The Oxford Handbook of Calvin and Calvinism

The Oxford Handbook of Calvin and Calvinism offers a comprehensive assessment of John Calvin and the tradition of Calvinism as it evolved from the sixteenth century to today. Featuring contributions from scholars who present the latest research on a pluriform religious movement that became a global faith. The volume focuses on key aspects of Calvin's thought and its diverse reception in Europe, the transatlantic world, Africa, South America, and Asia. Calvin's theology was from the beginning open to a wide range of interpretations and was never a static body of ideas and practices. Over the course of his life his thought evolved and deepened while retaining unresolved tensions and questions that created a legacy that was constantly evolving in different cultural contexts. Calvinism itself is an elusive term, bringing together Christian communities that claim a shared heritage but often possess radically distinct characters. The Handbook reveals fascinating patterns of continuity and change to demonstrate how the movement claimed the name of the Genevan reformer but was moulded by an extraordinary range of religious, intellectual and historical influences, from the Enlightenment and Darwinism to indigenous African beliefs and postmodernism. In its global contexts, Calvinism has been continuously reimagined and reinterpreted. This collection throws new light on the highly dynamic and fluid nature of a deeply influential form of Christianity.

Bruce Gordon, Yale Divinity School,Carl R. Trueman, Grove City College

Bruce Gordon is the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School.


Carl R. Trueman is Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Grove City College.

List of Figures
List of Contributors
1. Introduction, Bruce Gordon and Carl R. Trueman
2. Calvin, Calvinism, and Medieval Thought, Ueli Zahnd
3. Divine and Human Agency in Calvin's Institutes, Emily Theus
4. Calvin and the Covenant: The Reception of Zurich Theology, Pierrick Hildebrand
5. Calvin and Equity, Alexander Batson
6. Calvin's Old Testament Theology and Beyond: The Approaches of A.A. van Ruler and K.H. Miskotte, Arnold Huijgen
7. John Calvin's Vision of Reform, Historical Thinking, and the Modern World, Barbara Pitkin
8. Calvin's Geneva: An Imperfect 'School of Christ', Karen E. Spierling
9. Calvinism, Anti-Calvinism, and the Admonition Controversy in Elizabethan England, Robert Harkins
10. John Knox and John Calvin, Jane Dawson
11. John Calvin, Bernardino Ochino, and Italian 'Heretics': History and Historiography of a controversial exchange, Michele Camaioni
12. Calvin, Shakespeare, and Suspense, Claire McEachern
13. Calvin and Calvinism in Germany, Christopher Ocker
14. Cultures of Calvinism in Early Modern Scotland, Steven J. Reid
15. Reformed Exiles and International Calvinism in Reformation-Era Europe, Jesse Spohnholz
16. The First Calvinist Encounters with New World Religions, Mark Valeri
17. Historia Sacra, Historia Humana: Calvinist debates on History, Costas Gaganakis
18. Hiding in Plain Sight: Theology and Visual Culture in Early Modern Calvinism, William A. Dyrness
19. The Effects of Confessional Strife on Religious Authority in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century, Henk Nellen
20. Calvinism among Seventeenth-Century English Puritans, Timothy Cooper
21. Cromwellian Calvinism: England's Church and the End of the Puritan Revolution, Hunter Powell
22. Protestantism as Liberalism: John Milton and the Struggle against Implicit Faith, R. Bradley Holden
23. Seventeenth-Century Calvinism and Early Enlightenment Thought, Aza Goudriaan
24. Angels from John Calvin to Jonathan Edwards via John Milton, Kenneth P. Minkema
25. 1. Religion and the Republic: An Eighteenth-Century Black Calvinist Perspective, Steven M. Harris
26. Eighteenth-Century Evangelical Calvinists, Jonathan Yeager
27. Friedrich Schleiermacher and the Reformed Tradition in the Modern Era, Randall C. Zachman
28. Old Princeton and European Scholarship, Annette G. Aubert
29. Classical Calvinism and the Problem of Development: William Cunningham's Critique of John Henry Newman, Carl R. Trueman
30. Writing the Nineteenth-Century Scottish Calvinist Self: Spiritual Autobiography and Reformed Identity, Bruce Gordon
31. Unity and Engagement: Abraham Kuyper's Calvinist Renewal, John Halsey Wood, Jr.
32. Karl Barth's Calvin: A Weimar Prophet, Ryan Glomsrud
33. Calvinism and Reformed Confessions in Korean Presbyterian Church, Byunghoon Kim
34. Calvinism as a Chinese Contextual Theology, Alexander Chow
35. (Re)Discoveries of the Reformed Faith in Brazil, Heber Campos, Jr.
36. Enchanted Calvinism: Healing and Deliverance in Ghana, Adam Mohr
37. Reforming Calvinism, Shannon Craigo-Snell
38. No Other Gods: Calvinism and Secular Society, D.G. Hart
39. The New Calvinism, Flynn Cratty