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''Institutes of the Christian Religion'' (Latin: ''Institutio Christianae religionis'') is John Calvin's seminal work of Protestant systematic theology. Highly influential in the Western world〔.〕 and still widely read by theological students today, it was published in Latin in 1536 (at the same time as the English King Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries) and in his native French in 1541 (it was a landmark in the elaboration of the French language in the 16th century to become a national language) with the definitive editions appearing in 1559 (Latin) and in 1560 (French). The book was written as an introductory textbook on the Protestant faith for those with some previous knowledge of theology and covered a broad range of theological topics from the doctrines of church and sacraments to justification by faith alone and Christian liberty. It vigorously attacked the teachings of those Calvin considered unorthodox, particularly Roman Catholicism to which Calvin says he had been "strongly devoted" before his conversion to Protestantism. The ''Institutes'' is a highly regarded secondary reference for the system of doctrine adopted by the Reformed churches, usually called Calvinism. ==History== Calvin's ''magnum opus'', begun early in his life and regularly revised until near his death, remained substantially the same in its content throughout. It overshadowed the earlier Protestant theologies such as Melanchthon's ''Loci Communes'' and Zwingli's ''Commentary on the True and False Religion.'' According to historian Philip Schaff, it is a classic of theology at the level of Origen's ''On First Principles'', Augustine's ''The City of God'', Thomas Aquinas's ''Summa Theologica'', and Schleiermacher's ''The Christian Faith''.〔 The original Latin edition appeared in 1536 with a preface addressed to King Francis I of France, written on behalf of the French Protestants (''Huguenots'') who were being persecuted. Most often, references to the ''Institutes'' are to Calvin's final Latin edition of 1559, which was expanded and revised from earlier editions. Calvin wrote five major Latin editions in his lifetime (1536, 1539, 1543, 1550, and 1559). He translated the first French edition of the ''Institutes'' in 1541, corresponding to his 1539 Latin edition, and supervised the translation of three later French translations. The French translations of Calvin's ''Institutes'' helped to shape the French language for generations, not unlike the influence of the King James Version for the English language. The final edition of the ''Institutes'' is approximately five times the length of the first edition. In English, five complete translations have been published - four from the Latin and one from the French. The first was made in Calvin's lifetime (1561) by Thomas Norton, the son-in-law of the English Reformer Thomas Cranmer. In the nineteenth century there were two translations, one by John Allen (1813) and one by Henry Beveridge (1845). The most recent from Latin is the 1960 edition, translated by Ford Lewis Battles and edited by John T. McNeill, currently considered the most authoritative edition by scholars. Calvin's first French edition (1541) has been translated by Elsie Anne McKee (2009). Due to the length of the ''Institutes'', several abridged versions have been made. The most recent is by Tony Lane and Hilary Osborne; the text is their own alteration and abridgment of the Beveridge translation. A history of the Latin, French, Greek, Canadian, British, German, African, and English versions of Calvin's ''Institutes'' was done by B. B. Warfield, "On the Literary History of Calvin's Institutes," published in the seventh American edition of the John Allen translation (Philadelphia, 1936). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Institutes of the Christian Religion」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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