The young French student trained in law and stoic philosophy who fled Paris in 1534 because of his links with supporters of the Reformation, and a few years later found himself called to Geneva, has had an extraordinary impact on our history and identity.
In the midst of the fierce religious debates and political conflicts of that era, he sharpened his understanding of what Christians should believe, how they should live in a worshipping community of ordered ministry and discipline, and how a Christian vision should impact a Christian society.
Through his pastoral leadership, his writings in Latin and French, and by the influence of refugees from Britain and Europe who came to experience in Geneva what Knox called the most perfect School of Christ since the Apostles, Calvin's ideas and example took root as a major stream of Protestant Christianity alongside Lutherans and Anglicans. Even for Presbyterians in 21st century New Zealand, many cultures and diverse experiences of faith later, it is difficult to understand ourselves without reference to Calvin. From early on Calvin became the centre of an international movement. For many Reformed Protestants being refugees and migrants became a part of their identity, chosen like the the children of Israel, seeking God's presence and promises in alien contexts, living by their faith and their wits to make a world for their descendants that would bring glory to God.
Calvin's theology still provides us with the enduring framework of Presbyterian and Reformed theology and practice. People debate his personality and some of his decisions and not all find it easy to allow him to be a person of his time and place. The systematic clarity of his theology continues to inspire and impress, and possibly also seduce. There really are those who find it difficult to believe there could be anything significant about God Calvin did not map out. However if we see Calvin as a source of wisdom, not of infallibility, and as the writer of sermons and commentaries, as well as the famous Institutes of the Christian Religion, it may be easier to learn from him without seeing it as a hugely big deal if we think differently on some issues.
Life
Calvin was born at Noyon in France, studied arts in Paris from 1522 to about 1526 and law at Orléans and Bourges until 1531. In 1532 he published a commentary on the writings of the Stoic philosopher, Seneca. By 1533 he had become associated with the Reformed cause and dedicated himself to the writing of theology. In October 1534 Protestants in Paris placed posters around the city and Calvin felt it advisable to leave.
In Basle in 1536 he published in Latin the first edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Passing through Geneva in July that year he was compelled by William Farel to join in the task of establishing the Reformation there. They moved too fast and in 1538 were banished. Calvin went to Strasbourg, sat at the feet of Martin Bucer, and pastored a French Congregation. In 1541 he was recalled to Geneva where he remained until his death in 1564.
Online References:
Calvin and Calvinism:
How much does Huck Finn tell us something about "Calvinism" in late 19th century Presbyterian preaching?
"It was pretty ornery preaching -- all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and preforeordestination, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet."
(Huck Finn in Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, quoted by Hart, D G and Mark A Noll,
Dictionary of the Presbyterian & Reformed Tradition in America, IVP, 1999, p.xv.)
The clue that this was probably a Presbyterian (though it could have been Baptist or Congregational) sermon as Mark Noll claims, is the garbled reference to pre-destination, a doctrine in Calvin's teaching which arguably was more important for those who came after than it may have been for Calvin himself. Calvin and Calvinism are after all not the same thing.
Whether Calvin and Hobbes also tells us something about theology and philosophy and Reformed identity might also be worth a conversation!
A common historical difficulty is taking Calvin's teaching as interpreted by Reformed theologians over the following century in particular (for example in the Westminster Confession) and then reading that back into Calvin himself without checking to see whether we would agree that they are fair either to Calvin or to Christianity. They may be, but it cannot be taken for granted. Some arguments with Calvinism may are arguments with Calvinists, not with Calvin himself.
Thomas Chalmers in the 19th century was selective in what he took from both Calvin and from the Confession, yet considered himself true to both. All of us reflect our own times and circumstances as well as the views of the people we draw on.
No generation is infallible in its interpretation of Calvin, and each generation will have its own perspectives and questions on Calvin's interpretation of what it was to be a faithful Christian minister.
Calvinism can refer not only to what people did with Calvin's ideas, it can also become a sort of shorthand for cultural traits people may not like. Puritanism and Fundamentalism of course suffer the same way.
John Allen, the Vatican-based weekly columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, reports on a tendency for some in the Vatican to characterise "What is wrong with America, including its Catholics" as its Calvinism. See his Word from Rome December 14, 2001 and May 23, 2003. The main features are individualism, a lack of sense of community, and a weak doctrine of Grace leading to harsh and unforgiving attitudes.
What do you think?