David W. Hall and Peter A. Lillback on Calvin’s Institutes

David W. Hall and Peter A. Lillback (eds.), A Theological Guide to Calvin’s Institutes: Essays and Analysis, The Calvin 500 Series (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008).

This is the lead volume in ‘The Calvin 500 Series’, a projected seven-volume set celebrating the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, published by Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing. (Front matter, table of contents, foreword and preface are excerpted here, and one of the chapters is excerpted here.)

The editors describe the book, a collection of twenty essays on Calvin’s Institutes, as ‘a conversation among informed friends’ (xv), the benefit of many voices being ‘that the chorale is superior to a solo’ (xvi).

The Institutes themselves were first published in 1539 and were revised in 1539, 1545, 1554, and 1559. By 1578, they were required reading by Oxford undergraduates, just one measure of their early influence.