John Calvin And The Later Reformation

John Calvin and the Later Reformation (1993) by Keith Randell (Hodder and Stoughton) — ISBN: 9780340529409
Condition: Good (or at least “Calvinistically predestined” to be so).

Offered by Crappy Old Books, where the smell of theological dust is considered part of the charm, this vintage specimen of GCSE-era piety dives headlong into the austere, joy-restrained world of John Calvin and the suspiciously serious reformers who followed in his wake. Randell, ever the schoolmaster of sobriety, somehow makes predestination sound like an exam question you can still fail.

Expect all the big hits: Geneva behaving like a sixteenth-century HOA with a God complex; Protestantism discovering discipline; and an entire generation of Europeans learning that fun was, in fact, a sin. The margins may be slightly tanned, the corners a touch rounded, but the righteous tone remains crisp — a relic of an age when textbooks came with actual sentences instead of PowerPoint slides.

In “Good” condition, which in Calvinist terms means “not yet damned, but showing troubling signs of wear,” this copy has survived decades of student annotation, existential sighing, and probably a brief stint under a kettle. Perfect for anyone who enjoys a bit of irony with their iconoclasm, or who simply wants to relive that glorious time when Reformation history was presented with all the drama of a sixth-form mock exam.

Buy it now from Crappy Old Books — because, as Calvin might say, some books are elect, and this one was obviously predestined to end up on your shelf.

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