The motto ‘Post tenebras lux’ (‘after darkness light’) applies not only to the city of Geneva but to the figure of Calvin due to the scholarship conducted in celebration of the five-hundreth anniversary of his birth. Calvin steps out of the shadows and into the twenty-first century with a new clarity due to works like Charles Partee's The theology of John Calvin. Countering perceptions of Calvin's theology as ‘gloomy’, Partee sets out to correct these views, and he should be commended for what he achieves with meticulous care. After years of research and study, Partee's expertise shines light into the darkness of what has become the complex labyrinth of Calvin theological studies. Partee not only illumines but effortlessly finds the ‘joy’ in Calvin's theology through a sympathetic approach that attempts not only to understand the thought of Calvin's Institutes but to appreciate the benefits of his teaching for today. Partee contends that the present cannot be avoided in the study of the past. Consequently, with the proper contextualisation of ideas, they can have an instructive value for the Christian faith. This objective sets Partee's book apart from those who would approach history solely for history's sake and particularly redirects Richard Muller's attempt to unaccommodate Calvin from the modern agenda. Partee's message to the student and scholar is that appropriate accommodation is possible (even Muller suggests this in his claim that ‘Calvin cannot be easily accommodated’: The unaccommodated Calvin: studies in the foundation of a theological tradition, Oxford 2000, 14), and in this way, Partee's work serves as an excellent resource for students and scholars within a Christian academic setting, as well as pastors who seek knowledge for more than just information but for formation as well. Furthermore, unlike other works published for the anniversary, Partee's work is not a biography of Calvin's life, a study of his influence or an exploration of the evolution of Calvin's thought or sources. While Partee does not disregard these pursuits, his work methodologically distances itself from the techniques of the school of David Steinmetz by surveying the fullness of Calvin's theological thought from his most comprehensive and developed work, the 1559 Institutes. Out of this approach, Partee clarifies the nature and intention of the Institutes as confessional rather than rational with the central purpose of confessing the ‘Lordship of Christ and our union with him’ (p. 298). Consequently, he rejects the ‘Loci method’, which does not affirm the centrality of one single doctrine, because it neglects to grasp how and why the ideas of Calvin relate. Highlighting the confessional nature of the Institutes enables an image of Calvin to emerge that is balanced in head and heart. This Calvin is humbly mindful of the mystery of God and exhibits ‘confessional modesty, a genuine humility, and expressions of uncertainty’ in his writing (p. xiv), which offers a strikingly different picture at points from the brilliant but ‘ruthless’ Calvin that Bruce Gordon's recent biography depicts (Calvin, New Haven 2009, p. vii). At a time when currents of Calvinist studies are seeking to demote Calvin's influence in order to better appreciate the contributions of other significant theologians to the Reformed tradition, Partee's Calvin is set apart ‘as the greatest systematic thinker among them’ (p. 3).