Travis has a really good post and reflection on John Calvin, you should go check it out:

Calvin The Man: Philip Shaff on Calvin . . . with some commentary

I would like to say something about Calvin too. I have just been discussing something called Postcolonial interpretation and theology with a guy who is rather taken by it (I just ordered a book on it, at his recommendation). Apparently to this approach, people like Calvin and Edwards are just “marginal” characters who make up the broad and deep continuum of Christian interpretation. According to this account we need to also be open to listening to voices from 18th and 19th century enslaved African voices, along with other marginalized voices throughout the historic and contemporary church. No voice should be marginalized, but what’s at stake just isn’t a “voice” (while all voices are important “Priesthood of all believers”), but what particular voices (like the teachers that Christ has provided His church with cf. Eph. 4) are saying about God in Christ — about Scripture. There is a reason, for example, that John Calvin has stood out amongst his peers. The issue is fidelity to the Gospel’s proclamation, not whether or not a particular people group has been “marginalized.” And the way forward for getting a hearing, no matter who you are, is to engage in substantial theological method and theologizing. Color, sex, region, location should have nothing to do with it (although it seems that the Postcolonials seem to think it’s exactly this — but let me read further on this before I comment more).

The moral: Let’s not marginalize voices like Calvin’s simply because we want our marginalized voices to be heard more. Instead, lets engage the ‘material’ and conceptual apparatus and construct that Calvin’s theological and Biblical work have to offer the wider church of Jesus Christ — and of course not just, Calvin, but all voices that faithfully reflect (in some aspect) the truth of the Gospel (no matter who they are).