ABSTRACT
Alongside Martin Luther, the Frenchman Jean Calvin (1509–1564) is one of the leading figures of the Protestant Reformation. His major work was the Institutes of the Christian Religion (Institutio Christianae Religionis), published in Switzerland in 1536 after Calvin was forced to flee from France to escape persecution by the royal and religious authorities in that kingdom. The Institutes are a work of systematic theology, a textbook in which Calvin set out his theological position and his rejection of other ones, especially Catholicism. In the following chapter, Calvin argues forcefully against atheism with the argument that a deep-seated emotional belief in God existed in all men. Indeed Calvin stated that it was ‘indelibly engraven on the human heart’ and evidenced by their unconquerable fear of God.
