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April 6, 2010 5:47pm v.4
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 Prof. F. Bruce Gordon's "Calvin" (amazon) is a new biography of John Calvin released in 2009, which coincides to John Calvin's 500th birthday. I learned about the biography from the 2009 Desiring God National Conference: With Calvin in the Theater of God. Although there are many biographies of Calvin, this particular one received the most attention in the conference, primarily because it was the most recent and released in the year of Calvin 500th's birthday, but also because most people at the conference believed Gordon characterized Calvin as a ruthless, harsh and angry man. I don't remember who said exactly what about the biography, so I may be misquoting them, but I do feel the same about the book, now that I've read it.I read the first 150 pages, and enjoyed the beginning, but was quickly bogged down by unfamiliar names and was disappointed by the lack of theology in the first part of the book. It contained some interesting comparisons between Seneca and Nero to Calvin and King Francis I that were clever. This biography contains a expansive source of notes at the end of the book that testifies to its details, yet the actually biography potion is under 350pages. So its not too long, but over all, it wasn't a lively account like George Marsden's Jonathan Edwards biography, but rather a colder, skeptical biography that focuses on the ruthlessness of Calvin's character. At this point, I put down the biography and decided not to finish it, but rather read Theodore Beza's biography, or T.H.L. Parkers, or maybe Alister McGrath's biography instead. That was last year, but this year, I picked up again and decided to give it a second chance, mostly because it wasn't too long, and I felt that I was more familiar now with many of the characters in Calvin's later life, and may understand it better. I was right. The last 200 pages were much better, and contained interesting correspondences between Swiss Reformer, Heinrich Bullinger, and Marth Luther, and Luther's heir, Philip Melachthon as well as cameos by John Knox and Theodore Beza. There were also several discussion of the expansions in the Institutes, but not to the degree I had hoped. In conclusion, I agree that Gordon was very critical of Calvin's character, but he does redeem Calvin from the Servetus affair, by saying that Servetus's death was not ultimately Calvin's decision, but none-the-less, Calvin was still criticized for his coldness. Gordon's last remarks about Calvin as he died, were again critical, and angered me. I never once lifted the book to throw it though. The biography didn't explain to me why Calvin was so passionate about scripture, systematic theology, the church, and what drove him to expand the institutes. The love of God was not revealed to me, and I feel that Gordon is the nemesis of Theodore Beza's biography, and the other side of the coin, rather than an expansion on Beza. The book is well written, but it is not recommended.
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