The Calvinist International
Some of our friends are arguing about Capitalism and Marxism, so I thought we would do what we usually do– turn to the archives! What did the stuffy dead guys say about this? That’s a big task, though (and one that we have been doing piece by piece over time), and so, true to form, […]
An addendum to recent posts on schools and schooling in David Chytraeus’ Catechismus. In an essay on Thedore Beza and humanistic studies, Scott Manetsch notes the salutary connection for Beza between philology and piety–though only the latter is absolutely essential. The reformer [Beza] was instrumental in drawing to the [Genevan] academy several of Europe’s top […]
In fielding one of the critiques of his Memorial, William Augustus Muhlenberg revealed his own view of Episcopalianism’s Protestant character: Ecclesiastical fraternizing is a dangerous thing. We are now midway between Rome and Geneva, there let us keep our safe position, nearing neither one nor the other. If by Geneva be meant the Genevan theology […]
One response to my essay on CS Lewis and punishment was that Calvinism, and particularly the Genevan Consistory, should also take some historical blame for rehabilitative punishment and coercive disciplinary penance. My reply to this is a bold “Yeah, sorta.” As Hooker pointed out in the preface to his Laws, the Genevan discipline had its own […]
Alister McGrath writes in his survey of the history of Protestantism, Christianity’s Dangerous Idea, 90–91: [John Calvin’s] rise to prominence began in September 1536. The city of Lausanne was debating whether to follow Geneva and accept the principles of the Reformation. Farel and Viret traveled to Lausanne, bringing Calvin with them, to take part in the […]
In another recent attack on the “Internationalist” R2K critics, Darryl Hart has afforded an excellent opportunity for us to draw attention to the extent to which anachronistic categories, derived from retrospectively reading back later developments into the early Reformation period, have distorted our grasp of political and ecclesiastical realities in the magisterial Reformation. (See my […]
This is a continuation of our previous essay. Now we move to our own consideration of John Calvin. We will first treat his theoretical principles and then examine his particular application of those principles, noting his unique political application, but also showing the way in which it does not break from the more basic principles […]
In a 2009 edition of the Mid-America Journal of Theology, Ryan McIlhenny points to an interesting dilemma for the particular variant of two kingdoms theology expounded by David VanDrunen (MAJT 20 ((2009)): 75−94). He asks if the Seminary would have to be considered “secular” and therefore a member of the temporal kingdom (87). This is a […]