John Calvin's Institutes in a Year
This podcast offers a guided, day-by-day journey through John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion over the course of a year. Each daily episode presents a manageable section of the text with clear explanations, making the theological classic accessible without intimidation. It is designed for pastors, students, Reformed readers, and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of historic Christian doctrine through faithful reading and reflection.
Episodes
Calvin's Institutes: August 12
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionHow did the claim of Roman primacy first arise? In the opening of Chapter 7, Calvin traces its beginnings to the Council of Nice, which gave the Bishop of Rome a place of honour among the patriarchs but not supremacy over them. He shows that in later councils the Roman legates often sat in inferior places, that the first seat at Chalcedon was granted only as a t
Calvin's Institutes: May 27
Podcast DescriptionIn a world obsessed with self-improvement and moral performance, John Calvin delivers a sobering and liberating diagnosis: apart from Christ, even our best virtues are tainted at the root. Today we explore the total depravity of human nature, the difference between civil virtue and true righteousness, and why only union with Christ can produce works that are genuinely pleasing t
Calvin's Institutes: May 13
Podcast SummaryIn this episode, John Calvin discusses the cross as a tool for both prevention and correction. We look at the analogy of the "refractory horse" to understand why God must curb our natural arrogance through discipline. Calvin also explains the "badge of honor" found in persecution, showing how earthly losses are transformed into heavenly gains. Finally, we distinguish between Christi
Calvin's Institutes: April 20
In today’s episode, we wrap up our deep dive into John Calvin’s landmark chapter on faith by tackling the "anchor" of the Christian life: the certainty of final perseverance and the relationship between faith and hope. We’ll look at Calvin’s sharp rebuttal to the idea that we can only be "sure for today," as he argues that true faith must reach into eternity.We also explore his technical breakdown
Calvin's Institutes: April 18
Here’s your podcast, locked to your Calvin-only format and tone:Faith does not rest on circumstances—it rests on the favor of God revealed in Christ. In today’s reading from Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 2, Sections 28–32, John Calvin brings everything to a sharp center: the sum of salvation is found in being reconciled to God. If His face shines upon us, nothing is lacking
Calvin's Institutes: February 6
How do we truly know the invisible God when nature alone leaves us prone to confusion and speculation? In this reading, Calvin explains why Scripture provides a clearer portrait of God than creation by itself ever could, grounding our knowledge of the Creator in the historical account given through Moses. He rebukes arrogant curiosity about time, eternity, and creation, urging humility where God h
Calvin's Institutes: February 5
of God? In today’s reading, Calvin carefully addresses this tension by showing how Scripture speaks of the Father and the Son according to order and role without dividing the divine essence. He explains Christ’s words as Mediator, clarifies passages that seem to imply inferiority, and demonstrates that the Son’s submission belongs to His redemptive office, not to His nature. Drawing on Irenaeus, T
Calvin's Institutes: October 14
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionIf each mass is a new redemption, the cross becomes only an example, and we learn to be our own redeemers. The Supper is a gift received with thanks. The mass pretends to pay God a price. Giving is not receiving. The memorial that was to bind one body in Christ is torn into private masses: one man takes what was commanded to be divided, and a crowd present is st
Calvin's Institutes: October 13
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionSatan’s thickest darkness over the Supper was not a ceremony gone slightly wrong. It was the belief that the Mass is a work by which the priest offers Christ and men regain the favor of God—for the living and the dead. Calvin will not leave that standing. Christ is priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Mortal men needed successors because they died. The
Calvin's Institutes: October 12
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionOnce a year, and that perfunctorily, is not what the Lord instituted. The apostolic church continued in the breaking of bread. Ancient canons treated those who heard the word and then refused the table as disturbers of the Church. Augustine knew places that offered the Supper daily. Chrysostom asked the man who sat at the feast and tasted nothing whether he had
Calvin's Institutes: October 11
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionThe same loaf is life in a believing mouth and poison in an unbelieving one. The defect is not in the food. Swine rush the table without faith or love, and they do not discern the Lord’s body. Then the other trap appears: worthiness defined as a state of grace, and grace defined as a soul without sin. By that rule no man on earth may come. Contrition, confession
