Institutes of the Christian ReligionJohn Calvin

Calvin first published the Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536 as a short handbook of Reformed doctrine. The final Latin edition of 1559 expands it into four books. Book I treats the knowledge of God the Creator, Scripture, and the Trinity. Book II treats the knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ, the Fall, and the law. Book III treats the way we receive the grace of Christ: faith, justification, prayer, and election. Book IV treats the external means of grace, the church, the sacraments, and civil government.

The Institutes is systematic theology. It is also a defense of Reformation teaching against Rome. It orders Protestant doctrine around the knowledge of God and of ourselves. Predestination, the authority of Scripture, and the marks of the true church become central topics that later theologians, whether Reformed or opposed, had to address.