‘John Calvin knew that if the biblical truths rediscovered at the Reformation were to spread throughout the world, they would have to be presented in a form which ordinary people could understand. So, during the winter of 1536-1537, the 29 year old Calvin wrote, in French, his Brief Outline of the Christian Faith…This is Calvin’s striking but concise attempt to define the Christian faith for ordinary people!…Here you have the very core of Protestant belief and feel the warmth of its ardent love for God and men.’ — From the preface by Stuart Olyott

Table of Contents

About the Author

John Calvin (1509-64), the French theologian and pastor of Geneva, was one of the principal 16th-century Reformers.

Calvin was born on 10 July 1509, in Noyon, about sixty miles north-east of Paris. His father – Gérard Cauvin – held legal office in the service of the bishops of Noyon, and wanted his son to enter the church. He used his influence to obtain a chaplaincy at Noyon Cathedral when Calvin was 11, the income helping to fund his education. The young man was privately tutored, before being sent to Paris at the age of 14 to study theology at the University. He first attended the Collège de la Marche, then the Collège de Montaigu, where he received the equivalent of his Master of Arts in 1528 at the unusually young age of 17. Some of Calvin’s instruction was given by the brilliant Latin scholar Mathurin Cordier, and he obtained a first-class education.

At about the same time as he received his M.A., Calvin’s father changed his mind about his son’s future, and directed him from theology to study law at the University of Orléans. It was here that Calvin learned Greek, and developed his powers of analysis and rhetoric – not unhelpful skills for a man whom God was making a minister of the gospel. Within a year, Calvin was sufficiently advanced to begin teaching incoming scholars.

He moved on to Bourges in about 1529, returning to Noyon for the burial of his father, who had died quite suddenly. Released from his father’s seemingly quite heavy governance, Calvin spread his wings as a humanist, publishing his first and only humanist work at the age of 23, a commentary on the younger Seneca’s De Clementia (On Mercy). In the same year, 1532, he received his doctor of laws degree. Calvin’s fierce dedication to study during these years was near-legendary, but almost certainly laid the foundation for his subsequent struggle with ill-health.

Endorsement

This book is a little gem!…It would be hard to find a clearer summary of the faith in so short a compass, and perhaps impossible to find one so warm…Well worth the read! — EVANGELICALS NOW