The Calvin 500 is not a NASCAR event. But it has brought a new harvest of books by and about Calvin. Though the Calvin lover relishes this feast, others may feel lost. After you blow out the five hundred candles, where should you begin? What are some of Calvin's key writings and what are the best books to read about him? Here is a brief guide for getting started.

Calvin was an extremely prolific writer. His Latin writings fill 59 large volumes in the collection Corpus Reformatorum. Many of these have been translated into English and some have gone through numerous editions. But the Institutes and his commentaries are only a portion of Calvin's work. He penned hundreds of sermons, letters, and treatises.

To keep from being overwhelmed, one might begin by reading Calvin in small doses. 365 Days with Calvin, edited by Joel R. Beeke (2008), provides selected readings from his sermons and commentaries. Calvin's Wisdom: An Anthology Arranged Alphabetically (1992), provides us with select quotations. Devotional books tap into the marrow of Calvin's spirituality such as Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin on the Psalms (1999), or Thine Is My Heart (2006). An older volume by Dillenberger, John Calvin: Selections from His Writings (1971) provides a nice anthology.

Calvin, the last and the most profound of the great Reformers, was born July 10, 1509, at Noyon in Picardy, northern France. His father served there as an ecclesiastical attorney and manager. His mother, a pious woman, died when he was still a child.

When only twelve, his father obtained for the young Jean Cauvin an endowment from the Roman Catholic church for study. He entered the Col-lege de la Marche in Paris. One of his teachers, the famous Latinist Mathurin Cor-dier, would be the one to whom Calvin would dedicate his com-mentary on 1 Thessalonians (1550). The following year he went to the College de Montaigu, where he was taught Romanist theology from the anti--Lutheran Beda.

But a change in his father's wishes led him to switch to the study of law in 1528 at the Universities of Orleans and Bourges. It was here that he met the German scholar Melchior Wol-mar, whose tutelege in Greek would be foundational to Calvin's study of the New Testament. In 1531, after his father died, Calvin returned to Paris where he pur-sued humanist studies and published in 1532 his first work on Seneca's De Clementia.

In this special issue of the Reformed Herald, we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin (July 10, 1509). As Reformed people we are accustomed to calling ourselves "Calvinists." This is a term hated and mischaracterized by many who are given to the notion that we follow the teachings of a man. Nothing is farther from the truth, and nothing was more repugnant to Calvin. Calvin simply expounded and systematized the teachings of the Bible for our benefit.

But, just what do we mean by saying we are Calvinists? What are the contributions of Calvin that we are indebted to? Because of the broad range of teachings that Calvin left us, it is conceivable that we could have a whole list of contributions that we might say define "Calvinism." Some of these would be the sovereignty of God, Christology, salvation by grace, works by grace, preaching, church government, worship, the sacraments, the covenant, and God's rule over all of life. For many, the word "Calvinism" immediately conjures up words like "predestination" or "election." Some, through embarrassment, have abandoned these teachings altogether. While Calvin saw that the Bible taught these doctrines, they were only a part of a much bigger picture.

For me, "Calvinism" is all of the above, but what strikes me as most helpful and as the greatest contribution of his teachings is the very first sentence of Calvin's Institutes. That simple yet profound sentence set the stage for the rest of the Institutes. It reads, "Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves." In the end, all of the teachings of Calvin and of the Reformed creeds flow out of that fundamental statement in one way or another.