Reformation Pilgrim

The church tradition in which I serve traces its roots back to John Calvin, the 16th-century Reformer. I had read bits and pieces of Calvin's life and work over the course of my theological studies. In anticipation of a seminar I'm teaching in July, I have the opportunity to read much more about him.

John Calvin: A Pilgrim's Life, by Herman J. Selderhuis (IVP Academic, 2009), is a biography of John Calvin. One of its characteristics (which the author invites us to view as an enticement rather than a liability) is that it tells Calvin's story using only primary source material about his life: such as letters to and from Calvin, introductions to his sermons and books, and documents from the church in Geneva. This selectivity of source material, combined with an informal writing style, makes the book much easier to read than an academic textbook.

Selderhuis invites us to view phases in Calvin's life through the lenses of one-word epithets: he could be viewed as "orphan," "preacher," "widower," and "sailor." Aided by this flexibility of metaphor, Selderhuis attempts to break down some of the stereotypes loaded upon Calvin by later Calvinist traditions.Though Selderhuis does not shy away from judging some of Calvin's (and Geneva's) actions in light of 21st-century worldviews, he confronts the reader with places where the record needs to be set straight. For instance, the caricature of Calvin as the despot of Reformation Geneva is belied by the conflicts between the church and the civil government in that city; and the reputation of Calvin as the strutting champion of "double predestination" requires correction in every generation. For the insights which Selderhuis mines from the source material, I appreciate his work.

The divisions between and within chapters, while always cued by intriguing one- or two-word titles, often left me with a sense of discontinuity. The book's declared aim of walking through Calvin's life according to his own letters may make this sort of zig-zagging unavoidable; a thematic biography of Calvin would make for a work radically different than this collection of vignettes. And at times Selderhuis' writing is so jocular as to seem flip, which felt jarring at times, given the seriousness with which he expects his readers to take the life of this famous Reformer.

These shortcomings did not, however, prevent me from learning much about Calvin's life and how it shaped (and was shaped by) the theological and ecclesiastical movements of his day. A Pilgrim's Life, as the subtitle suggests, takes seriously the fact that John Calvin--like all theologians, no matter how significant their work--was a human being in part guided and defined by his circumstances and relationships. Reforming the Church in our day requires, too, knowing ourselves and our place in God's eternity. Whether we shall be remembered five hundred years after our deaths is not up to us; but we can imitate Calvin's resolve to live as a pilgrim for Christ today.

~ emrys