Early French Reform: The Theology and Spirituality of Guillaume Farel (review)

There is both considerably more and somewhat less to this volume than the title indicates. Most importantly, more than half of the book consists of new English translations of the following early works by Guillaume Farel: Le Pater Noster et le Credo (1524), Le Summaire et briefve declaration . . . (1534), La maniere et fasson. . . (1533), and the appendix to the 1542 edition of the Summaire. These texts are vital for understanding the early development of French Reformed Protestantism. On the other hand, those understandably looking for a survey of the early Francophone Reformation in a book titled Early French Reform will be disappointed; the book is on Farel alone.

Title issues aside, Early French Reform is a welcome addition to the most important trend in Reformed studies in recent decades: the widening of investigations beyond John Calvin himself. Strangely enough, renewed research on Farel, arguably the most significant French reformer before Calvin, has been relatively late in developing. Authors Jason Zuidema and Theodore Van Raalte have teamed up to write essays on Farel's early theology (Zuidema) and spirituality (Van Raalte) and to translate his most important early works.

The overarching theme of the book is that there was much more to the "fiery Farel" than the popular image of the thundering preacher constantly threatening God's wrath. Zuidema argues that Farel was a competent theologian in his own right and did much to define the French Reformed faith in the days before and even after Calvin's arrival in Geneva in 1536. Zuidema finds the most significant recurring theme in Farel's theology in the clash between the human and divine wills. This dichotomy is reflected by his frequent pitting against one another of the true and the false churches.

Van Raalte argues that prayer and spirituality were central emphases of Farel, which have remained largely unexamined by modern scholars. Starting in 1524 with his Le Pater Noster, Farel sought to replace what he saw as the misguided prayers and spiritual practices of the late-medieval laity (for example, rosaries, chantries, prayers to saints) with unmediated prayer directly to God and an "upward" spirituality focused externally on glorifying God rather than on an "inner" ascetic or mystical spirituality.

On the whole, this is a successful book that makes several important texts more widely available and prompts further questions for investigation. For example, Zuidema wisely translates the 1534 edition of the Summaire rather than the later, expanded editions. Although he notes some of the changes in later editions, he does not examine the changes in detail. If he had emphasized those differences (on the sacraments and excommunication, for example), one would see more clearly how Farel's early theology differed from his later, Calvin-influenced thought. Van Raalte rightly shows the importance of prayer for Farel and thus highlights an important element too often ignored about the Reformer. He is less successful in demonstrating the uniqueness of Farel's contribution or why exactly his "piety warrants a place alongside studies of the spirituality of Gerson, Luther and Calvin" (p. 33). Also puzzling is the absence of a translation of Farel's Oraison tresdevote (1542) or Forme d'oraison (1545), both of which Van Raalte discusses at length in his essays. Hence, Early French Reform is a good introduction to Farel's early thought, piety, and writings, but much work remains to be done on Farel and the early years of French Protestantism.