1 CALVIN’S TEACHINGS
THE DOCTRINE OF other side of their formal/functional di- SCRIPTURE IN CALVIN chotomy. In the course of the book, they AND TURRETIN: included Calvin in the group promoting a functional inspiration and the Reformed A PERSONAL JOURNEY Orthodox (and Turretin specifically) in TIM PRUSSIC1 the group espousing a formal inspiration. Having read Rogers and McKim thor- Before I even thought about matricu- oughly, and trusting that their historical lating at Western Reformed Seminary, I research was correct, I struggled deeply had great interest in the art and science with the doctrine of scriptural inerrancy of the interpretation of Scripture, or for a handful of years – even into semi- hermeneutics. One’s hermeneutics, I nary.4 came to find, to a great degree depends on one’s view of Scripture: its inspira- The Rogers/McKim Proposal was tion, integrity, inerrancy, unity, etc. Thus, one more book in a long line of scholar- fresh out of college, I began to search for ship pitting Calvin against his later fol- books on the inspiration of Scripture. I lowers. Further, the Proposal did it on happened upon a then twenty-year-old the sacred ground of the inspiration of book which appeared to be of great prom- Scripture. A distorted view of Scripture ise and seemed right up my alley: The Au- has devastating effects on one’s theol- thority and Inspiration of Scripture: An ogy, as Scripture is the fountainhead of Historical Approach by Jack Rogers and theology. Donald McKim.2 The major thrust of this Intrigued with the Rogers/McKim book (which has since been called the Proposal, I decided to put it to the test by “Rogers/McKim Proposal”) is that, comparing the doctrine of Scripture in throughout history theologians have John Calvin and Francis Turretin.5 What viewed inspiration with a tendency either follows in this article is a bit of the fruit of toward what they call “formal” inspira- my research into the doctrine of Scrip- tion or “functional” inspiration. By for- ture in two of the greatest theologians in mal inspiration, they mean that the text the Reformed tradition, John Calvin and of the Bible itself is inspired by God, and Francis Turretin. I’ll examine first the form by functional inspiration, they mean that of their writing and then the content of the Holy Spirit uses the authoritative text their doctrine. of the Bible to work in the lives of people.3 A mere comparison of the respective In other words, Rogers and McKim lo- tables of contents of Calvin’s and cate formal inspiration in the text itself, Turretin’s Institutes immediately reveals while functional inspiration is the Spirit’s the fact that these two great theologians application of that text to people. They arranged their work in substantially offer these two views of inspiration as different ways. Calvin organized his In- very close to mutually exclusive; they stitutes after a soteriological model group theologians on either one or the The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 2 beginning with human knowledge of God logians understood revelation as falling as Creator, moving into the knowledge into two distinct but related categories: of God as Redeemer, the means and ben- natural and special. They both affirmed efits of Christ’s grace, and finally into the that God is clearly revealed through na- external means of grace. Turretin, how- ture as Creator and Sustainer of the world ever, ordered his work after a more fo- (this is sometimes called “general” rev- cused, analytical model. He separated out elation). There is no lack of clarity in the discussion into fairly self-contained sec- revelation, but sinners confuse God’s tions (called loci, or places), similar to the clearly-revealed truth. Thus, sinners hold way the Westminster divines ordered the distorted notions of God—not because chapters of the Confession. The major natural revelation is faulty, but because source of this organization difference was of their own sin and rebellion. Further, rooted in historical context. Calvin was a Turretin agreed with Calvin that the rev- second-generation Reformer and the first elation of salvation from sin was revealed great systematizer of Reformed Protes- only through special revelation.7 tantism. In Calvin’s day, the Reformation Neither Calvin nor Turretin limited was moving across much of Europe like a special revelation to Scripture alone. raging fire, but it was not yet a mature They affirmed that God had, throughout theological movement. Calvin’s Institutes history, revealed himself in various ways reflect both the power and organizational throughout the ages of the church. The immaturity of his age. Turretin, by con- fullest revelation made to the church is trast, was a Reformed scholastic, or God’s written word. Regarding the Scrip- schoolman. Reformed scholasticism ture in this present age of the church, both (sometimes called Reformed orthodoxy) men stressed that, while God certainly developed as the Reformation advanced had the power to reveal himself in other and took ground. Once Reformed ways, the written word of Scripture is schools were established, teachers began given to the church, beyond which we to ponder how best to teach theology in ought not seek revelation. In the pithy an academic or scholastic context. They words of Turretin, “God is not bound to drew heavily on the medieval scholastics the Scripture, but has bound us to it” (Duns Scotus, Bonaventure, Aquinas, (Turr. Inst. II. ii. 2). Calvin, in obvious etc.) to aid them in the form of presenta- agreement, railed against the Anabaptists tion, while they drew heavily on the Bible for separating the work of the Spirit from through the Reformers, medieval scho- the written word of God, in which, alone, lastics, and church fathers for the con- we recognize the Spirit. tent of that teaching.6 The difference in organization, therefore, does not neces- For by a kind of mutual bond the Lord sarily reflect a difference in the content has joined together the certainty of of teaching. his Word and of his Spirit so that the perfect religion of the Word may abide As one moves past the differing in our minds when the Spirit, who modes of organization to the content of causes us to contemplate God’s face, their teaching, one is deeply impressed, shines; and that we in turn may em- not with the differences in teaching, but brace the Spirit with no fear of being with the similarities. Broadly, both theo- deceived when we recognize him in The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 3 his own image, namely, in the Word. is centered in the question of how the (Calv. Inst. I. ix. 3) text of Scripture comes to be understood as divine and authoritative by a person. God’s word, the Bible, is the last word for Calvin taught that when the Holy Spirit the church and is tied closely to the Spirit convinces a person of the divinity of the of God. According to Calvin and Turretin, Scripture, he does so through the Scrip- God has bound us by his Spirit to the ture itself apart from the external indicia Scripture. (indications or marks) of its divinity. The The authority of Scripture can be con- Westminster Confession offers a helpful sidered both objectively and subjectively list of these marks: (i.e., what the Scripture is of itself and We may be moved and induced by what it is to a particular person). In the the testimony of the Church to an high objective consideration, we detect no dif- and reverent esteem of the Holy Scrip- ference between Calvin and Turretin. Sim- ture. And the heavenliness of the ply, if God spoke the Scripture, it bears matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the his authority, which is infinite. Turretin, majesty of the style, the consent of for example, reasoned thus: “The ques- all the parts, the scope of the whole tion of the authority of Scripture depends (which is, to give all glory to God), upon its origin… since it is from God, it the full discovery it makes of the only cannot be other than genuine way of man’s salvation, the many (authenticus) and divine” (Turr. Inst. II. other incomparable excellencies, and iv. 1). the entire perfection thereof, are ar- Under the consideration of the sub- guments whereby it does abundantly jective authority of Scripture, we come to evidence itself to be the Word of God: a significant discontinuity between yet notwithstanding, our full persua- Calvin and Turretin. This discontinuity sion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word For Calvin, the words of in our hearts.8 Scripture have more authority than the histori- The indicia are helpful in preparation for cal conjectures of schol- belief in the Scripture, as they brush aside ars, even when those unnecessary obstacles, and they can conjectures are plausible strengthen and buttress faith, but they are preparatory and ancillary. Turretin, by and weighty. More contrast, saw the Spirit convincing the succinctly, for Calvin, if it person of the authority of Scripture is written in the Book, it through the marks themselves. 9 He made is true. The Bible, being it clear that faith is “formed” on the ratio- God’s own word, from his nal basis of the “sure marks”: very mouth, cannot err. Although faith rests on the authority of [divine] testimony, and not on sci-
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 4 entific demonstration, it does not fol- low that it cannot be supported by At the end of the day, the intellectual arguments at times, espe- Rogers/McKim Proposal cially when faith is first formed, be- cause faith, before it believes, should is found wanting. That (debere) have the clearly perceived fact, however, did not stop divine quality of the witness whom it it from influencing thou- should believe, [known] from the sure sands of aspiring and marks found in [the witness]; other- established historians and wise it cannot believe him. For where theologians. Let us be such grounds for believing anyone diligent in the defense of are lacking, the testimony of such a our theological heritage, witness is not worthy of belief. (Turr. in the first place, simply Inst. II. iv. 13) by becoming familiar with Turretin stressed that faith has a it. rational grounding. One comes to believe in the divinity of Scripture on a rational basis. Consequently, he con- ceived of the Spirit using the marks of pected, more refined with increased clar- the Scripture to create a rational case on ity and precision. Both men saw the Scrip- the strength of which the Spirit con- ture as a divine-human document, the vinced the person of the divine nature of very words of God through the ministry the Scriptures. Calvin, however, consid- of men. Calvin, for example, often spoke ered the process of coming to faith no of the Scriptures as being os dei, or from less rationally, but with a less rationalis- the mouth of God. He taught that “the tic flavor. Calvin simply argued that, ex- Scripture is from God. . . . It has flowed to ternal rational grounds (marks) aside, us from the very mouth of God” (Calv. nothing could be more rational than what Inst. I. vii. 5). The Bible is a divine docu- God the Spirit says. For Calvin, the same ment but is also conditioned by human Spirit speaking in the Word is working and historical influences. “That the sa- inside the person under the ministry of cred writers responded,” notes Turretin, the Word convincing them of the divin- “to circumstances of time and place is ity of that Word. This, I think, consti- unquestioned” (Turr. Inst. II. iii. 2). Di- tutes the greatest discontinuity between vine inspiration, according to these two Calvin and Turretin and reveals the in- theologians, does not circumvent human cipient rationalism of Turretin’s day, agency, but makes use of human writers, which came to full blossom in the Enlight- time, and place. Neither doubts that di- enment and, in Geneva, in the person of vine inspiration extends to the very words Turretin’s son, Jean-Alphonse Turretin.10 of the Scripture. Calvin asserts that “the word of God is not distinguished from As regards the inspiration of Scrip- the words of the Prophet.”11 Again: “Ev- ture, both Calvin and Turretin offer us ery word which may have issued forth essentially the same doctrine, but from God is to be received with implicit Turretin’s teaching is, as should be ex- authority.”12 While humans wrote the The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 5 Bible, divine inspiration extends right reason to question the authorship of Sec- down to the very words themselves. ond Peter. Calvin, even in light of those reasons, still appealed to the text to find Similar to verbal inspiration, the doc- the answer to the question of authorship. trine of biblical inerrancy is one that is He reasoned, “If it be received as canoni- hotly contested with regard to Calvin, but cal, we must allow Peter to be the author, none dare misconstrue Turretin’s view, 14 as he states his position with customary since it has his name inscribed.” For force and precision. “The question is Calvin, the words of Scripture have more whether in writing they [the human au- authority than the historical conjectures thors of Scripture] were so led and in- of scholars, even when those conjectures spired by the Holy Spirit that, with re- are plausible and weighty. More suc- gard to both substance and the words, cinctly, for Calvin, if it is written in the their writings were authoritative and di- Book, it is true. The Bible, being God’s vine. The adversaries deny this; we af- own word, from his very mouth, cannot firm it” (Turr. Inst. II. iv. 5). Did Calvin, err. however, understand the Bible to have The notion of divine accommodation errors or to be error free? Two examples in Scripture is an interesting and clear will suffice to show that Calvin did not example of how Calvin-Versus-Calvinism doubt the factual and historical data con- scholarship, like that of Rogers and tained in the Scriptures. Even in Calvin’s McKim, has distorted the teaching of day, some scholars questioned the his- Reformed orthodoxy. Calvin’s notion of toricity of the person of Job. Did a man accommodation was that God’s speech named Job really exist? In his sermon on to humanity in the Bible was accommo- Job 1:1, Calvin argued that, based on what dated to the capacity of the recipient, that the text says, he surely did. is, finite humans. Calvin famously re- Yet we ought not to doubt that this ferred to the Scripture as God “lisping” man, whose country is here noted, and making “baby talk” or “prattle.”15 whose name is expressed, really was, The point of this is not that God has a that he lived, and that the things speech impediment, but that humanity which are here written have happened has a hearing impediment. Calvin’s won- to him…. For we have already the tes- derful image is as if God, in speaking to timony of Ezekiel, and that of Saint his people in the Scripture, is holding a James, who well show that Job truly tiny infant in his arms. So great is God’s was, and also when [the sacred] his- care to communicate, that he articulates tory declares it, we cannot erase what his love, as it were, through cooing to his the Holy Spirit so notably wished to infant, simply so that the infant can un- say.13 derstand. From the Reformation and from Secondly, since Jerome some Christian Calvin’s time, the Reformed orthodox scholars had doubted that Peter authored tightened up their theological articula- the second epistle bearing his name. Like tions and reworked the form by which other scholars, Calvin noted the differ- they expressed their theological ideas. In ence in literary style between First and so doing, did they lose track of Calvin’s Second Peter and had sufficient external The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 6 notion of accommodation? Rogers and divine accommodation in the progressive McKim answer in the affirmative. They revelation and the relationship between assert that Turretin entirely abandoned the Old and New Testaments. Divine rev- Calvin’s notion of accommodation. elation was tailored to the time and place it was given; God revealed himself not all The concept of accommodation uti- at once, but in stages or progressively. lized by the early church fathers and Finally, divine revelation, even in its full- by Calvin was entirely absent from est written form, the Scripture, is still Turretin. Calvin viewed the language suited by God to the recipients and in a and thought forms of the biblical writ- form that is most conducive to the ends ers as human products that God had for which he gave it. Richard Muller, quot- graciously condescended to use. ing Turretin himself, notes that in Scrip- Turretin, by contrast, treated the lan- ture, “God speaks ‘not to himself’ but ‘to guage and thought forms of the Bible us,’ which is to say – clearly echoing as supernatural entities dictated di- Calvin – ‘accommodate ad captum nos- 16 rectly by God. trum, qui finites est,’ ‘accommodated to Rogers and McKim would have us our capacity, which is finite.’”17 Divine believe that, to Turretin, divine revela- revelation not accommodated to finite tion was not adapted to human capacity, creatures, for Turretin, is asinine, and but was somehow divinely inspired to the strikes at the very heart of his theologi- point where it is a direct product of God’s cal concept. mind that bypasses human language and One expects to find some variations thought forms. A simple reading of the and divergences in any particular doc- first two chapters of Turretin’s Institutes trine held by two different theologians, would have saved them from their error even theologians within the same theo- in judgment. logical tradition. We should expect them Turretin’s view of accommodation is to differ more and more as the theologians not as beautiful and metaphorical as is were separated by time. In the case of Calvin’s, but one really would not expect our two theologians, Turretin flourished that from Turretin. There are three ways about 120 years after Calvin, and lived in in which Turretin clearly articulates his an intellectual climate quite different from notion of accommodation. The first is the great Reformer. All the contextual and Turretin’s most basic distinction in his historical differences notwithstanding, concept of theology. He distinguished we find a remarkable resemblance be- between what he called archetypal theol- tween the teaching regarding Scripture ogy (God’s knowledge of himself) and in Calvin and Turretin. There are differ- ectypal theology (the knowledge of God ences, no doubt, but Turretin offers a available to a created being). Simply fairly accurate scholastic repackaging of stated, the knowledge of God a creature Calvin’s doctrine. can have is quite distinct from God’s self- As for my personal journey, I learned knowledge. The object of the knowledge to approach scholarship, even erudite (God) is the same in both, but these two scholarship, with a healthy grain of salt. types of knowledge differ both in type At the end of the day, the Rogers/McKim and degree. Secondly, Turretin found
