You've read about the new book With Calvin in the Theater of God, seen some pastoral endorsements, and heard about the free PDF on our site.
Here are more endorsements of the book from Calvin scholars, influential writers and thinkers, and more pastors.
Scholars
This little book reveals Calvin to be a God-saturated theologian whose love for Jesus Christ and his church touches every area of human life. A jewel of a book!
—Timothy George, founding dean, Beeson Divinity School, and General Editor of Reformation Commentary on Scripture
With Calvin in the Theater of God is a rich and readable introduction to one of the church's greatest pastor-theologians. Examining Calvin from many angles—including pilgrim, counselor, public intellectual, sinner—the contributors offer an elegant composite of the man even as they point to the object of his worship and work: Jesus Christ.
–Owen Strachan, coauthor of The Essential Edwards Collection
What does a theologian and his theology look like if he and it are firmly centered on the Triune God and His glory? These essays will show you. You will meet Calvin the pastor, the theologian, the polemicist, the husband, the father, the sufferer, the lover of God and his church—all roles played out in "the theater of God."
—Stephen J. Nichols, research professor of Christianity and culture, Lancaster Bible College
In this book you will meet John Calvin the pastor, apologist, evangelist, church planter, Bible teacher, theologian, and pilgrim. The version of Calvin you get from his enemies, and sadly even from some who claim to be his friends, is a hammer-headed, abstract bore. The real Calvin, and the theology he proclaimed, is the opposite. His life and ministry reflect the clearest message of Jesus and the deepest message of the Bible—the grace of God to sinners, for the glory of God.
—Justin Holcomb, director of the Resurgence, Mars Hill Church, Seattle, and adjunct professor of theology, Reformed Theological Seminary
Writers and Thinkers
In a culture that applauds self-glory, and in a church that often appears to have forgotten its Christ, the work of John Calvin is as timely as when it was first penned. This wonderful book invites you into a theater of power, wisdom, authority and grace, but it is not Calvin's theater; it is the theater of glory of God in Christ. Here you will be thankful for the man Calvin and how he enables you to see life-shaping truths, but you will be even more thankful for Calvin's Christ. For as is true of Calvin, is true of every follower of Jesus, the faint glory of the man is only as good as it humbly and relentlessly points you to the spectacular glory of his Lord. Which is, in fact, is the lasting legacy of the man this book remembers.
—Paul Tripp, counselor and author
These distinguished contributors do not seek to exalt John Calvin. But they rightly recognize that Calvin's ministry helps us exalt Jesus Christ. Follow them into the theater of God and behold the glory of the One and Only.
–Collin Hansen, editor at large, Christianity Today, and author of Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists
Contemporary interest in John Calvin and his writings has stimulated a widespread renewal in reform theology and with it has created considerable controversy regarding stereotypical perceptions of Calvinism. Speakers at the 2009 Desiring God National Conference made a significant contribution to these issues by focusing on practical aspects of John Calvin's life and writings. These messages, edited by David Mathis and John Piper in With Calvin in the Theater of God, will be a blessing and encouragement to the reader in discovering an often neglected aspect of this influential theologian.
—Jerry Rankin, former president, International Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention
The authors of With Calvin in the Theatre of God present us with a world-changing vision of God's glory that has profound ramifications for the practical realities of everyday life. Here we find proof again of that old axiom, There is nothing more practical than sound theology. I highly recommend it!
–Dr. Steven L. Childers, president & CEO, Global Church Advancement, and Associate Professor of Practical Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary-Orlando
Pastors
This book is a beautiful capstone to the helpful array of Calvin volumes published the past few years. However, this book is more about the God who Calvin worships than about Calvin himself. Each chapter plumbs the depths of Calvin's wretched but repentant and Spirit-regenerated heart and brings us face to face with Christ on the cross and leaves us there on our knees as it directs our eyes to the glorified Christ on high.
—Burk Parsons, associate pastor, Saint Andrew's Chapel, Sanford, Florida, editor, Tabletalk
[T]his is a book that tears back the curtain and allows us to see and understand the key intersections where his theology and his everyday life collided and then merged into the passionate love for Scripture and zeal for upholding God’s glory that became his calling card.
—Larry Osborne, pastor and author, North Coast Church, Vista, California
As a church planter in New Orleans, I am continuously confronted by the destruction of this world's depravity. My primary counter-attack is to present a biblical vision of the glory of God in Christ. John Piper and my good friend David Mathis have compiled an amazing work displaying Calvin's biblical vision of God's redemptive glory.
—Rob Wilton, lead pastor, Vintage Church, New Orleans
Applying the brilliance of Calvin to the hardest theological questions and the most stubborn challenges of everyday Christian-living, this book will enlighten you with the great breadth of Calvin's biblical worldview.
—Robert S. Scott, Sr., pastor, Los Angeles Community Bible Church, and general editor, Secret Sex Wars: A Battle Cry for Purity
These writers are not just historical spectators observing John Calvin's life. They are participants in the theater of God with Calvin, and they want you to participate in that theater by embracing the truth that drove Calvin: God's glory is demonstrated preeminently through Christ, revealed to us through the Word, and manifested in our everyday life.
—James H. Grant, Jr., pastor, Trinity Reformed Church, Rossville, TN
In an age where Scripture is on the periphery in so many pulpits and man is glorified in so many churches, we desperately need this book. It reminds us not only of the great life and work of John Calvin, but most importantly the supremacy of the Scriptures and the Glory of God.
—Britt Merrick, Lead Pastor of Reality Carpinteria/Ventura
