JOC on Calvin

[Dr G with Neil, myself and Wim at the back

and Katie & Rich, Lewis and Peter seated]

I've spent the best part of the last four days up at the John Owen Centre sitting in on the latest module of the MTh course. The LTS Library building work continues apace and so we were confined to the common room, which was okay (except for the lack of an Internet connection). There were seven of us all told - three actually doing the course and four auditing. I knew three students and the other three were new to me. Five of us seven are ministers like the lecturer himself, Dr Mark Garcia. He led us through his recently published book (from his PhD) Life in Christ: Union with Christ and Twofold Grace in Calvin's Theology (Studies in Christian History and Thought). See here.

I have given up all hope of going to Geneva this year and so was glad to be doing something on Calvin. Besides the book, we were recommended Muller's Unaccommodated Calvin and the introductory work by de Greef, translated by Bierma. I've only really dipped into these so far.

It's always a great privilege not only to read such a work but to have the author there ready to answer questions. Perhaps we did too much reading at times but it was very good. I particularly appreciated seeing the doctrinal connection between justification and the sacraments, something that had long puzzled me. Some seem to suggest that the Reformation was all about the Lord's Supper, some that it was justification, whereas the two are intimately linked.