J. Todd Billings has written a fine treatment of that aspect of Calvin's theology which centres on the responsiveness of the believer to God's grace. It focuses on the twin Calvinian themes of union with Christ and of the duplex gratia, the brilliantly-conceived way in which Calvin treats of justification and sanctification, which though distinct, and with a distinct logic, are nevertheless inseparable, though with justification having the logical priority. So, although Calvin is emphatic that justification is by grace alone, only through faith, that faith is never alone, but is necessarily accompanied by an array of responsive graces, such as love and hope and fear and delight and obedience. Linked to the highly satisfactory treatments of central Calvinian doctrines are discussions of the subsidiary themes of Calvin's view of the sacraments, and his attitude to natural law. The exposition of all this material is attractively executed. The author pays due attention to primary sources, and has an interesting and I think ground-breaking section on the development of the theme of participation in Christ through the various editions of the Institutes. Billing plausibly argues that this development is due to Calvin's work on his Commentary on Romans. Participation in Christ is not to be confused with eastern Orthodox and mystical ideas of a more realist and metaphysical kind. The distance between the Creator and his creatures was etched too deeply in Calvin's theology to tempt him down that road. The author's stated purpose in all this is to rebut the charge made by current exponents of ‘Radical Orthodoxy’ such as Catherine Pickstock and John Milbank that Calvin is deficient as a theologian of ‘the Gift’ in that he fails to comprehend their idea that the proper human reception to divine grace is not passive but responsive. In a nice touch, the author gently suggests that such critics of Calvin are at this point in danger of promoting ‘the Gift’ into the position of a ‘central dogma’ (p. 187). Not only does Billings offer a convincing rebuttal of this ill-conceived and vaguely conceptualised charge against Calvin, he does so in a manner that underlines the permanent worth of Calvin's thought, deeply rooted as it is in biblical and patristic sources, as over against what will surely prove to be the ephemeral claims of a new ‘Orthodoxy’.