Barbara Pitkin's brilliant book illuminates a less well-known side to Calvin: that this prolific biblical expositor read the Bible in its historical setting. Calvin was both aware of the dangers of historical anachronism, and convinced that the Scriptures spoke to the existential predicaments of his own age. With sensitivity to the different genres of Calvin's writings on the Bible, Barbara Pitkin evokes Calvin's famous lucidity and clarity in her own beautifully
crafted prose.
Barbara Pitkin is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at Stanford University. Her research focuses on religious thought, biblical exegesis, and views of the past in the early modern period. She is the author of What Pure Eyes Could See: Calvin's Doctrine of Faith in its Exegetical Context.