Speaker 

Dr Raymond Blacketer (Calvin Theological Seminary)

Chair

Dr Jon Balserak (University of Bristol)

Abstract

The presentation will focus on Dr Blacketer's work of producing a new translation of John Calvin's magnum opus, the 1559 Institutio Christianae Religionis.  Numerous English translations of it have been produced, including two in the nineteenth century.  The 1960 translation by Ford Lewis Battles has been regarded as the standard for decades, but is viewed by some as a poor translation (n.b. the website that records errors in the Battles edition: http://calvinbattlescorrections.blogspot.com/). Dr Blacketer will discuss the work, its challenges, and what he hopes it will achieve. 

Bio

Raymond A. (Randy) Blacketer wrote his PhD under the supervision of Richard A. Muller at Calvin Theological Seminary, 1998. His dissertation focused on John Calvin’s interpretation of the book of Deuteronomy. He is an ordained pastor in the Christian Reformed Church in North America and served congregations in Alberta, Canada and in West Michigan. He is now currently working on a new translation of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion in collaboration with ANS (Tony) Lane and Kirk M. Summers. He has written articles on Calvin and later Reformed theology.