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 7 Proposal is found wanting. That fact, sor in Geneva, just like Calvin, and 3) he however, did not stop it from influencing was massively influential upon later thousands of aspiring and established Reformed thinkers, including Jonathan historians and theologians. Let us be Edwards and Charles Hodge. Hodge diligent in the defense of our theological actually used Turretin’s Institutes as heritage, in the first place, simply by be- the systematic theology at Princeton coming familiar with it. For, were we to Seminary until he published his own rely on the scholarship of Rogers and great Systematic Theology. McKim, we would have mistakenly writ- 6 Some historians have called this the ten off Turretin as a rationalist, and re- “double continuity” of Reformed jected his doctrine of Scripture as a sig- orthodoxy, see Richard Muller, nificant departure from Calvin’s doctrine. Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmat- ics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy, ca. 1520 to ca. 1 Tim Prussic is a graduate of Western 1725 (4 vols.; Grand Rapids: Baker, Reformed Seminary and is licensed to 2003), 1:28-29. preach by the Northwest Presbytery of 7 For a detailed account of what’s called the Bible Presbyterian Church. the duplex cognitio Dei, or the double 2 Jack Bartlett Rogers and Donald K. knowledge of God, see Barbara Pitkin, McKim, The Authority and Interpreta- What Pure Eyes Could See: Calvin’s tion of Scripture: An Historical Doctrine of Faith in its Exegetical Approach (New York: Harper & Row, Context (New York: Oxford University 1979). Press, 1999) and Richard Muller, The 3 I found, after I read their book and did Unaccommodated Calvin: Studies in my own research, that their formal/ the Foundation of a Theological functional distinction, while useful, can Tradition (New York: Oxford University be turned into a false dichotomy and Press, 2000). used to attack the inspiration of the 8 WCF 1:5, emphasis mine. written word of God, the Bible. In my 9 The current author is in disagreement view, both Rogers and McKim are more with the great B. B. Warfield on this influenced by Karl Barth’s view of point. Warfield sees Calvin’s doctrine inspiration than John Calvin’s. of the Spirit’s use of the indicia much 4 It is quite important which books we along the same lines as Turretin’s read, especially when we lack discern- teaching. In that case, there would be ment. Let this be a lesson to catechize no discontinuity, but the present author our children well, for falsities, once thinks that Warfield’s view of Calvin latched onto mentally, are very difficult was influenced by Turretin. to supplant. Happily, the truth operates 10 See James T. Dennison, “The Twilight the same way. of Scholasticism: Francis Turretin at the 5 Not only was Turretin specifically Dawn of the Enlightenment” in singled out by Rogers and McKim, but Protestant Scholasticism: Essays in he’s also the most logical choice for my Reassessment, ed. by Carl R. Trueman comparison to Calvin as 1) he is highly and R. Scott Clark (Carlisle, Cumbria, regarded among the Reformed ortho- U.K.: Paternoster, 1999), 242-255; also, dox, 2) he was both pastor and profes- see Martin I. Klauber and Glenn S. The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 8 Sunshine, “Jean-Alphonse Turrettini on Biblical Accommodation: Calvinist or CALVIN’S DISCIPLES, Socinian?” in Calvin Theological THEN AND NOW Journal 25/1 (1990): 7-27. 11 John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries JASON ANSPACH1 (22 vols.; Repr., Grand Rapids: Baker, JOHN CALVIN’S DISCIPLE-MAKING THROUGH 1998), 15:341 (Haggai 1:12), emphasis THE CENTURIES mine. Also, see his commentary on Gal. 3:16 (21:94-96), and Matt. 5:18 (16:278). Jesus Christ commissioned his 12 Ibid., 5:429 (Psalm 62:12). I quote eleven disciples in to “make disciples of Calvin and not Turretin on this topic, as all the nations, baptizing them in the name Turretin’s doctrine of verbal inspiration of the Father and of the Son and of the is uncontested, while numerous Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all scholars argue that Turretin diverged things that I have commanded you” (Matt from Calvin on this issue. For further 28:19-20a). Followers of the Lord Jesus evidence and the views of various have sought to do so ever since, be it in scholars, see Roger Nicole, “John the form of evangelism, apologetic writ- Calvin and Inerrancy” in Journal of the ings, or personal discipleship. Evangelical Theological Society 25/4 Sermons are preached, books are (1982): 425-442. read, personal exhortations are heard, but 13 John Calvin, Sermons from Job (Repr., one can only guess at how many people Ed. and trans. Leroy Nixon; Grand are reached and turned into disciples of Rapids: Baker, 1979), 8. King Jesus through our personal labors. 14 Calvin, Commentaries, 22:363 (The Some Christians work the fields and see Argument of the Second Epistle of little in the way of visible fruit. John Calvin Peter). was blessed not only in his seeing the 15 See, for example, Calvin’s Institutes, fruits of his labors before his death, but I. xiii. 1. by having been used by God in winning 16 Rogers and McKim, disciples for Christ long after the man had Inspiration and Interpretation, 177; been called into the presence of the Lord. emphasis mine. All three assertions in this quotation are highly suspect, and CALVIN THE DISCIPLE the first palpably false. Again, Rogers Some might have the impression that and McKim boldly assert, “No trace of John Calvin’s life didn’t truly begin until Calvin’s concept of accommodation he wrote The Institutes of the Christian was to be found in Turretin’s work,” Religion. While the Institutes was pub- Inspiration and Interpretation, 188. lished early in his life (he was twenty-six 17 Muller, PRRD, 2:305. Also, see Martin when the first edition appeared in 1536), I. Klauber, “Francis Turretin on Biblical God in his providence was placing men Accommodation: Loyal Calvinist or in Calvin’s life that would help guide and Reformed Scholastic?” in Westminster mold the man into the brilliant theologian Theological Journal 55/1 (1993): 73-86. we now know. Calvin was a brilliant student. Ini- tially, his father sent him to school with The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 9 the desire to see his son a priest. How- nothing better offered, I continued the ever a change of heart led his father to course which I had begun, when, lo, a believe that practicing law would be more very different form of doctrine started profitable. Calvin studied law at the Uni- up, not one which led us away from versity of Orléans. Robert Reymond notes the Christian profession, but one that “within a year Calvin so distin- which brought it back to its fountain- guished himself in the knowledge of law head, and, as it were, clearing away that he was no longer looked upon as a the dross, restored it to its original student and was employed to teach purity. Offended by novelty, I lent an classes in the absence of the professor unwilling ear, and at first, I confess, for illness.”2 strenuously and passionately re- sisted; for . . . one thing in particular Calvin studied Greek under Melchior made me averse to those new teach- Wolmar,3 a man with Lutheran tendencies ers, viz., reverence for the Church. But who supplied Calvin with several of when I opened my ears, and allowed Luther’s works, including The Liberty of myself to be taught, I perceived that a Christian Man, in which Luther laid out this fear of derogating the majesty of his case for justification to Pope Leo X. the Church was groundless. Calvin’s conversion likely took place Aside from Wolmar, we have little in in 1532. He left little accounting of the the way of identifying who those teach- people, events, and circumstances that ers were who guided a brilliant student led to his second birth. In the preface of into becoming a brilliant theologian and his Commentary on the Psalms Calvin follower of Christ—but we can certainly states that he set his mind to law and that be thankful that they did! his course was altered by God’s provi- dence despite an initial desire to adhere CALVIN’S ROLE IN THE LIVES OF HIS to “superstitions of Popery.” CONTEMPORARIES It has been suggested that more light Ritschlian church historian Adolf von on Calvin’s conversion is revealed in his Harnack (1851-1930) described John Reply to Sadoleto, where he answers Calvin as “the man who never smiled.” A Jacopo Sadoleto’s letter to Geneva urg- superficial look at Calvin seems to sug- ing them to rejoin Roman Catholicism. In gest a withdrawn scholastic, sitting in an that writing Calvin portrays a Catholic and ivory tower writing feverishly, pausing Protestant layman standing before God only to pass condemnation on those be- as they are examined as to who practices low him. A recent article written in the the “right faith”: New York Times by Molly Worthen gave the following one-sentence description When, however, I had performed all of Calvin: [the works of satisfaction I was told to perform],... I was still far-off from John Calvin had heretics burned at true peace of conscience; for, when- the stake and made a man who casu- ever I descended into myself, or raised ally criticized him at a dinner party my mind to you, extreme terror seized march through the streets of Geneva, me—terror which no expiations or kneeling at every intersection to beg satisfactions could cure.... Still, as forgiveness.4 The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 10 Contrary to a popular opinion of The persecution of Protestants in Calvin as a sad, dour, man who executed England during the reign of “Bloody” discipline at the drop of a hat—the man Mary Tudor (1553-1558) caused many to was a joyful man. Benjamin B. Warfield flee to Geneva and learn with and from wrote of Calvin’s teachings: Calvin. Standouts in this group include Miles Coverdale, who carried on William [Calvin taught that] laughter is the Tyndale’s work by producing the first gift of God; and he held it [to be] the complete printed translation of the Holy right, or rather the duty of the Chris- Bible in the English language, John Foxe tian man to practice it in its due sea- who authored Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, son. He is constantly joking with and John Knox, who brought reform to friends in his letters, and he eagerly the churches and culture in Scotland joins with them in all the joys of life. upon his return from Calvin’s Geneva. The “I wish I were with you for half a day,” Geneva Bible,6 translated from Greek and he writes to one of them, “to laugh Hebrew, was completed in Geneva by with you.” ... He enjoyed a joke hugely, Anthony Gilby and William Wittingham with that open-mouthed laugh, which with Calvin’s support and encourage- as one of his biographers phrases it, ment. belonged to the men of the sixteenth century.5 Regardless of where the students at the Geneva Academy came from, they re- Calvin’s jovial demeanor when combined turned to their homes carrying with them with his gifted ability to clearly portray the impressions and lessons learned the doctrines of the Holy Bible resulted while studying under Calvin. Robert in his being influential to those who stud- Reynolds notes: ied beneath him. Calvin’s teachings on religious free- In 1559 Calvin founded the Geneva dom, in particular, laid the foundation Academy, which would become the first for Reformed Presbyterianism, and his Protestant “university” in the world. The views spread from the Geneva Acad- Geneva Academy was an integral part of emy throughout Europe, and from education within the Reformed church— these European countries, especially a University of Wittenberg for the Re- from the British Isles, Presbyterianism formed church. Calvin was the spread to the New World where it be- Academy’s leading theology professor came very influential in the original and, along with Theodore Beza, taught American colonies through the thousands of students from all over Eu- Geneva Bible and in both the “Great rope. The list of men who studied under Awakening” through the efforts of Calvin in Geneva is notable for many con- such men as Gilbert Tennent in the tributions to the church. Guido de Bres, North and Samuel Davies in the South who wrote the Belgic Confession, stud- and the American Revolution itself ied under Calvin at the Academy. Caspar through the preaching of such men Olevianus also studied under Calvin; he, as John Witherspoon (the only min- along with Zacharius Ursinus, wrote the ister to sign the Declaration of Inde- Heidelberg Catechism. pendence), George Duffield and James Caldwell. Interestingly, when news of The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 11 the American Revolution reached En- one hides to escape duty, he will say gland, Horace Walpole rose from his that he has neither thought about it seat in the British House of Commons nor sought this or that. But one should and wryly commented: “There is no consider the obligation he has here crying about the matter. Cousin Ameri- before God.8 can has run off with a Presbyterian THE ROLE OF CALVIN’S WORK AFTER HIS parson, and that is the end of it.”7 DEATH In the centuries following Calvin’s While Calvin’s Institutes death in 1564 the teaching of John Calvin, as clearly put forth in the Institutes has did fill a need in the days remained at the forefront of Christian it was written, it is John learning. B. B. Warfield points to Calvin’s Calvin’s careful exposi- Institutes and its exposition of the Holy tion of Scripture—his Scriptures as the very foundational theo- ability to leave us with a logical treatise on which the Reformed theology that is so inter- faith rests: twined and so reflective of [The Institutes] was the first se- the teachings found in rious attempt to cast into systematic Holy Scripture—that has form that body of truth to which the taught and will continue to Reformed churches adhered as taught teach followers of Jesus in the Holy Scriptures; and as such it Christ the doctrines of met a crisis and created an epoch in salvation as put forth in the history of the Churches. In the the entirety of the Bible. immense upheaval of the Reformation movement, the foundations of the faith seemed to many to be broken up, and the most important questions to be set adrift; extravagances of all sorts In addition to his work with the sprang up on every side; and we can Geneva Academy Calvin preached around scarcely wonder that a feeling of un- 4,000 sermons and continually implored easiness was abroad, and men were the people of Geneva to be followers of asking with concern for some firm Christ and godly citizens. As Calvin’s life standing-ground for their feet. It was slowly passed away he gave a plea to his Calvin’s ‘Institutes’ which, with its fellow ministers to continue in glorifying calm, clear, positive expositions of the God in all aspects of life: evangelical faith on the irrefragable authority of the Holy Scriptures, gave Let each one consider the obligation stability to wavering minds, and con- he has, not only to the Church, but to fidence to skunking hearts, and placed the city, which he has promised to upon the lips of all a brilliant apology, serve in adversity as well as prosper- in the face of the calumnies of the en- ity, and likewise each one should con- emies of the Reformation. tinue in his vocation and not try to leave it or not practice it. For when The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 12 As the fundamental treatise in in forming and expressing my views upon the development of a truly evangeli- this Perseverance of the saints, than upon cal theology its mission has stretched, almost any other question in theology.” however, far beyond its own day. All Finney and his revivalist repudiation subsequent attempts to state and de- of the five points of Calvinism eventu- fend that theology necessarily go back ally gave way to the error of theological to it as their starting point, and its liberalism. Today Calvinism finds itself at impress upon the history of evangeli- odds with Roman Catholic and Greek Or- cal thinking is ineffaceable. Even from thodox churches that deny, among other the point of view of mere literature, it things, God’s sovereign work in election, holds a position so supreme in its with mainline Protestant churches which class that every one who would fain have eliminated the biblical doctrines of know the world’s best books, must those who founded and raised their (now make himself familiar with it. What crumbling) denominations, and with the Thucydides is among Greeks, or Gib- churches descended from Finney who bon among eighteenth century En- view Calvinism as something unbiblical. glish historians, what Plato is among philosophers, or the Iliad among In 1997 Southern Baptist historian epics, or Shakespeare among drama- William Estep wrote of Calvinism: tists, that Calvin’s ‘Institutes’ is “Calvinism’s God resembles Allah, the among theological treatises.9 god of Islam, more than the God of grace and redeeming love revealed in Jesus The original editors of Calvin’s complete Christ.”10 With such opposition sur- works said of Calvin: rounding Calvinism, combined with the Though Luther was supremely great constant trials brought against Christian- as a man and Zwingli was second to ity by the world, one might be led to think none as a Christian citizen, and that this doctrine, which Jonathan Melanchthon well deserves the ap- Edwards called “horrible”11 before sub- pellation of the most learned of teach- mitting to it and finding joy in its truth, ers, Calvin may justly be called the has run its course. However, Calvin con- leader and standard-bearer of theolo- tinues to speak to those living today, and gians. his theology is being freely and widely embraced by the youth of America today. While Calvin’s work has been lauded and appreciated by those who have fol- In 1929 J. Gresham Machen gave a lowed the orthodox Christian teaching of Baccalaureate address at Hampden- Reformed theology, Calvinism itself has Sydney College, where he asked: been looked upon unfavorably as a How should it be if we should turn to whole. During the Second Great Awaken- the Bible for help? We have turned to ing, men such as Charles Grandison everything else, to things ancient and Finney openly rejected the doctrine of modern. Why should we not turn at Calvinism, referring to it as “Old Divin- length to that? I am indeed aware that ity” and an unbiblical hindrance to evan- the demand that I am making is very gelism. In his systematic theology Finney great.... I am asking you to follow him remarked, “I have felt greater hesitancy
