Theologian par excellence of the Reformation, John Calvin is best known for his Institutes of the Christian Religion, written as a theological introduction to the Bible and a vindication of Reformation principles. After appearing in several editions beginning in 1536, Calvin's Institutes was finally published in this authoritative 1559 edition. Covering a broad range of theological topics from justification by faith alone to the absolute sovereignty of God, Institutes of the Christian Religion remains influential in the Western world and is still widely read by theological students today.

Bibliographies: v 2, p 1527-1551 Includes indexes.

Excerpt from Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 3 of 3 Chap. I. The true Church, and the Necessity of our Union with her, being the Mother of all the Pious. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Divine Agency and Divine Action, Volume II builds on Volume I, which established that no generic concept of action will suffice for understanding the character of divine actions explicit in the Christian faith. Volume II argues that in order to understand divine action, one must begin with the array of specific actions predicated of God in the Christian tradition. William J. Abraham argues that one must practice theology in order to analyze properly the concept of divine action. Abraham offers a careful review and evaluation of the particularities of divine action as they appear in the work of biblical, patristic, medieval, and Reformation-era theologians. Particular attention is given to the divine inspiration of scripture, creation, incarnation, transubstantiation in the Eucharist, predestination, and divine concurrence. The work does not simply repeat the doctrinal formulations found in the Christian tradition, but examines them in order to find fresh ways of thinking about these issues for our own time, especially with respect to the contemporary debates about divine agency and divine action.