Overview
This book offers a robust introduction to John Calvin's writings through the lens of his experience as a religious refugee.
Calvin knew about persecution and political exile from personal experience. He lived as an exiled fugitive engaged in pastoral ministry to a church that included large numbers of immigrants and refugees. Calvin's teaching also addressed an international community experiencing religious violence and displacement in his day. In this engaging book, Kenneth Woo demonstrates how Calvin sought to make the comfort he found in God accessible to others through sermons, commentaries, letters, polemical treatises, and his magisterial Institutes. In his distinct-yet-inseparable roles as teacher, pastor, and polemicist, the reformer adapted his message of hope in exile to diverse audiences. Woo shows how Calvin's theology is an example of Reformed Christianity's refugee roots and history of pastoral care from the margins. And in a brief conclusion, he offers reflections on what a greater awareness of Calvin as refugee theologian could mean for those engaging his theology today.
John Calvin, Refugee Theologian helps students read Calvin for themselves, attuned to how his theology reflected dynamics of religious violence and migration in his day, making this book especially useful for undergraduate and seminary classes on Calvin, the Reformation, and the history of Christianity. It will also appeal to pastors and Christian educators.
Calvin knew about persecution and political exile from personal experience. He lived as an exiled fugitive engaged in pastoral ministry to a church that included large numbers of immigrants and refugees. Calvin's teaching also addressed an international community experiencing religious violence and displacement in his day. In this engaging book, Kenneth Woo demonstrates how Calvin sought to make the comfort he found in God accessible to others through sermons, commentaries, letters, polemical treatises, and his magisterial Institutes. In his distinct-yet-inseparable roles as teacher, pastor, and polemicist, the reformer adapted his message of hope in exile to diverse audiences. Woo shows how Calvin's theology is an example of Reformed Christianity's refugee roots and history of pastoral care from the margins. And in a brief conclusion, he offers reflections on what a greater awareness of Calvin as refugee theologian could mean for those engaging his theology today.
John Calvin, Refugee Theologian helps students read Calvin for themselves, attuned to how his theology reflected dynamics of religious violence and migration in his day, making this book especially useful for undergraduate and seminary classes on Calvin, the Reformation, and the history of Christianity. It will also appeal to pastors and Christian educators.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Recovering the Refugee Theologian
Part 1: The Exilic Contexts of Calvin's Theology
1. From France to Faithfulness: Calvin's Personal History and His Theology of Exile
2. Comfort and Confrontation: The Diverse Audiences of Calvin's Works
Part 2: Calvin as Teacher
3. Calvin's Institutes as Road Map: Theological Coordinates for an Exilic Imagination
4. Calvin's Commentaries: The Bible for Exiles
Part 3: Calvin as Pastor
5. Schooling God's Children in Exile: Calvin's Writings on Church Organization and Worship
6. Stirring the Exilic Imagination: Calvin's Sermons and the Challenge of Faithful Exile
Part 4: Calvin as Polemicist
7. Herding God's Flock in Exile: Calvin's Polemical Works
8. Conformity and Commitment: Calvin's Anti-Nicodemite Writings
Conclusion: Reading a Reformer in Exile
Appendix: Questions for Continuing the Conversation
Index
Part 1: The Exilic Contexts of Calvin's Theology
1. From France to Faithfulness: Calvin's Personal History and His Theology of Exile
2. Comfort and Confrontation: The Diverse Audiences of Calvin's Works
Part 2: Calvin as Teacher
3. Calvin's Institutes as Road Map: Theological Coordinates for an Exilic Imagination
4. Calvin's Commentaries: The Bible for Exiles
Part 3: Calvin as Pastor
5. Schooling God's Children in Exile: Calvin's Writings on Church Organization and Worship
6. Stirring the Exilic Imagination: Calvin's Sermons and the Challenge of Faithful Exile
Part 4: Calvin as Polemicist
7. Herding God's Flock in Exile: Calvin's Polemical Works
8. Conformity and Commitment: Calvin's Anti-Nicodemite Writings
Conclusion: Reading a Reformer in Exile
Appendix: Questions for Continuing the Conversation
Index
Endorsements
“With elegant prose, keen insight, and expansive research, Kenneth Woo provides the most thorough account to date of the exilic aspects and refugee implications of Calvin’s life, leadership, and theology. This book examines intersections between migration and religious violence that prove illuminating for both past and present.”
G. Sujin Pak, dean, Boston University School of Theology
“Taking its cue from Heiko Oberman’s proposal to understand Calvin’s reform as a ‘reformation of the refugees,’ Ken Woo’s introduction goes well beyond to disclose how Calvin’s own identity as a refugee molded his program for ministry and reform in Geneva (and even throughout Europe) and can be traced, like the proverbial red thread, throughout his varied and voluminous writings. Calvin was acutely aware that all of God’s people are called—even if they never leave their homeland—to live as refugees, strangers, sojourners, and exiles, and to work out their discipleship accordingly. Woo has given us not only a winsome introduction to Calvin but also a timely example of how to read Calvin contextually, not as a disembodied intellect but as one truly shaped by the turmoil and sufferings of his age.”
John L. Thompson, professor emeritus of historical theology and Gaylen and Susan Byker Professor Emeritus of Reformed Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary
“Kenneth Woo’s study of Calvin as an exilic reformer is a brilliant reconsideration of Oberman’s earlier work. It firmly sets Calvin and his audiences in their historical contexts, and it presents Calvin as a useful resource for today’s Christians in exile—whether as refugees or as those experiencing the loss of political, cultural, and social power. Woo is not fawning. Calvin is shown with his strengths and warts, as someone dedicated to his own view of God and politically and rhetorically astute, often to the detriment of the evangelical project and Calvin’s own reputation. A wonderful, readable, and astute work!”
R. Ward Holder, professor of theology and politics, Saint Anselm College
“Kenneth Woo’s engaging book extends an invitation into the heart of Calvin’s theology and the experiences of exile and displacement that shaped his faith and career as a pastor and writer. Through the lens of Calvin’s context, Christians today gain crucial perspective for reflecting on their own encounters with spiritual alienation, creating supportive communities in a hostile world, and responding with love to the stranger in their midst.”
Barbara Pitkin, senior lecturer, religious studies, Stanford University
“With a historian’s rigor, a theologian’s insight, and a pastor’s contextual awareness, Ken Woo offers the academy and the church a refreshing gift in John Calvin, Refugee Theologian. Woo introduces us to Calvin as one whose voice was shaped by exile and attuned to God’s comfort for the displaced. In a world of dislocation, this book helps us receive Calvin as a companion in the wilderness—where God still provides manna through Word and sacrament, nourishing the weary with sustaining hope.”
J. Todd Billings, Girod Research Professor of Reformed Theology, Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan
“Dr. Woo presents a fresh and fruitful approach to Calvin’s theology by describing his message through Calvin’s experience as a refugee. This not only brings Calvin as a person closer to us but also helps us to understand and apply his thoughts. Woo’s book is a fine contribution to Calvin research, and it demonstrates the relevance of the reformers’ works.”
Herman Selderhuis, professor of church history, Theological University Apeldoorn; president, Reformation Research Consortium
Author
Kenneth J. Woo
Kenneth J. Woo (ThD, Duke University) is the P. C. Rossin Associate Professor of Church History and Historical Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Nicodemism and the English Calvin, 1544-1584.