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009
. 13 who came not to bring peace upon In a world dominated by post-modern the earth but a sword; I am asking you thought that denies any absolute truth to accept what the Bible itself presents in favor of relativism, Calvin’s theology as central.12 cuts through the dulled ears of those who have been told that nothing is absolutely The evangelical church of today has been important and shown a God who has cre- criticized for its preaching of therapeutic ated mankind to glorify him and enjoy him properties such as wealth, a positive self- forever–because he alone is due eternal image, or a better love-life–rather than the glory and he alone can provide eternal gospel of salvation. Couple this with joy. youth groups seeking to entertain as the world rather than teach Christ and a mass Just as John Knox carried the Refor- of young people are left with a spiritual mation from Calvin in Geneva to Scotland thirst for Truth that is being slaked by and ultimately the New World, Calvin’s the Reformed theology of Calvin. Jour- modern day disciples proclaim the reality nalist Collin Hansen remarks: of Ephesians 2, that we were dead in sins and made alive through Christ by grace Many churches geared toward so- through faith, the gift of God. called spiritual seekers focus on God’s immanence, his nearness. They talk Just as men from all over Europe came about a personal relationship with to Geneva to study under Calvin and sub- Christ, emphasizing his friendship and sequently returned to their home coun- reminding audiences that God made tries to spread the Gospel through Cal- us in his image. It all makes sense, vinism, today’s disciples of Calvin are because so many baby boomers left going to his writings and theology and churches that felt personal and irrel- returning to their cultural homeland pro- evant. But the culture has shifted. claiming the gospel via Calvinism, Fewer Americans now claim any whether it be from faithful pastors preach- church background. Evangelical mega ing God’s sovereignty in salvation from churches, once the upstart challeng- the pulpit or from Reformed musicians ers, have become the new mainstream. such as Curtis Allen, whose lyrics ask: Teenagers who grew up with buddy On his own, man would never choose Jesus in youth group don’t know as holiness. He’s incapable, so Christ much about Father God.... Calvinism chose holes in his wrist. To demon- puts much stock in transcendence, strate his grace to save any, though, which draws out biblical themes such some would argue that it’s faith that as God’s holiness, glory, and majesty. saves many, apart from him, like he’ll Think of the prophet Isaiah’s vision just sit back, watch, and hope some in Isaiah 6:1: “In the year that King believe before their heart stops; does Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon that sound consistent with the God a throne, high and lifted up; and the of the Bible, all-powerful but in salva- train of his robe filled the temple.”... tion he’s idle? If God needs help and Beholding God’s transcendence that’s really true, does that mean sal- helps us experience his immanence or vation is up to me and you? If Christ nearness.13 can create the earth, moon, and stars,
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 14 does his work not work unless it works ministerial intern in the Tacoma Bible Pres- for us? byterian Church. 2 Robert L. Reymond, John Calvin: His Calvin has remarkably made an impact on Life and Influence, 28. the believers of his day, and the centu- 3 Calvin dedicated his commentary on 2 ries following his death up to this very Corinthians to Wolmar. day. Warfield said of Calvin and his pub- 4 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/ lication of the Institutes, magazine/1111punk-t.html. The publication of [the Institutes] was 5 B. B. Warfield, “Calvin’s Doctrine of the like the setting up of the King’s Creation,” The Works of Benjamin B. Standard in Mediaeval Europe—that Warfield, 5:297. the lieges might gather to it. It was 6 The Geneva Bible was tremendously raising the banner on high that all men popular due to its marginal notes written might see it and rally around it. It by Calvin, Knox, Coverdale, and others. provided at last a platform for the hard On the advice of Calvin it adopted the beset Protestants, everywhere style of chapters being divided into spoken against, and far too easily verses. This was the Bible that was taken confounded with the radicals of the on the voyage of the Mayflower to day—radicals who scouted the very America in 1620. foundations of the Christian faith, 7 Reynolds, John Calvin: His Life and overturned the whole fabric of the Influence, 80-81. social order, outraged the commonest 8 David Hall, The Legacy of John Calvin: dictates of ordinary decency. Its His Influence on the Modern World, 75. publication met a crisis and created 9 B. B. Warfield, “On the Literary History an epoch. It gave a new stability to of Calvin’s ‘Institutes,’” Works, 5:373-374. Protestantism, and set it before the 10 William R. Estep, “Doctrines Lead to world as a coherent system of ‘Dunghill,’ Prof Warns,” The Founders reasoned truth by which men might Journal (Summer 1997), http:// live and for which they might gladly www.founders.org/journal/fj29/ die.14 article1.html. 11 Quoted in George M. Marsden, While Calvin’s Institutes did fill a need in Jonathan Edwards: A Life, 41. the days it was written, it is John Calvin’s 12 Quoted in Stephen J. Nichols, careful exposition of Scripture—his abil- J. Gresham Machen’s The Gospel in the ity to leave us with a theology that is so Modern World and Other Short Writings, intertwined and so reflective of the teach- 23. ings found in Holy Scripture—that has 13 Collin Hansen, Young, Restless, Re- taught and will continue to teach follow- formed: A Journalist’s Journey with the ers of Jesus Christ the doctrines of sal- New Calvinists, 21-22. vation as put forth in the entirety of the 14 Warfield, “Calvin and the Reformation” Bible. in Selected Shorter Writings of Benjamin B. Warfield, edited by John E. Meeter, 1 Jason Anspach is a student at Western I, 403-4. Reformed Seminary and is serving as a
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 15 CALVIN AND CHURCH and correction of morals; (3) the care GOVERNMENT of the poor and the distribution of alms were committed to the deacons. JAMES HUFF1 “Readers” and “acolytes,” how- Alister McGrath, in his book A Life of ever, were not the names of definite John Calvin, states that, offices; it was these whom they called Whereas Luther regarded the organi- “clerics,” and whom through definite zation of the church as a matter of his- exercises they trained from youth to torical contingency, not requiring serve the church in order that they theological prescription, Calvin held might better understand the purpose that a definite pattern of church gov- for which they had been appointed ernment was prescribed by scripture. and might, in time, be more ready to Curiously, the lists of ecclesiastical step into office. This I shall soon show offices (IV, iii.3; IV, iii.4; IV, iv.1) which more fully. Calvin presents within the Institutes [of the Christian Religion] do not harmonize, and leave both the status of elders (or presbyters) and the num- Calvin plainly writes ber of ministries in some doubt.” 2 that it is a man who is to be an elder or deacon In Book 4 of the Institutes of the Chris- based upon the qualifica- tian Religion, Calvin focuses on a num- tions given in Scripture. ber of issues regarding the church. McGrath speaks of Calvin’s “experience This is an area of unfortu- as an organizer.” Calvin focuses on exact nate departure in several particulars and does not deal in “general Presbyterian and other abstractions.” Reformed groups, includ- ing the Presbyterian In the Institutes Calvin writes about “The Condition of the Ancient Church Church in the United and the Kind of Government in Use Be- States of America, the fore the Papacy.”3 There he traces the Evangelical Presbyterian departure of the Papacy from the prac- Church, and the Christian tice of the ancient church and from Scrip- Reformed Church. tural teaching in regard to church gov- ernment. In the Institutes Calvin writes, We have stated that Scripture sets before us three kinds of minis- Therefore, Jerome, on setting ters. Similarly, whatever ministers the forth five church orders, lists bishops, ancient church had it divided into presbyters, deacons, believers, and three orders. For from the order of catechumens; he gives no special presbyters (1) part were chosen pas- place to the remaining clergy and tors and teachers; (2) the remaining monks.4 part were charged with the censure
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 16 Basically Calvin upholds the position ancient arrangement it was. For he that “bishop” and “presbyter” are the says that at Alexandria from the time same office. “All those to whom the of- of the Evangelist Mark to that of fice of teaching was enjoined they [the Heraclas and Dionysius, the presby- ancient church] called ‘presbyters.’”5 ters always elected one of their num- Calvin agrees with this. He does recog- ber and set him in a higher rank, call- nize that in each city the presbyters chose ing him “bishop.”7 one to be bishop Higher ranks, e.g., “archbishops and in order that dissensions might not patriarchs” were established in the an- arise (as commonly happens) from cient church primarily for matters of dis- equality of rank. Still, the bishop was cipline. Calvin recognizes that these of- not so much higher in honor and dig- fices are not taught in the Scriptures, yet nity as to have lordship over his col- he graciously says “that the ancient bish- leagues. But the same functions that ops did not intend to fashion any other the consul has in the senate—to re- form of church rule than that which God port on business, to request opinions, has laid down in His word.”8 to preside over others in counseling, In his Commentary on the Epistles to admonishing, and exhorting, to gov- Timothy, Titus, and Philemon concern- ern the whole action by his authority, ing 1 Tim 5:17-21, Calvin mentions that and to carry out what was decreed by “elder” is not a “name of age, but of of- common decision—the bishop carried fice,”9 and concerning Tit 1:5-6, he states out in the assembly of presbyters. Presbyters or elders. It is well known, And the ancients themselves admit that that it was not on account of age, that this was introduced by human agreement they received this appellation; for to meet the need of the times. sometimes those who were still Calvin does note, though, that the young—such as Timothy—were ad- bishop, “while he surpassed the others mitted to this rank. But in all lan- in dignity, he was subject to the assem- guages it has been customary to ap- bly of his brethren.”6 He also quoted ply this honorable designation to all Ignatius that in the ancient church: rulers. Although we may conclude, from I Tim 5:17, that there were two Afterward, to remove seeds of dissen- classes of presbyters, the context will sions, all oversight was committed to immediately show, that here none one person. Just as the presbyters, other than teachers are meant, that is, therefore, know that they are, accord- those who were ordained to teach; for ing to the custom of the church, sub- immediately afterwards, he will call ject to him who presides, so the bish- the same persons “bishops.”10 ops recognize that they are superior to the presbyters more according to Calvin also recognizes the office of the custom of the church than by the deacon as established in God’s word. In Lord’s actual arrangement, and that his Commentary on the Acts of the they ought to govern the church in Apostles, concerning Acts 6:1-6 (page co-operation with them. Jerome, how- 229) he states, ever, tells us in another place what an The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 17 Luke declareth here upon what occa- there can be no church unless it be sion, and to what end, and also with drowned in this depth; neither do what rite, deacons were first made. He they cease to brag and boast that saith, When there arose a murmuring they are successors of the apostles, amongst the disciples, it was appeased whereas there is nothing which by this remedy, as it is said in the com- appeareth to be more contrary.12 mon proverb, Good laws have taken Furthermore, concerning deacons, as their beginning of evil manners. And it mentioned in 1 Tim 3:8-13, Calvin wrote, may seem to be a strange thing, seeing that this is a function so excellent and Likewise the deacons. There is no so necessary in the Church, why it came reason why the diversity of inter- not into the apostles’ minds at the first pretations should lead us to enter- (before there was any such occasion tain any doubt. It is certain that the ministered) to appoint deacons, and Apostle speaks of those who hold a why the Spirit of God did not give them public office in the Church; and this such counsel which they take now, be- refutes the opinion of those who ing, as it were, enforced thereunto. But think that domestic servants are here that which happened was both better meant. As to the view given by oth- then, and is also more profitable for us ers, that it denotes presbyters who at this day, to be unto us an example. If are inferior to the bishop, that is the apostles had spoken of choosing without foundation; for it is mani- deacons before any necessity did re- fest from other passages, that the quire the same, they should not have term bishop belongs alike to all pres- had the people so ready; they should byters. All are constrained to ac- have seemed to avoid labor and trouble; knowledge this; and more especially many would not have offered so liber- a passage in the first chapter of the ally into the hands of other men. There- Epistle to Titus proves clearly that fore, it was requisite that the faithful this is the meaning. (Tit 1:7). It re- should be convinced by experience, mains to be stated that we under- that they might choose deacons will- stand “the deacons” to be those ingly, whom they saw they could not who are mentioned by Luke, (Acts want; and that through their own 6:3) and who had the charge of the fault.11 poor.”13 Calvin contrasts this office and how it was In regard to the matter of whether to be carried out with that which was done one person should appoint a minister by the Roman Catholics. for a particular church or whether the church has the right of choosing, Calvin The Popish bishops did suck up great states that to take away this right from riches under color of the ministration the church or from the College of Pas- or deaconship; nevertheless, they en- tors the right of judging would almost tangled themselves in divers business, wholly profane “the sacred administra- which they were scarce able to over- tion of the Church.”14 come, though everyone of them had had ten heads. Notwithstanding, such Calvin plainly writes that it is a man is their wickedness, that they say that who is to be an elder or deacon based The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 18 upon the qualifications given in Scripture. JOHN CALVIN ON This is an area of unfortunate departure CIVIL GOVERNMENT in several Presbyterian and other Re- formed groups, including the Presbyte- GARRY Z. COLE1 rian Church in the United States of INTRODUCTION America, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, and the Christian Reformed Americans have, for the most part, Church. embraced the political and legal doctrine that has in essence constructed a wall of There are many other areas of church separation between church and state. government with which Calvin deals— Most of us acknowledge that the con- many of which are of a practical nature. cept is necessary to protect the free exer- This writer would certainly recommend cise of religion. Likewise, we are uncom- further reading in the aforementioned ref- fortably aware that the secularity of gov- erences. ernment is equally indispensable because there is little evidence that a national reli- 1 James Huff is the Pastor of the First gion, or established church, would be the Bible Presbyterian Church in Kalispell, one of our choosing. As a Reformed Montana. church, we believe that the differing 2 P. 171. spheres of authority have no impact on 3 4.4. the fact that governments remain ac- 4 4.4.1, pp. 1068-1069. countable to God.2 This reality provided 5 Institutes 4.4.2 (p. 1069). the foundation for John Calvin’s convic- 6 Ibid., 4.4.2 (p. 1070). tion that the civil government and the 7 Ibid., 4.4.2 (pp.1069-1070). church must be separate in some regards, 8 Ibid., 4.4.4. but in other ways allied. Calvin acknowl- 9 P. 137. edged the need for separation of church 10 P. 290. and state, but never considered the sepa- 11 Commentary on the Acts of the ration of state and God. But because his Apostles, 229. hope was for a Christian administration, 12 Ibid., 233. and because he lived in a very different 13 Commentary on the Epistles to time, the principle of separation of church Timothy, Titus , and Philemon, 85-86. and state he endorsed was less restric- 14 Ibid., 290. tive than would be practical for most secu- lar governments today.3 Calvin’s views regarding government stemmed from his belief in the necessity of civil authority because of the deprav- ity of man, his belief in providence, and his uncompromising certainty that God is sovereign over all things, including governments.4 His views regarding the corrupt nature of mankind as a result of Adam’s disobedience to God are well