Calvin's Institutes: October 10
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionIf it is body, they say, then soul and Godhead are there too, and the loaf must be adored. Calvin answers that Christ did not say, Worship this. He said, Take, eat, drink. The apostles sat and broke bread. They did not bow to it. Sursum corda was the Church’s older word: lift the heart, do not stop at the sign. To worship the gift in place of the Giver is to mak
Calvin's Institutes: October 9
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionThey treat enclosure under the bread as the whole of piety, and call every other eating a denial of the thing itself. Calvin answers that the question was never whether Christ is given. It is how the crucified body becomes ours. The Spirit is the bond. Offer is one thing; reception is another. Rain still falls on rock. Seed does not germinate in fire. The wicked
Calvin's Institutes: October 8
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionInvisible presence is not enough. To hide a man under the bread you must first make that man immense. Ubiquity is the price of enclosure, and the price unmakes the two natures. “I am with you always” is aid for a hard office, not a promise that flesh fills every place. The whole Christ is everywhere; not everything that is in him is everywhere. He is wholly ours
Calvin's Institutes: October 7
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionThey claim Augustine for an enclosed body under the bread. Calvin answers that Augustine already defined his own words: sacraments take the names of the things they resemble, and the Lord did not hesitate to call the sign his body. “In a manner” he carried himself in his own hands. Manner is not enclosure. One person is God and man: everywhere as God, in heaven
Calvin's Institutes: October 6
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionThey say we clip God’s power because we will not hide a human body under a thousand crumbs. Calvin answers that the miracle he confesses is already too large for nature: flesh born of earth, once dead, feeding souls from heaven across the whole distance between earth and the right hand of the Father. The question is not what God could do. It is what he has been
Calvin's Institutes: October 5
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionScripture names the sign by the thing it carries. Circumcision is the covenant. The lamb is the passover. The rock was Christ. That is metonymy, not evasion. Augustine said the same: sacraments take the names of what they resemble, or they would not be sacraments. The verb “is” does not lock the door. Paul uses it when the bread is the communion of the body, whe
Calvin's Institutes: October 4
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionIf body is locked in the bread and blood in the cup, the two are torn apart by the space between the hands that hold them. Concomitance is a word, not a remedy. Lift the mind. The symbols invite us to Christ whole. His kingdom is not measured in miles. He feeds us with his body without dragging that body under the loaf. Two fences stand around this presence: not
Calvin's Institutes: October 3
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionConsecration is not a spell. Bread becomes a sacrament only where the word is spoken to those who hear it. The water from the rock was spiritual drink, and the flocks drank the same stream. The change is in use, not in the element. Those who leave Christ hiding under the crumb never need to rise. They have invented a nearness that keeps them on the ground. Moses
Calvin's Institutes: October 2
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionThe Supper has two things: a sign the eye can hold, and a truth the sign both figures and gives. Calvin names three parts—promise, matter, effect. The matter is Christ himself, dead and risen. The effect is every blessing that flows from being one body with him. Superstition then binds him to the crumb. Rome would have the body locally present, taken in the hand
Calvin's Institutes: October 1
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionAugustine said we eat by believing. Calvin grants the point and then presses it. Faith does not gaze at a distant Christ. Faith joins head and members. Chrysostom will not let “faith” mean a mere picture in the mind: Christ makes us his body in reality. Some stop at a share in the Spirit and never mention flesh and blood. Then why did he call his flesh meat inde
Calvin's Institutes: Septmmber 30
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionBaptism brings us into the house. The Supper keeps us fed. The Father will not treat sons as hired servants. He gives a pledge of ongoing care: bread and wine as the figure of a food the eye cannot see. The end of the mystery is this: the body once broken is still our meat, the blood once shed is still our drink. The energy of the sacrament sits in two phrases—b
Calvin's Institutes: September 29
