Bruce Gordon
I taught from 1994 to 2008 at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, where I was professor of modern history and deputy director of the St Andrews Reformation Studies Institute. My research focuses on European religious cultures of the late-medieval and early modern periods, with a particular interest in the Reformation in German-speaking lands. I am the author of Calvin (Yale University Press, 2009), a biography that seeks to put the life of the influential reformer in the context of the sixteenth-century world. It is a study of Calvin’s character, his extensive network of personal contacts and of the complexities of church reform and theological exchange in the Reformation. The Swiss Reformation (Manchester University Press, 2002) (an “Outstanding Publication” for 2003 by Choice Magazine) studies the emergence of the Reformation n the multi-lingual world of the Swiss Confederation and its influence across Europe in the sixteenth century. My book Clerical Reformation and the Rural Reformation (1992) examined the creation of the first Protestant ministry, which took place in the Swiss city of Zurich and its numerous country parishes. In addition, I have edited books on the development of Protestant historical writing, the relationships between the dead and the living in late-medieval and early modern society, the Swiss reformer Heinrich Bullinger, and, most recently, on biblical culture in the sixteenth century. I was the principal investigator of a major grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council of the United Kingdom on Protestant Latin Bibles of the Sixteenth Century. The project explores the new translations of the Old and New Testaments by Protestant scholars into Latin during the Reformation and the questions posed by these extraordinary works for our understanding of translation, authority, material culture, confessional identity and theological formulation. The monograph is currently being completed. I have started work for Princeton University Press on a study of the reception of Calvin’s Institutes from the Reformation to the modern world. My teaching includes a lecture course on Western Christianity from the early church to the scientific revolution, and seminars on the culture of death, sources and methods of religious history, the Reformation, Calvinism, and the Reformed tradition from Zwingli to postmodernism. I teach in the Department of History and in Renaissance Studies and work with graduate students on a wide range of topics in early modern religious history. I am on the board of various publishing series: St Andrews Studies in Reformation History (Ashgate), Zürcher Beiträge zur Reformationsgeschichte (Theologischer Verlag Zürich), and Refo500 Academic Studies (Vandenhoeck &Ruprecht). I am a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and in 2012 received an honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
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Books by Bruce Gordon
Gordon explores the origins and character of the Institutes, looking closely at its theological and historical roots, and explaining how it evolved through numerous editions to become a complete summary of Reformation doctrine. He shows how the development of the book reflected the evolving thought of Calvin, who instilled in the work a restlessness that reflected his understanding of the Christian life as a journey to God. Following Calvin's death in 1564, the Institutes continued to be reprinted, reedited, and reworked through the centuries. Gordon describes how it has been used in radically different ways, such as in South Africa, where it was invoked both to defend and attack the horror of apartheid. He examines its vexed relationship with the historical Calvin—a figure both revered and despised—and charts its robust and contentious reception history, taking readers from the Puritans and Voltaire to YouTube, the novels of Marilynne Robinson, and to China and Africa, where the Institutes continues to find new audiences today.
Bruce Gordon is the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School. He is the author of Calvin and The Swiss Reformation. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
Contents: Emulating the past and creating the present: reformation and the use of historical and theological models in Zurich in the 16th century, Bruce Gordon with Luca Baschera and Christian Moser; Patristics and polemic: Josias Simler’s history of early Church Christological disputes, Mark Taplin; Bullinger’s model for collective episcopacy: transformational ministry in a society facing final judgement, Jon Delmas Wood; Peter Martyr Vermigli’s Epistle to the Princess Elizabeth: models of redemptive kingship, Torrance Kirby; A mirror of virtue: commentaries on the Book of Ruth in 16th-century Zurich, Christian Moser; Reforming a model: Zwingli, Bullinger, and the Virgin Mary in 16th-century Zurich, Rebecca Giselbrecht; The childhood of Christ as a model of Christian child raising: two sermons of 1553 by Rudolf Gwalther, Kurt Jakob Rüetschi; Moral treatment of immoral texts from classical Antiquity: Conrad Gessner’s Martial edition of 1544, Urs B. Leu; Shaping reformed Aristotelianism: Otto Werdmüller’s evaluation of the Nichomachean ethics in De dignitate, usu et method philosophiae moralis (1545), Luca Baschera; ‘Praeceptor amicissimus’: Konrad Pellikan and models of teacher, student and the ideal of scholarship, Matthew McLean; Fathers and sons: the exemplary lives of Konrad Pellikan and Leo Jud in Reformation Zurich, Bruce Gordon; Index."