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 19 documented. He believed that man’s en- firmly reminded the king that a true sov- tire being was utterly sinful.5 Calvin wrote ereign is the minister of God. Any ruler to the King of France that the wicked were who does not make his reign subservient so bold and their iniquity was so en- to God is not a king, but a robber. Rulers trenched within them, that even the strict- are ministers of God to punish those who est of laws might not stop the evil doers do evil. Calvin instructed that magistrates from trying to harm God’s people or dis- must constantly remind themselves that rupt God’s plan. What then would those they are the ministers of God, and in so people do if there was no government to doing, they will be forced to exhibit a restrain them? Calvin concluded that civil “kind of image of the Divine Providence, government is necessary to protect the guardianship, goodness, benevolence, true church or “to uphold a public form and justice.”9 of religion amongst Christians, and hu- But this responsibility did not and manity amongst men.”6 Calvin proposed does not establish the king or any other that the purpose of the magistrate was to authority as the head of a state-spon- uphold God’s glory, to preserve the di- sored religion. The Westminster Confes- vine truth, and to ensure the continuance sion of Faith states, “The civil magistrate of the Kingdom of Christ. When he was may not assume to themselves the ad- called upon to draft ordinances that ministration of the Word and Sacraments; would serve as a constitution for Geneva, or the power of the keys of the kingdom he established an ideological movement of heaven.”10 Civil authorities must not that would have a lasting impact on both dictate a specific understanding of what the sacred and the secular worlds. the Scriptures teach so that one particu- COMPONENTS OF GOVERNMENT lar denomination would be given prefer- ence, nor may they usurp the authority Calvin, writing on the subject of civil given to elders by Scripture. The state law in Chapter 20 of his Institutes of the has powers relating to the church, but no Christian Religion, identified three com- powers within the church. ponents of governmental authority: (1) the Magistrate, who is the protector or Government, by definition, is an en- guardian of the laws; (2) the Laws, by tity with legal force and authoritative con- which the magistrate governs; and (3) the trol.11 The second aspect of any civil gov- People, who are governed. He started ernment is the set of laws by which the with the contention that no authority or magistrate rules and by which the people government exists unless it is ordained are governed. Calvin believed that there by God.7 Governments are granted power is a natural law, available and applicable by the consent of those governed, but to all men, but that nations have the lib- their original authority is a gift from God erty to enact laws it deems beneficial and and is subject to God.8 Calvin often re- that address the special needs or circum- ferred to the magistrate as the minister or stances of the people. He taught that all servant of God. laws so established must be tested by the perpetual concept of love and must In his “Prefatory Address to His be equally applied to all. But Calvin also Most Christian Majesty, Francis, King of noted the distinction between civil and the French,” Calvin respectfully but religious jurisdictions, stating that The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 20 “Christ’s spiritual Kingdom and the civil what was right in their own heart. Most jurisdiction are things completely dis- would agree that even a corrupt govern- tinct.”12 Calvin’s reforms in Geneva, where ment is better than no government at all. a type of Protestant state was established, Anarchy is absolute lawlessness, and no still reflected his belief that man must be state can long survive in that condition. subject to two different but compatible Civil authorities are given the responsi- governments: that which is found in the bility of protecting the lives and prop- soul of man and relates to eternal life; erty of its citizens, and the depravity of and a second government that regulates the human heart makes that protection the civic or material aspects of man. This indispensable. view of “two kingdoms” is similar to the There are other benefits as well. position established earlier by Martin Calvin saw civil government as an op- Luther, and both reformers acknowledged portunity for good. Schools and roads that natural law alone would never be could be provided to benefit both the rich sufficient because of the foolishness of and the poor. New hospitals and prisons men.13 were also a part of the social reforms he The third aspect of civil authority is encouraged.16 He believed there was the people that are governed. Calvin be- great potential for any government that lieved that every citizen had a duty to established a state that would be an en- obey the government, even when the tity truly “under God.” He actually went government was unjust.14 He understood so far as to question whether there could that it is the duty of citizens to respect ever be lasting prosperity in any king- what God has ordained, leaving ven- dom that is not ruled by God’s divine geance to him. The second duty of citi- word.17 Calvin wrote that man derives as zens is submission. We are to submit to much benefit from civil government as he the laws of the government, pay taxes that does from bread and water, light and air.18 are levied, and perform required civic Quite simply, civil government allows for duties such as the bearing of arms in de- the possibility that men can live together fense of the nation. There are certainly in harmony. exceptions, but unless the government If we stop there, Calvin’s views on requires a Christian to do what God for- government do not generate a lot of con- bids or forbids them to do what God com- troversy. Most today would agree that mands,15 we are called to be model citi- government is charged with the protec- zens. tion of life and property,19 and that posi- ROLE OF GOVERNMENT tion fits easily within Calvin’s view of government. More difficult is the ques- Calvin believed that these three com- tion of whether civil authorities should ponents make up a system of civil gov- be involved in any matter regarding en- ernment that is necessary and that will forcement of the first four of the Ten Com- benefit the governed. He used the bibli- mandments. Many would take issue with cal example from the book of Judges to the rest of Calvin’s statement concern- challenge those who would argue against ing civil government: “This is not its [civil the establishment of civil government. government] only object, but it is, that When there was no king, the people did no idolatry, no blasphemy against the The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 21 name of God, no calumnies against his Consistory (made up of preachers and lay truth, nor other offenses to religion break elders) ruled on all matters relating to the out and be disseminated among the church, and could refer citizens to the City people.”20 Most Presbyterians would be Council for discipline.26 The Consistory reluctant to allow the state to enforce any was seldom opposed by the City Coun- duties toward God, particularly if physi- cil, but the fact that both authorities ex- cal coercion was employed to force con- isted indicates that it was not a true the- formity. In fact, the more integrated role ocracy. But it is certainly true that Calvin seemingly championed by Calvin was a believed the state should be “theocratic” concern to early American Presbyterians in the sense that it was and is subject to who elected to revise Chapter 23 of the God’s law. Westminster Confession of Faith. The In his writings Calvin discussed three original wording could be interpreted as forms of government: the monarchy (rule too Erastian, and it was deemed neces- by one individual), democracy (the power sary to clarify the position of the church rests with the people), and the aristoc- to protect it from interference.21 But John racy (a few selected individuals rule over Calvin lived in a time when the Protes- many). Calvin has been characterized as tant church looked to the state for pro- a reformer of secular society in part be- tection from Rome, and it was natural to cause he championed liberation from the give the state more prerogatives than rule of tyrants, and he clearly rejected seem reasonable today.22 Ecclesiastical monarchy as a preferred form of govern- discipline was generally under the con- ment.27 He thought it safer for govern- trol of civil magistrates, and it was the ment to be in the hands of many than in subject of specifically ecclesiastical the hands of one, maintaining that mon- courts that was a source of controversy.23 archies are generally unable or unwilling Calvin’s statement must also be consid- to regulate themselves. Calvin vehe- ered in light of the fact that he was a very mently opposed the theory that the Pope, religious man whose primary focus was or any king, should be able to claim ab- advancement of the Reformation.24 Calvin solute power. thought of the State as a Christian na- tion, and there is no evidence he would Democracy is a system of govern- have wanted such involvement from a ment that fits well with Calvin’s thinking secular government without Christian in some regards, but the fit is not perfect. leadership. And even in the early 1550s, Calvin stressed the importance of educa- he argued against the right of the state in tion and practical training in the rights the matter of excommunication, believing and duties of citizens. He promoted the that to be the purview of the Consistory.25 dignity and equality of man, understand- ing that even in our fallen condition we FORMS OF GOVERNMENT are granted a remnant of grace because So did Calvin promote one form of we are created in God’s image. But while government over another? He is at times Calvin championed liberty, he also em- called an advocate of theocracy, usually phasized the principle of submission. by those citing the government of Geneva Much has been made of the Calvinistic after Calvin returned in 1541. Geneva was influences that impacted American his- governed by a City Council, but the tory and its revolution from England.28 The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 22 The ideological origins of the American the forefather of the republican form of Revolution may have been rooted in Cal- government, and the virtual founder of vinism, and a love of liberty may well have America.32 been planted in the hearts of American CONCLUSION patriots as the result of Calvin’s reforms, but it is doubtful that John Calvin would By applying the principle of the sov- have actually supported such a revolu- ereignty of God to the establishment of tion. He declared that men should be con- governments, be they secular or sacred, tent with whatever form of government Calvin offered liberation from the tyranny exists, maintaining that governments are that thrived under Arminianism and Ro- established according to the providence man Catholicism.33 But for people and and particular dispensation of God. societies both, he stressed the need for moral righteousness and warned that no The form of government apparently society could prosper long without a gov- preferred by Calvin was aristocracy, or a ernment in submission to God. He pro- blend of aristocracy and democracy.29 posed a Christian government that would Aristocracies have generally been asso- control the people for their own good, ciated with states where power was in the and the results of his social and institu- hands of the wealthy, the landowners, or tional reforms in Geneva were so success- some other class of the social elite. Rather ful that even his critics praised his politi- than the state being ruled by those most cal thought.34 He believed there should able, a hereditary oligarchy generally ex- be mutual support and cooperation be- isted that kept power in the hands of tween the civil and the ecclesiastical ju- wealthy families regardless of achieve- risdictions, but he knew the sinful nature ment or intelligence. But in its true form, of man meant there would be no perfect aristocracy is a form of government that kingdom on this earth. So as we do to- advances “rule by the best.”30 Calvin day, Calvin ultimately looked forward to endorsed the concept of an aristocracy, the time when Christ will reign on earth,35 believing that it was sanctioned by scrip- stating, “for it is not of us, but of the ture: “This has …already been confirmed Living God and His Christ” who will “rule also by the Lord himself when he estab- from sea to sea and from the river even to lished an aristocracy… among the Israel- the ends of the earth.”36 ites….”31 Calvin was acutely aware of man’s fallen condition, and knew that a 1 Garry Z. Cole is Pastor of the Ryder democracy could put government into Memorial Presbyterian Church in Bluff the hands of the worst as easily as the City, Tennessee. hands of the best. This understanding, 2 G. I. Williamson, The Westminster Con- combined with his opposition to totali- fession of Faith for Study Classes (Sec- tarianism and absolutism, became com- ond Edition; Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Pub- ponents of the ideology that served as a lishing Co., 1964), 311. precursor to the development of consti- 3 Clark, Gordon H. What Do Presbyteri- tutional governments where the people ans Believe? (Unicoi, Tenn.: The Trinity collectively decide who the “best” are Foundation, 2001), 212. that will govern them. For this reason, 4 McNeill, John T., Editor, Calvin: On God Calvin is often credited with being with and Political Duty (Indianapolis: Bobbs- Merrill Educational Publishing, 1950). The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 23 5 Barlow, Jonathan. Calvinism, 10 Jan 23 Alister E. McGrath, A Life of John 2009, The Center for Reformed Theology Calvin: A Study in the Shaping of and Apologetics
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 25 Then along came the Greeks. To them Augustine was of the persuasion that the work was the curse5 and was intended monastics and clergy should labor only only for the lowest class of people, as it was useful to prevent sin, but that slaves.6 It was the free men who engaged work was a punishment.17 He continued in art, philosophy, politics, large agricul- to struggle with pagan philosophy; “it ture endeavors, or war.7 In classical Greek took a long time to see the full implica- the word8 was the word for ‘work’ as well tions of his faith in the grace of God.”18 as their ‘god of sorrow.’9 Aristotle Monastic life, martyrdom, and the priest- thought to be out of work or unemployed hood were things that he and the early was good fortune,10 as it freed you up for church considered heavenly, and all other better things. He also believed that money tasks were lower and worldly. The was unproductive in society.11 There was church’s response to work became “so a pervasive heavenly minded that they did no earthly good.”19 It was during this time that the belief that a person’s prudence, mo- church gained power. rality, and wisdom was directly pro- portional to the amount of leisure time Augustine had perceived the church that a person had. A person who and secular state to be in a symbiotic re- worked, when there was no need to lationship for mutual benefit, support, and do so, would run the risk of obliterat- preservation.20 As a consequence of the ing the distinction between slave and union, the mindset and productivity of master…. Leadership, in the Greek the state’s masses would be guided by state and culture, was based on the the oversight of the church. As time pro- work a person have to do, and any gressed the state was no longer indepen- person who broke this cultural norm dent, but subservient to the church’s was acting to subvert the state itself.12 supreme ruler, the Pope. Other early church thinkers did not make significant Ancient Rome built itself on the back change to the view of vocation either. of the Greek ideas, with an even larger slave labor component. In Rome land was A “hierarchy of professions and king, while free craftsman and small farm- trades was developed by St. Thomas ers were the source of workers and over- Aquinas as part of his encyclopedic con- seers for the large building projects car- sideration of all things human and di- ried out by the slaves.13 It was noted, vine.”21 His ranking had a farmer as su- that “the prevalent view among the aris- preme, and a merchant as lowest. All these tocracy was that wage earnings were sor- were, however, lower than the works of did, that workshops were low place, and the church. Luther’s work ethic was a that trades were despised.”14 “Pagan continuation of the status quo and posi- Rome was for the elite. From it the tion, with humbleness and patience. He “masses were excluded, and the vulgar combined this with the feeling that it is populace was hated.”15 And work was not the fruit of labor, but the labor itself still a curse. that would set you free.22 So imagine the changes when reformation came to Augustine Bishop of Hippo influ- Geneva with Calvin! enced many, including Calvin,16 yet did little to change the perception of work.
