Birthday parties are always fun because we get to hang out with people we care about and celebrate what they mean to us. In 2009 a bunch of top-notch pastors and teachers got together to celebrate John Calvin’s 500th birthday. They celebrated by writing a book to honor Calvin’s legacy.
These essays are not simply biographical (though they include biographical content), they are interactions with the heart and mind of the Reformer. The editor of this project, Burk Parsons, says in the introduction that he is aiming to direct readers’ attention to the heart of Calvin.
“This is the threefold foundation of Calvin’s Calvinism: devotion, doctrine, and doxology—the heart’s devotion to the biblical God, the mind’s pursuit of the biblical doctrine of God, and the entire being’s surrender to doxology.”
Parsons continues, quoting Calvin,
The glory of God so shines in his Word, that we ought to be so affected by it, whenever he speaks by his servants, as though he were near to us, face to face.”
There are a few caricatures of Calvin that this book will help to dispel. First, people often associate Calvin with a type of dry, cold, unfeeling Christianity. This book helps to show us that John Calvin was a Christian believer with a deep, vibrant, authentic, devotional love for God. Second, people speak of Calvin as someone who was in an ivory tower away from people. This book helps to show Calvin as a pastor who deeply loved his family, those in his congregation, as well as other pastors. Third, some people maintain that Calvin’s writings are too difficult. This collection of chapters will help to demonstrate the surprising accessibility of the Calvin’s writings. Whenever I read Calvin I’m reminded of all three of these things.
The authors include John MacArthur, Sinclair Ferguson, Eric Alexander, Michael Horton, Jerry Bridges, Joel Beeke, and many others. The doctrinal content in these chapters is rich enough to make the book worthy of your library, but when coupled with the historical and personal aspect of John Calvin, it quickly becomes a favorite.
Some of my personal favorite chapters include Ferguson’s chapter on Calvin’s heart for God, Steven Lawson’s chapter on Calvin the preacher, Thomas Ascol’s contribution on Redemption Defined, and Beeke on prayer (this one will change your life).
I love this book and highly recommend it. But I do so with a disclaimer for those who are not yet Calvinists: be careful, this could be a gateway drug to full-immersion into Calvinistic thinking!
I’m thankful these guys threw a birthday party for Calvin back in 2009, and invited all of us to join in the fun.
You can pick up a discounted copy of John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology at Amazon.
