Product Review

This is the only biography of Calvin available for young people. Joyce focuses on Calvin's childhood and youth, tracing his days at the university and the circumstances of his conversion. She traces his early and precocious leadership of the Protestants in France, and his flight to Basel, Strassburg, and Geneva when King Francis I began executing Protestants. The result is a warm and affectionate picture of the leader of the second generation of the Protestant Reformation. This is a book worth reading out loud to younger students; older students and adults will find it a valuable introduction and aid in understanding the author of The Institutes of the Christian Religion.