Hendrickson offers a one-volume hardcover edition of one of Western Christianity's foundational works. Re-typeset into a clean and modern typeface, this edition is easy to read for the modern eye. This book will appeal to libraries, seminarians, pastors, and laypeople. "Institutes of the Christian Religion" by John Calvin is an introduction to the Bible and a vindication of Reformation principles by one of the Reformation's finest scholars. At the age of twenty-six, Calvin published several revisions of his Institutes of the Christian Religion, a seminal work in Christian theology that altered the course of Western history and that is still read by theological students today. It was published in Latin in 1536 and in his native French in 1541, with the definitive editions appearing in 1559 (Latin) and in 1560 (French).The book was written as an introductory textbook on the Protestant faith for those with some learning already and covered a broad range of theological topics from the doctrines of church and sacraments to justification by faith alone.It vigorously attacked the teachings of those Calvin considered unorthodox, particularly Roman Catholicism, to which Calvin says he had been "strongly devoted" before his conversion to Protestantism. The over-arching theme of the book - and Calvin's greatest theological legacy - is the idea of God's total sovereignty, particularly in salvation and election.

John Calvin's magnum opus "The Institutes of Christian Religion" is a monumental text of Christianity and a foundational work of Western Civilization. First penned in 1536 in Latin, this seminal work of protestant theology has been translated into countless languages and studied widely by theologians, pastors, university students, and religious scholars alike for nearly five hundred years. In it, John Calvin sets out to examine, challenge, and critique the accepted Catholic doctrines of his day. He takes up Christian sacraments, justification by faith alone, and Christian liberty to introduce his vision of a reformed Christian theology. Calvin stays close to the scripture and with a lucid and sober mind establishes what would come to be known as Calvinism: the belief in predestination, the authority of Biblical scripture, and the sovereignty of god. This text firmly situates him alongside Augustine, Origen, and Thomas Aquinas as a great and formative religious thinker and writer. Calvin uses ethics, apologetics, eschatology, and biblical exegesis to create the architecture around modern Protestantism. "Institutes" quickly became a controversial and widely read text and many view it as pivotal in inciting the great Reformation of the 16th century. Calvin intended for the book to act as an introduction to the Protestant faith, and, in this vein, "Institutes" remains a central text to the millions of the world's Calvinists and stands as a major work of western civilization.