On the Christian Life - The Institutes Abridged with Biblical and French Phrase Indexes.

John Calvin (1509 - 1564) was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. His system of theology with heavy emphasis on pre-destination was later called Calvinism. He broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1520s after a sudden conversion. He was forced to flee to Basel in Switzerland because of the violent uprising against Protestants in France. In 1536 he published his seminal work Institutes of the Christian Religion. Eventually he settled in Geneva becoming the chief pastor without ever having been ordained. He convinced the people of the city that his beliefs were true creating what one critic called a theocracy. This book is an abridged version of Calvins Institutes. The language has been translated into crisper English making it very readable. Calvins positive theological statements and arguments are included while the bitter polemics that Calvin often used have been removed. Hence it is possible to see the flow of Calvins arguments without being distracted by the denunciations of those who disagreed with him. The abridgement has been skilfully executed enabling the reader to see the coherent argument at the centre of Calvins theology. This edition comes complete with the original title page outline of the book an index of scriptures and an index of French words and phrases.