Calvin's Legacy

All modern Western history would have been unrecognizably different without the perpetual play of Calvin’s influence.

—John T. McNeill, The History and Character of Calvinism JOHN CALVIN

istorical assessments of John Calvin have been notori-

H

ously divided. In his own time, there were those, such as John Knox, the great Scottish reformer, who thought that studying with Calvin in Geneva was like the most perfect school of Christ’s apostles. On the other hand, others, such as Jerome Bolsec, the man we read about in a previous chapter who was exiled from Geneva because of a theological disagreement with Calvin, wrote in his very negative biography of Calvin that he was the tyrant of Geneva. These are two very different views.

Later in time, the world’s assessment of Calvin continued to be as severely divided. The Swiss thinker Karl Barth, considered by many to be the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century and who deeply infuenced a church movement that, at great risk, stood up to and confronted Hitler and Nazism, said that he could profitably spend his entire life wrapped up in the study of Calvin. On the other hand, another Swiss thinker, Jacob Burckhardt, stated that nothing worse could have happened to Reformation Europe than that John Calvin became one of Protestantism’s leaders after the death of Martin Luther.

Today, Calvin continues to have devoted followers and tenacious detractors. At least in the United States, this has partly to do with a culture war of the nineteenth century, when certain writers and thinkers sought to overthrow what they saw as the remnants of the Calvinist culture of New England (New England’s Calvinism came primarily through the Puritans, who brought to the United States a Reformed Protestantism). These writers, especially in novels, were able to reinforce and continue stereotypes of Calvinists as unhappy, unbending, grim apostles of a severe religion. At the same time, however, it has been noted by more than one person that the longest intellectual tradition in the United States is rooted in a type of Calvinism.

Stereotypes of Calvin continue, though scholars of John Calvin’s life have debunked many of the myths that surround the

Calvin’s Legacy

notion of the “tyrant of Geneva”: The execution of Servetus, when put in historical context, does not mark Calvin as especially vicious, and there has been a recovery of some aspects of life in the city of Geneva that point to the Consistory’s attempt to make Geneva a civil environment. Though scholars have painted a much more nuanced portrait of Calvin than that presented in many history textbooks, which simply perpetuate the old stereotypes, Calvin’s name still evokes strong reaction, either for him or against him.

Perhaps, in the end, there is simply a personality that emerges from Calvin’s work: Some are drawn to it, some are not. He was a man of strong opinions, and he and his followers took action on what they understood to be the truth. This happens both within Christianity and within other religions. Perhaps one could afford to Calvin the same attitude he once afforded to Luther (Luther drew criticism from many for his lifestyle, way of speaking, and temper when writing against opponents): “Ah Luther! How few imitators of your excellence have you left,” Calvin declared, “how many apes of your holy boasting.”⁴⁹ Calvin looked to hold up the good in Luther while discouraging people from following his excesses.

Regardless of how one ends up assessing Calvin the person, there is, apart from that, the question of Calvin the historical force: He had an influence, and it was sweeping and far-reaching. This influence ranges from the establishment of churches to the development of religious thought to political and social consequences. Indeed, as has been said, “All modern Western history would have been unrecognizably different without the perpetual play of Calvin’s influence.”⁵⁰

Without a doubt, Calvinism became an international movement. Whereas Lutheranism was by and large contained in the Holy Roman Empire (much later to become Germany) and the Scandinavian countries, Calvinism spread throughout Europe. In some places, it became the predominant religion; in others, it lived as a minority religion. Regardless of whether a majority or minority, however, Calvinists were often quite active in society JOHN CALVIN

and a force with which to be reckoned. They often exhibited the same tough-mindedness as their religious forebear.

One could find Calvinist congregations in the Holy Roman Empire, France, and the Swiss city-states; they were firmly entrenched in the low countries, especially Holland. In Eastern Europe, one could (and can still) find Calvinist communities, although in most areas they were brutally suppressed. Across the channel, Calvinists became the majority religion in Scotland, and they became a powerful minority in England (actually overthrowing the king in the mid-seventeenth century and setting up their own government under Oliver Cromwell). Eventually, the Calvinist tradition made its way to the United States in the guise of Puritanism, but others came who were not Puritan. Dutch Calvinists came and settled in New York and New Jersey; another such group migrated to Michigan around the Grand Rapids area. In another time, the Dutch took their Calvinism with them to South Africa.

Calvinism as an expression of Reformed Protestantism continues to spread to this day. One of the hotbeds of such growth is in South Korea. There, Korean Presbyterians (Presbyterians are one of the Christian denominations that look to Calvin as a foundational influence) share the gospel using a Calvinist framework. Indeed, some of the works that are a must-read for Calvin scholars come out of Korean Calvinism.

Some have argued, however, that Calvinism’s influence goes beyond the simple establishment of congregations. There are those who have seen in Calvinism a world-affirming view that values work in the world, and these values contributed to the development and expansion of capitalism. Others have seen a commitment to freedom of conscience, which has helped strong antiauthoritarian views emerge. Still others see Calvinism’s fingerprints all over such things as the U.S. Constitution, the political order of the United States, the development of education systems in the United States, and the creation of civil religion in the United States—those shared core values that are invoked by presidents in religious terms when they speak to the

Calvin’s Legacy

nation, especially in times of crisis. Although the notion of the United States as a “city set upon a hill”was first articulated by the Puritan John Winthrop before there was a United States, the phrase has become a stock line in the speeches of contemporary U.S. presidents.

Remarking on such indicators of cultural influence, Alister McGrath has written,“The full history of the impact of Calvinism upon Western culture has yet to be written.” He goes on to say, however, that enough is known of the ways Calvinism has influenced that culture that one can say,“to study Calvin is not merely to study the past—it is also to gain a deeper understanding of the present.... Although Calvin lies buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Geneva, his ideas and influence live on in the outlooks of the culture he helped to create.”⁵¹

John Calvin saw himself as a timid scholar who had been called by God to help reform church life in the city of Geneva. Yet, his work as a spiritual leader and thinker catapulted him into the spotlight of Western history, where many still study him and his influence in order to understand Western religion, society, and culture.