Great Theologians: John Calvin

This post existed initially as talk for Theology Network Nottingham, part of NUCU, and part of UCCF's wider ministry to Theology Students, Theology Network. The Nottingham Group began in mid-2013, and this talk was one of the early events of the 2013-14 academic year.

‘Evil or Essential? Introducing a Genevan Genius’

I’m going to start with a whistle-stop tour of Calvin’s life, then chat a bit about his understanding of theology, then I’ll look at a couple of the so-called ‘evil’ bits (Servetus, predestination, and theocratic Geneva) before winding up with a bit of my story and why I think we can learn from the Genevan Reformer today, and as Theology students. 

A whistlestop tour of John Calvin’s story...

John Calvin was born - and as an Anglophile I personally struggle with this - in France, and his birth-name was ‘Jean’. This was in Noyon, in 1509, and he was the second of six children. In 1523 his father sent him to Paris to study, and five years later he recieved his Bachelor of Arts in 1528. Following that, he moved to Orleans to study law, including a brief period at Bourges, before finally in 1531 his father died and Calvin returned to Paris to study theology.

It was at this time that the building blocks - as Calvin, like most people, was born into the then dominant Catholic faith - of his future ministry were put in place. He was likely converted in around 1532 - scholars are not sure - and started to encounter Luther and other Reformers in this period. A reformed chap called Nicolas Cop became rector (vicar/teacher) of the church Calvin was part of , and his first address was so controversial that he and Calvin, among others, fled paris. This lead to Calvin being on the road for much of 1534, and he spent some time in a library in Angouleme, which some see as his ‘Wartburg’. It was here he laid the foundations of what would become his best konwn work, the ‘Institutes of the Christian religion. The first edition of this, a fraction of the size it would eventually become, was published in 1536.

The publication of the Institutes cemented Calvin’s reputation as a theologian, and he came to Geneva originally just for one night. However, William Farel persuaded Calvin to remain, and he was hired as a ‘doctor of sacred literature’ by the city council. Things went well, but in 1538 Calvin, Farel and another reformer, Coralt, were banished from Geneva. Calvin then spent 3 years in Strasbough, pastoring a church of protestant refugees, working, writing, and eventually getting married in 1540. It was not a happy marriage. During this time, the landmarks were his reply to Bishop Sadolet’s letter to Geneva (Which probably started that city down the path of inviting him back) and his commentary on Romans. 

In 1541  Calvin returned to Geneva, and the first 7 years of this period were marked by trouble. His son Jacques was born and died on the same day, July 28, of 1542, but it was a time of tumult and contrversy, with the Servetus affair starting (Which I will get to later), scandal over dancing, but also several major NT Commentaries by Calvin were written. 1549-55 were little better, particularly as his wife died in 1549, and Servetus came to Geneva (previously he had only been corresponding by letter). The highlights of this period were the publication of the 4th edition of the institutes, and the September 3rd 1553 Lords Supper crisis, where Calvin steadfastly blocked the table from people who had been excommunicated or were heretics. A challenge to modern protestants about how seriously we see the sacraments!

Calvin’s final years in Geneva were better. The rest of his commentaries came out, in 1559 the fifth and final edition of the Institutes was published, and in 1560 the ‘Geneva Bible’, a relative of the KJV, was published with notes written under Calvin’s supervision. You could say this was the first study Bible! Calvin died in 1564, and as you can see he had packed quite a lot in!

Calvin’s Work

Some of Calvin's written legacy...

Calvin is best known for his epic and epoch-marking ‘Institutes of the Christian Religion’. Seen today most commonly as a Systematic theology - that is, a work that seeks to systematise the biblical text in such a way as to present the complexity of Christianity in a logical way, to see ‘what the bible says’ about ‘everything’ - Calvin actually intended it as a handbook to Christian doctrine for new Christians. So, if you are here today as someone interested, Calvin would probably give you the Institutes to ‘flick through’, in such a way as to think about Christian faith. Quite different from what most of us have in mind today! The Institutes cover nearly everything, and are both timeless in the sense of their deep biblical moorings, and time-bound in terms of some of the hilarious anti-Papism and anti-Catholicism. Calvin is big on truth, and that comes out in his Institutes.

Calvin is also known for his Commentaries, and as the picture on the slide shows, they take up nearly a metre of shelf space! Calvin produced a commentary on nearly every book of the Bible, except Revelation, and it is here that we find the best expression of his theology, and they are still very helpful commentaries, often foreshadowing critical examination of scripture by many years.

Calvin also was a prodigous letter writer, wrote prefaces to hymn books, and produced catechisms for children and adults alike. He was also instrumental in supervising the aforementioned Geneva Bible. All of this echoed his lengthy and intense education, but is a testament to the mind God gave him.

Calvin’s Theology.

I want to begin with a quote about Calvin, by Karl Barth. I hope you’ve heard of him. You might not have, but basically Barth was a German protestant theologian, who died in 1968, who has had a profound influence on theology since, and wrote the massive ‘Church Dogmatics’, which is one of the densest things ever written. Barth, however, had this to say about Calvin...