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionServetus heaps argument on argument against infant baptism. Perfect signs require perfect people. The wrath of God abides on those who do not believe. Spiritual things are for the spiritual. Harvest is the only season. Disciples and Christians are the same name. He even calls Trismegistus and the Sibyls to the font. Calvin answers one by one. Perfection in bapti
Calvin's Institutes: September 28
Today’s Readings Podcast Description“Go, teach, baptise” is a charge to gather those who can hear the gospel. Baptism is appended to that preaching. There is not a syllable in the discourse about infants. A rule spoken to adults is not a fence against children. To starve an infant because Paul said those who will not work should not eat is the same kind of wresting. Christ waited until thirty beca
Calvin's Institutes: September 27
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionIf baptism is for the remission of sins, infants need it from the womb. They are born sinners. God does not shut that age out of mercy; the lesser thing, the sign, should not be withheld. The Church Christ washes includes those he calls heirs of the kingdom. Adult converts must repent and believe first: Peter to the crowd, Philip to the eunuch, John to those who
Calvin's Institutes: September 26
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionLeave infants as sons of Adam, and you leave them in death. In Adam all die. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom. If any who die in earliest infancy are saved, they were first regenerated. That work is beyond our capacity. It is not therefore null. John was filled with the Spirit before birth. Christ himself was sanctified from infancy, that he might sanc
Calvin's Institutes: September 25
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionThere is a spark of truth in saying that Abraham’s children are now those who share his faith. The error is to stop there and deny that the spiritual promise was ever made to his carnal seed. God said he would be a God to Abraham and to his seed. Those who receive Christ inherit that word; that does not empty the word spoken over infants in the household of fait
Calvin's Institutes: September 24
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionChrist does not baptise the children in his arms. He receives them, blesses them, and says the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. If they may be brought to him, why may they not receive the sign of communion with him? The Evangelists call them βρέφη καὶ παιδία—infants still at the breast. “Of such” includes the infants themselves, not only those who res
Calvin's Institutes: September 23
Paedobaptism is attacked as a human invention with no word of God to hang on. Calvin answers by refusing to stop at the water. A sacrament lives by the promise it seals. Circumcision already carried that promise: God would be a God to Abraham and to his seed; sins forgiven; the heart circumcised by grace; Christ the foundation. Baptism now does the same office. The ceremony changed. The covenant d
Calvin's Institutes: September 22
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionLeave the pomp. Water, the Name, the promises, the prayers of the Church: that is Christ’s institution. Taper, chrism, exorcism, and spittle bury it. Immersion or sprinkling is not the point. Churches may use either. What is not indifferent is who baptises. The office belongs to those Christ sent, not to any private person, and not to women even in supposed nece
Calvin's Institutes: September 20
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionA larger gift of the Spirit after the resurrection does not make a second baptism. Ministers still give water. Christ alone gives the Spirit. Whoever baptises, Christ presides. Israel was baptised in the cloud and in the sea: Pharaoh drowned, yet still on the shore; the cloud covering them from the heat. So baptism promises that our Pharaoh is drowned, though he
Calvin's Institutes: September 19
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionBaptism is the initiatory sign by which we are admitted to the Church and accounted children of God. It is not a soldier’s badge first. It is a sealed instrument that our sins are covered and will never be imputed. Water does not save. It seals the gospel that announces washing by the blood of Christ. The washing is once for the whole of life. When we fall we do
Calvin's Insitutes: September 18
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionDoes Paul set baptism above circumcision when he speaks of the circumcision of the letter? Calvin says the same could be said of baptism. God regards no external washing unless the mind is purified. Circumcision made with hands is set aside only because, after Christ, the shadow must yield to the reality. The Colossians were buried with Christ by baptism: that i
Calvin's Institutes: September 17
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionOrdinary sacraments are ceremonies by which God trains a people in one faith. They seal his promise and mark our profession. Gentile mysteries show that men cannot live without signs; they do not make those signs holy. The signs have changed with the dispensation. Circumcision, washings, and sacrifices led the fathers by the hand to a Christ still expected. Bapt
