John Calvin continued the Reformation in Switzerland begun by Zwingli, now centred in Geneva, and is the real founder of the Reformed Tradition (Calvinism), and the one who made Protestantism a world power. He was born in 1509 at Noyon in France and was intended for an ecclesiastical career. He received benefices and tonsure at the age of twelve and did his studies at Paris, Orleans and Bourges. During these years he became familiar with the ideas of Humanism and the teachings of Martin Luther. He began to be attracted to the Reformation thought taking shape in Europe, which finally led to his flight from Paris in 1533. In 1534 he resigned his ecclesiastical benefices and as the situation in France deteriorated with the threat of persecution of all who held anti-Catholic views, he fled to Basle in 1535. There he published the first edition of his Institutes in 1536. He was invited to Geneva to assist in organizing the Reformation in the city. There he drew up articles regulating the organization of the Church and worship. However, strong internal opposition to the imposition of ecclesiastical disciple arose, centred on the imposition of a new confession of faith and the use of excommunication as an instrument of social policy. This led to his expulsion from the city and he spent the next three years as pastor to the French Protestant congregation in Strasbourg. During these years he produced an enlarged edition of the Institutes. In 1540, he married Idelette de Bure, a widow. In 1541 Calvin returned to Geneva, accepting the invitation of the City Council and during the next 14 years he devoted himself to establishing a theocratic regime there. He instituted a church order with four ministries within the Church, pastors, doctors, elders and deacons. Other reforming measures included the introduction of a vernacular catechism and liturgy. Ecclesiastical disciple was placed in the hands of a consistory, consisting of 12 elders and some pastors which sought to enforce morality through the threat of temporary excommunication. Among other things it prohibited such pleasures as dancing and gambling. Popular reaction against this moral control culminated in the victory of an anti-Calvin party in the city but slowly this opposition ceased and Calvin became the undisputed authority in the city once again. From this time Calvin was virtually unimpeded in his promotion of the Reformation in Geneva and elsewhere. He produced extensive commentaries of the NT and OT and established the Genevan Academy in 1559 for the propagation of Calvinist ideas. He also exerted considerable influence on the Protestant movement in France and England and offered refuge to persecuted Protestants from elsewhere in Geneva.

Calvin was a more rigorous and logical thinker than Luther, considerably more sympathetic to the insights and methods of Humanism and much more aware of the importance of organization, both of ideas and institutions. His reputation and influence as an ecclesiastical statesman, as a religious controversialist, educationist and author was widespread. His theological insights, his exegetical talents, his knowledge of languages, his precision and his clear and pithy style made him the most influential writer among the Reformers. His Institutes is still regarded as one of the most important literary and theological works of the period.

Calvin begins the first chapter of the Institutes with the words: “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” This was the centre of his theology. But he was aware that the knowledge of God by man was so fleeting because God was a mystery, and so he developed his idea of divine Providence and from it, the doctrine of Predestination, which is characteristic of Calvinistic theology. This theory has too often been associated with the doctrine of Election which is considered the basis of the Protestant ethic which prompted Max Weber to credit Calvinism for the emergence of Capitalism. Calvin died confessing that “all I have done is of no worth. I am a miserable creature.” His stress on the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation is a healthy corrective to the prevailing neo-Pelagiansim of contemporary Christians and his emphasis on the Church as creation of the Holy Spirit is a corrective to the idea of many Christians that the Church is social agency and a recreation club.