Subject: What are Calvins and Arminians? |
Bible Note: "CALVIN, JOHN (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer; generally regarded as second in importance only to Martin Luther as a key figure in the Protestant Reformation Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, regarded by historian Will Durant as among the world’s ten most influential works, gave birth to a distinctive “Reformed” theology, sometimes named after Calvin himself. Calvin has also been called “the organizer of Protestantism” because in his pastoral work of organizing evangelical churches in Strassburg and Geneva, he developed an adaptable model of church government. The cultural impact of that “presbyterian” model has extended beyond church polity to influence modern democratic political theory. In the sixteenth century new social institutions emerged to replace the deteriorating ones that had once held medieval civilization together; many of the new institutions were influenced by Calvin’s model. HIS CAREER AS REFORMER In Basel (Switzerland) early in 1536 Calvin published the first edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion. When he learned that Francis I’s objection to Protestants was on the basis that they rejected all civil authority, as some Anabaptist groups in fact did, Calvin rushed the Institutes to press with a dedication and preface to the king, acknowledging the king’s authority and laying out the articles of Reformed faith in clear fashion. The work, which underwent several revisions before its final exhaustive edition in 1559, was without question one of the most influential handbooks on theology ever written. Its publication marked Calvin as a leading mind of Protestantism and kept him from pursuing the quiet scholarly life he had hoped for. As he described it, “God thrust me into the fray.” Traveling to Strassburg (a free city between northern France and Germany) in 1536, Calvin stopped for the night in Geneva, a small city at the eastern end of the Alps. With the help of its Swiss neighbors, Geneva had recently declared its political independence from the Holy Roman Empire. Only two months earlier under the prodding of fiery reformer William Farel (1489–1565), it had declared allegiance to Protestantism. Farel, who had been working in Geneva for nearly three years, somehow learned of Calvin’s presence in the city and asked him to join in the task of leading the Genevan church. Calvin declined, explaining that he desired only to find a quiet refuge for study. But Farel, with characteristic zeal, thundered that Calvin’s refusal to help in Geneva would bring God’s condemnation down upon his head. Obviously shaken, Calvin accepted Farel’s invitation as God’s call. He was twenty-eight at the time. The rest of his life was given mostly to the work of reform in Geneva. Calvin’s reputation and esteem always seemed greatest among the population of Protestant refugees who flocked to the city, making Geneva the uncontested center of the Protestant movement. Missionaries fanned out from Geneva to the surrounding countries. The “Reformed Church” thus became the only Protestant group with a universal program." PART 1 OF 2 Taken from Who's Who in Christian History |