Calvin's Institutes: September 16
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionAugustine distinguishes the sacrament from the matter of the sacrament. Sign and thing can be separated. The cup was poison to Judas, not because he received what was evil, but because he wickedly received what was good. Christ is the substance of every sacrament. Out of him they promise nothing. The ordinance remains what God made it even when the wicked receiv
Calvin's Institutes: September 15
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionThe word is seed. On hard ground it dies; in a heart the Spirit has prepared it bears fruit. He that plants and he that waters is nothing. God alone gives the increase. The sacraments are instruments of that same kindness, not causes of it. When God withdrew the tree of life from Adam, he did not take away a medicine that could have restored immortality. He took
Calvin's Institutes: September 14
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionDo sacraments cease to be signs of grace because the ungodly receive them? Calvin says no. The gospel is still grace when it is spurned; Christ is still offered when he is not received. The seal of a prince remains a seal though many deride it. Faith, if it is good, can still be made better. “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” To believe with the whole h
Calvin's Institutes: September 13
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhat is a sacrament? Calvin calls it an external sign by which the Lord seals his promises on our consciences and we, in turn, testify our faith before God, angels, and men. The Latin sacramentum is the old rendering of the Greek μυστήριον (*mystērion*): a sacred thing made known under a sign. There is never a sacrament without an antecedent promise. The sign do
Calvin's Institutes: September 13
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionDoes 1 Timothy 5 bind widows—and therefore nuns—to a lifelong vow of celibacy? Calvin says no. Paul’s widows entered a public ministry to the poor. They pledged celibacy only because marriage would hinder that office, and they were chosen from those already proved in continence (*continentia*). Deaconesses are not nuns. They did not soothe God with chants, nor v
Calvin's Institutes: September 12
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionIs the monastic profession a second baptism? Calvin says the Fathers never intended a double Christianity. Ancient monks lived apart, but they had no private church, no private altar, and no private sacraments. They remained part of the people. Present monasteries, he argues, break that bond: they take a special ministry to themselves and then glory in factional
Calvin's Institutes: September 11
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionCan present-day monkism claim Augustine? Calvin says no. Augustine would not bind what Scripture leaves free, would not let monks live idle on other men’s goods, and made charity the chief rule so that the monastery would train ordinary piety and serve the unity of the Church. Modern monkism, he says, exacts dress, diet, and ceremony as if they were the faith it
Calvin's Institutes: September 10
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhen is a private vow a help, and when is it only more superstition? Calvin allows temporary vows that curb a weakness or stir a sluggish duty, provided they rest on God’s word, fit our calling, and stay within the measure of grace. The one vow required of all is the baptismal promise, confirmed in catechism and the Lord’s Supper. Perpetual and multiplied vows s
Calvin's Institutes: September 9
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhen is a private vow a help, and when is it only more superstition? Calvin allows temporary vows that curb a weakness or stir a sluggish duty, provided they rest on God’s word, fit our calling, and stay within the measure of grace. The one vow required of all is the baptismal promise, confirmed in catechism and the Lord’s Supper. Perpetual and multiplied vows s
Calvin's Institutes: September 8
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhat makes a vow to God lawful, and when does it become a new tyranny over the conscience? Calvin begins a new chapter on vows (*vota*). The Church was already buried under traditions; then private persons added heavier chains of their own. Three tests decide a vow: it must be made to God and consist only of what his word requires; it must fit our strength and c
Calvin's Institutes: September 7
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionShould the clergy be under a stricter discipline than the people—and may the Church forbid pastors to marry? Calvin first recovers the ancient order: bishops watched their clergy by canons, visitations, and synods; the clergy were to be harder on themselves than on the flock. What remains in his day he treats as ape-like mimicry of those rites. Then he turns to
Calvin's Institutes: September 6
