The Calvinist International
Jean-Jacques Rousseau famously opens the first chapter of the first book of The Social Contract by saying, “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.” One almost–almost–hears an echo of a poem of his fellow Genevan Theodore Beza from nearly 200 years before. In emblem 16 of the Emblemata, Beza says something superficially similar, but […]
What is a friend worth? The Preacher taught us long ago: Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falls; for he has not another to help him up. […]
Bringing together a couple of recent themes, viz. the theater and alienation: Calvin in an uber-Brechtian synthesis gives an account of the latter which prevents us from seeing God’s glory in the former. It cannot be emphasized enough that the alienation that most needs to be dealt with is, as Calvin understood so well, the alienation […]