I am in the process of creating a new blog called bound with Christ at the url http://boundwithchrist.com The goal is to read through Calvin’s Institutes in one year.
The following is what I wrote over at bound with Christ.
Bound With Christ has been designed to introduce those interested in reading the Institutes of the Christian Religion to John Calvin and his seminal work. A man born over 500 years ago who discovered a rich system of belief in the active role of God in human history and the story of redemption. His name of course was John Calvin. He was raised to be a lawyer yet his destiny was to be a theologian in exile.
Calvin was French born but his homeland proved to be unsafe for the young theologian. He had made plans for where he was to go after his exile from his home land but in a twist of divine providence he ended up visiting the city of Geneva in Switzerland. History would think of him as the great Genevan reformer. Calvin had planned to stay no more than a day yet ended up spending the majority of the rest of his life preaching in the city.
The heart of John Calvin was not first that of a pastor, public intellect, or central figure in what history has called the Reformation of the Church. His heart was that of a man who lived between two kingdoms. His conversion to Christianity occurred in his late teens or early twenties. Calvin said in his commentary on the Psalms “God by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame, which was more hardened in such matters than might have been expected from one at my early period of life. Having thus received some taste and knowledge of true godliness, I was immediately inflamed with so intense a desire to make progress therein, that although I did not altogether leave off other studies, yet I pursued them with less ardor.”(1) Calvin saw himself from this moment on as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. The rest of his life was a exercise in piety in learning how to live as a man with this kingdom as he awaited to fully meet his King. Calvin’s heart and first devotion was that of a worshiper of Jesus Christ as understood in Trinitarian Christianity.
He was also passionate about his native homeland of France. This was the catalysis for his writing of what has come to be called the Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvin was a citizen of God’s Kingdom yet he never forgot the homeland in which he was born. The second devotion of Calvin after his worship and personal piety before God was that of a missionary to his people. The Institutes in all of their various forms had one single goal. To introduce people, hopefully even his native Frenchmen, to the worship of Jesus Christ.
This website exists to help us 21st century citizens of a increasingly technological world to come together and discover the God that inspired Calvin’s worship, peity, and evangelistic fervor. Are you interested in such a journey? This a first attempt at a global reading of Calvin’s Institutes in 2010.
I hope you are interested and ready. I know that I am.
(1) John Calvin, author’s preface to the Psalms. Accessed at CCEL
Possibly related posts:
- 7 Great Things to be thankful for since 1997
- Thoughts on the SBC and the Great Commission Resurgence
- the Kingdom of God on Earth
- Great Quote
- St. Patrick’s Day
I wish you best of luck man. John Calvin has some great stuff but reading through the Institutes sounds about as appealing as clinging to the King James Version of the Bible. It's great for its time and you can still learn a ton from it though. Seriously, best of luck!
Nitol will help you get your ZZZZZZZZZs! (or a Western Civ book will do the same)