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhen war, famine, or pestilence appears, should the Church still humble herself with fasting? Calvin says yes. Fasting was never abrogated; Christ reserved it for days of mourning. A true fast is not ordinary frugality, but a temporary restraint in time, quality, and quantity of food, so that the mind may rise more freely to prayer. Yet the first danger is alway
Calvin's Institutes: September 5
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhen should zeal for purity refuse to split the Church? Calvin, following Augustine against the Donatists, warns that private persons must not separate themselves because elders cannot correct every vice at once, and pastors must not abandon their ministry or wreck the flock by unwonted severity. Discipline that bursts the bond of peace ceases to be medicine. Fa
Calvin's Institutes: September 4
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionHow should the Church actually use the keys without turning discipline into either tyranny or despair? Calvin distinguishes public scandals from intermediate faults, and lighter offences from flagrant iniquities. Verbal, fatherly correction is enough for some; temporary exclusion from the Lord’s Supper is required for others, until repentance is made evident. Ev
Calvin's Institutes: September 3
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionCan a church live long without discipline? Calvin answers that doctrine is the life of the Church, but discipline is its sinews. Without private admonition, public correction, and, when necessary, exclusion from the society of believers, preaching grows lethargic and every man does what is right in his own eyes. Secret faults are to be treated by the steps of Ma
Calvin's Institutes: September 2
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionHow did spiritual shepherds become earthly lords? Calvin traces the rise of papal civil power from slender beginnings: voluntary arbitration became ordinary jurisdiction; patrons became masters; princes, by a mistaken piety, helped abolish the ancient discipline of the Church. The Donation of Constantine is treated as a fable, and Gregory himself is cited as a w
Calvin's Institutes: September 1
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhat did genuine church discipline look like before it was turned into a worldly court? Calvin recovers the ancient use of spiritual jurisdiction: it was distinct from the sword, administered by a consistory rather than by one man, and armed only with the word of God. Excommunication was the Church’s last thunderbolt, used in necessity, not as a tool for collect
Calvin's Institutes: August 31
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhat kind of power did Christ actually give the Church when he spoke of the keys? In these opening sections of a new chapter, Calvin distinguishes two uses of binding and loosing. In one, the keys belong to the preaching of the gospel itself: forgiveness and condemnation are announced by ministers, but the power remains in the word of God, not in the persons who
Calvin's Institutes: August 30
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionHow may the Church employ external order without again binding the conscience or inventing new worship? In these closing sections Calvin draws the final distinction. Constitutions that serve decency and peace are lawful when they rest on the general rules of Scripture and remain subject to change for the edification of the Church. Bending the knee in prayer is b
Calvin's Institutes: August 29
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionDo the examples of Samuel or Manoah justify later inventions in worship? Calvin answers that neither introduced novelty of their own will, and that every human device added to the worship of God pollutes true holiness. Christ’s command to hear those who sit in Moses’ seat does not bind the conscience to the traditions of men; it only requires us to receive the p
Calvin's Institutes: August 28
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionDid the apostles in Acts 15 create a new law that later church leaders may freely imitate? Calvin answers that the decree concerning meat offered to idols, things strangled, and blood was no addition to the word of God, but a pastoral application of the eternal law of charity. The Gentiles were to retain their liberty; they were only warned not to use that liber
Calvin's Institutes: August 27
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionCan human traditions claim the authority of the Holy Spirit or the apostles simply because they are defended in the name of the Church? In these sections Calvin insists that the Church is forbidden to add to or take from the word of God in matters of worship and salutary precepts. The name of Church is falsely assumed wherever men break free from the limits of S
Calvin's Institutes: August 26
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhen ceremonies multiply without measure, what becomes of the simplicity Christ intended for his Church? In these sections Calvin shows how human constitutions have heaped rite upon rite until the people are buried under a mass of observances that obscure rather than reveal the Saviour. Augustine already lamented that the free Church of God had grown more burden
