Calvinism ─ A Very Short Introduction

John Calvin was born only a few years before the Christian church in Europe was plunged into the chaos of the Protestant Reformation. To Calvin, the only thing that mattered was correcting God's church, which he thought had wandered away from the truth. Throughout his adult life, Calvin manifested a singular passion with God. He desired intensely to subjugate the world to what he saw as God's truth, and his ideas started the movement now known as Calvinism. From Calvin's time, the movement has grown and spread throughout Europe and into North and South America, Africa, and Asia. Today 'New Calvinism' is a major branch of Protestantism.

In this Very Short Introduction Jon Balserak explores Calvin's life and considers the major ideas and issues associated with the Calvinist system of thought. He looks at how Calvinist ideas and practices spread and took root, helping shape societies today. Much of contemporary thought - especially western thought - on everything from civil government to money, suicide, and divorce has been influenced by Calvinism. Balserak also combats common misconceptions about Calvinism, and explores the relationship between Calvinism and the modern world.

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Jon Balserak is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Bristol. He has published numerous scholarly articles on John Calvin and the Calvinist and Reformed tradition. He has written or edited four books including Divinity Compromised; A Study of Divine Accommodation in the Thought of John Calvin (Springer, 2006), Calvinus Evangelii Propugnator; Calvin, Champion of the Gospel (ed., Calvin Studies Society, 2006), Establishing the Remnant Church in France; John Calvin's Lectures on the Minor Prophets, 1556-1559 (Brill, 2011), and John Calvin as Sixteenth Century Prophet (OUP, 2014).