Reformed scholars representing a variety of disciplines (ethics, history, missiology, theology, cultural anthropology and literature) and from Europe and North America gathered in April 2008 for a conference at Debrecen Reformed Theological University in Hungary to commemorate the birth of John Calvin 500 years before. Calvinism on the Peripheries is the conference proceedings and includes nineteen essays, organised in six sections: (I) Calvinism and identity, (II) international Calvinism: relationship between Calvinist communities on the peripheries of Europe, (III) international Calvinism on the periphery of Latin Christendom, (IV) Calvinism, religious pluralism and social ethics, (V) the role of Calvinism in education and religious practice in Hungary and (VI) Calvinism, mission and minority. Essays address how Calvinists, living on the cultural and geographical peripheries, have interacted with civil society. While the terms periphery and centre are defined differently by the contributors, the overall message of the book is clear: Calvinist minorities in Eastern, Central and Western Europe have transformed culture, based on Reformed principles, for five centuries. International relations were fostered by Calvinist churches and, in Hungary alone, the Reformed church created an extensive network of schools and colleges. Special attention is paid to the relationship between scholars from Scotland and Hungary, specifically the Universities at Edinburgh and Debrecen.

Debrecen is known as the ‘Calvinist Rome’ and home of the host university which was founded in 1538, far from the centre of the magisterial Reformation. The pivotal role which the Reformed church has played in Central Europe is often neglected in the West, due in large measure to the complexity of the Hungarian and other Central European languages. Those wishing to explore European Reformed identities, shaped by Calvinism and expressed in social ethics, mission and piety, will glean a wealth of knowledge from the illuminating histories in these essays. This book makes the conference papers available in English, despite the obstacle of translating non-native English speakers, shifts the centre of the global conversation on Calvinism from the West to Central Europe, recasts the historical and theological conversation among Reformed scholars and serves as an invitation to unearth more ways Calvinists shape theological, educational and political conversations. What is learnt in this book and the scholarship which follows will inform contemporary questions, including European issues touched upon in the final essay: membership in European Union and the marginalisation of ethnic minorities like the Roma people.

Calvinism on the Peripheries will be of interest to religious leaders in the worldwide ecumenical movement, particularly the World Communion of Reformed Churches, scholars of Reformation history and Reformed theology as well as theological students and pastors. The reviewer, writing while on sabbatical in Debrecen, is left with the hope that out of the pain in the push to the peripheries that Calvinists have experienced, primarily from civic authorities, courageous church leaders will continue to emerge to transform the church and the world.