefore let there be an examination of our whole doctrine,  of our form of administering the sacraments, and our method of governing  the Church; and in none of these three things will it be found that we  have made any change in the old form, without attempting to restore it to  the exact standard of the Word of God.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    All our controversies concerning doctrine relate either to the legitimate  worship of God or to the ground of salvation. As to   the former, certainly we exhort men to worship God in neither a frigid nor  a careless manner; and while we point out the way, we neither lose sight  of the end, nor omit anything which is relevant to the matter. We proclaim  the glory of God in terms far loftier than it was wont to be proclaimed  before, and we earnestly labor to make the perfections in which his glory  shines better and better known. His benefits toward ourselves we extol as  eloquently as we can. Thus men are incited to reverence his majesty,  render due homage to his greatness, feel due gratitude for his mercies,  and unite in showing forth his praise. In this way there is infused into  their hearts that solid confidence which afterward gives birth to prayer.  In this way too each one is trained to genuine self-denial,   so that his will being brought into obedience to God, he bids farewell to  his own desires. In short, as God requires us to worship him in a  spiritual manner, so we with all zeal urge men to all the spiritual  sacrifices which he commends.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Even our enemies cannot deny our assiduity in these exhortations, that men  look for the good which they desire from none but God, that they confide  in his power, trust in his goodness, depend on his truth, and turn to him  with the whole heart, rest on him with full hope, and resort to him in  necessity, that is, at every moment, and ascribe to him every good thing  enjoyed, and testify to this by expressions of praise. That none may be  deterred by difficulty of access, we proclaim that a fountain of all  blessings is offered us in Christ, from which we may draw everything  needful. Our writings are witnesses, and our sermons also, how frequent  and sedulous we are in recommending true repentance, urging men to  renounce their reason, their carnal desires, and themselves entirely, that  they may be brought into obedience to God alone, and live no longer to  themselves but to him. Nor indeed do we overlook external duties and works  of charity, which follow on such renewal. This, I say, is the sure and  unerring form of divine worship, which we know that he approves, because  it is the form which his Word prescribes. These are the only sacrifices of  the Christian Church which have attestation from him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Since, therefore, in our churches, God alone is adored in pure form  without superstition, since his goodness, wisdom, power, truth, and other  perfections are there preached more fully than anywhere else, since he is  invoked with true faith in the name of Christ, his mercies celebrated with  both heart and tongue, and men constantly urged to a simple and sincere  obedience; since in short nothing is heard but what tends to promote the  sanctification of his name, what cause have those who call themselves  Christians to take us up so ill? First, since they love darkness rather  than light, they cannot tolerate the sharpness with which we, as in duty  bound, rebuke the gross idolatry which is apparent everywhere in the  world. When God is worshipped in images, when fictitious worship is  instituted in his name, when supplication is made to the images of saints,  and divine honors paid to dead men’s bones and other similar things, we  call them abominations as they are. For this cause, those who hate our  doctrine inveigh against us and represent us as heretics who dare to  abolish the worship of God as approved of old by the Church. Concerning  this name of Church, which they are ever and anon holding up before them  as a kind of shield, we will shortly speak. Meanwhile how perverse, when  these infamous corruptions are manifest, not only to defend them, but to  dissemble and represent them as the genuine worship of God!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Both sides confess that in the sight of God idolatry is an execrable  crime. But when we attack the worship of images, our adversaries  immediately take the opposite side and lend support to the crime which  they had with us verbally condemned. Indeed, as is more ridiculous, while  they agree with us as to the term in Greek, it is no sooner turned into  Latin than their opposition begins. For they strenuously defend the  veneration of images, though they condemn idolatry. But these ingenious  men deny   that the honor which they pay to images is worship, as if, when compared  with ancient idolatry, it were possible to see any difference. Idolaters  pretended that they worshipped the celestial gods, though under corporeal  figures which represented them. What else do our adversaries pretend? But  is God satisfied with such excuses? Did the prophets on this account cease  to rebuke the madness of the Egyptians, when, out of the secret mysteries  of their theology, they drew subtle distinctions under which to   screen themselves? What too do we suppose the brazen serpent which the  Jews worshipped to have been, but something which they honored as a  representation of God? “The Gentiles,” says Ambrose (in Ps. 118), “worship  wood, because they think it an image of God, whereas the invisible image  of God is not in that which is seen, but precisely in that which is not  seen.” But what is done today? Do they not prostrate themselves before  images, as if God were present in them? Unless they supposed the power and  grace of God to be attached to pictures and statues, would they flee to  them when they desired to pray?","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233284501733,"sku":"NP9781400096480","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781400096480.jpg?v=1767730441","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/john-calvin-steward-of-gods-covenant-isbn-9781400096480","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}