John Calvin

Institutes of the Christian Religion

1541 French Edition
The First English Version

Is there really a pressing need for another edition of Calvin’s Institutes? The 1559 (final) edition
has been out for a very, very long time. The 1539 Latin edition upon which the 1541 French edition is
based has also been available to scholars since its first appearance, as has its French daughter. So why
an English version of the French version of the 1539 Latin version?
Those questions, which occur immediately to any reader of Calvin, are answered by the
translator, Elsie Anne McKee, in the introduction. This new translation is justified, and needed, because,
first of all, if readers only know the 1559 edition they don’t know how Calvin’s thought progressed.
Second, the French edition (and its English rendering) has a ‘conversational, pastoral quality’ (p. ix).
Calvin’s theology is quite dense- but this edition is eminently more accessible to non-theologians, and
intentionally so.
Third, and perhaps most importantly of all, the presently considered edition contains additions
to the 1536 Latin edition. Namely, it has added sections on the knowledge of God and ourselves,
penitence, justification by faith, the similarities and differences between the Old and New Testaments,
predestination and providence, and the Christian life.
There is also a very practical reason for introducing to the public a new edition of Calvin’s
Institutes: hardly anyone reads the 1559 edition any longer. Calvin scholars are well familiar with it and
persons newly introduced to Calvin or curious about his ideas are put off by it.
In conversation with a colleague not long ago this point was driven home to me quite forcefully.
I- ‘Calvin’s work is very important’. He- ‘Every time I try to read Calvin’s Institutes I get a few pages in
and just put it down. It’s too much’.
McKee’s translation is vivid and clear. Her introduction is excellent and thorough. And the text
of the French edition is, simply put, beautiful. Here are some examples of Calvin’s lucidity drawn from,
primarily, his treatment of ‘Penitence’.

… we can properly define penitence this way: it is a true conversion or turning around of
our life to follow God and the way that He shows us, proceeding from a right and
unfained fear of God which consists in the putting to death of our flesh and old person
and the vivification of the Spirit (p. 274).

Again

For if we are truly participants in His death, by its power our old person is crucified and
the heap of sin which dwells in us is put to death… (p. 276).

The ‘heap of sin which dwells in us…’ That’s a fantastically clear and engaging verbal image. Calvin’s
work is full of such imagery. One can actually see a lump of sin defiling the person from the inside out as
leaven corrupts the loaf.
Calvin also makes reference to some curious ancient practices with which readers may or may not be
familiar.

For as formerly someone accused of a crime let his beard grow and did not comb his
hair and clad himself in mourning in order to obtain the judge’s mercy… (p. 276).

That’s a practice quite different from today when defendants are cleaned up and dressed up in order to
make the best possible impression on judge and jury. Calvin the lawyer shines through a bit here.

And Calvin, best known for his supposedly stern and unbending personality, can soar to the heights of
spiritual majesty, as when he simply observes

… for no one ever hates sin without having first been grasped by a love for
righteousness (p. 279).

But Calvin is not always right. In his discussion of the differences and similarities between the
Testaments he is a child of his age and believes that Jews who looked forward to Christ were Christians.
They were not, of course. But that Calvin so asserts shows him to have been as time bound as any
theologian and it also shows that theology must ever strive for currency (not modernity).
Alongside being brilliant and insightful Calvin is also demonstrated in this volume to be willing to
engage in strife when absolutely necessary. During his argument concerning the Testaments and their
interconnectedness, Calvin snarkily remarks of the Anabaptists

We will begin with a demonstration which, although I do not doubt that it is useless and
practically ridiculous for the Anabaptists, since they proudly scorn all reasoning,
nevertheless has great importance for all teachable people and those of sane judgment
(p. 389).

Thinking people will be able, in other words, to appreciate what Calvin has to say- except the
Anabaptists, who are too stupid and insane to do so!

Thinking people today, who wish to discover, rediscover or come to understand the thinking of
Calvin in an earlier phase of his theological development should read this volume. It will keep any
reader thinking. The translator is to be commended for a brilliant job and the publisher is to be thanked
for making it available.

Dr. Jim West is Adjunct Professor of Biblical Studies at the Quartz Hill School of Theology and Pastor of Petros Baptist Church,
Petros, Tennessee. He has written a number of books and articles and serves as Language Editor for the Scandinavian Journal of
the Old Testament and Language Revision Editor for the Copenhagen International Seminar.