Reformers

There is no shortage of biographies on the French Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564). Interest in the “Master of Geneva” has not waned since his remarkable career as one of the Reformation’s great pastor-theologians. Arguably, most of the interest has been polemical in one of two directions. In one...

Jacques Lefèvre D’Etaples – An Early French Reformer The life of Jacques Lefèvre D’Etaples ran almost parallel to that of Martin Luther. Born around 1455 (28 years before Luther), Lefèvre died in 1536, when Luther was still teaching, preaching, and establishing churches. In 1512, when Luther...

Visitors to Geneva, Switzerland, will find at the heart of the Parc des Bastions – the largest historical park in the city center - an impressive monument with giant statues of the main protagonists of the Geneva Reformation: John Calvin, William Farel, Theodore Beza and John Knox (better known for...

The Dispute of Tirano and the Trial of Calvin’s Orthodoxy In the eventful sixteenth century, few people took notice of a court trial in a small town on the Italian side of the Alps. And yet, the stakes were high. It all started on May 1, 1595, when Simone Cabasso, parish priest of Tirano, preached...

The Sum of Saving Knowledge In 1650, a brilliant young theologian joined with a legendary pastor to write The Sum of Saving Knowledge , designed to summarize the Westminster Standards for the layperson. David Dickson and James Durham’s book was so popular that it was bound with almost every edition...

Francis Turretin’s Italian Family The seventeenth-century Christian scholar Francis Turretin is well-known in Reformed circles. Little has been written about his life, probably under the assumption that the lives of scholars are generally uneventful. Since 2023 marks the 400 th anniversary of his...

Zwingli: God’s Armed Prophet In his time, Huldrych Zwingli was a deeply polarizing figure. Though clearly a leader of the Swiss Reformation, contemporaries Martin Luther and John Calvin denied Zwingli's influence, due in large part to his position on the Lord's Supper. Unlike his more famous...

Martin Luther – A Ground-Breaking Translator While living in incognito in the Wartburg Castle (after the Diet of Worms), Martin Luther spent his time translating the New Testament from Greek and Latin into German. It was not the first German translation, but Luther found the others inadequate. Both...

Trinitarian Dogmatics It’s a question few Christians will typically entertain: how do you enjoy communion with all three persons of the Godhead in worship? Dr. Glenn Butner offers satisfying, biblical answers to many such queries in his outstanding book, Trinitarian Dogmatics: Exploring the Grammar...

I love this time of year but it’s not because the temperature drops, or the leaves fall. I love it because it gives me an opportunity to revisit the history and theology bound up in the Reformation. Many years ago, I made it a habit of watching the 1953 movie Martin Luther staring Niall MacGinnis...