John Calvin: A Biography [Hardcover]

T.H.L. Parker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 27, 1975

John Calvin was one of the most important leaders of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. In this revision of his major biography, T. H. L. Parker explores Calvin's achievement against the backdrop of the turbulent times in which he lived. With clear and concise explanations of Calvin's theology, analyses of his major works, and insights into his preaching, this definitive biography brings this crucially important reformer and his world to life for readers.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

T. H. L. Parker was a widely respected authority on Calvin's life and thought. He was Reader in Theology at the University of Durham in England. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Littlehampton Book Services Ltd (November 27, 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0460120158
• ISBN-13: 978-0460120159
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.1 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,352,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Done, April 1, 2007

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John D. White "camsterdad" (Cayce, South Carolina United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Calvin: A biography (Hardcover)

THL Parker has continued to place us all in his debt with his solid, serious, inspirational work on the various aspects of John Calvn's theology. This is one of the better biography's in print on Calvin's life and I would recommend it enthusastically.

Though now roughly thirty years old, it was the first biography written on Calvin's life in quite some time when it was published. Though not as current as Bernard Cottret's recent biography, it seems more in touch with the subject matter than Cottret does.

Cottret, it seems to me, seeks too much "objectivity" in rehearshing the details of Calvin's life--Parker clearly has a fondness for Calvin and the sources with which he is familiar and it shows in this biography.

Parker has an enthusiasm for the material that I find missing in Cottret's otherwise outstanding work. I would recommend everything that Parker has authored as worthy of being read, reflected upon, and used. Particularly this biography of Calvin.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Calvin as He Was, June 20, 2011

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Theodore Zachariades "Lover of Christ" (TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Calvin--A Biography (Paperback)

I am familiar with Parker's scholarship through his work on Calvin's commentaries, and particularly in his slender volume, Calvin: An Introduction to his Thought, which summarizes and interprets the Institutes. His formidable Calvin research shows in this biography that is, warmly sympathetic to its subject, and is painstaking in its historical detail. That said; do not fear this as a book heavy and dry. It reads smoothly as a novel, with plots and subplots ever revealing aspects of the man at the centre of the story.

Running through the text includes a ` "story" within the story' of how the Institutes were conceived and edited at various stages, and ultimately settled upon in a final form. Calvin's literary output is chronicled against the struggles he faced as a churchman and a reformer. Both his friends and foes are given a place in the book to enrich the drama, so to speak.

The emergence of Calvin as a man is what struck me most. Not Calvin the pastor, nor even Calvin the theologian, but Calvin the man. Certainly the Genevan reformer was a man head and shoulders above many of his contemporaries as an academic. Also vigorous in his indefatigable energy and discipline as a servant of the church was Calvin. However, it is the man of God plain and simple that shines through. His humanity is genuine in Parker's portrayal: A man with a passion, no less. The writer explodes the myths surrounding the so-called tyrant of Geneva. Parker also rightly and correctly instructs his readers about the mechanics of sixteenth century civil rule and the magistrate's role in punishing heresy.

Though many volumes on the life of Calvin abound, one would do well to be acquainted with this text. Particularly illuminating are the two appendices in which parker examines a case for redating Calvin's life, and in interpreting Calvin's "conversion" as chronicled by the reformer in his preface to his commentary to the Psalms. There is a mini commentary on the conversion narrative that is both challenging and illuminating.

My concerns about Parker are limited to one matter. He appears to read Calvin through Barthian lenses in expositing some of the Frenchman's theological convictions. I saw this clearly in Parker's treatment of Calvin's doctrine of Scripture. Yet even here, the writer evidences careful insight into various nuances of Calvin's views.

This is a highly recommended text.

9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars too technical for the layman, January 6, 2009

By 

gardener (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: John Calvin--A Biography (Paperback)

This book is a very bad place to start if you are looking for a readable and easy to understand introduction to John Calvin. The author assumes a great deal of technical historical knowledge that, unless you are educated in that area, you will struggle to get through. I didn't get further than the first 2 chapters.

I wish some authors would write simpler, more easily readable works so that the average layman can also have access to some of the great figures of the past. A good example to follow would be like Wayne Grudem has done with his 'Systematic Theology' which is specifically done for the layman.

So for an easy-to-read/understand biography of John Calvin look elsewhere - I think I might try the biography by Robert Raymond or the compilation by Burk Parsons (Devotion, Doctrine, Doxology), they look as though they will be more geared to the average reader.