This lucid and well-written book throws down a significant challenge to those concerned with the project of theology. Its subject is Calvin, to whom we shall return, but the implications of the discussion are broader and of great import. How does contemporary theology account for figures from the past? Are they to be treated as guests present at the same reception, engaged in debate on selected themes? Or are the historical and cultural differences which shaped their lives really, and not just in the form of a little background, integral to their thought? Does history matter? Many who engage in constructive theology make use of Augustine, Thomas, Luther, etc., in a comparative methodology, but it is one which would make most historians distinctly uneasy. Passages are often discussed out of context and, most egregiously, authors can be made to say things they did not mean. Granted, this sport is not new, and the sixteenth-century reformers played it with the church fathers. Todd Billings approaches this crucial question of history through the lens of the gift and its role in contemporary theological debate. He identifies the largely negative attitude held by modern gift theologians towards Calvin, who, in their view, has a wholly inadequate view of human participation. Perhaps it is not too much to give away the ending – he argues persuasively that Calvin does indeed have a coherent understanding of how humanity participates in salvation.

The book falls into six chapters. The first outlines the arguments of gift theologians and their problems with Calvin. Billings then moves to Calvin's language of participation, looking first at the biographical and intellectual development in Calvin and then turning to the reformer's language in his principal writings. Two major chapters deal with prayer and sacraments, and then the law. Finally, he ends with a discussion of Calvin's understanding of the promise of participation.

It is not possible in a short review to do justice to the sophistication of Billings' careful reading of Calvin. What readers will find most illuminating are the diverse ways in which the doctrine of ‘participation’ informs every aspect of Calvin's thought, from soteriology to ecclesiology. Such analysis, however, does not have the effect of flattening the discussion, making it appear that Calvin says the same thing about everything. Rather, we gain the sense of a mind which was developing through debate and study. In different ways various church fathers were appropriated, and Billings has many helpful things to say about Calvin's deployment of classical thought. We learn a great deal about how Calvin read texts and expressed arguments in different forms, depending on the occasion.

Key themes such as ‘pietas’ are given appropriate attention and Billings offers extended attention to the sacraments, arguing for a ‘substantial participation’ in Calvin's doctrine of the Lord's Supper. ‘Indeed, Calvin does not hesitate to speak about participating in the “substance” of Christ. Moreover, Calvin sometimes speaks of union with Christ making believers and Christ into “one substance”’ (p. 63). It is Billings’ treatment of the law, however, which I found most striking. The language is astonishing: ‘The law is a gift of love – fulfilled in the gift of God's heart in Jesus Christ. Through Christ, the “gentle” Father tells “his most intimate feelings”.’ In the end, briefly, Billings argues that Calvin's understanding of human participation is rooted in a voluntary vision of human activity in the imago Dei and participation in Christ.

The complex terrain of Calvin's understanding of participation in its various forms can only be adequately comprehended through careful analysis of the development of his thought. Billings avoids the common error of presenting Calvin as the author of one book (the 1559 Institutes). By examining Calvin in context he addresses a critique of the reformer posed by leading modern theologians, but the gulf between the two approaches is only obliquely raised. Are we left with two entirely different ways of ‘reading’ the past? Billings touches on this question at the end of this work by suggesting ways in which the historical Calvin can engage with contemporary theological discussion, but doubtless he has more to say.