Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life

Cover
Baker Books, 2004 - 96 Seiten
In this classic devotional, John Calvin urges readers to apply the Christian life in a balanced way to mind, heart, and hand. Rather than focusing on contemplative otherworldliness, the book stresses the importance of a devotedly active Christian life.

In style and spirit, this book is much like Augustine's Confessions, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, or Thomas à Kempis's Imitation of Christ. However, its intense practicality sets it apart, making it easily accessible for any reader seeking to carry out Christian values in everyday life. Chapter themes include obedience, self-denial, the significance of the cross, and how we should live our lives today.
 

Ausgewählte Seiten

Inhalt

Preface
9
Humble Obedience
15
CHAPTER II
25
sobriety righteousness and godliness
29
True humility means respect for others
31
We should seek the good of other believers
34
We should seek the good of everyone friend and foe
37
Civil goodness is not enough
38
The cross teaches obedience
52
The cross makes for discipline
54
The cross brings repentance
55
Persecution brings Gods favor
57
Persecution should bring spiritual joy
59
The cross should not make us indifferent
60
The cross makes for submission
62
The cross is necessary for our salvation
64

No happiness without Gods blessing
40
We should not be anxious to obtain riches and honors
42
The Lord is just in all his ways
44
CHAPTER III
47
The cross makes us humble
49
The cross makes us hopeful
51
There is no crown without a cross
67
What is earth if compared with heaven?
74
The Right
83
Let us live with moderation
89
Notes
95
Urheberrecht

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Autoren-Profil (2004)

Born Jean Cauvin in Noyon, Picardy, France, John Calvin was only a boy when Martin Luther first raised his challenge concerning indulgences. Calvin was enrolled at the age of 14 at the University of Paris, where he received preliminary training in theology and became an elegant Latinist. However, following the dictates of his father, he left Paris at the age of 19 and went to study law, first at Orleans, then at Bourges, in both of which centers the ideas of Luther were already creating a stir. On his father's death, Calvin returned to Paris, began to study Greek, the language of the New Testament, and decided to devote his life to scholarship. In 1532 he published a commentary on Seneca's De Clementia, but the following year, after experiencing what was considered a sudden conversion, he was forced to flee Paris for his religious views. The next year was given to the study of Hebrew in Basel and to writing the first version of his famous Institutes of the Christian Religion, which he gave to the printer in 1535. The rest of his life-except for a forced exile of three years-he spent in Geneva, where he became chief pastor, without ever being ordained. When he died, the city was solidly on his side, having almost become what one critic called a "theocracy." By then the fourth and much-revised edition of his Institutes had been published in Latin and French, commentaries had appeared on almost the whole Bible, treatises had been written on the Lord's Supper, on the Anabaptists, and on secret Protestants under persecution in France. Thousands of refugees had come to Geneva, and the city-energized by religious fervor-had found room and work for them. Though Calvin was sometimes bitter in his denunciation of those who disagreed with him, intolerant of other points of view, and absolutely sure he was right on the matter of predestination, he was nonetheless one of the great expounders of the faith. From his work the Reformed tradition had its genesis, and from his genius continues to refresh itself.

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