“Calvin is a cataract, a primeval forest, a demonic power, something directly down from Himalaya, absolutely Chinese, strange, mythological; I lack completely the means, the suction cups, even to assimilate this phenomenon, not to speak of presenting it adequately. What I recieve is only a thin little stream and what I can then give out again is only a yet thinner extract of this little stream. I could gladly and profitable set myself down and spend all the rest of my life just with Calvin”

 - Karl Barth

Why would the most influential theologian of the 20th century say that? What about Edwards? Or Luther? Or Augustine? Or Aquinas?

Well, I want to argue, quite simply, because it was true.

Given the controversy these days over Calvin’s understanding of predestination, he doesn’t start the Institutes with that at all. This is because, as I said above, Calvin is primarily a biblical thinker. You need to have a vague appreciation and understanding of his commentaries and his Institutes, if you want to understand what he is really saying.

Calvin begins his Institutes, the first of four books, ‘The Knowledge of God the Creator’ with words that used to be common knowledge to students of theology;

“Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God. Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves”

He starts big! Calvin’s contention in the early part of the Institutes is part epistemology (That is, his theory of knowledge) and part proclamatory dogmatics, as Calvin unpacks and explains what he thinks the Bible says about God. You can see the influence of the book of Romans throughout the Institutes. Calvin’s point about knowledge is simple - it can’t come from within us, it must come from the Scriptures. Calvin assumes the authority of Scripture, and writes powerfully about the orthodox, Trinitarian God of the Bible. It is here that Calvin writes about Providence most clearly, noting that God ‘cherishes’ and ‘guards’ the world, as well as ruling it. For Calvin, the sovereignty of God is a good thing.

The second book of the Institutes is titled “The Knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ, First Disclosed to the Fathers Under the Law and Then to Us in the Gospel”. This is where Calvin talks about sin, looking at the Fall, and tracing the Doctrine through Augustine and the Church Fathers to the present day. Calvin understands the basic state of humanity as one that is in need of redemption. There are some interesting observations on the way in which the Jews in the Old Testament relate to the New Covenant of Christ. 

The penultimate and third book is rather wonderfully and simply titled, betraying its depth and power; “The way in which we receive the grace of Christ: What benefits come to us from it, and what effects follow”. This is where Calvin talks about faith and its effects, and also his understanding of the Doctrine of Justification. Here too Calvin talks about predestination, which I will get to in more detail shortly, and he closes the book with a fascinating chapter on ‘The Final Resurrection’. Calvin is actually very influenced in both the structure and content of the Institutes by the Apostles Creed.

The final and fourth book looks at, basically the church. The Reformation context of Calvin’s writing is clear, and he is rather amusingly polemical about ‘the papacy’, even as he recognises God’s hand upon the true church throughout history. There is also a lot in this section about the balance of powers, between church and state, which Calvin sought to execute in Geneva. The book closes (apart from a final stray chapter on civil government) with several chapters on the sacraments. Calvin is, and I think I differ from him on this, a paedobaptist, believing that “Infant baptism best accords with Christ’s institution and the nature of the sign”. Some of you will know that earlier this year I presented a conference paper on the Lords Supper, and I drew heavily on Calvin’s thought. Calvin is all about the Holy Spirit in regards to the Sacraments, partly because he is resisting Roman understandings, but also because he is genuinely and authentically Trinitarian in his Theology. Calvin is not a Charismatic in the modern sense of believing in Spiritual gifts, but his theology of and through the Holy Spirit did lead the Great American Theologian B.B.Warfield to dub him ‘The Theologian of the Holy Spirit’, emphasising Calvin’s contribution in this area in relation to the rest of church history!

We’ve now had a far too brief look at the Institutes, and I hope you can see that there is a lot of stuff in there! When you add to the 1500+ pages of the Institutes the thousands of pages of biblical commentary, and much else, you can see that Calvin was a hard worker!

We can now talk a little bit about some of the controversies surrounding Calvin, because I wanted to give a rough overview of the rest before we got onto the juicy stuff, and because I think its important to understand Calvin in context and in content before we move into a time of questions and debates.

Genius Under Fire...

 Servetus, Predestination, and the alleged Calvinist Dictatorship of Geneva.

Genius in Geneva - Misrepresenting an attempt to build God’s society

Calvin is unfairly accused of being a dictator in Geneva. He wasn’t. His vision for the structuring of society came from the biblical model of leadership, which isn’t dictatorial, but plural. I can point you to several interesting things about whether or not he was a murderer, and whether more people than might be expected were executed under him.

Calvin, as you might have picked up on our rush through The Institutes had a great vision for how society, around God’s word, might look. He tried to implement this in Geneva, but was not entirely successful. Suffice to say, however, that people who accuse Calvin of being a Calvinist Dictator over a nightmare city are completely wrong. That just isn’t the reality. I can point you to a few things to read if you don’t believe me!

The story of Servetus, which I will now address, is a helpful lesson in debunking that kind of myth.

