Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion and the Reformed tradition
- Date
- 1536
- Category
- Religion & ideology
- Region
- Switzerland (Geneva and Basel)
- Era
- Early Modern
- Significance
In March 1536 the French reformer John Calvin published in Basel the first edition of his Institutio Christianae Religionis, the Institutes of the Christian Religion, the first systematic theological summary of the reform movement.
Expanded through successive editions until its definitive 1559 form, the work became the most influential theological text of the sixteenth-century Reformation, articulating doctrines of divine sovereignty, justification by faith and predestination with unmatched clarity. That same year Calvin was recruited to help reform the church in Geneva, which under his leadership became a model Reformed city and an international centre training preachers who carried Calvinism to France, the Netherlands, Scotland, England and beyond. Calvinism, distinct from Lutheranism, shaped Presbyterian, Reformed and Puritan churches, influenced ideas about church governance, discipline and the work ethic, and fed political resistance theories in several countries. By systematising Protestant theology and building a disciplined ecclesiastical community, Calvin gave the Reformation an enduring intellectual and institutional framework that spread far beyond Geneva.
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Empires active in 1536
- Songhai Empire1464 CE – 1591 CE
- Ming Dynasty1368 CE – 1644 CE
- Ottoman Empire1299 CE – 1922 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
- Mughal Empire1526 CE – 1857 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
Related religion & ideology events
- Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses and the start of the Reformation31 October 1517
- The Catholic Counter-Reformation: the Jesuits and the Council of Trent27 September 1540
- Shah Ismail I proclaims Twelver Shi'ism the state religion of Iran1501
- St Bartholomew's Day Massacre24 August 1572
- Edict of Nantes ends the French Wars of Religion13 April 1598
- Compilation of the Adi Granth, Sikh Scripture1604 CE
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Religion
Accessible sweep of humanity's faiths and belief systems from prehistory to the present.
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