Karin Maag
- Dr. Karin Maag
- Director of H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies
Professor - Historical Studies, H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies
- Hekman Library 416 (Map)
- (616) 526-6089
- karin.maag@calvin.edu
Education
- B.A., Western Society and Culture/Religion, Concordia University, Montreal
- M.Phil., Renaissance and Reformation History, University of Saint Andrews, Scotland
- Ph.D., Reformation History, University of Saint Andrews, Scotland
Biography
Karin Maag is the Director of the H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies (in Hekman Library), one of the world's foremost collections of works on or by John Calvin. She has directed the Center since 1997.
Outside of work, Professor Maag enjoys bike riding, baking, reading historical fiction, and choral singing.
Academic interests
- Early modern education
- Training of ministers in the sixteenth century
- Relations between civil and ecclesiastical authorities in early modern cities
Recent activities
Karin Maag is currently serving as adjunct faculty at Calvin Theological Seminary, teaching classes in church history and research methods, and serving as co-director of the ThM program. She teaches regularly for the Calvin Academy for Lifelong Learning and for the senior enrichment program at Aquinas College. She is also the editor and book review editor of the Calvin Theological Journal.
Her recent publications include the co-edited volume of contributions from the International Calvin Congress in Philadelphia (Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2020) and a chapter on education and the Genevan Academy in Ward Holder, ed. Calvin in Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020). Her most recent book, Worshiping with the Reformers, was published by IVP Academic in February 2021.
She currently serves as president of the International Calvin Congress, and successfully hosted the 13th quadrennial conference of the ICC in Grand Rapids in July 2023. She will be the local host and organizer for the Calvin Studies Society biennial conference in April 2024. She is currently working on translating the Genevan scholar Max Engammare's book on preaching in the Swiss Reformation from French into English.
Read Karin Maag's posts on Historical Horizons, the history department blog.
Publications
-
Does the Reformation Still Matter? in Calvin Shorts
by Karin Maag
Published: December 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-937555-23-8
eBook ISBN: 978-1-937555-24-5 -
Worshiping with the Reformers
by Karin Maag
Published: February 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8308-5302-1
-
Lifting Hearts to the Lord: Worship with John Calvin in Sixteenth-Century Geneva in The Church at Worship (CAW)
by Karin Maag
Published: January 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8028-7147-3
- Seminary or University? The Genevan Academy and Reformed Higher Education. St Andrews Studies in Reformation History, Aldershot, 1995.
Edited Volumes
- Politics, Gender, and Belief: The Long-Term Impact of the Reformation. Edited by Amy Nelson Burnett, Kathleen Comerford, and Karin Maag. Geneva: Droz, 2013
- with John Witvliet. Change and Continuity in Religious Practice. University of Notre Dame Press, 2004.
- Melanchthon in Europe: His Work and Influence beyond Wittenberg. Baker Bookhouse, 1999.
- The Reformation in Eastern and Central Europe. St Andrews Studies in Reformation History, Aldershot, 1996.
Translations
- On Time, Punctuality, and Discipline in Early Modern Calvinism by Max Engammare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
- John Calvin and the Printed Book by Jean-François Gilmont (Translation). Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies, 2005.
- Translation and English Edition. The Reformation and the Book. St Andrews Studies in Reformation History. Aldershot, 1998.
Recent Articles and Book Chapters
- "Reformed Education and the Genevan Academy," in John Calvin in Context, edited by R. Ward Holder (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
- "Professor Bryson's Unfortunate Engagement, Geneva, 1582," in A Sourcebook of Early Modern European History: Life, Death, and Everything in Between, edited by Ute Lotz-Heumann (Routledge, 2019)
- "A Debated Office: Deacons in the Huguenot Church, 1560-1660," in Emancipating Calvin: Culture and Confessional Identity in Francophone Reformed Communities, edited by Karen Spierling, Erik de Boer and Ward Holder (Leiden: Brill, 2018)
- "Permeable Borders: Cross-Confessional Encounters and Traditions in Reformation Geneva” in Semper Reformanda: John Calvin, Worship and Reformed Traditions edited by Barbara Pitkin. (Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2018.)
- "Impact amid absence: the Synod of Dordt and the French Huguenots," In die Skriflig 52/2 (2018) https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v52i2.2340
- "The Place and Image of Luther in Calvinist/Reformed Historiography," in Luther and Calvinism: Image and Reception of Martin Luther in the History and Theology of Calvinism, edited by Herman Selderhuis and J. Marius J. Lange van Ravenswaay (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017)
- "No Better Songs: John Calvin and the Genevan Psalter in the Sixteenth Century and Today,” in The Hymn: A Journal of Congregational Song 68/4 (2017): 28-33
- "Schools and Education, 1500-1600," in A Companion to the Swiss Reformation, edited by Amy Nelson Burnett and Emidio Campi (Brill, 2016)
- "Calvin’s Impact in Elizabethan England," in Calvinus Pastor Ecclesiae: Papers of the Eleventh International Congress on Calvin Research (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016)
- "Pulpit and Pen: Pastors and Professors as Shapers of the Huguenot Tradition," in A Companion to the Huguenots, edited by Raymond Mentzer and Bertrand van Ruymbeke (Brill, 2016)
- "The Reformation and Higher Education," in Protestantism after 500 Years, edited by T. A. Howard and Mark Noll (Oxford University Press, 2016)
- "Geneva and the Myth of the Escalade," Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 106 (2015): 273-89
- "Theodore Beza," The Expository Times (November 2014): 1-9
- "From Professors to Pastors: the Convoluted Careers of Jean Diodati and Théodore Tronchin," in Church and School in Early Modern Protestantism: Studies in Honor of Richard A. Muller on the Maturation of a Theological Tradition, edited by Jordan Ballor, David Sytsma, and Jason Zuidema (Leiden: Brill, 2013)
- "Getting Engaged: The Joys of Studying History," in Practically Human: College Professors Speak from the Heart of Humanities Education, edited by Gary Schmidt and Matthew Walhout (Grand Rapids: Calvin Press, 2012)
- "Catechisms and Confessions of Faith,” in T&T Clark Companion to Reformation Theology, edited by David Whitford (London: T&T Clark, 2012)
- “Calvin 2009: the results,” in Calvin Clarissimus Theologus: Papers of the Tenth International Congress on Calvin Research, edited by Herman Selderhuis. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012)
- "Strong Roots for a Vibrant Future," in Reformed Mission in an Age of Reformed Christianity: Ideas for the 21st Century, edited by Shirley Roels (Calvin Press, 2011)
- "Calvin as the Ideal Teacher," in Saint or Sinner? The Reformation of John Calvin (1509-1564), edited by Herman Selderhuis. (Mohr Siebeck, 2010)
- "John Calvin after 500 years: Life and Impact" [review article]. Sixteenth Century Journal 41/1 (2010): 122-30.
- "Calvin research: tools, institutions and the state of research" and "Calvin and Students." In The Calvin Handbook, edited by Herman Selderhuis (Eerdmans, 2009)
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