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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...

Working with Bucer, he acquired what he had lacked in Geneva: experience in the pastoral ministry, the catechism, and the liturgy. During his exile, the situation in Geneva bordered on anarchy. In 1540, an official delegation came to beg Calvin to come back. Reluctantly, he returned to Geneva in September, 1541, intending to spend a few weeks, a few months at the most, just enough time to put the affairs of the church back in order. He was to die there 23 years later. How is it that during these