Book contents
- Calvin and the Christian Tradition
- Calvin and the Christian Tradition
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Translations
- A Note on Language
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 What Is Tradition?
- 2 Calvin, Tradition, and Exegesis
- 3 Calvin, Tradition, and Polemics
- 4 Calvin, Tradition, and Vernacular Works
- 5 Calvin, Tradition, and Doctrine
- 6 Tradition as a Historiographical and Cultural Problem
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Calvin, Tradition, and Vernacular Works
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2022
- Calvin and the Christian Tradition
- Calvin and the Christian Tradition
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Translations
- A Note on Language
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 What Is Tradition?
- 2 Calvin, Tradition, and Exegesis
- 3 Calvin, Tradition, and Polemics
- 4 Calvin, Tradition, and Vernacular Works
- 5 Calvin, Tradition, and Doctrine
- 6 Tradition as a Historiographical and Cultural Problem
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The fourth chapter considers an area where the intuitive mind would guess that Calvin would eschew tradition. This is the area of his work to create vernacular language resources for believers. Calvin was part of the efforts to make doctrine more readily available for those who could not read Latin, the language of the universities, scholars, and the church. In planning to translate a series of sermons by John Chrysostom, a fourth- and fifth-century Greek writer, into French for the edification of laypeople, Calvin designed an entire project to put the early exegetical tradition before his flock. While Calvin never finished this project, he did take on another, that bore more significant fruit. Calvin translated his Institutes of the Christian Religion into French several times. It would seem that this would have provided Calvin the excuse to cleanse his work of allusions to the tradition. Certainly, his French-reading audience would not know that a certain text from Peter Lombard was a regular feature of an argument on grace. But instead of doing so, Calvin kept a large number of references and discussions of the orthodox tradition in his work, even for his vernacular readers.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Calvin and the Christian TraditionScripture, Memory, and the Western Mind, pp. 123 - 142Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022