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All Things Considered this week (Sunday 12 July 8.30 am and repeated on Wednesday 15 July at 6.30 pm) examines the legacy of a towering figure in European history. He's been described as one of the architects of the modern world, the inspiration for capitalism, a courageous pioneer of social justice but his name is also used to imply hypocritical repression and a bleak and joyless view of the world.

John Calvin, theologian, lawyer and preacher, was born 500 years ago this month. One of the two principal figures of the Protestant Reformation, alongside Martin Luther, his Biblical commentaries are still read, as well as his massive tome "Institutes of the Christian Religion". His theology is reckoned to have been one of the most significant influences on the life of Wales, and the Calvinistic Methodist Church, now the Presbyterian Church of Wales, is only one of the denominations it has helped to shape. Roy Jenkins and guests explore who this man was, what he was trying to achieve, and how much of his influence really remains.