method he can think of to deflate man’s self-esteem and pride in his own integrity and achievements. Unfortunately, later Calvinist theology too often turned Calvin’s didactic devices into dogmatic procedure, producing a doctrine of the fall of man and of human depravity apart from the context of grace, and interpreting grace as God’s answer to human depravity. This does violence to the doctrine of total depravity, because, when cast in moralistic and legalistic terms, it does not do justice to the