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 26 It is at this point that I digress a mo- Geneva would punish those guilty of ment to reflect on the man Calvin, on this such offences as being absent from his 500th anniversary. I would like to draw church, dancing or playing your attention to some ‘current’ percep- cards,…swearing,… giving one’s tions of him, influences on him, and his daughter to a Catholic in marriage, ar- ideal plan. ranging a marriage between an elderly woman and a young man,… denying It has been said of Calvin that he was the reality of the devil and hell.28 “God-intoxicated” as he lived his life un- reservedly before the face of God.23 Setting up a theocratic kingdom on Froude noted the unique skill set that earth was not well received when the God had given Calvin when he said “no commitment to it became personal. This eye could have detected more keenly the theocratic kingdom brought with it many unsound spots in the creed of the church, social innovations, such as this: doctors nor was there a Reformer…so resolute to and surgeons would be called back to the exercise, tear out and destroy what was hospital to take care of the poor in addi- distinctly seen as false…and make truth… tion to their other duties (not something the rule of practical life.”24 And done in those days). Hostels were Stickelberger noted “like his thinking, so founded for strangers, prisoners were is his style: not ambiguous, but crystal gathered together on Saturdays to listen clear, despising unnecessary flowering to sermons, and an infirmary for the local language, a mirror of his purity.” 25 and traveling ill was started.29 For per- Though not perfect, he was a product of sistent adultery Calvin favored the death and reaction to earlier influences. penalty, which was carried out a couple of times. Despite this, there was a reluc- Augustine and Bucer can be seen as tance to enact laws against prostitution an amalgam in Calvin’s thoughts on pre- and blasphemy.30 “Calvin’s aim in this destination and work ethic.26 Calvin’s section…was to show what is God’s will belief in the priesthood of all believers in the orders that exist…and on the di- was similar to Luther’s, although they vine will! There can be no Christian free- differed on sacramental views. His views dom without submission to the divine of the state and vocation were different will.”31 This holistic view of predestina- than any before. Also, he had a new vi- tion prepared the way for his vocational sion for the city of Geneva. viewpoint.32 Originally just passing through, he Calvin vocational idea was that “there was persuaded to stay and help in the would be no employment so mean and church. This initial overnight stay ex- sordid (provided we follow our vocation) tended into three years. Noting a need as not to appear truly respectable, and for revival and reformation from the be deemed highly important in the sight Catholic church, he attempted to make of God.”33 Calvin remarked that we are Geneva so earthly good that it would be like a “useless block of wood” if we feel heavenly minded.27 With Calvin in the “called to laziness,” as that is not what pulpit God intended. Contrary to Luther, Calvin The church could warn and admon- felt that striving culturally was appropri- ish those guilty.… The council of ate as long as your motivation was cor- The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 27 rect, as Paul writes, “whatever is not done signs analogous to those of vocation…. out of faith is sin” (Rom 14:23). The reprobate are occasionally touched almost by a like sentiment as the elect.” Van Til notes, “Calvin discusses duty His impression of Calvin’s thought was and beauty, vocation and avocation (he that even the non-believers have a voca- allows room for such recreations as golf tion to carry out God’s will. The non-re- and sport in general.”34 In the Institutes, generate may “feel” that they are doing Calvin notes that we are not forbidden to the “right thing,” and could not fathom drink wine, enjoy music, laugh, or to have doing anything else, but this false sense a great meal, but all things are to be done of assurance should not be interpreted to the glory of God.35 This seems well as a sign of salvation. Calvin’s percep- and good, but if I am an unregenerate tion of vocation and his thoughts on pre- person what do I do? destination have made many lasting changes seen even today. Although Calvin was not popular with Many still dread, fight, many in his day, his vocational views can and avoid work, and count be seen impacting culture in Holland, down the days until England, Scotland, and even America, retirement from their where “our Pilgrim and Puritan fathers were inspired with a sense of mission and current vocation. Instead, vocation.”36 This work ethic has been let us look at things the influential in forming what employers are way Calvin did. Do not looking for today. forget the process that has given us the freedom According to Maywood, employers’ rankings of the attributes most desired to pursue any vocation in employees consistently confirm that our heart desires. Often, the most desirable employee is one the history that led up to who demonstrates the traditionally the emancipation of the valued characteristics of reliability, workers is under-appreci- dependability, pride of craftsmanship, ated. Many are negli- and willingness to learn and who de- gent in acknowledging rives personal gratification from a job God or thanking God for well done.37 allowing them the oppor- Not only did Calvin free people to tunity to participate in his pursue upward mobility to the glory of plan, which includes our God, but he also freed people to enjoy working. the fruit of their labor. To Calvin riches were not the “evil” the monastics had thought. Matter and material things are made by God and are to be enjoyed, with The good news is that God has a plan temperance, and to forbid such was tan- for you as well. Wendel notes, “never- tamount to blasphemy. “The poor you theless, the reprobate sometimes show have always” is all part of the predeter- The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 28 mined plan of God. He even encouraged that was Calvinistic. Aristocratic and people to dress up to make good first im- unequal society tended to be Arminian pressions for the glory of God.38 So while and Catholic. Bancroft notes that Luther tolerated the world, Calvin mas- predestination of life and vocation tered it.39 “inspires a resolute, almost defiant, freedom”45 that is unparallel by any As in all things, Calvin did believe that other method by which man tries to there was some flexibility to the social teach equality. ethic. Paul’s admonition in Rom 14:4, “Who are you to judge another’s servant? Like a pejorative, “work” is not some- To his own master he stands or falls,” thing many revel in. Many still dread, seems to be in Calvin’s mind when he fight, and avoid work, and count down states, “do not put pressure on others to the days until retirement from their cur- follow our example, as if it were a rule…. rent vocation. Instead, let us look at Avoid rashly dictating what others things the way Calvin did. Do not forget should do.”40 We should, like Peter, learn the process that has given us the free- John 21:22, “If I will that he remain till I dom to pursue any vocation our heart come, what [is that] to you? You follow desires. Often, the history that led up to me.” And we should do our task to the the emancipation of the workers is un- glory of God and try and not to der-appreciated. Many are negligent in micromanage what everyone else does.41 acknowledging God or thanking God for This principle then gives backbone to allowing them the opportunity to partici- creativity and independence. pate in his plan, which includes our work- ing. We must remind ourselves that As Christians we are then encour- whether we eat or drink or whatever we aged to express ourselves in legitimate do, it should be done to the glory of God means and in a prudent manner when (1 Cor 10:31). being imposed upon. Calvin encour- aged prudent discrimination of charac- ter by adding, “It would be imprudent 1 Alister Stone, M.D., is a graduate of and foolish to overlook” traits, that our Western Reformed Seminary and is God-given mind would warn us about. 42 licensed to preach by the Northwest Nor “does [a Christian] knowingly and Presbytery of the Bible Presbyterian intentionally allow himself to be Church. He is a physician in emergency imposed on; he does not relinquish his medicine at St. Joseph Hospital in prudence and judgment so that he can Tacoma, Washington, and an elder in be more easily cheated, nor does he the Tacoma Bible Presbyterian Church. forget the difference between black and 2 “… but what before his fall he did with white.”43 One must also acknowledge, ease and pleasure, was not to be “God sometimes imposes… new and accomplished after it without painful unusual roles”44 for each vocation. This and persevering exertion.” Robert great freedom does not come without Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David responsibility. Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), It seems in history that equality and http://www.ccel.org/ccel/jamieson/ democracy have been found on the side jfb.i.html. The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 29 3 “In opere tuo“ — Vulgate. The (2002), 23, as noted in http:// Septuagint makes the same mistake: ’En books.google.com/books?id=31NpSt- toi^v e}rgoiv sou, “in your works,” yNegC. Charles Christiansen, Carolyn Manville 9 His mother was the goddess Eris Baum, Julie Bass-Haugen, (“discord”), who was the daughter of Occupational Therapy: Performance, Nyx (“night”), http://en.wikipedia.org/ Participation, and Well-being (3rd ed.), wiki/Ponos. 3, 26. 10 Aristotle as quoted in R. Paul 4 NKJV. Stevens, The Other Six Days: Vocation, 5 Maywood, A. G. (1982). “Vocational Work and Ministry in Biblical Education and the Work Ethic,” Perspective (Wm. B. Eerdmans Canadian Vocational Journal, 18:3, 7- Publishing, 2001), 110. 12. as quoted in http:// 11 Henry R. Van Til, The Calvinistic www.coe.uga.edu/workethic/ Concept of Culture (Baker Academic, historypdf.pdf. 2001), 102. 6 The ancient Greeks regarded the most 12 L. Braude, Work and Workers (New desirable and the only “good” life as York: Praeger, 1975), as noted in Roger one of leisure. Work, in the sense of B. Hill, Historical Context of the Work supplying the basic necessities of life, Ethic. was a degrading activity which was to 13 Herbert A. Applebaum, The Concept be allocated to the lowest groups of Work: Ancient, Medieval, and within the social order, especially to Modern (SUNY Press, 1992), 120. slaves. Slavery was the social device 14 Ibid., p. 123; Treggiari, citing Cicero. which enabled the Greeks to maintain 15 Henry R. Van Til, The Calvinistic their view of work as something to be Concept of Culture, 68. avoided by a full human being: what 16 C. Gregg Singer, John Calvin: His human beings “shared with all other roots and Fruits (The Prebyterian and forms of animal life was not considered Reformed Publishing Company, 1974), to be human” (Arendt 1959; as quoted vii. in Tony Watson, Sociology, Work and 17 Augustine, City of God, trans. by Industry (Routledge, 2003), 173-174; see Marcus Dods (T. & T. Clark, 1871), 517. http://www2.ciando.com/shop/book/ 18 Henry R. Van Til, The Calvinistic readex/index.cfm/fuseaction/readex/ Concept of Culture, 72. bok_id/4038/cat_id/194/cat_nav/168/ 19 Ibid., 103, “Calvin … saw monasticism bookshow/Sociology-Work-and- as an evil that led to pride, envy, Industry/isbnshow/ strife,… laziness,… and unhealthy 0203103041,9780203103043/usessl/1/ dualism.” CFID/24228460/CFTOKEN/18971789. 20 Ibid., 85. 7 Homo faber: Work through the Ages, 21 David Steinmetz, Calvin in Context trans. by D. C. Fisher (New York: (Oxford University Press, 1995), 188; A Harcourt Brace); quoted in Roger P. Tilgher, Homo faber: Work through the Hill, “History of work Ethic,” http:// Ages, as quoted in http:// www.coe.uga.edu/workethic/hpro.html. www.coe.uga.edu/workethic/ 8 Walter Scheidel, Sitta Von Reden, and hreferences.html. Francis Taylor, The Ancient Economy The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 30 22 Ernst Troeltsch, as noted in George Publication and Sabbath-school work, Lundskow, The Sociology of Religion: 1921), 3:10:650. A Substantive and Transdisciplinary 34 Henry R. Van Til, The Calvinistic Approach (Pine Forge Press, 2008), 101; Concept of Culture, 104. Howard Kohn, The Last Farmer: An 35 John Calvin, Institutes of the American Memoir (University of Christian Religion, 3:19. Nebraska Press, 2004), 102. 36 Henry R. Van Til, The Calvinistic 23 Henry R Van Til, The Calvinistic Concept of Culture, 94. Concept of Culture, 93. 37 “Vocational Education and the Work 24 As quoted in N. S. McFetridge, Ethic in a Changing Workplace,” ERIC Calvinism in History: Calvin Classics Digest No. 78; ERIC Clearinghouse on (Vol. 1; Still Waters Revival Books; Adult Career and Vocational Education Reprint, 1989), 17. Columbus OH; http:// 25 Emanuel Stickelberger, Calvin: A Life, www.ericdigests.org/pre-929/ethic.htm. trans. by David G. Gelzer (John Knox 38 Bouwsma, 196. Press, 1954), 31. 39 A. Dakin, Calvinism (The 26 Francois Wendel, Calvin: Origins, Westminster Press, 1965), 199. and Development of His Religious 40 Bouwsma, 192. Thought, trans. by Philip Mairet (Baker 41 Dakin, 202. Books, 1997), 141. 42 Bouwsma, 192. 27 Emanuel Stickelberger, Calvin: A Life, 43 Ibid.; Bouwsma does a good job with 93. Calvin’s work discussing the Sermon on 28 C. Gregg Singer, John Calvin: His the Mount; cf. John Calvin’s commen- Roots and Fruits (Presbyterian and tary on Matt 5:39f. This, as argued by Reformed Publishing Company, 1974), Calvin, should also apply on a national 64. level, pp. 193, 35. 29 Emanuel Stickelberger, Calvin: A Life, 44 Ibid., 194. 92. 45 As quoted in N. S. McFetridge, 30 John T. McNeill, The History and Calvinism in History: Vol. 1 of Calvin Character of Calvinism (Oxford Classics, (reprinted; Still Waters University Press, 1973), 189. Revival Books, 1989), 13. 31 Karl Barth, The Theology of John Calvin, trans. by Geoffery W. Bromiley (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995), 207. 32 “Calvin thus tied his understanding of vocation to his clear doctrine of predestination,” William C. Placher, Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005), 232. 33 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. by John Allen, (6th ed.; Presbyterian Board of The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 31 CALVIN’S INFLUENCE
THE STORY OF CALVINISM BEGINNINGS IN THE NEW WORLD: The first Calvinists in the Americas A SYNOPSIS arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1555. Gaspard de Coligny brought a French Huguenot LEONARD W. P INE* expedition there, but its leader abandoned his Protestantism and shipped the refu- INTRODUCTION gees back to France as heretics. Another As I pondered on the enormity of my Huguenot refugee expedition arrived in suggested topic, it occurred to me that it Canada’s Bay of Fundy in 1602. After a would be somewhat pathetic for me to winter on the island of St. Croix the set- attempt to add to the world’s knowledge tlers moved to the mainland and estab- of John Calvin. I expect that hundreds of lished Port Royal (now Annapolis, Nova thousands of pages have been written Scotia). Samuel de Champlain founded on the subject. When it comes to a con- Quebec for the French in 1608. Once it temporary view of how he has impacted was well established, the government of our English-speaking world, and the New New France gave the Huguenots no lib- World in particular, I realized that the re- erty to worship or organize after about search alone could take years. But I do 1647 or so, and French Calvinism in the feel quite capable of introducing the read- Americas dwindled away to nothing. ers of this Journal to an excellent source In 1562 another expedition went to the of which they may not have previously Florida coast, where three years later they aware. So, I decided to turn to one of the were murdered by the Spaniards. Some most respected authorities on Calvin ex- Calvinists did manage to come and stay, tant today, John T. McNeill. McNeill’s though, establishing small churches in The History and Character of Calvinism, New Netherlands, Massachusetts, and first published in 1954, thoroughly exam- South Carolina. From these modest be- ines Calvin’s thought and impact around ginnings the Protestant Reformation took the world in a scholarly and yet acces- root in America. sible way. My thought here is not to re- view the book, but to offer a synopsis of THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA the work in the pertinent passages that Unlike the French, who wanted their have to do with Calvin’s impact in the heretics back so they could put them to New World, and through it, in the mod- death, the English were quite glad to be ern era. The edition I worked with was rid of the Puritans and for the most part published as a paperback in New York by let them go whither they would. Many Oxford University Press, Inc., in 1967. The went to the Virginia colony, where the page numbers you see sprinkled through Anglican Church was established in the this article are from that edition. charter of 1606. Pilgrims (the separatists of their day) and Puritans made their way to what would become the Plymouth and
