Calvin Courier Newsletter Fall 1997, Number 20

Hugh and Eve Meeter Calvinism Awards for High School Seniors

The topic for 2000 is “John Calvin on the Role of the Pastor in the Sixteenth Century and Today.” Contact the Meeter Center for an informative brochure about the awards. Papers must be received by January 15, 2000.

Since our last newsletter the Meeter Center has continued to be very busy. On the research front we were delighted to welcome five visiting scholars for part of the summer. Four of the scholars were here at the same time and enjoyed the opportunity to exchange ideas on their research as well as use the Meeter Center’s resources. The two-week Genevan paleography course taught by Dr. Tom Lambert at the Center in late May was also very successful, and participants reported that the course was very helpful for them. The Meeter Center also cosponsored an international conference on the French religious book held in St. Andrews, Scotland, in late August (see report below). This gathering helped the Meeter Center raise its profile on the international scene.

In terms of acquisitions the Center successfully applied for a grant from Calvin College to purchase a major collection of microfiches of Anabaptist and Spiritualist works from the sixteenth century, thus extending the range of sources available to users of the Center.

Increasingly the Meeter Center is becoming a recognized name among scholars, students, and the community at large. Once again we will organize sessions on printing and the Reformation for classes from Calvin College and Seminary and other educational establishments in the local area. Interested Friends of the Center are invited to attend one of these events. Please phone 957–7081 for the current schedule of sessions.

Plans for this fall include a Meeter Center sponsored session at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference in St. Louis in October and a lecture in November by Dr. Debra Rienstra of the English Department at Calvin (see Colloquia and Conferences on page 3). We look forward to seeing you at one of these occasions in the near future.

For the past four years Professor Andrew Pettegree, director of the St. Andrews Reformation Studies Institute in Scotland, has promoted and worked on a very ambitious project to discover and record bibliographical information for copies of sixteenth-century French religious books. This work follows the example of the Pollard and Redgrave and later Wing editions of the Short-Title Catalogue for English books (STC). Pettegree and his graduate students have scoured libraries throughout France, Britain, and now in partnership with the H. Henry Meeter Center, the United States in an attempt to find books that fit the project’s parameters. The aim of the French Religious Book Project is to build an analytical database of French religious vernacular literature for the period 1500–1600. This database will then be a resource for the study of religion and religious change in sixteenth-century France and for the analysis of early modern publishing. To ensure that the full impact of religion upon French life is understood, the categories for inclusion in the database are broad. The results of this project are anticipated in both hard-copy and database form.

To celebrate this project the St. Andrews Reformation Studies Institute in partnership with the H. Henry Meeter Center, cosponsored the first Sixteenth-Century French Religious Book Conference, August 30-September 2, at St. Andrews University, Scotland. For four days approximately thirty-three invited participants and guests enjoyed eighteen fine lectures by scholars from Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, and the United States. Topics such as religious drama, devotional literature, Protestant historiography, the bookseller’s world, and the press as well as specific works, individuals, and their historical developments were covered. The conference was successful in promoting the book project and in underscoring the importance of printing’s social and intellectual impact in the sixteenth century. An edited volume of these lectures is expected in the near future.

The lectures, discussions, comfortable accommodations, and food combined with the beauty of eastern Scotland and the charms of the town of St. Andrews joined to make this conference a success. For more information concerning the project and the conference contact Dr. Andrew Pettegree of the St. Andrews Reformation Studies Institute, St. John’s House, 69 South St., St. Andrews, Fife, KY169AL, Great Britain.

Paul Fields, curator
Meeter Center for Calvin Studies
Calvin College and Seminary

Bèze, Théodore de. Correspondance de Théodore de Bèze. Vol. 21. Collected by Hippolyte Aubert. Genève: Librairie Droz, 1999.

Stevenson, William R., Jr. Sovereign Grace: The Place and Significance of Christian Freedom in John Calvin’s Political Thought. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Maag, Karin, ed. Melanchthon in Europe: His Work and Influence Beyond Wittenberg. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999.

Moeller, Pamela Ann. Calvin’s Doxology: Worship in the 1559 Institutes, with a View to Contemporary Worship Renewal. Allison Park, Pa.: Pickwick Publications, 1997.

Caponetto, Salvatore. The Protestant Reformation in Sixteenth-Century Italy, Vol. XLIII of Sixteenth Century Essays & Studies. Translated by Anne C. Tedeschi and John Tedeschi. Kirksville, Mo.: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1999.

Davis, Andrew M. “A New Assessment of John Calvin’s Eschatology.” Ph. D. diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1998.

Clark, R. Scott. “The Catholic-Calvinist Trinitarianism of Caspar Olevian.” Westminster Theological Journal, Vol. 61, 1999: 15–39.

Park, Gon-Taik. “Calvin and Castellio on Liberty of Conscience.” Presbyterian Theological Quarterly, Vol. 66, No. 2, 1999: 67–97. Korean text.

