Calvin's Theology and Its Reception: Disputes, Developments, and New Possibilities

J. Todd Billings is Associate Professor of Reformed Theology at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, and the author of numerous publications including Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church and Calvin, Participation, and the Gift, for which he won a 2009 Templeton Award for Theological Promise.

I. John Hesselink is Albertus C. Van Rallte Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, and the author of numerous publications including Calvin's Conception of the Law and Calvin's First Catechism: A Commentary.

This volume impressively and creatively reunites two approaches to Calvin's thought that have grown apart in recent years: the interpretation of Calvin's thought in its sixteenth century context, and the reception of Calvin's thought by later theologians in the tradition, including the possible uses of Calvin's theology in our contemporary situation. Billings and Hesselink are to be highly commended for the theological vision lying behind this volume, which should be of interest to all students of historical and systematic theology.
-Randall Zachman,
Professor of Reformation Studies, University of Notre Dame

This outstanding collection of essays, edited by distinguished scholars Billings and Hesselink, explores the headwaters of John Calvin's theology in the sixteenth century, and maps out major tributaries of his religious thought to the present day. Readers will learn much from this penetrating study of the reception, development, and (sometimes) misappropriation of Calvin's rich theological legacy.
-Scott M. Manetsch,
Associate Professor of Church History, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois

Billings and Hesselink have offered both the novice and mature scholar new avenues into Calvin's thought, by providing an innovative method of directly combining considerations of various topics in Calvin's theology with the reception histories of those topics. This advance allows for the serious grappling with the traditions in which all students and scholars work; genuinely providing a gift for Calvin scholarship, and a model to be explored for historical theology.
-R. Ward Holder,
Professor of Theology, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, New Hampshire