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Add to FavoritesThe doctrines attributed to John Calvin were mostly those of Saint Augustine of Hippo, doctrines which Calvin embraced with a passion which significantly influenced the direction of the Reformation. He was more radical than Martin Luther, who did not condemn the traditions of the Catholic Church, but rather condemned the Church's habit of giving them precedence over the basic principles of Christianity.
Luther found the church corrupt, greedy, tyrannical and decadent, but the Reformation intended to clean and revitalise the church became instead its rival, as a consequence of the refusal of the Papacy to change its ways. Some conflict would have been inevitable, but it was Calvin who promoted the doctrine of a minority who were predestined to be saved while the majority were predestined to be damned. Needless to say, it was accepted as self-evident that Calvinists, at least those in positions of power and influence, were of the Elect of the Saved, and those who opposed or disagreed with them were damned in advance. This meant that they could match the Catholics in oppressions and atrocities without feelings of guilt or fear of judgement. This experience was to have a profound effect on the world from the eighteenth century.
Eventually it became clear to many men that God had helpfully identified the Elect by giving them lighter-coloured skin than the damned majority. At the same time, the notion arose that "saved" was synonymous with "virtuous", and white men cme to regard themselves as intrinsically superior to darker men. This provided a moral basis for the imperialism of the nineteenth century, the enslavement of Negroes and in the twentieth century the imposition of Apartheid in Southern Africa. Known variously as "the White Man's Burden", "manifest destiny" or "la mission civilatrice", this was an unintended consequence of Calvin's teaching. It is most unlikely that Calvin would have approved of such an anti-Christian interpretation of his doctrine, and he certainly would not have predicted it. But would this have happened anyway? What if Calvin had not spoken out against the papacy?
The Reformation might have been less violent. The Counter-reformation might have transformed the Roman Catholic Church. The church might even have returned to its original mission, to establish the kingdom of God in the hearts and minds of all people. Might, but perhaps the weight of tradition was still too great. Would cardinals and bishops have voluntarily relinquished control of cities, sometimes nations? Would the Holy Inquisition willingly give up its power, its supra-legal privileges? Would the lucrative, idolatrous trade in relics end?
I doubt it. But without the uncompromising rigidity and misanthropy associated (often unfairly) with Calvinists, the following centuries may well have been less brutal. The Thirty Years' War might not have ravaged and depopulated Europe and if the idea of the Elect had not mutated into the idea of the Master Race, we might have been spared the horrors of total war more recently.
It's all speculation, of course. The universe, even the fragment which we inhabit, is incomprehensibly complicated. None of us lives in isolation; everything we do has at least the potential to affect what happens somewhere else. At least, that's what I think Doctor Schroedinger was trying to say to me when I saw him looking for his cat.
Learn more about this author, Bert Meinders.
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History is quite often a perfect example of shadow boxing in the dark. Within the last fifty years, we have been discovering that history is more often than not the product of the cultural "winners," confining textbooks to black and white, good and bad, wrong and right. In traditional Protestant history, John Calvin is usually seen as a single-handed Reformer, both complemented and opposed by Martin Luther, and credited with righteous indignation and defiance toward the Church of his day that resulted in the birth and direct family line of many major Protestant denominations: Baptist, Evangelical Free, Congregational, Community, Presbyterian. Americans love the ideal of the "self-made man" and Calvin is frequently viewed as a "self-made theologian." Can we flatten the history of the Reformation to this caricature?
John Calvin was both a well-trained French lawyer and theologian of the Reformation era. His major contributions, however, were displayed in his organized systematic theology and likeminded followers rather than new theological insights. To quote Denis Janz, editor of A Reformation Reader (Fortress Press, 2008),
"If the sole criterion of "greatness" was the number of one's followers, we could say without hesitation that Calvin was the greatest of the Protestant reformers. For those who were in some way Calvin's disciplesvastly outnumbered Luther's. What united these disciples was not so much loyalty to Calvin the person, but more a sharing in his obsessions: the glory of God as the purpose of all creation; the consistency between belief and ethical practice; the urgency of the call to personal sanctification; and the impulse toward transformation of the social order in the direction of holiness."
(Janz, 204)
Calvin's theology was steeped in the Patristic theology of Saint Augustine. What about the "Calvinist" doctrines of predestination, election, and original sin? All based on Augustine. Much of Augustine's theology was solidified in the way that much of the early church's foundation was laid: through protecting core beliefs from heresy. Augustine heard that a man named Pelagius was advocating the view that humanity was fine and there was no inherent sin, and therefore no need for salvation through Christif you were a good person, you could work your own salvation out. In response, Augustine insisted on an absolute sinful human existence, and the role of the Church in the lives of believers was elevated. The Church was Mother, and a Christian could not survive outside her care.
Fast-forward three hundred years or so to Calvin, and a parallel presents itself. The Catholic Church (Catholic meaning universal, as there was not yet any divisions) was in a bit of crisis, with greedy popes mismanaging and abusing power, offering parishioners a way to speed deceased relatives out of purgatory. Calvin sees it, and not unlike Augustine, stomps his foot and says that only God controls where humans end up. He preaches, concurring souls gather round, and he leaves a legacy in his followers. The similarities of the situations are striking.
Calvinism did not appear in any form until well after Calvin's death in 1564 at the Synod of Dordt in 1618. Here, followers of Arminius (who then became Arminians) contended on several positions of doctrine with other Reformers, and Calvin's followers pulled together the five points of Calvinism, helping to further cement Calvin's systematic theology into the fabric of Protestantism.
It is crucial to remember that although John Calvin was a major contributor to the Reformation and, consequently, in the drastically changing world, his role was mainly an organizer of thoughts and theology. Without earlier writers and theologians, his foundation would be vastly different. Without his contemporaries, such as Zwingli and Luther, his boldness may never have resulted in much beyond Augustinian exegesis of Scripture, a mere footnote added to the growing library of biblical commentary. If not John Calvin, then another scholar would have patched together a view of the Church outside of Rome. Rather than one single voice crying out against the papacy, the Reformation began in fleeting thoughts growing into murmurs of dissent resulting in an outburst of many. The Reformation was more of a movement than a revolution, more grey than black and white, more of a tragic necessity than good or bad. When analyzing history in this way, the light begins to shine more brightly, and we can see more clearly where the punches thrown in the dark should have fallen.
Learn more about this author, Holly Mirau.
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