Shows / John Calvin's Institutes in a Year
John Calvin's Institutes in a Year
Ever stared at John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion on your shelf and thought, “One day I’ll finally read that… but where would I even start?”This podcast is for that moment.Calvin’s Institutes in a Year is a guided, day-by-day journey through one of the most influential works in Christian theology. Together, we read through the entire Institutes over the course of a full year—one manageable section at a time—so that a book many admire from a distance finally becomes something you…
Episodes
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin'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…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 19
In today’s episode, we venture into one of the most vital sections of John Calvin’s Institutes, where he explains how the abstract truths of the Gospel become…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin'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…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 17
Faith is not destroyed by fear—it is purified by it. In today’s reading from Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 2, Sections 22–27, John…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 16
In today’s episode, we step into the heart of the spiritual battlefield as described by John Calvin. We explore the profound tension of the Christian life: the…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 15
In this episode, we dive into the "principal hinge" on which true faith turns. John Calvin explores the diverse ways the word "faith" is used in Scripture—from…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 14
In this episode, we explore the deep and often unsettling recesses of the human heart as John Calvin distinguishes between the "temporary faith" of the…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 13
Faith is not a cold agreement with truth—it is a living, Spirit-given certainty that binds the heart to Christ. In today’s reading from , Calvin presses hard…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 12
Today’s ReadingsCalvin — Institutes, Book 3, Chapter 2Faith is not ignorance—it is knowing where to stand and who to trust. John Calvin refuses to let faith be…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 11
Today’s ReadingsJohn Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapter 17 (Sections 1–6) Augustine — The Confessions, Book 8, Chapter 5 (Section…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 10
Grace is not diminished by Christ’s merit—it is revealed through it, grounded in God’s love, and secured by Christ’s obedience. In today’s reading from …
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 9
Today’s ReadingsJohn Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapter 16 (Sections 16–19)Calvin now turns from what Christ has done to what it…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 8
Today’s ReadingsJohn Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapter 16 (Sections 13–15)Calvin now brings the work of Christ to its full…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 7
Calvin takes you straight into the deepest part of the atonement—the place most people instinctively avoid. Christ did not merely die; He entered into the full…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 6
Calvin forces us to see that Christ’s work of redemption is not shallow or merely external—it reaches all the way into death, judgment, and the very experience…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 5
Podcast DescriptionIn this episode we reach the heart of redemption. Calvin shows how Christ fulfilled the office of Redeemer not only by his death but by the…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 3
Calvin presses deeper into Christ’s offices by showing that his kingdom gives not earthly ease but spiritual strength, equipping believers to endure suffering…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 4
Podcast DescriptionIn this episode, we confront the heart of redemption. Athenagoras exposes how pagans deified flawed humans while accusing Christians of…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: April 2
Calvin refuses to let us settle for a Christ in name only, pressing us to see that faith must grasp not just the title but the living reality of Christ as…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearThrough the Church Fathers: April 1
Calvin draws a careful line between confusion and division, showing that Christ is one person with two distinct natures—fully God and fully man—so that the…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 30
Calvin carefully walks the line between two errors—refusing to divide Christ into two persons or to confuse his natures—arguing that the Son truly became man…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 29
If Christ is not truly from us, He cannot truly redeem us—this is where Calvin presses hardest, refusing every shortcut that weakens the incarnation (Romans…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 28
Christ had to be truly human to truly save us—today’s reading presses that truth hard against every attempt to soften or redefine it (Hebrews 2:17; Romans 1:3…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 27
In today’s reading we continue through Institutes of the Christian Religion with John Calvin as he reflects on the relationship between God’s eternal decree…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 26
In today’s reading from Institutes of the Christian Religion Book 2, Chapter 12, Sections 1–4, John Calvin explains why the Mediator had to be both truly God…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 25
In this portion of Institutes of the Christian Religion Book 2, Chapter 11, Calvin draws his argument to a powerful conclusion. He explains that the saints of…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 24
In this section of Institutes of the Christian Religion Book 2, Chapter 11, Calvin continues explaining how the Old and New Testaments differ—not in their…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 23
A common misunderstanding about the Bible is the idea that the Old Testament and the New Testament teach two completely different religions. In today’s reading…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 22
In this section of the Institutes, Calvin presses the argument even further: the hope of eternal life was not a late Christian invention but a reality already…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 21
