ABSTRACT
The Institutes contain the essence of Calvin’s theology, his science of God – earning him the simple but expressive title sometimes used of him by his disciples, ‘the theologian’, the student of God. In its opening lines, the book sets out its central purpose, the focus on God who is ‘infinite wisdom, justice, goodness, mercy, truth, virtue and life’. The work is also about religion: as its sub-title puts it, ‘The Basic Teaching of the Christian Religion’. As such, the book is intended to be moderate and consensual rather than divisive and combative. We can see this if we compare the title of Calvin’s work with that of the doctrinal summary by the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531): A Commentary on True and False Religion (1525), a title that encapsulates confrontation. In contrast, Calvin in the Institutes was setting out not to establish one version of Christianity as better than another but rather to establish a unitive Christian religion which is catholic in the sense that it is common to all true Christians.
