# Institutes of the Christian Religion, Books 1-4 (Allen Translation)

An audiobook by John Calvin, read by LibriVox volunteers (56 h 23 min, English).

At the head of the list of Calvin’s writings stands his great dogmatic treatise — the Institutes of the Christian Religion. In a very literal sense this book may indeed be called his life-work. It was the first book he published after he had "devoted himself to God," and thus introduces the series of his works consecrated to the propagation of religion. But from its first appearance in the spring of 1536 to the issue of its definitive edition in 1559 — throughout nearly a quarter of a century — Calvin was continually busy with it, revising, expanding, readjusting it, until from a simple little handbook, innocent of constructive principle, it had grown into a bulky but compact and thoroughly organized textbook in theology. The importance to the Protestant cause of the publication of this book can hardly be overstated. It is inadequate praise to describe it, as the Roman Catholic historian, Kampschulte, describes it, as "without doubt the most outstanding and the most influential production in the sphere of dogmatics which the Reformation literature of the sixteenth century presents." This goes without saying. What demands recognition is that the publication of the Institutes was…

[Listen](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/librivox/17753)
[Read the book](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/gutenberg/45001/read)