The saints of the Old Testament were not chasing earthly comfort—they were looking beyond it. In this reading, John Calvin argues that the patriarchs…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 20
The promises of God were never meant to stop at the grave. In today’s reading, John Calvin examines the covenant formula that runs through the entire Old…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 19
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapter 23 (Sections 1–7)In this reading, Calvin addresses a critical theological question: Did the…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 18
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapter 9In this reading, Calvin explains that the saints under the Old Testament truly knew Christ…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 17
Calvin concludes his exposition of the law by showing that true obedience directs life away from self-love and toward the good of others. The command to love…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 16
Calvin explains that the Tenth Commandment reaches deeper than outward actions and exposes the hidden movements of the heart. While earlier commandments forbid…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 15
Calvin explains that the Ninth Commandment reaches far beyond lying in court and addresses the entire way we speak about others. Because God himself is truth…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institues: March 14
Calvin shows that the Eighth Commandment reaches far beyond simple theft and speaks to the entire fabric of justice in human relationships. Because God himself…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 13
Calvin pushes the Sixth and Seventh Commandments far deeper than outward behavior, showing that God’s law governs not only the hand but the heart. Murder is…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 12
Calvin reminds us that the Fifth Commandment is about far more than family etiquette—it is about God’s entire order for human authority. When Scripture…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 11
The Fourth Commandment is not about protecting a calendar but about teaching the soul to rest in God. In Book 2, Chapter 8, Sections 28–34 of Institutes of the…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 10
Calvin takes the Third Commandment and presses it past “don’t swear falsely” into a whole posture of reverence: God’s name must be treated as holy in thought…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 9
When God forbids images, he is not merely prohibiting carved statues—he is protecting his own glory and our understanding of who he truly is. In this reading…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 8
Here is your single-paragraph podcast summary, following your established Early Church Fathers track pattern (Calvin primary, plus Augustine and Aquinas…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 7
Here is your single-paragraph podcast summary, following your established format and tone:The Law does not shrink under Christ—it sharpens. In Book 2, Chapter…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 6
The Law can feel like a list of commands until you realize what Calvin is pressing on us here: God gave the Law to uncover who he is, expose who we are, and…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 5
The Law is not the enemy of grace—it is the instrument that drives us to it, restrains us from ruin, and then trains us in holiness. In this episode, we…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 4
A law that commands what we cannot perform and promises what we cannot secure—why would God speak that way? In this episode, we continue through John Calvin’s…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 3
If the will is bound, are we puppets—or still responsible?In this reading from Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapter 5, Sections 1–5, John…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearThrough the Church Fathers: March 2
When we speak about God’s providence, do we really mean that nothing—not even the human will—escapes his hand?In this reading from Institutes of the Christian…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: March 1
Human sin is voluntary, yet never autonomous—and Calvin refuses to let that tension be softened or resolved away. In Book 2, Chapter 4, Sections 1–4, he…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institues: February 28
In these sections, the argument presses directly into the heart of the controversy over human will and divine grace, showing that Scripture consistently…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institues: February 28
Grace does not merely assist the human will once it has begun to move—it creates the movement itself, governs it, and preserves it to the end. In Sections…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: February 26
Here Calvin presses to the breaking point the question of human freedom, insisting that the will is not merely weak but enslaved, acting voluntarily yet…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: February 25
The opening movements of this chapter press the reader into an uncomfortable but necessary clarity: Scripture leaves no corner of the human soul untouched by…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: February 24
In today’s reading from Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin pushes his argument about human inability to its breaking point. He rejects the idea…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: February 23
Human reason longs to know God, to trust His favor, and to live rightly—but Calvin refuses to let us flatter ourselves about how far that reason can truly go…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: February 22
Human reason is not erased by the Fall, but neither is it trustworthy ground for hope, and Calvin presses us to hold both truths without flinching. In these…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institues: February 21
Self-knowledge can either drive a person inward toward pride or outward toward God, and today’s readings press that tension to its breaking point. Calvin…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: February 20
In this reading from Calvin’s Institutes, Book 2, Chapter 2, Sections 5–8, Calvin turns from philosophers to theologians—and finds that many Christian writers…
John Calvin's Institutes in a YearCalvin's Institutes: February 19
What happens to human freedom after the Fall? In today’s reading from Calvin’s Institutes, Book 2, Chapter 2, Calvin presses directly into one of the most…