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 32 the Massachusetts Bay Colonies. The tially Presbyterian views of the ministry. Pilgrims at Plymouth listened to the But the moral character of people started preaching of John Robinson, whose ideas to slide, and revival would not come fully of a totally autonomous local church until Jonathan Edwards and the Great were a strange brand of Calvinism for the Awakening. time, but a natural outgrowth of Calvinis- THE DUTCH IN A MERICA tic principles. The Plymouth Plantation members adhered to devout obedience In 1609 a tiny Dutch colony was be- to the Scripture interpreted according to gun on Manhattan Island. Fourteen Calvinistic hermeneutical principles and years afterwards groups of Walloon Cal- courageous living trusting in the sover- vinists settled on Manhattan and Staten eign providence of God. Island, and also near Albany. In 1653 New Amsterdam was incorporated as a city on The larger colony of Massachusetts Manhattan Island. Bay was founded in 1628-30, and by 1640 more than 20,000 Puritans had arrived. “In 1640, it was formally declared that These were the flower of the Puritan move- only the Reformed Church was to be per- ment, and they were led by such men as mitted in New Netherlands” (p. 342). But John Cotton, Thomas Mather, and John by 1663 Peter Stuyvesant, the director of Davenport, all from Cambridge. Their the colony, had granted liberty of con- Calvinism was not a rigid and static sys- science in the colony. The next year the tem, and they weren’t happy with either English navy threatened New episcopacy or Presbyterianism. Slowly Amsterdam, and Stuyvesant had to sur- congregationalism spread throughout the render. In 1673 the Dutch recovered the Puritan colonies, though retaining ele- city, but it became English again by treaty ments of Presbyterianism. Thomas in 1674 and was renamed New York. In Hooker promoted political suffrage to all 1696 the Dutch Church of the City of New free men, even if they weren’t communi- York was incorporated. The Dutch Re- cants in the church. In 1636 Roger Will- formed Church in America was to have a iams, who for his ideas of separation of prominent role both in the formation of a church and state had been ousted from nation and in the Great Awakening. Massachusetts, founded at Providence THE SCOTS IN A MERICA the colony of Rhode Island, where he al- lowed just about anyone to come. 1636 In 1651 Cromwell sent some of his also saw the founding of Harvard Col- Scottish prisoners to New England; six lege. Some of the Puritans stressed the years later they established the Scots responsibility of men, others of the good- Charitable Society of Boston to aid one ness of God; still others the entire Cal- another or any other Scot that might hap- vinist pattern of theology. Various syn- pen by. About 1710 large numbers of ods were held to decide major issues fac- Scots from Ulster, who had suffered un- ing the Church. The Westminster Con- der Queen Anne’s government, began to fession was adopted bodily, except for arrive in New England and Pennsylvania. the sections dealing with polity and dis- They became the backbone of the early cipline. Cotton Mather’s writings, among pioneers, founding settlements and others, indicate the acceptance of essen- churches all over the wilderness. Some
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 33 of the eminent Scots-Irish leaders of this WEDGES period were Francis Makemie, an able and In the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- fearless Presbyterian preacher; William turies most of the Calvinistic churches Tennent, who founded the first Presby- were rent through a series of controver- terian educational institution in America sies. Primarily four elements character- in 1727; and the Scot John Witherspoon, ized this period of Calvinism: Erastianism who was to be the only clergyman among (the philosophy of the supremacy of the the signers of the Declaration of Inde- state in ecclesiastical matters), rational- pendence. ism (which encouraged acquiescence to THE GERMANS IN A MERICA Erastianism for ecclesiastical “safety”), new evangelical forces, and the ensuing The decades that brought the Scots- tensions and secessions. Irish migration saw also the arrival of thousands of Germans, many of them Dissension Among the Scots Palatinate Calvinists. A congregation of Scottish Presbyterians were the hard- both Dutch and German Reformed in Phila- est hit by this pattern of events, but ev- delphia (1710) soon became Presbyterian. ery place where Reformed Churches had Through the efforts of travelling minis- been politically established suffered simi- ters John Philip Boehm, George Michael larly. Even in America revivals brought Weiss, and Michael Schlatter, the German with them the tormented breath of ratio- Reformed Church spread through much nalism and strife. The Enlightenment of Pennsylvania and New York and came threatened Christianity on all fronts. to “vigorous life” (p. 349). Though the Scottish church was re- POLITICAL INFLUENCES united in the 1690s, the reign of Queen John Witherspoon was not the only Anne saw it split again over the issue of Presbyterian who favored freedom. In patronage, which took the call of the min- Calvinism itself there was a desire for isters out of the hands of the congrega- church autonomy from the state, and tion, and placed it in the hands of pa- there was a “distinctly congenial” (p. 347) trons who had donated the land for the attitude to republicanism, which was church. The seceders went to Ireland, brought to fruition in the Revolution. On Canada, and the United States. A move- the whole, Presbyterians vigorously op- ment was begun early in the nineteenth posed the monarchy. Gradually they de- century to reunite the fragments of the veloped a greater toleration of other reli- church, and in 1820 the United Secession gious groups. In 1776 Virginia’s Bill of Church gathered together most of the Rights guaranteed all men the free exer- seceders. cise of religious beliefs. After many years The majority of the Church remained of dissent, “Presbyterianism had ceased intact in Scotland, and it was during this to demand a position of establishment period that the ministers of the Scottish and, without losing its religious charac- Kirk led the world in the sciences, litera- ter, had become committed to the prin- ture, and history—but not in theology. ciple of religious freedom” (p. 348). Some of the Evangelicals did not secede, however, and they remained behind to
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 34 give the General Assembly grief. This notable pluses, revivalism and concern was also a period of great Evangelical for education” (p. 365). Camp meetings revivals, the beginning of the Great Awak- began to be held in 1800, and from 1782 ening. The Evangelicals had their effect. to 1850 twenty-eight colleges were The Church of Scotland in 1829 was the founded in frontier states alone, joined first national church to authorize and by others in the original colonies. maintain foreign missions. Scotland’s But the nineteenth century saw also theology was little affected by evangeli- many divisions. Many of the colleges cal Arminianism, even though Wesley founded were begun by seceders from was well-received. The Scottish Baptists the established Presbyterian Church, and were on their feet in the early 1800s, as the Congregationalists had their prob- Calvinistic in theology as the Presbyteri- lems as well. The cause of the divisions ans. was rooted in pietism and the revivals— The patronage issue would not stay disagreement over methods or theology down, and in 1843 about half of the Gen- or both caused a lot of controversy in all eral Assembly walked out when the gov- branches of the Reformed churches, some ernment tried to force patronage on them. of which has never been settled. They began the Free Church of Scotland REUNION EFFORTS IN THE ENGLISH- which embraced “the majority of the most SPEAKING WORLD zealous and active among both clergy and laity” (p. 361). Through the nineteenth century Scot- tish cries for Christian unity were inces- America’s Great Awakening and the sant. No instant changes were to take “Fallout” place, however; the restoration of unity “The stages of Evangelical revival in the Church of Scotland was a cumula- were … attended by strife” (p. 361). The tive process. The first stage began in Evangelicals’ aggressive pietism stirred 1820, and was not brought to completion up opposition, which fortunately was until 2 October 1929, when the United Free overcome. The Great Awakening was led Church and the Church of Scotland were by Jonathan Edwards, who must be re- reunited in a church “as one established garded as the most eminent of American and free” (p. 376). Calvinists. In the eighteenth century Pres- In England, the English Presbyteries, byterians still had a numerical advantage shaking off Unitarian influences and af- over the Congregationalists, as well as firming the Westminster Standards, the ecclesiastical control of the Ameri- joined with Scottish Presbyterians in En- can colonies. The Presbyterians had gland to form the Presbyterian Church of much to do with the formation and sup- England in June 1876. port of the American republic, and the ex- pansion of it also. They had a large part In America, the Civil War caused in missions to the American Indians, and Northern Presbyterians to unite into the were joined by other churches in reach- Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., and ing out to the frontiers of the new nation. the Southern Presbyterians to join in the “The life of all churches of Calvinist ori- Presbyterian Church in the U.S. This gin in America at that period present two breach was not healed until 1983.
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 35 In Canada, the four Presbyterian bored. Denominationalism on the whole churches there united to form the Pres- “shrank out of sight in the foundation byterian Church of Canada in 1875. Dis- and support of the missionary societies” cussion of union with the Anglicans was (p. 385). The first world missions confer- begun about 1889, and in the next decade ence was held in New York in May 1854. union with the Methodists was consid- Thirty-one years later in London, the ered as well. As the negotiations went “Century Conference” adopted the prin- on, the Anglicans and Baptists declined ciples of comity, or, not proselytizing an- to participate, with the minority of Pres- other group’s converts while working to- byterian groups joined in the United gether for common edification. The Far Church of Canada on June 10, 1925. Af- East and Africa saw the working of this firming the Westminster Standards, its system primarily, and the most conspicu- polity is basically Reformed, and it main- ous result of the system was the found- tains “a strong ecumenical conscious- ing of the United Church of South India ness.” in 1947.
Australia saw the final union of Pres- ECUMENICITY byterian elements in 1901 in the Presby- The modern Ecumenical Movement terian Church of Australia. There are had its beginnings around 1846, with the hopes for union with the Methodists and founding of the Evangelical Alliance in Congregationalists. New Zealand’s London. “The Alliance was concerned Presbyterianism of the Southern and with spiritual and not organic unity; but Northern Island joined in 1901. Negotia- where the former is enjoyed, the ob- tions for union with Methodists and stacles to the latter disappear” (p. 387). Congregationalists “have reached an ad- The year 1875 saw the founding of the vanced stage” (p. 381). Alliance of Reformed Churches, which Finally, in South Africa the Reformed organization has been more consistently Free Church of South Africa (growing out favorable to ecumenical co-operation of Dutch Reformed influences) was and unity than perhaps any other de- formed in 1859. “The four territorially nominational family. A further step was separated branches of the Dutch Re- made at Edinburgh in 1910 with the World formed… were associated in a Federal Missionary Conference, sometimes Council in 1906” (p. 382). thought of as originating the present Ecu- menical movement. “Calvin’s words to EXPANSION THROUGH MISSIONS Cranmer that he would not hesitate to With the rise of British and Dutch sea cross ten seas if he might help in uniting power, missions became a compelling vi- the severed members of the Church’s sion of Protestant hearts. The Baptist body express an attitude that has been Missionary Society was founded in 1792, revived in the churches of the Calvinist and was soon followed by other mission- family” (p. 388). ary societies in England, and also in Scot- CALVINISM IN A CHANGING WORLD OF land, America, Switzerland, France, Hol- THOUGHT land, and Germany. The leadership in al- most all of these was Calvinist, under whatever denominational flag they la- The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 36 Calvinism and Philosophy gregationalist preacher and author, who was severely critical of Calvinism’s con- “Calvinism and Puritanism never said temporary expression. an emphatic NO to the current forces of secular culture” (p. 390). Peter Ramas, a Calvinism and Criticism sixteenth century philosopher, whose The nineteenth century was a period anti-Aristotelian logic held syllogisms in of innovation in outward forms of wor- contempt, proposed dealing with evi- ship in Reformed churches. The singing dence by argumentative rhetoric instead. of hymns, the use of an organ, fresh ar- The seventeenth century saw Descartes chitectural styles, and new liturgies all with his method of doubt. These appeals came into being gradually, in the face of to logic did not fail to lure Calvinistic sometimes rather stiff opposition. minds, and though decried by some, they were championed by many of influence— But something deeper was afoot. John Cocceius, for example. The teach- Higher criticism, that “science” that calls ing of mathematics and the sciences grew into doubt the inerrancy, authority, and more popular—1614 was the year that accuracy of the Scriptures, was beginning logarithms were invented by Calvinist to make itself felt in pulpits everywhere. John Napier of Scotland; and this period Union Theological Seminary in New York, saw, also, the development of algebra by until 1892 tied to the Presbyterian Church, Descartes. The sciences were mostly the was the center of the new thought. Along natural sciences, with a fair sprinkling of with doubting Scriptural authority came chemistry. At this time science was not the doubt of the Westminster Confession considered to be the enemy of religion, of Faith; whereas in previous years the but rather religion’s handmaiden. Confession had never been viewed as perfect, there had always been a reluc- The eighteenth century saw theology tance to alter it. The twentieth century, of all types, and Calvinism especially, especially, has seen it altered many times, assailed from many sides. Francis and finally replaced by a liberal Confes- Hutcheson, David Hume, and Immanuel sion that is more in line with new theo- Kant, while claiming to further science logical thought. and better religion, secularized the first and shook the second. Calvinism and Liberalism In America of the nineteenth century While Higher Criticism questions the some of the leading theologians included physical Scriptures, liberalism encom- John Williamson Nevin, who stressed the passes and reaches beyond the higher centrality of the person of Christ in sal- critics to question the doctrines of Scrip- vation, using the new German thought to ture. The eighteenth century was the do it; Philip Schaff, who hoped for reunion seedbed of deism, rationalism, and natu- with the Roman Catholic Church; Charles ralism. Theology was hard hit, and being Hodge, whose Systematic Theology is a a theologian came to mean that what one reaffirmation of Calvin’s own teachings; did was to reconcile logic with Scripture. Benjamin B. Warfield, who championed The “founder of modern theology, classical Calvinism from the halls of Friedrich Schleiermacher, was the theo- Princeton; and Horace Bushnell, a Con- logian of the Romantic Movement” (p.
