Southern Baptist Theology in the Late Twentieth Century
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 54, No. 2 – Spring 2012
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
By W. Robert Godfrey. Wheaton: Crossway, 2009. 207 pages. Paperback, $15.99.
The 500th anniversary of Calvin’s birth brought a wave of new works and editions in celebration of the influential thinker. Robert Godfrey’s John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor is part of that renewed interest, offering an accessible introduction to the life and thought of the patriarch of the reformed tradition, of which Godfrey’s Presbyterian denomination is part. Aware of the many negative stereotypes with which Calvin is nowadays associated, Godfrey hopes to present Calvin as both a pilgrim journeying through the struggles of his own faith and a pastor leading others in the paths of their faith by the light of biblical doctrine and practice.
What particularly sets this biography apart is that it attempts to describe Calvin as the man he was in his time and who he viewed himself to be. The historical Calvin can easily be lost when so often viewed as a paragon and progenitor of theological creativity but Godfrey narrated the life of Calvin as being first concerned with the pastoral responsibilities of his day. Godfrey’s Calvin is not a reclusive academic solely focused on leaving the heritage for which he is known. Godfrey’s Calvin is a pastor whose heart was set to tend to those under his care.
Godfrey was careful to note several of the instances when Calvin put current needs before the work that would define his legacy. He had set aside writing in order to care for his ailing wife (8–9). He would have tended to those struck by the plague had not the council prohibited him in order to preserve his own often frail health (62). Godfrey’s primary emphases were to display Calvin as a reformer of worship and the sacraments, an organizer of an educational program, and as counselor, not just the theologian of predestination and the Institutes.
Continued care is given to placing Calvin within his own context. While appeal is often made to Calvin in matters such as soteriology and free will, Godfrey preferred to handle such issues with the same importance that Calvin had assigned to them. After introducing Calvin biographically up to the point of the beginning of the Genevan ministry Godfrey presented surveys of several prominent theological topics. He began, not with predestination or election, but with worship, for Calvin himself, in listing the two most important doctrines of the faith, placed worship before salvation (77). Even with a key element of Calvin’s theology such as providence, Godfrey wrote that Calvin’s motivation was not the formulation of scholastic ennui but rather to present the doctrine as a comfort to the saints (ch. 10).
This biography is suitably written for the church. It grants access to a solid understanding of Calvin and his time while maintaining a readability that engages readers who might be reading it to satisfy their curiosity about the name they might so often hear. Unfamiliar terminology and historical references are generally either avoided or, more often, adequately explained. Godfrey’s presentation will not lose anyone in excurses on the aggregated literature that has built up around Calvin and his theology. There is instead within this volume an insistence to let Calvin speak for himself. Explanation of Calvin’s theology does not come from Godfrey’s analysis but rather from an appropriately extensive use of quotations directly from Calvin’s pen. Hopefully, this reliance on the primary sources will serve as an impetus for readers to read more of Calvin’s works directly.
The hazard in this method must be recognized alongside this advantage. The natural consequence of leaving aside debate on issues, although it provides for a clean reading, is that such a presentation is inherently one-sided. One manifestation of this idealism is when Godfrey wrote that Calvin taught double predestination “because Paul taught it” (122). Not all would agree with Calvin or Godfrey that that was Paul’s teaching. While Godfrey did not have any particularly egregious views against which readers must be guarded, it is helpful to be aware of this. This is the case if this book were to be used in a church setting, which would be an excellent use of the book. The leader of a study group would be obliged to be aware of more than what the scope of this biography covers.
Godfrey has given the church a fresh biography of a reformer whose identity is often lost in his theological heritage. He gives a clear reminder of who Calvin was in his own time–a pastor, educator, expositor, and a man whose life was committed to the city he served. In his service to the church and in his own spiritual pilgrimage Calvin left a legacy that Godfrey has shown must not be forgotten 500 years later.