Calvin's Institutes: August 25
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionHas God left any room for men to add new rules of life or new forms of worship? In these sections Calvin insists that the Lord has already given a perfect rule in his law, leaving nothing for human invention to supply. God alone is Lawgiver, Judge, and King of the soul; to transfer that honour to man is to invade the kingdom of Christ. Human constitutions that c
Calvin's Institutes: August 24
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionDoes the Church possess the authority to enact laws that bind the conscience before God? In these opening sections of a new chapter, Calvin draws a careful line between useful constitutions that preserve order and discipline, and human traditions that claim necessity for salvation. The conscience belongs to God alone; it cannot be placed under the tyranny of man
Calvin's Institutes: August 23
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionMust every command to obey those who rule over us be applied without discrimination to all who claim the name of pastor or council? In these sections Calvin answers that spiritual rulers are to be followed only while they remain under the law of God. Joshua himself was charged never to turn from the written word, and the same limit binds every pastor. Councils o
Calvin's Institutes: August 22
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhat weight should the decrees of councils carry, and how are we to judge between them when they contradict one another? In these sections Calvin affirms that lawful councils are to be treated with genuine respect, yet never placed above Scripture. Their decisions are to be examined by the occasion on which they met, the intention that guided them, and above all
Calvin's Institutes: August 21
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionDo general councils automatically represent the Church, and is their authority beyond question? In these sections Calvin insists that even the most solemn assembly is guided by the Spirit only when it meets in the name of Christ and remains subject to his word. The prophets repeatedly show that entire orders of priests and pastors could fall into blindness while
Through Calvin's Institutes: August 20
The Church is protected from error not by freedom from Scripture, but by remaining bound to it. In today’s reading from Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin sharpens his argument about ecclesiastical authority by insisting that the Church is trustworthy only insofar as she submits herself to the Word of God. He rejects the claim that the Holy Spirit leads the Church independently of S
Through Calvin's Institutes: August 19
Christ is the Church’s final and perfect teacher, and every minister, council, and Christian must remain subject to His Word. In today’s reading from Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin argues that God’s revelation reaches its fullness in Christ and that the Church therefore has no authority to invent new doctrines beyond what has been delivered in Scripture. Ministers possess real a
Calvin's Institutes: August 18
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhere does the true power of the Church lie, and how far does it extend? In these opening sections of a new chapter, Calvin insists that whatever authority Scripture confers on priests, prophets, or apostles is given not to the men themselves but to the ministry of the word. Moses, the prophets, and the apostles were all bound to speak only what they had receive
Calvin's Institutes: August 17
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionIs it slander to call the Roman Pontiff Antichrist, or is it simply to speak with the apostle Paul? In these final sections of the chapter, Calvin argues that Paul’s description of the man of sin who sits in the temple of God, robbing God of his honour and using the name of Christ as a mask, can only be understood of the Papacy. The honour of the ancient Roman S
Calvin's Institutes: August 16
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionCan the modern Papacy claim the ancient privileges of the Roman See when it no longer possesses even the marks of a true church or a true bishop? In these concluding sections of the chapter, Calvin presses the argument to its sharpest point. The high claims of universal jurisdiction, infallibility, and exemption from all judgment rest on forged decretals and rec
Calvin's Institutes: August 15
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionHow did the limited influence of the ancient Roman bishops grow into the unbridled claims of the later Papacy? In these sections of the Institutes, Calvin traces the decisive turns. Leo bitterly opposed the honour given to Constantinople at Chalcedon, moved less by doctrine than by fear of losing primacy. Gregory firmly rejected the title of universal patriarch
Calvin's Institutes: August 14