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 37 406). To him, Scripture yielded authority tions to political thought. Calvinist to religious emotion, and theology relied Johannes Althusius (pub. 1603), empha- on psychology. His teachings had a very sized the co-operation of all citizens un- moderating influence on Calvinistic der two contracts, social and governmen- minds, and others followed his example tal, in a society where the rulers are “del- of emphasis on emotion and psychology. egates of the people” (p. 416) and where Anthropology became the guideline of both “rulers and people acknowledge theology. that they hold their power from God” (p. 416). Arminian Hugo Grotius, though Nineteenth century America also wit- outside the Calvinist tradition, was the nessed the rise of the Social Gospel, nur- chief exponent of international law, which tured and spread through Union Theo- he put forth in his book The Rights of logical Seminary. “Only some of the War and Peace, published in 1625. smaller members of the Reformed family of churches remained immune to the lib- Calvinism and Economics eral leaven” (p. 409). Within the Funda- “Ideas that have been brought to ex- mentalist movement, begun in 1909, the pression by late Calvinists have been Orthodox Presbyterian Church (1936) and read back into Calvin to the confusion of the Bible Presbyterian Church (1937) be- history” (p. 418). One example is the idea came prominent among the small number that Calvin affirmed that wealth is a sign of Presbyterian groups that seek to up- of the favor of God, when actually Calvin hold the Word of God and classical or condemned this manner of thinking. It is Dortian, Calvinism. not that this idea is never true, only that CALVINISM AND PUBLIC A FFAIRS it is not necessarily true, and to say that it is, is beyond the pale of Scripture. Calvinism and Politics Concerning usury, or interest, Calvin Calvinists have always been active in was not totally opposed to it, as later political affairs. As a group they have fa- Calvinists have come to hold in some ar- vored and fought for representative gov- eas. Rather there was given “cautious ernment and rejected tyranny in any form. permission of moderate interest, under the Oliver Cromwell was a notable exception; strict rule of love and for the good of the benevolent dictator that he was, he was borrower” (p. 418). still a dictator. A younger contemporary of Cromwell, John de Witt, “was a staunch Calvinism and Humanitarianism advocate of a free republic” (p. 412). The Industrial Revolution brought During the Revolution in America, Cal- much poverty with its prosperity. One of vinism asserted principles of the author- the first to realize the Church’s obliga- ity of the people, divinely bestowed. And tion to the poor was Thomas Chalmers, a one of the primary advocates of religious leader of Scottish Evangelicalism. He liberty in the early years of the colonies adopted Adam Smith’s laissez-faire theo- was Roger Williams, founder of Rhode ries, which led him to the belief that relief Island. for the poor should not come from gov- In the Netherlands also both Calvin- ernment, but from the Church and other ists and Arminians made their contribu-
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 38 private institutions. His work was quite When World War I became a reality successful as far as it extended. in 1914, it became obvious that the widely hailed liberalism did not have the answers The 1850’s also saw the rise of the needed to subdue the evils of the world. Social Gospel movement, which was a Into the theological arena stepped Karl polite way of hiding socialism in a reli- Barth, one of the most influential philoso- gious cloak. It gained formal recognition phers and theologians of the twentieth by the Federal Council of Churches (later, century. He declared his own war the National Council) in 1912 by the So- “against the presuppositions of the old cial Creed of the Churches, with a revi- complacent liberalism and every element sion in 1932. Presbyterian and Reformed of natural theology” (p. 428). Though he churches had a large part in this creed. refused to submit himself to absolute The movement has paid a minimum of at- truth, his deferential treatment of both tention to theology and doctrine. Luther and Calvin had “the effect of lead- Concerning racial issues, Calvinists ing friend and foe to their company” (p. have largely opposed slavery, but dur- 429). The crisis of the war led many to a ing the American Civil War, most spiritual quest and a desire to restore a churches of whatever denomination sup- Calvinistic awareness of God as well as ported the position of the states where its “moral tonic” (p. 430). Conservative they were located. Calvinists were promi- exponents of a return to Calvinism in- nent, however, in the small group of anti- cluded Abraham Kuyper, whose work in- slavery men in the South. fluenced theology on both sides of the Atlantic; L. Berkhof, who reflected the In conclusion, “most Calvinists have views of Kuyper and Bavinck in refuting always associated with their faith in the the views of Barth; Cornelius van Til, sovereignty of God a feeling for the cause who gave a “cautious reinterpretation” of human liberty and public justice and a (p. 430) of the doctrine of grace; Auguste strong preference for representative and Lecerf, a French theologian whose works responsible government” (p. 425). reflect the belief that Calvinism is the rem- THE SPIRIT OF CALVINISM IN THE WORLD edy for the twentieth century; Paul T. TODAY Fuhrmann, the title of whose book God Centered Religion (1942) speaks for it- The “body” of Calvinism, obviously, self; and many others. is the physical make-up of the Church, with its sessions, presbyteries, synods, Revival of Calvinism confessions, officers, building, congre- The Calvinism being “restored” today gations, and so on. Reformed polity as a is not a replica of any brand of Calvinism whole has not changed much; though that has preceded it. For one thing, it there are as many liturgies almost as there would be necessary to restore the soci- are churches, the basic form and goals in ety and manner of thinking of the six- worship remain the same. But “the body teenth century to accurately rebuild origi- without the spirit is dead” (p. 427), and nal Calvinism. But to recover the spirit of the spirit of Calvinism is not easy to de- Calvinism, this is not necessary. The spirit fine and catalogue. of Calvinism is to respond to God appro- Post-War Development The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 39 priately as He has revealed himself in cas from the viewpoint of a vital Calvin- Scripture. ism continuing to impact culture, theology, missiology, and the Church at Some shudder at the thought of re- large. Calvin’s teachings continue to sat- turning to Calvinism. They would rather isfy the thirst of hungry souls and drive stay in a place of intellectual neutrality an evangelism that goes far deeper than and detachment than to commit them- outward response. To conclude, I present selves to the mission Calvinism demands. the testimony of an acquaintance who Calvinism, it is supposed, breeds person- had this to say: ality disorders, guilt, unhappiness, sobri- ety, pride, pretention, and a sour disposi- I want to comment on Calvin’s teach- tion, among other things. And perhaps ing on Western civilization and the there is some substance to these charges church and me in particular. I was among those that pervert it to one de- raised in a church that did not stress gree or another. But the true spirit of Cal- most of the doctrines of Calvinism. I vinism, rightly understood, does nothing made a profession of faith at an early of the sort. “A sense of security in God age since I felt and was told I was may be accompanied by a disturbing able to understand the gospel and compassion for men: there is always a make a decision to follow Christ. I Jerusalem to weep over. Happiness is thought I was OK and accepted by little related to decibels of laughter” (p. God since I said the sinner’s prayer 436, emphasis added). and believed the right stuff. Then something amazing happened to my THE EXTENT OF THE CALVINISTIC SPIRIT family. My older sister became born The spirit of Calvinism is making it- again in her late teens and said I was self known to all of Christianity, and it given a wrong theology and a false “characterized by a combination of God- sense of security and challenged me consciousness with an urgent sense of to repent of my sins and really be- mission” (p. 436). It is not a rich man’s lieve in Jesus so much that it would religion primarily; its most faithful adher- change my life. My sister started ents, historically, have been among the teaching me the doctrines of grace. less prosperous. Capitalists who really Seven years later, when I was 16 years reflect Calvinistic ethics are concerned old, I became convicted of my sin and chiefly not with amassing wealth, but with believed in Jesus as my only hope of using it to benefit others. The spirit can his selective grace. His sovereign no longer be claimed by only Reformed selection of me in particular strangely churches; it has gone beyond ecclesias- warmed my heart and I was born again. tical bounds seeking union and This is the power of the biblical doctrines intercommunion. Calvin’s message is to that Calvin taught, and why they con- all. And that message is, in every circum- tinue to impact our world today. stance, every man has to do with God (Institutes 3.7.2). *Leonard Pine is Field Director of the Presbyterian Missionary Union, and CONCLUSION Adjunct Professor of Practical Theol- Since McNeill’s book was first pub- ogy at Western Reformed Seminary. lished, much has occurred in the Ameri- The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 40 CALVIN AND THE There is some irony in the fact that AMERICAN QUEST FOR Calvinism turned out to be revolution- LIBERTY ary. Calvin was a man of law and order, a lawyer and a scholar of the Roman Stoics HANS A. ZEIGER1 before his conversion, later a defender of public discipline in Geneva. He did chal- “And as I willingly admit that there lenge the authority of the Catholic is no kind of government happier than church, but only because he first taught where liberty is framed with becoming submission to the authority of Scripture. moderation, and duly constituted so as In the last chapter of the Institutes, en- to be durable, so I deem those very happy titled “On Civil Government,” Calvin re- who are permitted to enjoy that form, and butted the anarchism of the radical that I admit that they do nothing at vari- Anabaptists who supposed that the state ance with their duty when they strenu- was “unworthy of a Christian man,” ously and constantly labor to preserve worthless to the citizen of heaven.5 and maintain it.” Calvin argued that the office of the mag- – John Calvin, Institutes of the istrate was “a most sacred office,” a noble Christian Religion, IV:202 profession worthy of any Christian’s re- spect. Magistrates were “the viceregents “I can never join Calvin in address- of God,” said Calvin, established by his ing his god,” Thomas Jefferson wrote to authority and accountable to him for their John Adams in 1823. “If ever man wor- actions. Even tyranny was preferable to shipped a false god, he did. The being anarchy, and only where the tyrant con- described in his 5 points is not the God tradicted the commands of God was whom you and I acknowledge and adore, peaceful resistance warranted.6 the Creator and benevolent governor of the world; but a daemon of malignant According to Calvin, government spirit. It would be more pardonable to had a divinely-instituted purpose: to pro- believe in no god at all, than to blaspheme tect the public order and defend God’s him by the atrocious attributes of moral law.7 When it came to the question Calvin.”3 of how best to order the state, Calvin of- fered an opinion: a mix of republicanism Jefferson had his strange reasons for and aristocracy. But Calvin rejected the rejecting the God of John Calvin. What notion that a regime could change its the author of the Declaration of Indepen- form. Types of government arose organi- dence could not have disputed is the pro- cally by the will of God; revolution could found impact of Calvinism in the making never be just. “Whatever be the form [of of America. For all of Jefferson’s outrage government] which [God] has appointed about the inequity of Calvinistic in the places in which we live, our duty is “Daemonism,” he wasn’t about to ques- to obey and submit.”8 tion the Calvinist contribution to human liberty. As the nineteenth-century histo- But the anarchic Anabaptists rian George Bancroft wrote in his History weren’t the only extremists Calvin re- of the United States of America, “The fa- sponded to in his final chapter. There were natic for Calvinism was a fanatic for lib- also the “flatterers of princes” who ex- erty.”4 alted the state in the place of the Divine.9 The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 41 To them, Calvin pointed out the limits of nothing at variance with their duty when government. Taxation was a legitimate they strenuously and constantly labor to power of government, but tax revenues preserve and maintain it.”13 Magistrates were not “private chests” for princes. who did not labor to preserve liberty were Taxes “are almost the blood of the people” “traitors to their office and their coun- and “are merely subsidies of the public try.”14 So Calvin was a partisan for lib- necessity, and … it is tyrannical rapacity erty, but he was an opponent of revolu- to harass the poor people without tion to achieve it. cause.”10 Rulers who abused their pow- Calvinism—a set of ideas and expe- ers and oppressed the people would an- riences much larger than one man—never swer to God. was revolutionary in the sense that Since governments were just as much Calvin’s native France became in the corrupted by the fall as any human insti- wake of the eighteenth-century Enlight- tution, Calvin suggested the importance enment. With Calvinism the idea of lib- of a mixed government that checked and erty was always ordered—ordered first balanced itself, for “it is safer and more by God and second by his appointed rul- tolerable when several bear rule, that they ers. Unfettered freedom of choice was not may thus mutually assist, instruct, and really freedom at all. It was anarchy or admonish each other, and should any one license, not liberty. It was the height of be disposed to go too far, the others are fallen man’s slavery to sin, and it would censors and masters to curb his excess.”11 be no wonder to Calvin that France’s And though he taught that the state was Revolution turned quickly into despotism, the protector of the church, he also spreading its legacy on to the Gulags and taught the separation of those institu- killing fields of later generations. tions. “But he who knows to distinguish Neither was Calvinism revolutionary between the body and the soul, between in the sense that it offered something the present heeling life and that which is original or novel to the world. Indeed, future and eternal, will have no difficulty Calvin was an echo of Augustine and in understanding that the spiritual king- many of the Church Fathers.15 He was, dom of Christ and civil government are more significantly, a teacher of the Holy things very widely separated.”12 Scripture. Calvin was a conservative—a Calvin did not rule out entirely the conservator of eternal truths, a believer possibility that individuals might resist in the divine ordering of this life and the the state in defense of their organic con- life to come. stitution. Those who already lived in a But Europe in the sixteenth and sev- free society would fail in their duties to enteenth centuries was rocked by the im- sit by as a tyrant attempted to uproot their pact of biblical faith renewed. The old ancient liberties. “And as I willingly ad- orders, bound to Rome, allowed too little mit that there is no kind of government space for Protestantism to flourish. For happier than where liberty is framed with the Presbyterians in Scotland and the becoming moderation, and duly consti- Huguenots in France, the practice of faith tuted so as to be durable, so I deem those created a political problem. How can very happy who are permitted to enjoy Christians obey their magistrates when that form, and that I admit that they do The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 42 those magistrates restrict the freedom to cus.”18 For young New England Puritans worship? In 1561, the Reformer John who studied at Harvard College and for Knox stood before Mary Queen of Scots pastors who reasoned with their congre- to answer for his Protestantism. The gations and each other, books on logic queen asked if subjects may rebel against and systematic theology by Samuel their government. Knox replied, “If Willard, William Ames, Petro van princes exceed their bounds, madam, no Mastricht, Zacharias Ursinus, and John doubt they may be resisted even by Wollebius helped to form the Calvinist power.”16 The English historian James intellectual canon.19 Froude wrote of that incident, “Thus The Puritans, as their label suggests, spoke Calvinism the creed of republics.”17 wrestled intensely with the problem of The English Puritans were just as purity: how could they promote it in indi- concerned about politics, but their focus viduals, families, and society? How could was less on the right of rebellion than the they emphasize God’s sovereign grace possibility of a decent political order. The while encouraging obedience among His Puritans settled in New England nearly a people? The answer that English Puri- century after the first publication of tans like John Preston, Richard Baxter, Calvin’s Institutes. They were devoted Richard Sibbes, and William Perkins above all to the Word of God and the life found in Scripture was the idea of the cov- to come. Yet, like Calvin in Geneva, the enant.20 Defending intently the sover- Puritans in America were not careless eignty of God, the covenant theologians about the affairs of this life. They re- sought out a deeper understanding of flected on the lessons of nature and man’s part in the divine plan. Their work sought, through reason, to make their was a fuller affirmation of Calvin’s beau- way amid the ruins of the fall. They at- tiful declaration, citing Augustine, in the tempted, with mixed results, to balance Institutes, that “human will does not ob- the demands of Scripture and the require- tain