John Calvin: Biography of the Reformer of Geneva

Life

John Calvin (1509-1564), French from Noyon, studied law and humanities. After a conversion experience toward the Reformation (described briefly in his preface to the commentary on the Psalms), he broke with the Roman Church. In 1536 he published the Institutes of the Christian Religion, foundational book of Reformed theology.

Geneva

Calvin arrived in Geneva in 1536 at Guillaume Farel's invitation. After political conflict, he was expelled in 1538 and returned in 1541. There he built a project of reformed church and city that became a global reference. He preached several times a week, working through biblical books verse by verse.

The Institutes

The Institutes of the Christian Religion is one of the most influential theological treatises in history. Central emphases:

• God''s absolute sovereignty in all areas: salvation, cosmos, history.
• Justification by faith.
• The value of God''s law as a guide for Christian life (the third use of the law).
• The doctrine of predestination: God chooses and sustains his own from before the foundation of the world.

The Servetus case

Michael Servetus, Spanish physician heretic on Trinitarian doctrine, was burned in Geneva in 1553 with Calvin''s approval. This episode, judged with horror today, was common in his time. The Reformation laments it without cosmetics.

Legacy

• The Reformed tradition (Presbyterian, Congregational, Huguenot, Puritan) finds in Calvin its intellectual patriarch.
• The Institutes remain required reading in seminaries worldwide.
• His liturgy and catechisms shaped Reformed worship to this day.
• The doctrine of vocation: all honest work is service to God.

Conclusion

Calvin was less fiery than Luther, but more systematic. He did not write to entertain; he wrote so that the church of his time might restore biblical worship. His signature was in his books. His epitaph, modest like him, says only: "JC". Today, Geneva is another city; the Institutes remains the book that reminds the church that God is sovereign.