John Calvin Studies

Leith recounts the founding and early years of the John Calvin Studies Colloquium at Davidson College, tracing its origins to 1982, listing the inaugural papers and respondents, and reflecting on the gathering's distinctive Reformed conversation.

Peter examines a brief 1562 Genevan catechism, Instruction for Christians, printed by Francois Jaquy as a primer for households and schools, and considers how it summarized Calvin's doctrine for ordinary readers.

Armstrong responds to John Walchenbach's paper, praising its generalist accessibility for the Colloquium's mixed audience of academics, ministers, and church members, and pressing the wider question of how Calvin scholarship serves the church.

E. Randolph Daniel surveys the spread of apocalyptic expectation across Europe from 1100 to 1500, arguing that the breadth of late-medieval apocalyptic thought made it nearly impossible for Calvin to reject the apocalyptic frame outright.

Kelly sets out the historical and textual background of Calvin's sermons on II Samuel, describing Calvin's Genevan preaching schedule, his extempore method, and the manuscript tradition behind the Samuel sermon corpus.

Wright examines how the Westminster Assembly treated baptism, surveying the divines' often heated debates, their continuity with Reformed sacramental theology, and the wider neglect of baptism in modern ecumenical discussion.

George traces the Westminster Confession's place in Baptist history, weighing three competing accounts of Baptist origins and showing how Baptists adapted, revised, and contested the Confession in their own confessional statements.

Klempa traces Karl Barth's lifelong engagement with Calvin, beginning with his 1922 Gottingen lectures, and shows how Barth read Calvin as a churchly scholar whose dogmatic work served preaching and pastoral care.

Old argues that biblical wisdom theology decisively shaped Calvin's understanding of the Lord's Supper, drawing out a wisdom dimension alongside the covenantal, kerygmatic, and eucharistic strands of Calvin's sacramental thought.

Lane examines Calvin's 1543 treatise against Albert Pighius on the bondage and liberation of the will, situating it within the dispute over free choice and tracing Calvin's reply to Pighius's first six books of objections.

Van't Spijker traces the doctrine of sealing with the Holy Spirit from Martin Bucer's 1527 Ephesians commentary into Calvin's mature sacramental and pneumatological thought, showing the close exegetical and pastoral bond between the two Reformers.

Baker responds to critics of his earlier work on Bullinger's federal theology, returning to Bullinger's writings to defend a fourfold covenantal focus and to clarify Bullinger's distinct place within the Reformed tradition.

Dowey introduces Heinrich Bullinger as a theologian, focusing not on the content but the method of his thought, and characterizes his work as thematic, comprehensive, and schematic in ways that distinguish him from Calvin.

Hunsinger sets Calvin and Barth side by side on justification and sanctification, addressing von Balthasar's claim that Barth has no room for growth in the Christian life and arguing for a doubled simultaneity that holds both Reformers together.

Kelly translates and analyzes Calvin's 1561 Congratulations to Gabriel of Saconay, a previously untranslated treatise in which Calvin defends Martin Luther against Catholic polemic and reflects on their shared evangelical confession.

Klempa enters the long debate over natural law in Calvin, weighing the two main camps of twentieth-century scholarship and arguing for a measured reading that locates natural law within Calvin's social, ethical, and political thought.

Selderhuis examines Calvin's theology of the Psalms with particular attention to the hiddenness of God, an aspect of Calvin's doctrine often overlooked, and shows how it shaped Calvin's account of faith under trial.

Burnett responds to Gary Hansen's thesis on Calvin's non-literal interpretation, arguing that Calvin's occasional allegorical readings do not violate the literal sense but extend it within a richer Reformed account of biblical meaning.

George examines the 1549 Consensus Tigurinus between Calvin and Bullinger on the Lord's Supper, tracing its negotiation, its sacramental compromise, and its lasting significance for the unity of the Reformed churches of Switzerland.

Old argues that Calvin had a distinct evangelistic ministry centered on the preparatory services for Easter Communion, where his sermons called hearers to covenant renewal and culminated in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

Engammare considers how Theodore Beza and the Genevans portrayed Calvin as a prophet of God at his death, then asks what kind of prophetic office Calvin actually claimed and exercised in his preaching and exegesis.

Neuser surveys the history and future of the International Congress for Calvin Research, beginning with the 1974 European meeting at the Free University of Amsterdam, and outlines the publishing and research agenda of subsequent congresses.

Alexander McKelway argues that the genius of the Calvin Studies Society lies in joining church and academy, and he proposes three areas where both can learn from Calvin: the importance of good learning, the right relation of faith and knowledge, and the proper use of theological language.

W. Fred Graham revisits his 1971 book The Constructive Revolutionary in light of two decades of Calvin and Geneva scholarship, reflecting on what he would now revise about his treatment of Calvin's social and economic thought and the Weber thesis on Calvinism and capitalism.