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionHow far did the ancient Roman bishops actually rule over other churches? In these sections of the Institutes, Calvin examines the historical record and shows that the jurisdiction claimed by later popes was unknown in the early centuries. The famous case of Cecilianus of Carthage was decided not by any inherent Roman supremacy, but by the Emperor’s appointment,
Calvin's Institutes: August 13
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionHow did the Roman See first begin to claim jurisdiction over other churches? In these sections of the Institutes, Calvin shows that its early influence grew chiefly from the protection it offered to orthodox exiles during the Arian controversies, and from the readiness of condemned men to appeal there as an asylum. He carefully examines the four heads of ecclesi
Calvin's Institutes: August 11
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionEven if primacy had been given to Peter, was it fixed forever at Rome? In these sections of the Institutes, Calvin examines the claim that Peter’s residence and death in the city established a perpetual universal jurisdiction for its bishop. He shows the weakness of the historical arguments, the silence of Paul’s letters concerning any Petrine episcopate at Rome
Calvin's Institutes: August 10
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionIs the Church founded on Peter as its governing head? In these sections of the Institutes, Calvin carefully examines the claim of Petrine primacy. He shows from Scripture that Peter acted as a colleague among equals, not as a master over the other apostles, and that even if some precedence were granted him among the Twelve, it cannot be stretched into a universa
Calvin's Institutes: August 9
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionIs the Roman See the necessary head of the universal Church? In the opening of Chapter 6, Calvin begins his examination of the claim of papal primacy. He rejects the argument drawn from the Jewish high priesthood, showing that it was temporary and typological, fulfilled only in Christ. He then turns to the New Testament texts most often cited—“Thou art Peter” an
Calvin's Institutes: August 8
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhat has become of the Church’s goods under the Papacy? In these final sections of Chapter 5, Calvin shows that the ancient care for the poor has been almost entirely extinguished. The revenues once dedicated to the needy have been seized by bishops, canons, and abbots, while the diaconate itself has been reduced to empty ceremony. He rejects the claim that outw
Calvin's Institutes: August 7
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhat remains of the pastoral office when bishops never see their flocks and scarcely one in a hundred of the clergy ever preaches? In these sections of the Institutes, Calvin exposes the non-residence of bishops, the abandonment of preaching, the empty claim of apostolic succession, and the complete corruption of the diaconate. The goods once dedicated to the po
Calvin's Institutes: August 6
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionHow are the offices of the Church actually filled and performed under the Papacy? In these sections of the Institutes, Calvin exposes the widespread practice of simony, the scandal of one man holding multiple churches for their income alone, the confusion of monastic and clerical callings, and the host of idle canons, deans, and chaplains who claim the name of p
Calvin's Institutes: August 5
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhat kind of men are made bishops under the Papacy, and by what process are they appointed? In these sections of the Institutes, Calvin sets the hierarchical system of his day beside the order of the early Church and finds almost no resemblance left. He shows that examination of doctrine has been abandoned, that the people’s ancient right in election has been st
Calvin's Institutes: August 4
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionHow carefully did the early Church guard the liberty of the people in choosing their bishops? In these sections of the Institutes, Calvin shows that no one was to be forced upon an unwilling congregation, that the election required the consent of clergy, people, and magistrates, and that the ordination itself was performed with the laying on of hands by the prov
Calvin's Institutes: August 3
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionWhat belonged to the Church in the early centuries was regarded as the patrimony of the poor. In these sections of the Institutes, Calvin shows how the revenues of the Church were carefully divided, how bishops and deacons were held to strict accountability, and how the ornament of the sacraments was never allowed to outweigh the needs of the hungry and the capt
Calvin's Institutes: August 1
Today’s Readings Podcast DescriptionNo one may presume to take up the public ministry of the Church without a lawful call. In these sections from John Calvin’s Institutes, he carefully explains the four heads of a true calling: who is to be appointed, in what manner, by whom, and with what rite. The ordinary path is election by the people under the guidance of existing pastors, confirmed by the la
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