A Reading of Calvin's Institutes

Benjamin A. Reist

"Reist's is a fresh, sensitive, and mercifully readable reading of Calvin's Institutes. More than merely a summary or a study guide, it is an open invitation to join together with Calvin in thinking through concerns of theology as timely today as in the Reformation era. Reist lets Calvin speak in a living voice." James O. Duke, Professor of Church History, Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California

"Professor Reist provides us with a careful and fully documented account of the themes and the structure of the Institutes.... His years of living with Calvin's writings are reflected in an ability to penetrate to the inner logic and development of the Reformer's thought and effectively to counter many of the gross misunderstandings represented among both Calvin's 'disciples' and his opponents."-Claude Welch, Dean Emeritus and Professor of Historical Theology, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California

"Calvin has a highly intelligent, balanced view of the Christian faith and life, and Ben Reist has matched Calvin's intelligence and balance with a stunning reading of the Institutes. Reist has done nothing short of rescuing Calvin from the 'Calvinists, that is, from those who have boxed him into a rigid, somber, deterministic view of Christianity, and set him free to speak eloquently of a faith that liberates, excites, and compels all human beings who seek faith seriously." John P. Crossley, Jr., Associate Professor, University of Southern California, School of Religion, Los Angeles