It would have come as little surprise to those who work in the field of Reformation studies that 2009, the five-hundredth anniversary of John Calvin's birth, witnessed the publication of several new biographies of the French reformer, and a substantial number of conferences in his honour. And indeed, the collection of essays under review here is the product of one such gathering in May of that year, held in Geneva, the town with which Calvin will be forever associated. As some of the later contributions demonstrate, however, Calvin's fortunes have fluctuated substantially over these five centuries: he has frequently been vilified, especially for his role in the execution of Michael Servetus for heresy, but also lauded as a thinker and indeed as a patriot. At times, moreover, he even fell into obscurity: this great enthusiasm for evaluating the man and his legacy is, in that sense, a relatively recent phenomenon.

The traditional caveat is necessary: it is not possible to do full justice to this set of essays in a review of this length. Instead the intention is to give a flavour of the range of subjects covered. The volume consists of a substantial and very useful introduction by the two editors, and fifteen articles. These fall into two roughly equal parts: the first is concerned with Calvin and Calvinism in the sixteenth century, while the second provides a rather more episodic overview of the subsequent four centuries.

Diarmaid MacCulloch begins by asking provocatively whether Calvin might be regarded as the fifth Latin doctor of the Church. This offers an original framework within which to evaluate the most salient features of Calvin's career. Harro Höpfl examines the significance of aristocracy as a key principle both within Calvin's political theory and ecclesiology, and more broadly within the Calvinist political tradition. Not only does this enhance our understanding of this complex topic, but it also serves as a useful case study by means of which one can see how the nuances of Calvin's thinking could gradually be erased: Höpfl contends that Calvin's endorsement of aristocracy had by the 1580s been turned into an argument for limited monarchy which no longer had a distinctively Calvinist dimension. Max Engammare offers a fascinating characterisation of ‘Calvin the workaholic’, examining the reformer's vast workload, his anxieties about making best use of his limited time, and the ill health which was perhaps a consequence, and which was certainly interpreted in that light. Olivier Millet's article serves as an effective complement to this: in it, he uses the prefatory materials of a range of Calvin's writings to trace his shifting sense of himself as an author, from humanist to reformer, and the way in which he presented himself to his readers. William Naphy's contribution examines the organisation of the Genevan Church and State, and the often neglected connections between the two. Emidio Campi's essay sits well against this: he locates the Genevan experience within the Swiss context, revealing the different qualities of Geneva's relationships with Bern, Basle and Zurich.

Herman Selderhuis's contribution marks the beginning of the transition of the volume to examining the longer-term legacy of the reformer. Entitled ‘Calvin, 1509–2009’, it in fact offers another assessment of the key elements of Calvin's career, but turning this to reflect on how these have been integrated into interpretations of him in subsequent generations. Heinz Schilling offers a highly suggestive account of Calvinism's contribution to international relations in Europe (and beyond) in the decades around 1600, and the political, theological and iconographic considerations which lay behind it. Richard Muller moves more fully into the seventeenth century, considering some of the ways in which Calvin and his writings, especially his Institutes and Commentaries, were referenced by later scholars. Muller shows that the traditional view that seventeenth-century Calvinists rarely referred to Calvin is simply untrue: some cited him as one among many reformers, others provided guides to his work, while still others sought to defend his legacy against attacks.

The final set of articles deals with different dimensions of the rediscovery and rehabilitation of Calvin's reputation. Ernestine van der Wall examines the standing of Calvin in the Dutch Enlightenment. While the nineteenth century would witness the emergence of a ‘cult of Calvinism’, van der Wall shifts attention to the preceding century, drawing attention to a range of ways in which he was viewed, but concluding that these provided little suggestion of the great enthusiasm which would come later. André Encrevé's article charts this growth in the French context, in the period between 1830 and 1940. The earliest decades saw occasional interest being shown, but it was really in the 1850s and 1860s that a range of sources upon which later scholarship would rely – such as various collections of his letters and the Opera Calvini – were published. In part, Encrevé suggests, this renewed enthusiasm became bound up with patriotism: in the complex political context of the nineteenth century, Calvin became a means of emphasising a distinctively French contribution to the Reformation. Friedrich Graf's article looks at German and English interpretations of Calvin in the same period, drawing particular attention to its religious, political and economic dimensions. Cornelis van der Kooi then shifts the attention to the Netherlands, and what he terms the ‘appropriation’ of Calvinism into the neo-Calvinism of the nineteenth century, above all associated with Abraham Kuyper. Appropriation is also a term used in David Bebbington's article on Calvin's role within nineteenth- and twentieth-century British Evangelicalism: his was one influence among many, and in the Scottish context, for instance, he was often seen as rather less notable, or sympathetic, than John Knox. Finally, John de Gruchy examines the ways in which the legacy of Calvin and Calvinism were integrated into thinking on race in twentieth-century South Africa. As de Gruchy's article indicates, Calvin's thought could be used in very different ways, depending on the perspective of the reader. And indeed, this is arguably one of the key themes of the volume as a whole: it very effectively illustrates that Calvin and Calvinism remain highly fertile subjects for academic study. This collection of essays provides an excellent snapshot of the current state of Calvin studies, and must be regarded as required reading for anyone interested in this area.