148 - John Calvin: The Christian Life

John Calvin:
The Christian Life
By John H. Leith
New York, Harper and Row, 1984, III pp. $9.95.

In his commentary on I Tim. 5:6, John Calvin wrote: "For what purpose is there in living, except that our deeds should bear fruit?" (p. 254), John Leith, Professor of Theology at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, and one of the foremost living authorities on the Reformed tradition, would agree with Calvin. In this his most recent volume, Leith presents the heart of Calvin's thought on the cross, prayer, and Christian freedom as these bear upon Christian living in and outside the church. Of practical value to the life of piety is the section on "Prayer," a sadly neglected channel of grace in church life today. The book ends with an extract from Calvin's Geneva Catechism of 1542 on "The Glory of God." This is fitting and appropriate, for, as Leith observes, "John Calvin lived with the vivid awareness that the essential business of human life is having to do with the living God…. The chief end of life was not to save his own soul but to glorify God and to serve God in the world." Leith's small volume helps us to understand better the meaning of Christian piety and practice in our time.

William F. Keesecker
First Presbyterian Church
Oklahoma City, Okla.