AP

Review of John Calvin, The Doctrine of Election, translated by Robert White, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2022.

            Calvin is sometimes treated as if the doctrine of election was the only teaching ever to proceed from his mouth or pen. In some evangelical circles, election is treated like a retired army officer – respected but not expected to see battle in modern times. One can overdo it, and, in Calvin’s words, ‘stumble into a labyrinth from which there is no way out’, or downplay it, and fall into another kind of darkness and confusion. Calvin’s treatment of the doctrine is judicious and thoroughly biblical.

In his introduction, Robert White, an Australian specialist in French studies and a translator of many of Calvin’s writings, points out that the doctrine of election is found all through Scripture (e.g. 1 Pet.2:6,9; 2 Thess.2:13; Rom.8:28-11:36; Eph.1:2-14; 2 Tim.1:9, 10). We are used to hearing that Augustine of Hippo held to it, but so too did the medieval theologians, Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas. To Calvin, it is a clear biblical doctrine, but one which we can never fully understand: ‘Man stumbled according as God had ordained, but he stumbled through his own fault.’ Like Augustine, we are to desire the salvation of everyone.

Rob White has translated ten addresses here, presented under four headings, together with three appendices. The first was delivered in December 1551 as Calvin replied to Jerome Bolsec, who had accused Calvin of distorting Scripture. The second group reproduces four sermons on Jacob and Esau from Genesis 25. The remaining two headings reproduce five sermons from Ephesians (four from Ephesians 1, and one from Ephesians 3).

A crucial point is made in Appendix III. The hearer or reader should not ask: ‘Am I elect? but rather, ‘Am I willing?’ And if I am willing to come to Christ, it is only because He has made me willing (e.g. Matt.11:25-30). This is food for the mind and the soul, and befits a thorough study by any reader.

– Peter Barnes