Institutes of the Christian Religion

Though there are many formats of the "Institutes of the Christian Religion", most usually it is the last edition, the 1559, which is presented, as it should be. This was completed by John Calvin roughly five years before he passed: four Books, 80 chapters; his 'final statement' on Christian Doctrine. Yet of this edition there are at least three well known translations: by, respectfully, John Allen, Henry Beveridge, and Ford Lewis Battles; the last of which is widely recognized as the most authoritative. Henry Beveridge was a member of the Calvin Translation Society, and did Calvin's commentary on Joshua. Our translation, the Allen, is the oldest at roughly 200 years; but is completely modern, well spoken English. Personally, I admire Mr. Allen's translation very much. Although I cannot compare translations, as I have only read this one, yet I am reasonably familiar with Calvin's thought to say a fair job was done here indeed. There is some concern over the propriety of the translation, at times, as Master Calvin can be subtle; nonetheless, on the whole, I believe the translation excellent. ----------------------------------------------------------------- This particular presentation of the Allen, published in 1816 by Hezekiah Howe and Philip Nicklin, the First American edition of the Allen translation, happens to be the only *three volume* American presentation of the Institutes by any translator, that I know of. And no wonder: the whole work is some 1500 pgs. long. As publishers nowadays like to save money, one typically encounters a two volume set or, even at times, one! Even the later editions of the Allen translation were always two... However, the Nicklin presentation of 1816, was quite a classy production for its day: full leather with marbled boards, dark green swatch on the spine stating "Calvin's Institutes"; three volumes, all numbered on the outside. Additionally, the pages were well signified, and all volumes had a proper title page. I believe the publishers really tried hard on doing a first class job; and succeeded. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Would I recommend reading Calvin's Institutes today, nearly 500 years later? If you are a Calvin scholar, certainly; and even a Reformed scholar. However, a fair portion of the Institutes are in fact polemic in nature, and too much so. Calvin would however argue always in a philosophical manner, of course; nonetheless, much of his leading work is unfortunately to some degree set in the time from which it came. But I say *to some degree*. Frankly, I prefer his commentaries: here we see Calvin issuing his rich spiritual insights in a more direct, and one may say, expedient, manner. But even so, there is much to cull from this great work.Additionally, I would propose, the third book (of the four) as the finest.

This is not a critique of the content of the book--I have quite enjoyed reading the Institutes. However, my one star represents the publishing quality and integrity of the book. It appears that this book was essentially copied and pasted from somewhere and thrown into a four-volume book. This leads to some strange formatting errors, particularly, that the Greek and Latin phrases are not carried over, but rather appear as a jumble of letters, numbers, and symbols. Also, there is no citation of who has done the translating on this version. I returned my volumes and would encourage others to support respectable publications of this work instead.

Unless you have a deep interest in the formation of early protestant thought you will find this tough going. If you are a serious student or researcher not crippled by a deep fixation on wiki and want a true insight in the formation of Protestant beliefs this will give you a look into the thinking of key doctrinal formation.. If you lack the stamina take notes into the teacher's view of Calvin rather than your own. Remember he probably never read the book himself/ Ignorance is easily transmitted but the price of knowledge is a painful one.

The book is a reprint of a part of the translation in 19th century by an English. First, the book does not include all the chapters of the book. Second, the translation was a reprint of the translation in 19th century. The introduction of this book should have been in more detail.

The way this book is setup, seems to indicate it is meant to just sit on a shelf. Would have been better to be in 2 columns per page to make easier reading. Also, the copy is not in great condition. The book was "new" but the edges are cut incorrectly so would be more properly termed "scratch and dent."

What!? Is missing the rest of this section!! 😕 See picture. It looks like someone cut and pasted but missed parts. 😔

It takes me a long time to get to great books like this, but with the audio-book I am more likely to sit back and listen some times. It is read well, and though I haven't gotten past the introduction, it is interesting, and I hope to hear it all eventually! I've had the book on my shelf for about 25 years, but hardly read it at all... but I read and heard enough to know it is a treasure!! I hope I'll do better with the kindle book and audio version.

Great book but not an easy read. The difficulty goes through the roof however when an entire chapter has 30% of the words randomly smashed together. That being said, for the money is still buy it again.

Occasionally you come across a writer from earlier days who writes in a clear "modern" style. Augustine is one such, and it seems that Calvin is as well. The subject matter is unavoidably a bit dry in places, but it is clear to read. The Institutes are divided thematically in to four books ("Of the knowledge of God the Creator"; "Of the knowledge of God the Redeemer"; "Of obtaining the Grace of Christ"; and "Of the holy catholic Church"). These are further divided in to chapters and sections, with a summary at the start of each which helps to find your way around. The arguments are made clearly, and the translation in to English is good.The whole is so well written, that I would not say that you need a separate "guide" to Calvin, apart from one major problem - no index! If you want to find something like what Calvin said about predestination, you will need to look up a reference elsewhere, which makes you a bit vulnerable to selective indexing.

For the price, one certainly can't complain, but this is one of those printouts of a digitized copy of the book reliant on OCR, not a proper (copy-edited) publication, so contains blips (''twm' a'' is presumably OCR's handling of a Greek term), and the page breadth is uncomfortable.

I always wanted these books and this version is very affordable , more so that i'm a student

Still on the first book (The knowledge of God). There's really much to know about God, the authority of the Bible etc. I'm sure there's more to learn from this collection. It's somewhat a tough read

I love this book very much. recommend it.