Calvin and the Christian Tradition: Scripture, Memory, and the Western Mind - Hardcover

Holder, R. Ward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1316512940 ISBN 13: 9781316512944

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2022

Synopsis

John Calvin lived in a divided world when past certainties were crumbling. Calvin claimed that his thought was completely based upon scripture, but he was mistaken. At several points in his thought and his ministry, he set his own foundations upon tradition. His efforts to make sense of his culture and its religious life mirror issues that modern Western cultures face, and that have contributed to our present situation. In this book, R. Ward Holder offers new insights into Calvin's successes and failures and suggests pathways for understanding some of the problems of contemporary Western culture such as the deep divergence about living in tradition, the modern capacity to agree on the foundations of thought, and even the roots of our deep political polarization.  He traces Calvin's own critical engagement with the tradition that had formed him and analyzes the inherent divisions in modern heritage that affect our ability to agree, not only religiously or politically, but also about truth. An epilogue comparing biblical interpretation with Constitutional interpretation is illustrative of contemporary issues and demonstrates how historical understanding can offer solutions to tensions in modern culture.

About this title

About the Author

R. Ward Holder is a professor of theology at Saint Anselm College. A recipient of an National Endowment for the Humanities grant for this project, he has written among other works, John Calvin and the Grounding of Interpretation: Calvin's First Commentaries, (Brill, 2006); and edited John Calvin in Context, (Cambridge, 2019).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1316512940
• ISBN 13: 9781316512944
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 350