Brittney on John Calvin (1509-64)

John Calvin (Brittney Bressler)

John Calvin, born in 1509 in Noyon, Picardy, France, was a humanist and theologian who played a chief role in the French Protestant Reformation and influenced many reformed churches in Europe, including the Church of England, with his interpretation of Christianity. Influenced by Calvin, groups of Christians in England formed their own churches known as Presbyterian and Congregational and brought Calvinism to North America.

            As a young man, Calvin excelled in his studies, primarily in Latin and philosophy. Following his father’s wishes, Calvin studied at the law schools in Orleans and Bourges in France before returning to Paris where he became interested in Renaissance humanism. The movement at the time, prior to the well-known Reformation, sought to reform church and society based on a study of the Bible in its original languages. Calvin was influenced by this movement, along with famous humanists such as Erasmus, and began to study Greek and Hebrew as well as Latin.

As the government in Paris became less tolerant of this movement, Calvin decided to move to Basel in Switzerland. The time in which Calvin officially converted to Protestantism is not clear, but it appears that his transition likely occurred over time. In Basel, Luther began writing more to clarify his own beliefs. Eventually he published the first edition of his most influential work, “The Institutes of the Christian Religion,” originally published in 1536. This work is a series of Biblical commentaries in which he discusses his views on the church, covering topics such as the sacraments, justification, and Christian liberty.

Calvin then moved to Strasbourg, Germany, where he became a pastor to French-speaking refugees. During this time he married a widow named Idelette de Bure, who had two children, and published a commentary on the “Letter of Paul to the Romans.” He also increased his prominence amongst Protestant leaders as he attended international religious conferences. In 1541, he was invited to Geneva, where there was a lack of enthusiasm for Protestantism. The council of Geneva made law his “Ecclesiastical Ordinances,” which was designed after the law of God, and provided for religious education and created an outline for church order. Under Calvin’s design for order, Geneva prospered for many years. Calvin became a busy man, establishing an academy which trained students in humanism and prepared them for ministry and leadership positions. He also preached, performed weddings and baptisms, and continued to publish commentaries on scripture. He kept up with his many responsibilities despite being ill and died in 1564.

Luther and Calvin’s doctrines have many common themes. They both placed an emphasis on the reading of scripture, following the concept of “sola scriptura,” which means “by Scripture alone.” The two theologians believed in original sin and that one can only be saved by faith alone, due to the grace of God. While Calvin admired much of Luther’s theology, his ideas also differed from Luther in many areas. To a greater extent than Luther, Calvin placed an emphasis on the omniscience of God. He believed that humans cannot know anything absolutely, and that the Holy Spirit helps humanity to understand scripture, although it may be beyond human comprehension. While Calvin placed an emphasis on God’s power, he also wrote of God as a father figure, emphasizing his lovingness and mercy. Differing from Luther, who believed the world had been given over to the Devil at the Fall, Calvin believed that the world still belongs to God, and that every human still has good left within him that the Devil seeks to steal.

Calvin also emphasized the concept of predestination, which is arguably his most familiar doctrine. Predestination is the belief that before the creation of the world, God had already elected those who would be granted eternal life and those who would be damned. Despite the appearance of this belief, Calvin intended on it to be reassuring to the Christian anxious about his life after death, as many Christians in Calvin’s time were.