John Calvin's Institutes in a Year

Ever stared at John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion on your shelf and thought, “One day I’ll finally read that… but where would I even start?” This podcast is for that moment. Calvin’s Institutes in a Year is a guided, day-by-day journey through one of the most influential works in Christian theology. Together, we read through the entire Institutes over the course of a full year—one manageable section at a time—so that a book many admire from a distance finally becomes something you actually finish. Each daily episode is short, focused, and intentional. We keep the pace steady, the sections approachable, and the explanations clear, helping you follow Calvin’s arguments without feeling buried under the weight of a theological classic. No rushing. No intimidation. Just faithful reading, thoughtful reflection, and steady progress. This is not a lecture series and it’s not a shortcut. It’s a companion for the long

John Calvin's Institutes in a Year is a religion podcast hosted by Christopher Michael Patton, with 273 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Christopher Michael Patton hosts John Calvin's Institutes in a Year, a religion show with 273 episodes published.

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  Episode #287

  Calvin's Institutes: October 4

  Oct 4, 202610 minS1

  Today’s Readings Podcast Description If body is locked in the bread and blood in the cup, the two are torn apart by the space between the hands that hold them. Concomitance is a word, not a remedy. Lift the mind. The symbols invite us to Christ whole. His kingdom is not measured in miles. He feeds us with his body without dragging that body under the loaf. Two fences stand around this presence: nothing that cheapens his heavenly glory, nothing that unmakes his human nature. An infinite body in a thousand places is not a human body. Then the words themselves. He took bread and called it his body. What he took, he gave. Luke and Paul lengthen the sentence: the cup is the new testament in his blood. The longer line interprets the shorter. Bread is body because it is the covenant in the body. The quarrel over grammar is not with Calvin. It is with the Spirit who wrote the longer sentence. Today’s Readings: John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion , Book 4, Chapter 17, Sections 18–20 --- Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org Donate toward publishing Through the Church Fathers in a Year – https://www.credoministries.org (click “Donate”) #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #LordsSupper #ThisIsMyBody #RealPresence #Concomitance #Sacrament #Communion

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  Episode #286

  Calvin's Institutes: October 3

  Oct 3, 202610 minS1

  Today’s Readings Podcast Description Consecration is not a spell. Bread becomes a sacrament only where the word is spoken to those who hear it. The water from the rock was spiritual drink, and the flocks drank the same stream. The change is in use, not in the element. Those who leave Christ hiding under the crumb never need to rise. They have invented a nearness that keeps them on the ground. Moses’ rod is no help. That conversion was seen. This one is not. Jeremiah’s “wood in the bread” is bitterness in the meal, not a body nailed to a tree. Some keep the bread real and still lock the body under it. That is still local presence. An immense body, as large as heaven and earth, is Marcion risen. The first Supper gave the mortal body that would be broken the next day, not a second, glorious body hiding in the loaf. ### Today’s Readings: John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion , Book 4, Chapter 17, Sections 15–17 --- ### Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org Donate toward publishing Through the Church Fathers in a Year – https://www.credoministries.org (click “Donate”) #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #LordsSupper #Transubstantiation #RealPresence #Marcion #Sacrament #Communion

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  Episode #285

  Calvin's Institutes: October 2

  Oct 2, 202612 minS1

  Today’s Readings Podcast Description The Supper has two things: a sign the eye can hold, and a truth the sign both figures and gives. Calvin names three parts—promise, matter, effect. The matter is Christ himself, dead and risen. The effect is every blessing that flows from being one body with him. Superstition then binds him to the crumb. Rome would have the body locally present, taken in the hand, chewed, swallowed. The human body of Christ is in heaven until he comes. There is no need to drag it under corruptible elements. The Spirit is the channel. The Schoolmen speak more softly and still hide him under the leftover colour of bread. Transubstantiation is late. The Fathers used “conversion” to say that consecrated bread is no longer common food, not that the bread has vanished. Baptism is called a conversion too, and the water remains water. If the sign is only a mask, the analogy dies. True bread must stand for a true body, or the sacrament itself is lost. ### Today’s Readings: John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion , Book 4, Chapter 17, Sections 11–14 --- ### Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org Donate toward publishing Through the Church Fathers in a Year – https://www.credoministries.org (click “Donate”) #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #LordsSupper #Transubstantiation #RealPresence #Sacrament #Communion #Berengarius

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  Episode #284

  Calvin's Institutes: October 1

  Oct 1, 202612 minS1

  Today’s Readings Podcast Description Augustine said we eat by believing. Calvin grants the point and then presses it. Faith does not gaze at a distant Christ. Faith joins head and members. Chrysostom will not let “faith” mean a mere picture in the mind: Christ makes us his body in reality. Some stop at a share in the Spirit and never mention flesh and blood. Then why did he call his flesh meat indeed? Life was in the Word from the beginning. That life took flesh so that alienated men might find the fountain in their own nature. His flesh is not life of itself. It is a conduit. Water does not irrigate the field of its own motion; it is drawn from the spring. So the Godhead pours life into the flesh he assumed, and from that flesh into us. Distance of place is no barrier. The Spirit unites what space divides. The bread is a symbol, not an empty one. God does not hold out a lie. Today’s Readings: John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion , Book 4, Chapter 17, Sections 6–10 --- Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org Donate toward publishing Through the Church Fathers in a Year – https://www.credoministries.org (click “Donate”) #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #LordsSupper #RealPresence #Communion #FleshAndBlood #HolySpirit #Sacrament

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  Episode #283

  Calvin's Institutes: Septmmber 30

  Sep 30, 202613 minS1

  Today’s Readings Podcast Description Baptism brings us into the house. The Supper keeps us fed. The Father will not treat sons as hired servants. He gives a pledge of ongoing care: bread and wine as the figure of a food the eye cannot see. The end of the mystery is this: the body once broken is still our meat, the blood once shed is still our drink. The energy of the sacrament sits in two phrases—broken for you, shed for you. The wondrous exchange follows: he became the Son of Man that we might become sons of God; he took our death and gave us his life. The signs must not be torn from what they mean, nor praised until the mystery itself is hidden. Some say to eat his flesh is only to believe. Calvin grants that there is no eating but by faith. He will not grant that eating is faith. Faith is the hand. Eating is what the hand receives. Christ’s life passes into us as bread passes into the body. Today’s Readings: John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion , Book 4, Chapter 17, Sections 1–5 Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org Donate toward publishing Through the Church Fathers in a Year – https://www.credoministries.org (click “Donate”) #ThroughTheChurchFathers #JohnCalvin #Institutes #LordsSupper #Eucharist #Sacrament #Communion #LivingBread #WondrousExchange

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