grace by freedom, but obtains free- ments of a just community. They were an dom by grace.”21 intensely political people. So when the first Englishmen reached The Puritans shared much of Calvin’s New England, “The one thing that these understanding of politics. They also were largely Calvinist settlers brought with the beneficiaries of decades of scholar- them was their familiarity with religious ship and conversations about Calvin’s covenants as the basis for forming com- theology that constituted Calvinism. munities,” writes Donald Lutz.22 If spiri- They carried on the Calvinist school of tual freedom came only as a grace of God thought in their sermons, their home de- to the regenerate soul, certainly God was votions, their books and pamphlets, and the giver of other graces too, even some- their discussions about politics and cul- times to those outside of faith. The cov- ture. According to the eminent historian enant theologians were covenant politi- Perry Miller, “Calvinism could no longer cal philosophers too. They spoke of so- remain the relatively simply dogmatism ciety as a contract, a binding agreement of its prophet. It needed amplification, it with the Lord and each other to which required concise explication, syllogistic people endowed with the gift of reason proof, intellectual as well as spiritual fo- freely consented. “No common weale can The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 43 be founded but by free consent,” said erty to that only which is good, just and Massachusetts governor John Winthrop, honest.”29 Freedom was to be con- “…for no man hath lawful power over strained within moral limits, but it was another, but by birth or consent.”23 best if the people could do this privately rather than submitting to a tyrant. In or- Among early American covenants der for government to exercise its power were the Mayflower Compact of 1620; the for the public good, wrote John Cotton, Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, it was necessary “that all power that is which created a common government for on earth be limited.”30 Contained within three villages in 1639; the Organization Calvinism were both the need for gov- of the Government of Rhode Island in ernment to rule over sinful men, and the 1642; and the partnership of the Massa- need for limited government to avoid chusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and usurping the realm of the church, the fam- New Haven colonies into the New En- ily, and the individual. gland Confederation in 1643.24 The Pil- grims who signed the Mayflower Com- Over time, the relationship between pact did “in the Presence of God and one the New England church and the social another, covenant and combine ourselves compact of the growing colonial commu- together into a civil Body Politick, for our nity changed form. Membership in the better Ordering and Preservation.”25 town was no longer synonymous with membership in the church. After a period Covenants and compacts were of spiritual declension in the late seven- clearly the established basis of gover- teenth century, the churches of New En- nance in the American colonies.26 And, gland experienced a tremendous revival as Lutz notes, the establishment of com- by God’s spirit, known to history as “The pact government in the colonies occurred Great Awakening.” The Awakening re- quite apart from the theories of Locke, minded the settlers of their covenants and Montesquieu, and Blackstone, who in the of their part in the plan of God. No one middle of the seventeenth century had did more in this effort than Jonathan yet to add their contributions to political Edwards of Northampton, Massachu- philosophy.27 It is the prevalence of cov- setts. He was the greatest theologian and enant theology in the colonies that ex- the greatest Calvinist in American history. plains “the surprising similarity in the Americans’ state constitutions and colo- The Puritans were not the only set- nial documents.”28 tlers to convey Calvinism across the At- lantic. The Scottish Reformation was Along with their belief in the neces- transmitted to America when droves of sity of public authority and government Scots-Irish Presbyterians fled persecution by consent, the Puritans developed a by the established church. If the Puritans belief in limited government. The purpose had come to their belief in government of government was to maximize liberty for by consent through careful deliberation, individuals and families to govern them- the Scots-Irish had reached the same con- selves according to the Law of God. clusion through rough experience. Many “[L]iberty,” wrote Winthrop, “is the settled in Virginia and the Carolinas and proper end and object of authority, and eventually in the backwoods of Kentucky cannot subsist without it; and it is a lib- and Tennessee. As Lord Thomas The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 44 Babington Macauley later said of their greatest influence upon American politi- preachers, “They inherited the republi- cal thought.”36 can opinions of Knox.”31 The Father of the Constitution, James John Witherspoon was one such Madison, studied the writings of Calvin Scottish preacher descended both intel- under John Witherspoon at Princeton. lectually and biologically from Knox.32 The most famous lines of the Federalist, Witherspoon came to America from Scot- penned by Madison, reflect a Calvinist land in 1768 to become president of the understanding of the soul and the state. College of New Jersey at Princeton. A They fall in Federalist 51: “But what is decade prior, Jonathan Edwards had been government itself but the greatest of all president of the college. In Witherspoon reflections on human nature? If men were were combined the two movements that angels, no government would be neces- gave revolutionary energy to American sary.”37 The American Constitution not Presbyterians: Scots-Irish Presby- only made a government that was suffi- terianism and the Great Awakening. ciently powerful to create order among Among the signers of the Declaration of sinful men and women, it checked and Independence, Witherspoon affirmed the balanced the government itself. principles of the Founding in his 1776 Even with its towering influence on sermon entitled “The Dominion of Provi- the development of the American order, dence over the Passions of Man.” Calvinism seemed to be a dying theology Witherspoon asserted God’s providence to some observers in the early republic. as the superintending principle in the Ezra Stiles of Yale predicted in 1787 that defeat of sin and the triumph of liberty. the writings of Jonathan Edwards “in an- Revolution, he said, was “not only law- other generation will pass into as tran- ful but necessary.”33 The sermon was dis- sient notice perhaps scarce above tributed in over 500 colonial churches.34 oblivion, and when posterity occasion- The republican philosophy, as it cul- ally comes across them in the rubbish of minated in 1776 and 1787, was deeply libraries, the rare characters who may read grounded in 150 years of local self-gov- and be pleased with them will be looked ernment informed by biblical and Calvin- upon as singular and whimsical.”38 But ist principles. Enlightenment ideas about according to Marsden, Stiles “underesti- the social contract served simply to lend mated the resilience and popular support breadth to an organic movement that had of strict Calvinism. Even in the era of its institutional foundations in the Puri- Revolutionary politics, Edwards had a tan community, and its intellectual foun- following.”39 dations long before that. According to A grandson of Edwards, Timothy religious historian Sydney Ahlstrom, Dwight, held aloft the light of the Awak- “Puritanism provided the moral and reli- ening in the first generation after the gious background of fully 75 percent of Founding. When Stiles died in 1795, the people who declared their indepen- Dwight rebutted Stiles’ talk of Edwards’ dence in 1776.”35 More than that, intel- insignificance by taking his place as presi- lectual historian Paul Conkin observes dent of Yale. There he taught a new gen- that Calvin’s “followers exerted by far the eration of reformed preachers. In their
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 45 discussions in the seminaries and right in connection with one man’s mak- presses, Calvinist scholars carried on a ing a slave of another.”43 vigorous debate about piety, revivalism, A third assault against Calvinism and reason throughout the first half of originated outside of democracy and the nineteenth century. As Calvinism was threatened to topple consensual govern- delivered by pioneers to new frontiers like ment. It had its roots in nineteenth cen- Michigan and Indiana, it took root in the tury philosophy and science, propagat- culture of the Midwest. Even while the ing a new determinism and a new under- country was becoming more pluralistic standing of human nature. The English and extensive, the basic concepts of Cal- biologist Charles Darwin and his follow- vinism remained influential over the ers said that human beings were evolv- American mind.40 ing creatures; nature was said to change Just as it is impossible to understand over time, eliminating the political basis the history of American politics without for human equality and the theological an appreciation for religion, it is impos- basis for sin and salvation. The German sible to understand the history of Ameri- philosopher Georg William Friedrich can religion without an appreciation for Hegel taught the doctrine of historical politics.41 Religious historian Nathan O. inevitability that gave rise to the totali- Hatch has described the major religious tarian states of the twentieth century. movement following the Revolution as With milder results in America, lib- “The Democratization of American Chris- eral preachers of Calvinist heritage ac- tianity.”42 The cultural tides of democ- cepted the new faith of Darwin and Hegel. racy posed two major challenges to Cal- Rejecting the doctrines of sin and grace, vinism. The first was the ascendancy of they promised heaven on earth. The old Arminianism, beginning in the eighteenth Puritan notions of Providence remained century and intensifying with the Second in the background, but often the heirs of Great Awakening. The Arminians empha- the Puritans exalted the new god of sized free will instead of God’s sover- Progress. It was Woodrow Wilson, a Pres- eignty in the plan of salvation. byterian and successor of Edwards and The second challenge to Calvinism Witherspoon as the head of Princeton, was the turmoil of the nineteenth century: who believed that Americans had evolved as it split the country, so it split the de- beyond the Constitution of limited gov- scendants of the Puritans from the de- ernment into the age of the administra- scendants of the Scots-Irish. It divided tive state, and who, from his vision of a whole denominations. At the center of the perfected world, promised a “war to end conflict was the old question of govern- all wars.” Instead, according to the great ment by consent. It took a man of spiri- Calvinist scholar J. Gresham Machen, tual doubt, his mind shaped in the simple “humanity is standing over an abyss.”44 congregations of Kentucky and Indiana Against these developments there Calvinism, his words laced with Scripture, arose a protest by the true heirs of the to call back the nation to its “ancient Reformation in the twentieth century. This faith,” as he called it. By that, Abraham movement continues in churches Lincoln meant “that ‘all men are created throughout the land, in private schools equal;’ and that there can be no moral The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 46 and in the home schooling movement, and 5 Calvin, 315. in publications like this one. Religious 6 Calvin, 324, 336. conservatives—Calvinists among them— 7 Government was especially “to have continued to play a significant role prevent the true religion, which is in American politics. contained in the law of God, from being Yet, today liberalism dominates most with impunity openly violated and of the nation’s cultural institutions, and polluted by public blasphemy” (Calvin, at this very moment Progressivism is mak- ing a grand resurgence in our public life. 318). From such challenges Calvinists need not 8 Calvin, 321. retreat. As Machen warned in 1936, it 9 Calvin, 316. would be hopeless to solve the world’s 10 Calvin, 326. political and social troubles “until we 11 Calvin, 321. 45 have come to be right with God.” So it 12 Calvin, 317. is today. If we are to preserve our nation’s 13 Calvin, 321. “ancient faith,” we must renew the An- 14 Ibid. cient Faith of John Calvin. 15 John Cotton wrote that Augustine, Luther, and Calvin “were all of them 1 Hans A. Zeiger is a senior fellow at the thought new Doctrines in their time; American Civil Rights Union and a 2008 and yet all of them the ancient truths of Publius Fellow of the Claremont the everlasting Covenant of grace.” Institute. A graduate student in the From Gospel Conversion (London, Pepperdine University School of Public 1646), quoted in Perry Miller, The New Policy, he holds a BA in American England Mind: The Seventeenth Studies from Hillsdale College. Hans is Century (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap a member of the Tacoma Bible Presbyte- Press, 1982), 93. rian Church. 16 W.P. Breed, Presbyterians and the 2 John Calvin, Institutes of the Chris- Revolution (Decatur, MS: Issacharian tian Religion, Book IV, Ch. XX, trans. Press, 1993), 60. Henry Beveridge, (BibleOne 4.0, 1999), 17 Ibid. 321. 18 Perry Miller, The New England Mind: 3 Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 11 The Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, April 1823, quoted in Carl J. Richard, MA: The Belknap Press, 1982), 95. The Founders and the Classics: 19 Miller, 95-97. Greece, Rome, and the American 20 Miller, 374 . Enlightenment (Cambridge, Mass.: 21 John Calvin, Institutes of the Chris- Harvard University Press, 1994), 191. tian Religion, Book II, Chapter 3, 308. 4 George Bancroft, History of the United 22 Donald Lutz, The Origins of Ameri- States of America (New York: D. can Constitutionalism (Baton Rouge, Appleton and Company, 1895), I, 319.
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 47 LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1805 (Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1988), 24-25. 1991), 549. 23 Miller, 408. A moment before 34 Michael Novak, On Two Wings: Winthrop uttered his famous passage Humble Faith and Common Sense at about the “city on a hill” in his inaugu- the American Founding (San Fran- ral address for a new land in 1630, he cisco: Encounter Books, 2003), 15. declared: “We are entered into Cov- 35 Sydney Ahlstrom, A Religious enant with Him for this worke. Wee History of the American People, haue taken out a commission … Wee quoted in Barry Alan Shain, have hereupon besought Him of favour The Myth of American Individualism: and blessing. Now if the Lord shall The Protestant Origins of American please to heare us, and bring us in Political Thought (Princeton: Princeton peace to the place we desire, then hath University Press, 1994), 195. hee ratified this covenant and sealed 36 Paul K. Conkin, Self-Evident Truths our Commission, and will expect a strict (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University performance of the articles contained in Press, 1974), 7. it” (John Winthrop, “A Model of 37 James Madison, “No. 51,” The Christian Charity,” 1630, Hanover Federalist Papers, ed. Clinton Rossiter Historical Texts Project, 1996, (New York: Penguin Group, 2003), 319; http://history.hanover.edu/texts/ John Adams of Puritan Massachusetts winthmod.html, accessed 21 Jan. 2009). had made a similar explanation of 24 Lutz, 31-32. government as a necessary evil in 1760: 25 John Carver, William Bradford, et al, “all Magistrates and all civil officers, “Agreement Between the Settlers at and all civil Government, is founded New Plymouth,” 1620, Avalon Project, and maintained by the sins of the Yale Law School, http:// People.” John Adams, 18 Dec. 1760, avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/ The Diary and Autobiography of John mayflower.asp, accessed 22 Jan. 2009. 26 Lutz, 28. Adams, ed. L.H. Butterfield (Cambridge: 27 Lutz, 31. Harvard Press, 1961), I, 184, quoted in 28 Lutz, 24-25. A.J. Beitzinger, A History of American 29 Miller, 426. Political Thought (New York: Dodd, 30 Miller, 409. Mead, and Co., 1972), 189-190. 38 31 Breed, 9. Ezra Stiles, quoted in George 32 Breed, 42. Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life 33 Witherspoon, “The Dominion of (New Haven: Yale University Press, Providence over the Passions of Men,” 2003), 499. 39 in Ellis Sandoz, ed. The Political Marsden, 499. 40 Sermons of the Founding Era: 1730- Marsden, 499.
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009 48 41 See Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy AMDOCS, http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/ in America, trans. Harvey Mansfield index.html, accessed 22 Jan. 2009. and Delba Winthrop (Chicago: Univer- 44 J. Gresham Machen, The Christian sity of Chicago Press, 2000). Faith in the Modern World (reprinted; 42 Nathan O. Hatch, The Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Publish- Democratization of American ing Co., 1978), 4. Christianity (New Haven: Yale 45 Machen, 8. University Press, 1989). 43 Abraham Lincoln, “Speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act,” 16 Oct. 1854,
BOOKS
Because of limitation of size for the Review by Ben Robinson: printed WRS Journal, we were not able to include several book reviews that have -Burk Parsons, ed., John Calvin: A been prepared for this issue. These are Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, & posted at the Journal’s website, how- Doxology. ever: http://www.wrs.edu/journals/vol- ume_16-2.htm. Here are the books that are reviewed there: Review by John A. Battle: -Davis A. Young, John Calvin and the Natural World Reviews by Morris McDonald: -Abraham Kuyper, Lectures On Calvinism Review by Judith Collins: -John Calvin, The Necessity of -Ross William Collins, Calvin and the Reforming the Church Libertines of Geneva, edited by F. D. Blackley. (In this review Judith Collins -Steven J. Lawson, The Expository includes her own interaction with the Genius of John Calvin author.) -John Calvin, The Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life -Charles E. Edwards, Devotions and Prayers of John Calvin
The WRS Journal 16:2, August 2009