GENEVA 1536
A Chair For Theology
Calvin's magnum opus, Les Instituts de la religion chrétienne, was first published in 1536 and began with a modest six chapters. Near the end of his life and ministry, the final edition of his seminal work was comprised of 80 chapters in four volumes.
Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say,
true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts:
the knowledge of God and of ourselves.
- Jean Calvin
A Chair for Expository Preaching
Calvin preached multiple times per week at la Cathédral Saint Pierre from 1536 until 1564, interrupted only by an absence in Strasbourg from 1538 to 1541, where he pastored a French refugee congregation. Not to mention that his clear and concise preaching style definitively transformed the French language.
It would be better for a preacher to break his neck
while climbing the pulpit
if he does not first live by godly example
- Jean Calvin
A Chair for Commentaries
On nearly every book of the Bible.
Calvin is a waterfall, a jungle, a daemon, something directly down from Himalaya, absolutely Chinese, wonderfully mythological;
I am lacking completely the means, the suction cups, to merely absorb this phenomenon, let alone to present it correctly.
- Karl Barth
A Chair for Catechism
Calvin’s Geneva Catechism of 1542 was translated into numerous European languages and certainly influenced the later Heidelberg (1563) and Westminster (1647) Catechisms.
Question: What is the chief end of human life?
Response: To know God
A Chair for Study Bibles
Calvin worked with John Knox and the English refugees to produce The Geneva Bible of 1560; the world’s first English Study Bible that predated the King James version by 50 years and the first Bible to arrive on the shores of America.
All these died in faith...and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Hebrews 11:13 - The Geneva Bible
A Chair for Christian Scholarship
Founded in 1559, the Académie de Genève was the world’s foremost center of Protestant learning in the 16th century, the forerunner to the likes of Harvard, Yale, & Princeton. Today's Université de Genève is the world's oldest Protestant university.
Study to show thyself approved unto God
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
dividing the word of truth aright.
2 Timothy 2:15 - The Geneva Bible
A Chair for
Christian Education
The Collège de Genève was founded in 1559 for rigorous, Christian secondary education and still operates on the same site today as Collège Calvin.
A Chair for Missions
& Church Planting
As early as 1557, Geneva had sent out a missionary team to Brazil in obedience to the Great Commission. And by 1562, some 220 trained pastors were sent out to the Kingdom of France.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations
Matthew 28:18-19, ESV
A Chair for Letters
Historians have found thousands of Calvin’s letters across Europe from England, Scotland, Poland, Hungary, Germany, and France, in which he wrote to nearly every social class; from Royals to fellow Reformers to village pastors to imprisoned believers awaiting execution.
