An endorsement on the back cover of this book refers to it as a ‘treatise’. It is not, however, a monograph. Rather, it is a welcome medley of collected studies on Calvin (seen perhaps as part of the praeparatio calviniana in the build-up to the Calvin jubilee of 2009) by a writer with a fine reputation as an interpreter and communicator of the reformer. Accordingly, it belongs to the mostly useful corpus of Calvin studies which have emerged in recent years.
The book has twelve different items, ten of which have been published before (going back to 1997), mostly now ‘in a slightly different form’, and four of them in the Scottish Journal of Theology. The title and layout are designed to give a unity and coherence to the book. The first half relates to ‘Calvin as Teacher and Pastor’ – with ‘pastor’ here having the sense of preacher or minister of the Word. In other words: the pedagogical Calvin, the educator, the instructor, and whose ambitious objective is universal edification and not just the nourishment of this or that clique or caste. In this connection there are studies on the teaching office, how to read the Bible, the Institutes as a companion to scripture, exegetical procedures, catechetical works and homiletical format.
The second half's orientation is ‘Calvin as Theologian’, or more precisely, his reflections on the closely interrelated themes of image and Word, invisible reality and visible signs, hearing and seeing, revelation and appropriation of the invisible and intangible Deity. This portion of the book is especially valuable since it illustrates clearly the characteristic polarities, paradoxes and subtleties of Calvin's thought and its creative dimensions. If Calvin can be considered an inspirational theologian, and not just an expository one, such a quality derives from his contrapuntal style of theologising which also involves descending and ascending scales in a way intended to move and not just communicate. Calvin's ‘school of Christ’, therefore, is only partly a learning centre – it is also a domain of rehabilitation and renovation.
The two new essays in the volume are, chapter 6, on Calvin's Catechisms, which illustrates the Reformation priority of Christian education as the acquisition of knowledge and understanding, and thereby articulacy, and then chapter 8, a study comparing and contrasting the concepts of image and Word in the thought of Luther and Calvin. This piece helps account for Calvin's controversial rejection of supplementary visual aids in worship or devotion.
While the general tone of the book is not hagiographic, its essential and reasonable aim is to commend Calvin. And since the thrust is positive, the focus is on the main contours of Calvin's mind, thought and motivation. This has some limiting consequences which the author acknowledges (p. 262). Others are, first: critical assessment of Calvin is subdued or suspended; second, the hard-edged, rebarbative and incandescent Calvin of his polemical writings is not brought into the frame; third, the constant furies and frustrations surrounding Calvin's practical ministry and role in Genevan public affairs are veiled. Yet these intractable problems drove Calvin to distraction, since they suggested that the prescriptions for a collective Christian life were ineffectual. As Calvin lamented, the Genevan ‘school of Christ’ was more like bedlam.
The book is essentially a presentation of (some of) Calvin's doctrine. It will be a profitable vademecum, primarily for readers confined to English seeking to gain an informed entrée into Calvin's fertile mind. And to this end the general (misnamed ‘subject’) index is admirable. The volume will sit well with the two other Calvin books associated with Dr Zachman (2005, 2008).
