Institutes the Christian Religion

Author: John Calvin

The Institutes of the Christian Religion is Calvin's single most important work. Yet, as many who have purchased an English translation of the final Latin edition of 1559 know only too well, the sheer size of the work and the proliferation of technical details and polemical themes do not make for easy reading. It has left many wishing for an edition that avoided such things but yet kept intact the very heart and soul of Calvin's teaching.

Such an edition is now available, and it is not the work of an editor or an abridger, but of Calvin himself. The present translation is newly made from the French of 1541. It has been designed and annotated with the needs of a wide readership in mind.

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• Translator’s Introduction
• Outline of the Present Book
• Prefatory Letter to Francis I — Institutes of the Christian Religion (1541 Edition)

1. The Knowledge of God
2. The Knowledge of Man and Free Will
3. The Law
4. Faith, with an Explanation of the Apostles’ Creed
5. Repentance
6. Justification by Faith and the Merits of Works
7. The Similarity and Difference between the Old and New Testaments
8. The Predestination and Providence of God
9. Prayer, with an Explanation of Our Lord’s Prayer
10. The Sacraments
11. Baptism
12. The Lord’s Supper
13. The Five Ceremonies Falsely Called Sacraments
14. Christian Freedom
15. The Power of the Church
16. Civil Government
17. The Christian Life

Appendix: Comparative Table of the 1541 and 1560 Institutes

920 pages Hardcover.