Church Matters: Retrieving the Great Tradition

Ses s i on 2: The Med i eva l Chur ch and the Reformat i on 45

3. By the summer of 1535 he had finished the first edition of The Institutes .

4. In 1536 on his way to Strasbourg he was forced because of local war to detour to Geneva (“the most fateful traffic diversion in European history”).

5. Spent a little time in Strasbourg with Martin Bucer, a key German reformer

6. In 1541 returned to Geneva, fighting for Genevan church independence and the enforcement of a rigorous discipline (including standards of dress, prohibition of dancing, etc.!) 7. Calvin has been referred to as the “king of commentators,” “the greatest exegete of the sixteenth century,” and the “creator of genuine exegesis” (cf. Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church . 8 vols., 3rd ed. rev. Reprint. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1960), 8:524–25.

8. Distinctive anecdotal facts on his teachings and practices

a. An extreme form of Augustinian predestination

b. He is “vilified” for his role in the execution of Servetus (for denying the Trinity).

c. He suffered from a bad temper; he was intolerant, often times assuming that opposition to his teaching was opposition to Scripture!

d. Transformed Geneva: “[Geneva] is the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the apostles” (John Knox).