Reformation Heritage Books

During the glory days of the French Renaissance, young John Calvin (1509-64) experienced a profound conversion to the faith of the Reformation. For the rest of his days he lived out the implications of that transformation-as exile, inspired reformer and ultimately the dominant figure of the Protestant Reformation. Calvin's vision of the Christian religion has inspired many volumes of analysis, but this engaging biography examines a remarkable life. Bruce Gordon presents Calvin as a human being, a man at once brilliant, arrogant, charismatic, unforgiving, generous and shrewd.

Author

Bruce Gordon is professor of Reformation history, Yale Divinity School. He is author and editor of a number of books.

Endorsements

"Perhaps better than any previous study, Gordon's book replaces the iconic image of an impassive Calvin with the impassioned man of flesh and blood, reconstructing a fraught life lived between 'divine calling and human frailty.' In this quincentenary of the reformer's birth, scholars and general readers will be indepbted to Gordon for having made Calvin comprehensible without compromising his complexity." - Brad Gregory