Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin

(read on iPhone!)

This is a wonderful encouraging book full of unexcelled explanation of doctrine and brilliant rebuttal of spiritual error. It uses the decalogue and the Apostles' Creed and copious amounts of scripture to argue for the true faith. He relies a great deal on Augustine though occasionally disagrees with him or the way his ideas have sometimes been distorted, ill-used, or misunderstood. A long work, it at times diverts into diatribes against the papacy. I found Calvin more charitable and magnanimous than I had been led to expect. There are great treasures to be found in these four volumes. As you might expect, I found only the section on baptism to be lacking in reason and consistency. The remainder is gold!