Servetus - A heretical Genius meets an Orthodox Genius 

I should say at this point that a lot of this bit of my talk is based on a blog post I wrote last year, which goes in a bit deeper!

Michael Servetus was a Spaniard, probably born at the same sort of time as Calvin, and a real polymath! He is known particularly for contributions to medicine and theology, but he also dabbled fairly impressively in maths, astronomy, meteorology, geography, law, translation and poetry. His most positive claim to fame, interestingly, is that he was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation - kind of a big deal. He is best known, however, for being burnt at the stake as a heretic.

Calvin was not directly involved - the extent to which he was is interesting. Servetus wrote to Calvin, and they argued in letters about the non-Trinitarian way in which Servetus view Christianity and Theology. He was seen as a heretic by Catholics and Protestants, and would have been executed for that in any country at the time. When Servetus eventually came to Geneva, he was found guilty, and sentenced to death. Calvin actually requested that Servetus be decaptiated (for which William Farel chided him for lenience), but it is true that Calvin did not stop the execution. This was because of the context of the time, where religion was taken deadly seriously (excuse the pun) and death was death. 

The thing to learn here - other than the obvious lesson about looking at events in historical context - is that truth matters. As one of Calvin’s many biographers said, 

“Calvin considered that the greatest danger that the Reformation could encounter in its early years was the denial of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the authority of Holy Scripture. And he was right"

This is not easy stuff, but it is important. I’d love to chat about this further - for the sake of this, please do leave comments below!

Predestination - Grappling with God at the edge of Genius.

Calvin is known for his views on Predestination, and I will be clear and honest: he believed that the Bible teaches that God chooses to send some people to hell and others to heaven, and his choice is just. Calvin calls this a ‘terrible’ and ‘awesome’ (in the proper sense) doctrine, but it is not the centre of this theological system. In fact, Calvin writes about Predestination in response to the idea of a Christian asking how they can be sure they are saved. Calvin riffs off of Ephesians 1 and Romans 9 to assure the Christian that they are saved because of the Good Sovereign Grace of God, but faith in Jesus, and not by some whim or fragile freedom. Calvin’s doctrine is robust. Barth, who I mentioned before, goes a different way, and focuses election more on Jesus, and is accused of universalism, but that is another topic.

Predestination is linked to ‘TULIP’, the acronym for Calvinism that I prefer to call the ‘Doctrines of Grace’. Calvin didn’t actually come up with the formulation, it isn’t something he taught, even though the elements all find expression within his writing. Properly understood, Tulip is actually good news, the engine behind the Gospel;

Total Depravity - we can’t help ourselves.

Unconditional Election - God chooses to save us through nothing we do

Limited Atonement - Jesus dies to save the people who he saves

Irresistible Grace - God is so rampant and powerful in his love for us that we will respond

Perseverance of the Saints - God will not let the people he loves fall away, even if it looks like it in human terms.

There is a huge amount more to say on this, but suffice to say that any interpretation of Scripture will run into problems as it seeks to reconcile the great biblical truths of God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Responsibility. For more on this, you might like a great guest post, "Loving Election?" from a friend who is now studying for a Phd in New Testament.

Wrapping it Up... An Essential Genius

I hope to have shown you a little of what Calvin was actually like, actually about, and thought very briefly about some of the more controversial aspects of my favourite theologian. 

I want to challenge you to have the approach to study that Calvin had. He spent years earning his degrees - yet had an amazing ministry, a huge output, and has had a wonderful legacy. 

I want to challenge you to have a bigger view of God. Not that I necessarily want you to believe in Predestination, but that perhaps God is Good, and that that Goodness is far greater than our limited minds, or Calvin’s clumsy theological stumblings, can concieve. 

If you don’t know Jesus, and you’ve heard of Calvin before, then I wonder what you think of either of them now. I’d love to challenge you to consider that you, and Calvin, might be completely wrong about Jesus, but that Calvin’s method of looking at scripture, and what it says about man and god, might be a good one to follow. Beth, Andrew, myself and others would love to open up scripture with you and look at the evidence, look at who Jesus is.

Finally, I want to challenge you all about the kind of theologian you want to be. Will you leave a legacy that means that people all over the world are still reading you in 500 years? Not for your name, but for the name of Jesus, the pursuit of truth, and the transformation of society? Calvin had a huge vision of God, and God used that, and his brain, and his sufferings, and so much more, to do a mighty work.

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I singularly failed to do so at the time, but I'd love to recommend a few books. One is Tony Lane's fantastic 'Readers Guide to the Institutes', which offers a great way into Calvin's best known writing. I'd also recommend grappling with John Piper's excellent 'With Calvin in the Theatre of God', which works through Calvin's life and work far better than I can do in this post. For those who do hold a 'Reformed' or even 'calvinist' theology, I would seriously recommend James K. A. Smith's excellent 'Letters to a Young Calvinist'. In terms of grappling with theology and mission, I'm also recommending (but haven't yet reviewed) J. I. Packer's brilliant 'Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God'.