aspects of the late mediaeval and early modern Bible. These
essays consider aspects of Bible scholarship and translation,
illustration and production, its uses for lay devotion and in
theological controversy. Inquiring into the ways in which
scholars gave new forms to their Bibles and their readers
received their work, this book considers the contribution of
key figures like Castellio, Bibliander and Tremellius, Piscator
and Calov, the exegetical controversies between centres
of Reformed learning and among the theologians of the
Louvain. It encompasses biblical illustration in the Low
Countries and the use of maps in the Geneva Bible, and
considers the practice of biblical translation, and the strategies by which new versions were justified.
The book explores with particular insight Calvin’s self-conscious view of himself as prophet and apostle for his age and his struggle to tame a sense of his own superiority, perceived by others as arrogance. Gordon looks at Calvin’s character, his maturing vision of God and humanity, his personal tragedies and failures, his extensive relationships with others, and the context within which he wrote and taught. What emerges is a man who devoted himself to the Church, inspiring and transforming the lives of others, especially those who suffered persecution for their religious beliefs.
Exiled from Geneva, Castellio soon attracted a circle of like-minded reformers who opposed the intolerant attitude of Calvin, exemplified by the execution of the heretical Michael Servetus. It is Castellio's residence in Basle, where he developed his 'liberal' humanist approach to religious toleration in opposition to Calvin's dogmatic othodoxy, which forms the core of this study. It explores what toleration meant and how both sides argued their case. Much attention is paid to Castellio's most important work 'On Heretics', in which he argues against the execution of those who err in the faith.
By telling the fascinating tale of Castellio's life, this work illuminates the furious debate which he unleashed and how it marked a crucial stage in the development of Protestant thought.
Contents: Preface; Introduction; Family origins, early life and education; Calvin's colleague; From Geneva to Basle; The Bible translations; The toleration debate begins; The toleration debate after the publication of De haereticis; Broadening of the conflict; Professional and personal circumstances; Challenges and conflicts in the latter years; Castellio's theological thought; Castellio's theological heritage; Concluding remarks; Bibliography; Index.
Reviews: 'This is a well-balanced work that effectively alternates detailed, biographical narrative with thematic analysis of Castellio. The result is an excellent book by an outstanding scholar on one of the most significant figures of early modern Europe.' History
These volumes present a coherent set of archive-based studies which examine and interpret the issues of identity and history so fundamental to the reformers. They examine the most important problems addressed, including the relationship between belief and locality in the formation of religious identity, the limitations to a coherent identity in protest, the effects of success on Protestant identity, and the nature of history as it applies to God's Church.
This is an original and comprehensive treatment of the European Reformation and of the leading reformers' minds.
Recent Book Chapters and Articles by Bruce Gordon
Gordon explores the origins and character of the Institutes, looking closely at its theological and historical roots, and explaining how it evolved through numerous editions to become a complete summary of Reformation doctrine. He shows how the development of the book reflected the evolving thought of Calvin, who instilled in the work a restlessness that reflected his understanding of the Christian life as a journey to God. Following Calvin's death in 1564, the Institutes continued to be reprinted, reedited, and reworked through the centuries. Gordon describes how it has been used in radically different ways, such as in South Africa, where it was invoked both to defend and attack the horror of apartheid. He examines its vexed relationship with the historical Calvin—a figure both revered and despised—and charts its robust and contentious reception history, taking readers from the Puritans and Voltaire to YouTube, the novels of Marilynne Robinson, and to China and Africa, where the Institutes continues to find new audiences today.
