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Christian History Magazine—Issue 12: John Calvin: Reformer, Pastor, Theologian is unavailable, but you can change that!

Predestination often overshadows the vast ministry of John Calvin to the people of Geneva. During his tenure, Geneva had no beggars, no lack of biblical preaching, and a solidly constructed relationship between church and state. His Institutes of the Christian Religion, the most intricate and comprehensive volume of systematic theology in his time, exhibited a mastery of Reformation doctrine and...

One is accustomed to speaking of Calvin as the Reformer of Geneva. It would be more precise, perhaps, to call him the pastor of Geneva, because Calvin was above all a pastor, and his work as a reformer was simply the extension of his pastoral ministry. In fact, Calvin was not really prepared for pastoral ministry. Everyone knows how he was pushed in to it one fine day in July, 1536, by Guillaume Farel. Why did Farel take an interest in this 27-year-old, a lawyer, humanist, and self-taught theologian?