2009 is the 500th Anniversary of John Calvin’s birth: July 10, 1509. Calvin is considered the Second Great Reformer, Martin Luther being the First. Through Luther, God brought the essential doctrine of Justification by Faith back into the forefront of the Church. Calvin’s focus was upon the doctrine of the Sovereignty of God. He is considered the Father of the Reformed Churches (although Zwingli came before him).

I have always considered myself a “moderate Calvinist” or “broadly Reformed.” I also know through the many discussions with my “5 point Calvinist friends” that they might feel otherwise! I’m ok with that. It was my moderate Calvinism that helped me ease into Anglicanism. The Church of England is a Reformation Church (with ancient roots) that was influenced by Calvin. This is seen in The 39 Articles of Religion which were written primarily by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Many, as I do, consider the Articles to be moderate Calvinist in tone.

All of this to say that Princeton Theological Seminary has a program set up to read through Calvin’s great work, “The Institutes of the Christian Religion,” in the year of 2009. I came across this the other day and signed myself up for the challenge. I have read through parts of the book in the past, but never made it through the whole thing. Broken down like they have it, it is doable. So if you’ve ever considered reading the Institutes, here’s your chance (yes, we’re already a month behind, but catching up won’t be too bad if you jump in right now).

Lastly, if you do read Calvin, remember, he wrote in the height of the Reformation. Keep some of his polemic statements in the context of the time.

The Reading Schedule is here: Calvin 09 Read the Institutes.

For recommendation, here is a statement from Anglican theologian JI Packer’s on the Institutes:

The Institutio is also one of the wonders of the spiritual world—the
world of doxology and devotion, of discipleship and discipline, of Word-
through-Spirit illumination and transformation of individuals, of the
Christ-centered mind and the Christ-honoring heart. Shaping all its
elaborate doctrinal discussions, with their rigorous biblicism, their strong
assertions of divine sovereignty, and their sharply focused trinitarian-
ism, is a persistent orientation to the conscience, a contagious awareness
that we do and must live our lives coram Deo, in the presence and sight
of the searcher of hearts, and a drumbeat insistence that sound belief
must express itself in pietas, faithful—that is, faith-full—obedience to,
and worship of, the Father and the Son through the Spirit. Though the
Institutio became more than a catechism in that it reached beyond the
basics of the discipling process, it nowhere became less than a catechism
by losing its discipling focus as the permanent bottom line. The exposition
of Jesus Christ as set forth in the Creed, and of the Christian life, of the
Ten Commandments, and of praying the Lord’s Prayer, stands out in the
ongoing flow as (to change the image) jewels in the crown.