Bruce Gordon is the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School. He is the author of Calvin and The Swiss Reformation. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
Contents: Emulating the past and creating the present: reformation and the use of historical and theological models in Zurich in the 16th century, Bruce Gordon with Luca Baschera and Christian Moser; Patristics and polemic: Josias Simler’s history of early Church Christological disputes, Mark Taplin; Bullinger’s model for collective episcopacy: transformational ministry in a society facing final judgement, Jon Delmas Wood; Peter Martyr Vermigli’s Epistle to the Princess Elizabeth: models of redemptive kingship, Torrance Kirby; A mirror of virtue: commentaries on the Book of Ruth in 16th-century Zurich, Christian Moser; Reforming a model: Zwingli, Bullinger, and the Virgin Mary in 16th-century Zurich, Rebecca Giselbrecht; The childhood of Christ as a model of Christian child raising: two sermons of 1553 by Rudolf Gwalther, Kurt Jakob Rüetschi; Moral treatment of immoral texts from classical Antiquity: Conrad Gessner’s Martial edition of 1544, Urs B. Leu; Shaping reformed Aristotelianism: Otto Werdmüller’s evaluation of the Nichomachean ethics in De dignitate, usu et method philosophiae moralis (1545), Luca Baschera; ‘Praeceptor amicissimus’: Konrad Pellikan and models of teacher, student and the ideal of scholarship, Matthew McLean; Fathers and sons: the exemplary lives of Konrad Pellikan and Leo Jud in Reformation Zurich, Bruce Gordon; Index."
aspects of the late mediaeval and early modern Bible. These
essays consider aspects of Bible scholarship and translation,
illustration and production, its uses for lay devotion and in
theological controversy. Inquiring into the ways in which
scholars gave new forms to their Bibles and their readers
received their work, this book considers the contribution of
key figures like Castellio, Bibliander and Tremellius, Piscator
and Calov, the exegetical controversies between centres
of Reformed learning and among the theologians of the
Louvain. It encompasses biblical illustration in the Low
Countries and the use of maps in the Geneva Bible, and
considers the practice of biblical translation, and the strategies by which new versions were justified.
The book explores with particular insight Calvin’s self-conscious view of himself as prophet and apostle for his age and his struggle to tame a sense of his own superiority, perceived by others as arrogance. Gordon looks at Calvin’s character, his maturing vision of God and humanity, his personal tragedies and failures, his extensive relationships with others, and the context within which he wrote and taught. What emerges is a man who devoted himself to the Church, inspiring and transforming the lives of others, especially those who suffered persecution for their religious beliefs.
Exiled from Geneva, Castellio soon attracted a circle of like-minded reformers who opposed the intolerant attitude of Calvin, exemplified by the execution of the heretical Michael Servetus. It is Castellio's residence in Basle, where he developed his 'liberal' humanist approach to religious toleration in opposition to Calvin's dogmatic othodoxy, which forms the core of this study. It explores what toleration meant and how both sides argued their case. Much attention is paid to Castellio's most important work 'On Heretics', in which he argues against the execution of those who err in the faith.
By telling the fascinating tale of Castellio's life, this work illuminates the furious debate which he unleashed and how it marked a crucial stage in the development of Protestant thought.
Contents: Preface; Introduction; Family origins, early life and education; Calvin's colleague; From Geneva to Basle; The Bible translations; The toleration debate begins; The toleration debate after the publication of De haereticis; Broadening of the conflict; Professional and personal circumstances; Challenges and conflicts in the latter years; Castellio's theological thought; Castellio's theological heritage; Concluding remarks; Bibliography; Index.
Reviews: 'This is a well-balanced work that effectively alternates detailed, biographical narrative with thematic analysis of Castellio. The result is an excellent book by an outstanding scholar on one of the most significant figures of early modern Europe.' History
These volumes present a coherent set of archive-based studies which examine and interpret the issues of identity and history so fundamental to the reformers. They examine the most important problems addressed, including the relationship between belief and locality in the formation of religious identity, the limitations to a coherent identity in protest, the effects of success on Protestant identity, and the nature of history as it applies to God's Church.
This is an original and comprehensive treatment of the European Reformation and of the leading reformers' minds.