---
title: 'Johnson: Calvin Had the World Before Him'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2025-07-10
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2025-johnson-calvin-had-the-world-before-him
---

# Johnson: Calvin Had the World Before Him

“Calvin had the world before him. As a humanist, a churchman, or a lawyer, he might have made for himself a career of surpassing splendor. His ‘sudden conversion’ diverted his energies into an humbler and grander avenue. It was thus made his to be the greatest interpreter and exponent of the religion of Jesus Christ since the days of the apostles.” — [**Thomas C. Johnson**](/authors/thomas-cary-johnson), *John Calvin and the Genevan Reformation* (1900), p. 17