Everyone knows John Calvin was a great theologian but did you know he was more than a theologian? Do you know how he has influenced our schools, governments and our very way of life? Hi, my name is Terence and I'm your host for Reading and Readers, a podcast where I review Christian books for you. Today I review "The Legacy of John Calvin" by David Hall. 112 pages. Published by P&R Publishing in June 2008. Available in Amazon Kindle for USD7.99 and available in Logos for free! Free for January.Who is David Hall? This is what Amazon says:Dr. David W. Hall has served as the Senior Pastor of the historic Midway Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Powder Springs, Georgia since 2003. Is he qualified to write on John Calvin? Amazon continues to say:In addition to his work as Executive Director of Calvin500, his Calvin500 series contains the following works: The Legacy of John Calvin, Calvin in the Public Square, Calvin and Commerce, Preaching Like Calvin, Calvin and Culture, Tributes to John Calvin, and Theological Guide to Calvin’s Institutes.Having written so many books on Calvin, we are confident that if anyone could write an authoritative book on John Calvin, David Hall would be the guy. Or he could have written so many books on Calvin that everywhere he goes he sees John Calvin.The book is divided into three parts. Part 1: Ten Ways Modern Culture is Different because of John Calvin Part 2: John Calvin: A Life Worth Knowing Part 3: Tributes: Measuring a Man after Many GenerationsPart 1Let me start with Part 1.Listeners to this podcast, should be somewhat familiar with John Calvin. You know him as the theologian. The guy who wrote The Institutes, the bedrock of the Systematic Theology. Other than writing theology, what else did he do? Got nothing? Here are some of the ways your life is all the better because of John Calvin. Did you go to school? That's thanks to Calvin. In Geneva, Calvin set up the free public school and seminary and, according to a historian quoted in this book, these became "the forerunners of modern public education."Do you know volunteer societies? They might have helped you or someone you know. That's thanks to Calvin and his deacons who cared for orphans, the elderly and the sick. I quote: This ecclesiastical institution was a precursor to the voluntary societies of the 19th and 20th centuries in the West.Do you know what is a Senate? Senators are in the Senate. They have a seat in government. Calvin and other commentators studied the Bible. They studied how Jethro advised Moses on how to govern a nation. Calvin concluded that what worked for Moses and Israel would work for John Calvin and Geneva. Thus, the Senate was established in Geneva. This idea then reached America. As Hall says, "With this idea [of limited government], Calvin altered the trajectory of governance."In the chapter titled, "Decentralised Politics: The Republic", we have a lot more to thank John Calvin. I quote: Many ideas that began with Calvin’s reformation in Geneva and later became part of the fabric of America were cultivated and crossbred in the seventeenth-century. Customs now taken for granted, like freedom of speech, assembly, and dissent, were extended as Calvin’s Dutch, British, and Scottish disciples refined these ideas.With this illustrious list of contributions to modern culture, I was surprised that we don't have John Calvin to thank for slice bread. Part 2In Part 2, we have a short biography of Calvin divided into four sections: Calvin's Life, Calvin's Friendships, Calvin's Death and Epilogue.If you are yet to be persuaded on the giant who is John Calvin, David Hall quotes 19th century Harvard historian George Bancroft who: traced the living legacy of Calvin among the Plymouth pilgrims, the Huguenot settlers of South Carolina, and the Dutch colonists in Manhattan, concluding: "He that will not honour the memory and respect the influence of Calvin knows but little of the origin of American liberty." Later we read that the world-renowned German historian Leopold von Ranke reached the conclusion that, "John Calvin was virtually the founder of America." A French man founded America? How did he do that? Well, we hope to find out in this biography.Hall gives a standard portrait of Calvin. His early life, how his father sent him to study law because that's where the money was, then a thunderclap. The Reformation happened. Calvin left France and eventually arrived in Geneva. He didn't want to stay in Geneva but he was spiritually bullied by William Karel to stay. So he stayed. Then he refused to offer communion to some people (he had good reasons not to) and the City Council exiled Calvin. But three years later, those who opposed Calvin fell away, and Geneva insisted Calvin return to continue the good work he did there. So he did. He famously preached exactly where he left off three years ago.We read how he helped to build up the church, the city, the public school and seminary, the printers, the economy ...
