1. The Institutes

John Calvin’s main work, Institutio Christianae religionis, ultimately appearing in English as Institutes of the Christian Religion, is the most significant dogmatics of the Reformation period. It is more systematic and comprehensive than either the Loci (1521ff.) of P. Melanchthon (1497–1560) or the True and False Religion (1525) of U. Zwingli (1484–1531; Zwingli’s Theology). It was intended as “a necessary aid to study” (1539 preface), as “a key and door” t…