Rambeaud, Pascal. “The Origins of Rural Calvinism in Aunis: The Sphere of Influence of La Rochelle.” Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 30, No. 2, 1999: 367–95.

Spinks, Bryan D. “Calvin’s Baptismal Theology and the Making of the Strasbourg and Genevan Baptismal Liturgies 1540 and 1542.” Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol. 48, No. 1, 1995: 55–78.

Sudduth, Michael. “Calvin, Plantinga, and the Natural Knowledge of God.” Faith and Philosophy, Vol. 15, No. 1, 1998: 92–103.

Thomas, Derek. “Calvin’s Preaching on Job.” In Triumph through Tribulation, 33–55. London: The Westminister Conference, 1998.

van Stam, Frans Pieter. “Farels und Calvins Ausweisung aus Genf am 23. April 1538.” Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, Vol. 110, No. 2, 1999: 209–28.

Vilanova, Evangelista. “Jean Calvin et le calvinisme.” In Histoire des théologies chrétiennes. Vol. 2, 1997: 355–407.

Estienne, Robert. In Evangelium secundum Matthaeum, Marcum, et Lucam commentarii ex ecclesiasticis scriptoribus collecti. Genève: Robert Estienne, 1553.

Calvin, Jean. In Evangelium secundum Johannem commentarius. Genève: Robert Estienne, 1553.

____. Commentarii integri in Acta Apostolorum, ab ipso Authore recogniti, & magna accessione locupletati. Genève: Jean Crespin, 1560.

____. Commentariorum in Acta Apostolorum liber posterior. Genève: Jean Crespin, 1554.

“While the importance of the second-generation Reformers has long been noted, most of the research done by historians and theologians has been devoted to the originators of the movement—Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli,” states the book cover to Melanchthon in Europe: His Work and Influence Beyond Wittenberg. “Philip Melanchthon and his contemporaries in the Swiss Reformation deserve greater recognition than they have thus far received. This collection of essays begins to rectify that shortcoming with regard to Melanchthon. In commemoration of the 500th anniversary of his birth, this international group of scholars reassess the importance of his work for the theology of the Reformation.”

This volume of contributions on the German reformer Philip Melanchthon has recently been published by Baker Books. Contributors to the volume are Lyle Bierma, Amy Nelson Burnett, Deszo Buzogany, Bruce Gordon, Nicole Kuropka, Karin Maag, Richard Muller, John Schneider, and Timothy Wengert. Copies are now available through Baker Books for $17.99.

The Meeter Center’s first session on Genevan paleography (May 31 to June 11, 1999) was very successful. Participants included Calvin seminary students and faculty members from Calvin and elsewhere.

Dr. Tom Lambert provided a range of documents for course members to work on, from trial records to Consistory minutes, all from Geneva in the sixteenth century. Lambert also gave very helpful overviews of the relevant history of Geneva, so that course participants could set the documents in their context. All in all, the course proved to be a valuable experience for everyone, particularly for those intending to pursue archival research. We hope to offer the course again in two years’ time.

Karin Maag
Director, H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies
Calvin College and Seminary

As the 1999 recipient of the Faculty Research Fellowship at the H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies, I was looking forward very much to my summer in Grand Rapids. My high expectations were met in every way.

I came to the Meeter Center this summer primarily to complete revisions on a manuscript entitled “Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France, 1572–1598.” I was able to complete this book project during my residency in Grand Rapids, thanks to an excellent working environment and the availability of the needed research materials. The manuscript has subsequently been submitted and approved in its present form for publication with the Brill Publishing Company in Leiden, The Netherlands, and will be released in early 2000.

The Meeter Center has an excellent collection of primary and secondary sources related to Calvin, Calvinism, and the French Reformation. The article collection has long been recognized as the centerpiece of the Center’s holdings; recent acquisitions of sixteenth-century texts, along with microfiche in the IDC series have strengthened the collection considerably.

As my comments suggest, I had a most positive experience at the H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies this summer.

Scott M. Manetsch, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor of Religion, Northwestern College

In the centuries since the Reformation St. Andrews has consciously cultivated a tradition of excellence in the field of Reformation scholarship. In 1993 the university’s established status and reputation in this field was recognized with the foundation of the Reformation Studies Institute. Operating from its own premises within St. John’s House, the St. Andrews Center for Advanced Historical scholarship, the Institute sponsors a graduate seminar, conferences, and visits from distinguished outside academics, and acts as a center and focus for advanced work in this area.

The Institute has a distinct international flavor. Its students are drawn from Europe, North America, Great Britain, and continental Europe. Corporately, it has established partnership relationships with parallel institutions in Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States. The research interests of members of the Institute embrace a wide range of intellectual, religious, and theological issues covering the breadth of the European Reformation.

We welcome members to the Friends of the Meeter Center. Checks may be made out to Friends of the Meeter Center and sent to the Center’s address. Thank you for your support! Annual membership fees: