John Calvin
French reformer whose liturgy in Geneva shaped Reformed and Presbyterian prayer.
John Calvin was a French theologian who led the Protestant Reformation in Geneva from 1541 until his death in 1564. His Institutes of the Christian Religion remains the foundational systematic theology of the Reformed tradition, and his liturgical prayers, written for the Sunday service at St. Peter's Church in Geneva, established a sober and biblically-grounded pattern of worship that shaped Reformed and Presbyterian prayer for centuries. Calvin's prayers are notable for their sustained emphasis on human unworthiness before God's holiness and their confidence in divine mercy alone for salvation. He believed that public prayer should be biblical, intelligible to the congregation, and free of the medieval Catholic devotional patterns the Reformers were rejecting. The Genevan service order has influenced Reformed worship in France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Scotland, England, and across the Reformed and Presbyterian churches of the world.