Calvin at 500
John Calvin, the famous Genevan Reformer, was born 500 years ago today. To be frank, the contemporary world finds him a bit of an embarrassment, with his reputation as a serious party-pooper, prosecuting people for dancing at weddings and laughing in church. Under his influence, Geneva was a valiant, yet perhaps unsuccessful, attempt at creating a Christian city - a place where church and state worked together to make holiness of life a real possibility. Nonetheless, his influence looms large over Western society in several key areas.
First, he gave a new dignity to ordinary life and work. Until the Reformation, really serious Christians became either monks or priests. Calvin, on the other hand, argued that the primary way we show love for one another is by working for the good of other people through useful work that contributes to society, which is a the good gift of God. Ordinary secular work was not an unfortunate necessity, a drudgery that all sensible people should try to avoid, but was dignified by becoming the main means of showing our practical concern for others.
Whatever work we do, whether as doctors, bus drivers or teachers, should be seen through the lens of the contribution it makes to the running of a healthy and well-functioning society. As Alister McGrath put it, 'The Calvinist was encouraged to engage directly with the world rather than to retreat from it.' Calvinists, though sometimes a little dour and serious, certainly were hard-working, dedicated to the good of the common life, rather than purely interested in their own salvation from this world.
Calvin also was responsible for a growing interest in science in the Protestant world, especially in his native France. His notion that enquiry into the natural structure of the world is a way of glorifying God the creator, gave a theological validity to scientific exploration that made it a valid intellectual pursuit for many Reformed Christians to come.
Despite his reputation as a dictator, his political philosophy also helped separate clearly the roles of church and state in early modern Europe. Geneva was not a theocracy - in fact he was reacting against theocratic elements of pre-Reformation Christendom, which confused church and state power. His approach carefully separates out what only the state can do and what the church can do; state and church are not synonymous, nor competitors, but partners.
Calvin may not be much loved in the modern world, but we perhaps owe him far more than we think.
Graham Tomlin
Links
Calvin's Institutes are available to read online here
Explore Reformed Theology here
To find out more about the Reformation in general, click here
A fascinating sculpture has been made by Christian artist Liviu Mocan for the Calvin quincentenary in Geneva; entitled "invitation/decalogue" it expresses the Ten Commandments in the form of a circle of ten giant columns, resembling fingers on the inside, and narrowing to a sharp vertical edge on the outside. The sculpture expresses the kind of "space" which God's law intends to create, and four metaphors or "invitations" help to unlock the inspiration behind it: invitations to relationship, to ethical reflection, to freedom and to hope. Visit the sculpture and the ideas behind it at www.invitationsculpture.com, or come and see it in Geneva!
Date:
2009-07-13 10:37:53
Author:
Jonathan Tame