What pops in your mind when you think of John Calvin? Austere, dour reformer? Man who had Servetus killed? A man who taught that evil, black doctrine of predestination? Or do you think of a man who protected women and children and sought to reform marriage? This latter picture is one painted by this book. I think most people will find me weird for loving this book so much. But I did. It is not a thrilling read. But as a pastor I am always looking for different perspectives on pastoral care. This book is a great picture of pastoral theology and care in action during a specific time period. This book is supposed to be the first of three volumes on Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva. I sincerely hope they get the other two written.The value of this book is found in the specific cases that are presented to give the reader insight into how the reformation of marriage worked itself out in real life in Geneva. During John Calvin's time in Geneva there were two main courts which governed the lives of the citizens of Geneva. There was the main civil court called the Small Council. Then there was the church court called the Consistory, which is what this book focuses on. The Consistory was a group of around twenty-four men with twelve being the pastors of the city and twelve being elected men who came from various governing agencies in Geneva. The Consistory met every Thursday and kept pretty detailed case records. Thus we have actual records of how the pastors in Geneva tried to handle very complex cases, such as adultery, fornication, brothels, rape, polygamy, false promises of marriage, lying about financial data, overbearing parents, etc. The authors make extensive use of these records. They also mine Calvin's letters, commentaries, sermons, consilia, polemical writings, as well as Beza's (Calvin's successor) writings for data pertaining to the issues of courtship, engagement, and marriage. All in all this gives us a pretty good picture of how these particular subjects were approached by one of the most important men in church history in one of the most important cities in the Reformation.The first chapters were also very helpful because they set the reformation of marriage laws in its Medieval and Roman Catholic context.