I just finished reading
Calvin by Bruce Gordon: a new biography published in 2009. The work is not a hagiography but displays both the strengths and flaws of the sixteenth century Reformer.
This biography is more concerned with the details of Calvin’s life than his theology. Bruce Gordon presents an intriguing story, treating Calvin thematically-chronologically. He tells an aspect of Calvin to completion and then jumps back in time and tells the next aspect, carefully interweaving these to create an image of a multifaceted man.
Some interesting events in Calvin’s life include that he preached without notes, wanting to keep the sermon ‘lively’. In the sixteenth century, churches were not the quiet places of today. Parishioners would bring dogs in, speak loudly, and occasionally get into fights. Preachers had to preach over all this without aid of electronic amplification.
It was interesting to learn the backstory of Calvin and Servetus. Apparently when they were younger Servetus asked Calvin to come to Paris to help him with his understanding of Christianity. Calvin risked his life and arrived in Paris, but Servetus failed to make the appointment. This would be the last time Calvin was in France.
One of the sadder moments in Calvin’s life was his break with his good friend of nearly 35 years, Gillaume Farel. When Farel was 69 he married a 16 year old woman. Calvin broke off correspondence and friendship with Farel claiming he was mentally unstable. In the year of Calvin’s death, Farel’s wife had a son whom they named Jean. Although his last year Calvin did write a letter of apology and Farel came to visit Calvin and share a supper with him before his death.
Calvin was brilliant and arrogant, generous and unyielding, confident and self-doubting, pastor and polemicist. He certainly was not without his flaws: he could be a difficult friend, often equating friendship with loyalty to his cause. Ultimately, his cause was Christ and his Church for whom he worked himself to death.
Reading this book has made me want to learn more about another important Swiss Reformer, Heinrich (or Henry) Bullinger, of whom Bruce Gordon coëdited a book entitled Architect of the Reformation. As a last note I say penultimate because I received one other book of Calvin. A collection of Sermons on the first eleven chapters of Genesis. But I have read portions of H Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics, and it’s hard to put down, I might read that first.
