Dead Folk You Should Know: John Calvin (1509-1564)

The best Christian thinkers and leaders direct us back to the Bible. John Calvin was such a man, and we are indebted to him, even 500 years later. Our own Rev. Dr Colin Reed helps us appreciate Calvin:

After the death of Martin Luther, Calvin became one of the main leaders of the Reformation. He grew up in France (French name - Jean Chauvin) but most of his ministry was in Geneva, Switzerland. He is often associated with the doctrine of Predestination, that God alone chooses those whom he will save by grace, through the preaching of the Gospel. This runs throughout Scripture and from St Augustine onwards, other theologians had also stressed it. The ‘Articles of Religion’ of the Anglican Church (1662) echoed Calvin’s teaching, saying that this doctrine is ‘full of sweet, pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly people’ who ‘feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ’ (Article 17), for we know God gives us eternal life in Jesus and he will keep us to the end.

The Reformers rejected the Roman Catholic teaching that the priest could transform the bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Jesus. The question was then debated, is Jesus somehow ‘present’ when we take Communion? Calvin’s teaching helped shape Anglican belief; Jesus is there, but only in the hearts of believers. We receive him solely ‘in a spiritual manner’ (Article 28).

Calvin’s major work of theology was ‘The Institutes of the Christian Religion’, which remains standard reading for theological students today. Calvin’s purpose was to help people understand the Faith and live it out, not have just an academic knowledge of it. Calvin used two main metaphors for the ongoing Christian life. First, it is spiritual warfare, but we are not the aggressors, we are attacked by Satan, and wage defensive war in the power of the Holy Spirit. Second, the Christian life is a pilgrimage; this too means struggle against hardships, but joy as we move towards the goal, seeing the ‘author and finisher of our Faith’, Jesus.

Grace and peace,
Mark