In this book, Randall Zachman offers a very thorough account of the interconnected relationship between image and word—manifestation and proclamation—in Calvin's theology. Zachman fittingly draws out Calvin's contrast between living images and dead images in order to argue that “image” plays a central role in the whole of Calvin's corpus, contrary to tendencies in prior scholarship to focus on Calvin's antagonism toward religious iconography. The book concentrates on the living images Calvin employs, while also giving an account of the criteria by which to recognize and reject idolatrous (that is, “dead”) images. Living images are those instituted by God and accompanied by God's word. They include images of God the Creator, such as the universe as a self-manifestation of God, the human as created in God's image and visible signs of God's providence. Living images of God the Redeemer consist of manifestations of God and Christ in the Law, visions and dreams of the patriarchs and prophets, temple, tabernacle, ark, gospel, expressions of piety in the church, as well as, of course, the incarnation of Jesus Christ as the living image of God.

Thus, Zachman divides his study into these two parts of living images of God the Creator and of God the Redeemer, the latter of which comprises three-fourths of the book. Zachman includes the manifestations of piety in the church and the visible marks of the church within the images of God the Redeemer. On the one hand, this makes sense in that the church is the body of Christ. On the other hand, the central role of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit in the church, as well as the way in which Calvin organizes his Institutes (with a separate section on the church), might very well warrant the manifestations of God in the church as deserving its own separate partition. Nevertheless, the book walks the reader through the various manifestations of God as creator and redeemer by demonstrating the chronological development of Calvin's thought on each topic. This incredibly thorough chronological accounting of the development of Calvin's thought on such topics as his views of visions, dreams, and miracles; the development of his sacramental theology; and his understanding of the function of certain rites and rituals (for example, kneeling, lifting up the hands, fasting) is the book's greatest strength. The documentation in the book is meticulous and admirably wide-ranging making it a gold mine of sources for multiple aspects of Calvin's theology.

In addition to the thorough chronological description of the development of Calvin's thought on many significant themes, Image and Word provides a helpful depiction of Calvin's theology of visible accommodations of the hidden God and a multifaceted portrait of his understanding of the unity of the two testaments, especially in the revelation of Christ the Redeemer within various Old Testament symbols (for example, tabernacle, law, temple, the Exodus) and their ties to New Testament sacraments and symbols. As already briefly mentioned, among the most valuable contributions are the detailed portrayals of Calvin's understandings of the role of symbols and images in visions, dreams, and miracles—a topic much-neglected by prior scholarship. Yet, a handful of weaknesses must also be pointed out. The most significant weakness of the book is that it does not contain enough analysis of the data. It lays out the data in almost tedious detail—detail that could be distilled more to make room for more analysis. Each chapter would be greatly benefited by its own conclusion to explicate precisely what is discovered through the detailed chronological layout of Calvin's thought on a given topic. While the author might find these points to be obvious, in such a lengthy book as this, a clear presentation of the findings would indeed be very helpful and strengthen the book immensely. Likewise, the conclusion of the book is extremely brief so that the implications of this vast research are not drawn out to a satisfying level.

There are, indeed, several interesting implications of Zachman's research that could have been accentuated and deepened. For example, given Calvin's view of proper images as ones instituted by God and accompanied by God's word, what place and function does human art have according to Calvin? Zachman addresses this question only at brief intervals, such as the acknowledgment that Calvin supports human arts as gifts of God, but opposes the placement of human artistic creations in Christian worship spaces (377). A second implication of this research that is not fully pursued is its connotations for the “body” in Calvin's theology. On the one hand, Zachman shows that Calvin deals with materiality in an incredibly positive and profound fashion. On the other hand, in the end Calvin's insistence that true images must be given by God alone and attached to God's word means that Calvin's images still remain overly “cerebral.” By this I mean that a “portrait” for Calvin is something painted mostly, if not exclusively, by words, even as the words use various images (see 292–93). Likewise, for Calvin the portrait that the words paint ultimately aim to direct the person to a spiritual reality seen through and beyond the material world. Furthermore, Zachman points to Calvin's use of the idea of accommodation in his employment of images, but does not offer a wider analysis of how the tool of accommodation operates in Calvin's theology.

In the end, this is a substantial contribution to Calvin scholarship that offers a much needed corrective to Calvin's views concerning images. It is a carefully researched work that not only rightly shows the deep importance of images in Calvin's theology but also reveals the many tensions in Calvin's thought concerning divine manifestations and proclamations.